What People Get Wrong This Week: Disney Cruises and Epstein Island
This week, thousands of people shared a tweet saying Disney Cruises is sending or sending kids to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island on snorkeling trips. This statement is false, but it is based on a grain of truth. It festering in that weird gray area in the mass consciousness where something technically untrue is taken out of context and used as ironclad proof that the larger, false narrative must also be true. In this case, the bigger story is the idea that Disney is an evil gang of pedophiles posing as a multinational entertainment company.
According to a PRRI-IFYC study conducted in March and released in May, about 15% of US residents believe that the country is “controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who are running a global operation to traffic children for the purpose of sex exploitation.” I doubt many of these people read Lifehacker, so I’m going to take a closer look at this piece of their complex puzzle to illustrate how conspiracy theories work for everyone – whether it’s about satanic pedophiles or the murder of Jeffrey Epstein. (About 45% of Americans believe this conspiracy theory. Maybe even you.)
A Necessary Grain of Truth
The tweet about Disney sending kids to Epstein Island comes from Twitter user @dom_lucre and contains a website page describing snorkeling for kids on Disney cruises, which reads in part: “Travel to scenic Turtle Cove, Buck Island and dive into the underwater a wonderland where you can swim and snorkel among sea turtles for about an hour. After that, head to your second snorkeling stop, Little St. James Island, where curious fish swim back and forth in the clear blue water…”
Brochure from a legitimate tour company, the snorkeling trip is real (or was) and Little St. James really belonged to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. These facts provide the grain of truth needed for the “evidence” of a conspiracy to thrive and be used to support a larger storyline (namely, again, that Disney is a front for a multinational cabal of pedophiles). A similar grain of truth to the “Jeffrey Epstein was murdered” conspiracy theory is that the cameras outside of his cell weren’t working the night he died.
In the case of a Disney cruise, snorkeling in the waters off the island is not the same as visiting the island, and the snorkelling trip was not an official Disney activity anyway – these trips were offered by a third party company and Disney only pointed them out. as a possible activity for cruise lovers. All available evidence indicates that Disney did not, did not, and never brought children to Epstein Island for snorkeling in close proximity to alleged pedophiles.
Regarding Epstein’s suicide, it’s true that at least one camera outside of his cell didn’t film the night of his death, but there are many cameras at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he died, and it seems incredible that the killer could have avoided them all. when he sneaks into prison to commit a crime. In addition, Epstein had already attempted suicide, and the medical examiner determined that his death was a suicide. Of course, if you’re inclined to believe conspiracy theories, these supposed facts probably won’t sway you. And that’s the real problem.
Preconceived Ideas vs. Facts
My immediate reaction to reading about Disney’s alleged dark diving trips was to dismiss it on the grounds of common sense. Disney sending kids to pedophile island doesn’t make sense because there won’t be any money for them. All available evidence suggests that Disney’s main motivation is to make big money for executives and shareholders.
But if I had already swallowed the idea that satanic child abusers rule the world and used the secondary media to promote this narrative, I would have had a different reaction. I would have thought, “Bringing kids to Epstein for abuse is exactly what Disney would have done!” This can’t be a coincidence given everything I already know about Disney’s dark motives.
And when I first heard that Epstein had died in his cell, I thought, “Damn, someone killed him.” It makes sense at first – he probably had a lot of dirt on powerful people, and sending a hitman to kill him in his cell seems like exactly what those people would do. Plus, it seems awfully convenient that the camera wasn’t working and the guards fell asleep. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
But as soon as I studied the facts around Epstein’s death, it became clear that he committed suicide. There is a ton of evidence to support this, and the only evidence that he was killed is that he may have been killed. But just because there is a reason why something might have happened (and the way it might have happened) doesn’t mean it actually happened. Especially when there is so much evidence on the other side of the scale.
Occam’s Razor is sharp
Occam’s Razor explains the snorkeling trips on the Disney cruise by saying that the tour company stops their boat near St. James Island because there are many colorful fish there. Likewise, it’s more likely that the metropolitan correctional center had faulty video equipment and overworked guards ignored the suicidal pedophile long enough for him to do the world a bed sheet service. People kill themselves in prison all the time, and no one had more motivation to commit suicide than Jeffrey Epstein.
A single incident in the conspiracy may be plausible, but it does not fit the context. To believe that Disney sends children to violence or that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, you also have to believe other completely ridiculous things. Why did all the parents involved in snorkeling agree with this? How did the killer manage to get into a well-fortified prison? Why did dozens of people from all walks of life risk their professional careers to lie about Epstein’s murder? Why would Disney risk a PR nightmare and the legal consequences of being exposed? Why did the killer wait until Epstein was in jail, instead of taking care of it earlier, days before his arrest, when it was clear that he would go to jail? Why are all the Disney cruise employees and prison staff helping to cover up these crimes?
Conspiracy theories are comforting
Conspiracy theorists from all sides of the ideological spectrum tend to accept implausible events and dismiss coincidences because they want to live in a world that makes sense, and they crave that little thrill that comes from thinking they have secret, hidden knowledge.
A group of powerful Satanists (or billionaires, or Jews, or reverse vampires) in secret control of everything may seem like a grim worldview, but it’s actually a consolation compared to reality. In the real world, no one drives a car, only drunkards fighting behind the wheel and seven billion helpless passengers. If history is a series of unpredictable events—unforeseen consequences born of shortsightedness and ignorance rather than the master plan of an elite of lizard men—what can be done? There are no Satanists to expose and judge. Even if we manage to get rid of all the billionaires, those who replace them will be just as terrible.
With all of this, you can be sure that your children will not be thrown onto the island of pedophiles during the Disney cruise, and that Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide.
Disinformation is everywhere. We’re all here skimming the headlines and not reading the articles, letting our prejudices determine our truth, and deliberately misleading shadow actors and algorithms every day. What People Get Wrong This Week aims to uncover and correct common misconceptions, mistakes, and random opinions that I just don’t like. If you notice that someone is wrong on the Internet, let me know .