RE: https://wandering.shop/@cstross/116030091259678118

So many things about right wing ideology that seemed inexplicable to me become understandable as the #EpsteinFiles get released.

15 years ago, no one cared about #trans people. They were free to lead their boring lives. Then kind of all at once, demagogues around the world became actively anti-trans, spouting rhetoric and pushing legislation. "Why now?" I wondered then and to this day.

Because Jeffrey Epstein was anti-trans. He asked his friends to take up the mantle and of course they did. The wave of anti-trans sentiment we suffer through today is because people wanted to suck up to a rich pedophile. No deeper conviction than that, no coherent philosophy. Epstein said so and thus it was.

He is no longer around to ask but I can only assume his motivation was because while sexually abusing teenaged girls Epstein did not want to be surprised by a penis. This whole moral panic is because of the sexual abuse preferences of one billionaire influencer. Good job, everyone, carrying the torch of a pedophile.