When Distrust Becomes the Operating System

By LONNIE KING

I recently watched an Instagram reel from Steve Lazarus, a retired FBI agent who was talking about the release of the Epstein files.

His basic argument was this: the release of heavily redacted files and fragmented information isn’t transparency at all. It’s controlled confusion. A strategy designed to give the public just enough information to create outrage and argument, but never enough to produce real accountability.

I tend to believe him, but I can’t know if he’s right with any degree of certainty.

Still, I can definitely understand why people think he might be. Because this is where we are as a society in 2026.

And honestly, that may be the bigger story.

“Trust the Process”

For years, I heard that phrase everywhere.

“Trust the process.”

The Philadelphia 76ers used it as a slogan during their rebuilding years. Endure the losing now because there’s supposedly a bigger plan unfolding underneath the surface.

But outside of sports, I’ve started to realize that phrase only works when people still believe the process itself is legitimate.

That’s the problem in America right now.

Millions of people no longer believe the process is legitimate:

• not in government,
• not in media,
• not in churches,
• not in corporations,
• not in political parties,
• not in almost anything.

And once that trust collapses, everything starts looking manipulated.

Every redaction becomes proof of concealment. Every delay becomes intentional. Every contradiction becomes evidence of corruption. Every major world event becomes a distraction from another story.

At some point, distrust stops being a reaction and becomes the operating system itself.

I Understand the Feeling

Part of the reason this hits me personally is because I no longer trust many of the institutions I was raised to believe in either.

I spent years inside evangelical Christianity believing it possessed moral clarity and spiritual integrity. Over time, I watched power, image management, political tribalism, and self-preservation slowly overshadow the values it claimed to represent.

I’ve had similar feelings about politics.

And once you experience that kind of institutional disappointment, it changes the way you process everything else.

You begin asking different questions. You become slower to accept official narratives. You notice contradictions more quickly. You wonder what’s happening behind the curtain.

That skepticism isn’t always unhealthy. Sometimes it’s earned.

But Then What?

That’s the question I keep wrestling with.

Because there’s a difference between healthy skepticism and total societal distrust.

Governments absolutely hide information sometimes. History proves that. Powerful people often protect themselves. History proves that too.

But what happens when a culture reaches the point where nobody believes anything anymore?

Not courts. Not journalism. Not elections. Not science. Not churches. Not experts. Not institutions. Not even each other.

What happens when every event is interpreted first through suspicion?

I’m beginning to wonder if that’s where we are now.

The Epstein Files Are Almost Secondary

The more I think about it, the less interested I become in whether some final Epstein document eventually reveals a shocking hidden truth. What fascinates me more is how people react to the possibility of hidden truth.

For years, many conservatives demanded the release of the Epstein files because they believed powerful elites were being protected. Now, some of those same voices seem eager to move on or dismiss the story altogether.

Meanwhile, many progressives who once rolled their eyes at conspiracy culture now find themselves asking some of the same uncomfortable questions about secrecy, redactions, and institutional protection.

And maybe that tells us something important: sometimes people don’t actually want truth as much as they want confirmation that their side was right.

Once an issue stops fitting neatly into tribal politics, the certainty starts shifting.

What Happens Next?

I used to think that one of the greatest dangers to democracy was hidden information. And I still believe in the pursuit of truth, no matter what it costs.

But now I’m starting to wonder if the greater danger is a society that no longer believes any information at all.

Because democracies don’t survive on unanimous agreement. They survive on some shared belief that truth can still be pursued honestly, even imperfectly. And right now, I’m not sure America believes that anymore.

That may be the real crisis underneath all of this. Not the files. Not the redactions. Not even the conspiracies.

But the possibility that distrust itself has become the thing running the system.

Grace and grit to you!
LK