The Geopolitics of Jeffrey Epstein and Hegemonic Decline w/ Jeet Heer | Ep. 271
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I’ve written about the Jeffrey Epstein bombshells twice this week, not because I want to, but because I have a take that situates all of it within larger critiques of world politics that I’m just not really seeing in coverage elsewhere. I was also one of these people who blew off all the initial Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories as anti-semitic—and they might well have been—but the tranche of leaked emails validates all the worst conspiracies that used to be in circulation.
So in this special crossover episode of The Un-Diplomatic Podcast, I chatted with Jeet Heer and The Time of Monsters—a podcast of The Nation magazine—about how to make sense of it all. We now know that Epstein:
Actively promoted the interests of the global far right and had close ties to Steve Bannon;
Worked with Israeli security services to export the tools of oppression to the Global South;
Helped strengthen Russia’s oligarchy and dealt intimately with Putin;
Lobbied to bomb Iran and kill the Iran nuclear deal;
Secured the US and Russian removal of chemical weapons from Syria for Israel; and
Capitalized on the global instability caused in part by US foreign policy.
Epstein’s work as a geopolitician reveals a dark side to American hegemony not previously known or seen. It’s one giant case study illustrating Naomi Klein’s disaster-capitalism thesis.
Catch the episode wherever you get podcasts, or watch on YouTube. And be sure to subscribe to The Time of Monsters podcast.
Un-Diplomatic is entirely reader-supported. For less than $2 per week, you can keep its critical analysis going.