08/13/2025
Delusion, Denial, and the Reality of Childhood Sexual Abuse
In the turbulent waters of modern American politics, few movements have demonstrated such intense loyalty, suspicion, and contradiction as the MAGA (Make America Great Again) base. Rooted in distrust of elites, institutions, and the mainstream media, many MAGA adherents are quick to embrace conspiracies that confirm their worldview, even when evidence is scant. At the same time, they often deny or minimize well-documented realities that clash with their political allegiances or disrupt a simpler narrative of good and evil. Nowhere is this paradox more glaring than in the discourse surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and the broader issue of s*xual abuse.
For many in the MAGA sphere, Epstein has become a kind of totem—a symbol of elite corruption, satanic cabals, and pe*****le rings operating in secret. The infamous financier’s arrest, mysterious death, and connections to powerful figures across the political spectrum have generated endless speculation, especially on the far right. Social media is ablaze with posts proclaiming, “Epstein didn’t kill himself” and linking high-profile Democrats to a shadowy network of child trafficking. These same individuals often repeat claims—untethered from credible evidence—that Hollywood and the political left are at the center of a global child exploitation ring.
And yet, when actual, tangible abuse is revealed—when it implicates Republican politicians, MAGA heroes, or occurs in forms less sensational than secret islands and hidden cults—these same voices often fall silent, shift blame, or retreat into denial. The outrage is selective. Many who fixate on Epstein ignore or dismiss the credible accusations against Donald Trump himself, including those, for example, from women who say he walked in on teenage girls dressing at his beauty pageants.
They also ignore or belittle the work of social services, psychologists, and researchers who highlight where the overwhelming majority of child s*xual abuse actually occurs: not in elite circles, but in homes, churches, neighborhoods, and schools—committed by people known and trusted by the victims.
This denial of the commonplace in favor of the cinematic reveals a troubling psychological mechanism at work. The imagined horror of elite s*x rings gives the illusion of moral clarity—outsiders, perverts, evil. It feeds righteous indignation and grants a sense of purpose. But in**st and domestic s*xual abuse are much harder to face. They require confronting the rot inside the home, the community, perhaps even the self. They implicate not the faraway “other” but uncles, stepfathers, older siblings, clergy, coaches, and neighbors.
Statistically, the reality is devastating. The vast majority of childhood s*xual abuse is perpetrated by someone the child knows. According to the U.S. Department of Justice and other major studies, over 90% of s*xually abused children are violated by family members or individuals close to them. The epidemic of in**st and familial abuse is not a dark fantasy—it's an ongoing, real-life horror that affects hundreds of thousands of children and adults across the country every year. And it is compounded by silence: family shame, fear of retaliation, disbelief by loved ones, and the social stigma that discourages survivors from coming forward.
The Epstein fixation, while not unfounded in its demand for justice, serves as a psychological decoy for many MAGA voters and conspiracy theorists. It is easier to believe that pe*****les lurk in underground tunnels and private islands than to confront that s*xual violence is a feature—not a bug—of far too many American families. Easier to rage against Hillary Clinton or George Soros than to hold accountable the neighbor, the pastor, or the family patriarch.
There is a tragic irony here: the more we demonize the distant and fictitious, the more we ignore the intimate and real. This misdirection of concern allows abusers to continue operating in silence, while survivors are left unsupported, unbelieved, or retraumatized. It also erodes the credibility of legitimate efforts to root out s*xual abuse in all its forms.
To truly make America great—morally, spiritually, and socially—requires a reckoning not with imagined villains, but with the systems and silences that allow abuse to fester. It means listening to survivors, strengthening support systems, and confronting the painful truth that the greatest danger to children is not in the shadows of some global cabal, but too often in the bedrooms and basements of our own communities. Until that reckoning happens, the cycle of denial, projection, and delusion will continue—and the real victims will keep suffering in silence.
