W How did CNN once put it so beautifully? The Trump administration has found its voice – in memes and ragebait. Trump and the White House post new, provocative AI images every day (Greetings from the racist Obama video), hoping for the strongest possible response and distribution from their digital army of “Meme Warriors.” ICE online, so to speak.
The extent to which Trump’s meme government has internalized the logic of reaction culture is now shown Publication of the Epstein Files. Millions of documents, uncommented, without editorial classification, without prioritization according to relevance and certainly not with any consideration for the protection of victims. Rather, the data serves as raw material, placed in a calculated manner for the reaction machinery of social media. They are thrown to us like wolves.
The material can now be mangled beyond recognition, arbitrarily analyzed, interpreted and instrumentalized. The files become content. Creators, activists and political actors immediately made the material usable for themselves. True crime formats found an endless source for their stories. Art history accounts analyzed the paintings in the background of the photographs. Celebrity and gossip channels took on one figure after another.
is an author and cultural scientist in Leipzig.
And the longer you scroll through all these images and videos, the more names become characters, documents become potential plot twists, and suspicions become cliffhangers. The more reality is overwritten by fiction.
The material can now be mangled beyond recognition, arbitrarily analyzed, interpreted and instrumentalized. The files become content
The files are often misunderstood and (politically) misused. Sometimes by accident, because few people are trained to read files, establish the legal context or distinguish between mention and incrimination. But sometimes also very specifically.
The line between material and manipulation is blurring
AI-generated images are circulating alongside real documents. Passages taken out of context are assembled into supposed evidence. The line between authentic material and manipulation blurs beyond recognition.
The publication of the files has so far contributed little to clarifying the matter. Rather, it is camouflage, yes, the supposed transparency primarily increases disinformation and leads to leveling out (individual cases become just a few names among many), excessive demands and fatigue. And it leads to feelings of powerlessness. Names are mentioned, connections are revealed, documents point to hideous acts.
Never before has so much been visible, and yet (at least in the US) it has little consequence. This discrepancy is difficult to endure. It feels like a perverse form of humiliation: Look, here’s the evidence. And now? Nothing more. Keep scrolling.
We are accomplices
This feeling of powerlessness further drives the dynamic. Because if there are no real consequences, then at least social ones! And so all the more is exhibited, demonstrated, and denounced.
The more the debate revolves around lists, names and camp battles, the more those affected fall out of focus. How must this exploitation feel for the victims? They look frozen at the published material, looking forward to a possible exposure or retraumatization.
And we who scroll, like and post every day? We are accomplices by feeding the reaction machine. Sometimes in the belief of clarifying things, sometimes in order to find a way to deal with the crass material or to enable a different one. But as we react, we participate in the meme-making of people who urgently need to remain human so that their actions are taken seriously.
The Epstein Files are not only raw material for viral formats, but also fit ideally into the business model of Meta, We are turned into wolves.