The same simple-minded people who refused vaccines because they hate experts and feel like victims are now, under Trump, using the same angry, us-versus-them thinking to scream about Epstein—proving that they don't actually believe in anything except fighting whoever they're told to fight.
Epstein: A perfect case Study of the "pack mentality"
It's funny how the common people who shouted about not wanting to get vaccinated, now that they're the ones in power through Trumpism, have become the pack that shouts against those who don't believe in the Epstein buzz.
It's revealing how unreliable these people are. And how unbearable this form of populist fascism becomes when it's in power.
A perfect case study of the "pack mentality".
The same cognitive apparatus that drove the anti-vaccine position—distrust of institutions, privileging visceral intuition over expert consensus, rage at perceived elite control—is now being redeployed in service of a different emotional target.
The anti-vaxxer and the Epstein truther are not separate species. They are the same animal.
The contentlessness of populist consciousness. There is no fixed ideology, no stable set of principles. There is only:
An enemy (yesterday: pharma companies/CDC; today: the "deep state" protecting Epstein's secrets)
A grievance (yesterday: bodily autonomy violated; today: justice denied)
A savior figure who channels the rage
When Trumpism holds power, the pack doesn't become responsible or moderate. It becomes the new enforcer. The outsider mentality persists even when they're inside—they still see themselves as victims, still identify enemies, still demand purity tests.
The unbearable quality is precisely this: populism in power is not governance, it's perpetual opposition wearing a government mask.
They cannot govern because governance requires:
Accepting trade-offs
Distinguishing between urgent and merely enraging
Trusting some institutions enough to let them function
Temporarily setting aside grievance to achieve incremental progress
None of these are available to the pack. So when they win, they don't build—they hunt. The Epstein case becomes a cudgel, not a pursuit of justice. The vaccine mandate opponents, now empowered, don't champion medical freedom for all—they champion their own freedom while demanding conformity from others.
The unreliability is structural. Today's liberator is tomorrow's tyrant, because the only constant is the emotional architecture, not the political content.
If you define yourself only by opposition to your enemies, then when you win you become the enemy. That is what these simple-minded people failed to understand. And why they, in turn, will be driven out.
