I’m genuinely baffled how many oligarchs had contact with Epstein. I do believe their primary job qualification is a lack of morals, but there’s so many ways to be amoral, you don’t have to all be friends with the guy that offers pedophilia.
What this whole thing has taught me is that there is a market among billionaires for someone to peddle enslaved kids.
Now epstein is gone, and has been for years, but that demand doesn’t just die. I don’t have proof, but there is zero doubt in my mind that epstein is not a one and done. There’s either another epstein, or more likely a dozen smaller epsteins out there.
There’s a part of me that thinks all these ICE abducting kids is being done at trumps order, specifically as a means to replace epstein.
I don’t think there’s any reason to find a replacement for Epstein. There’s almost certainly other people already running those sorts of events. Jared Leto has a sex cult island. I think they’re all consenting adults, but you know he’s trading favors to producers that want to visit so he can keep getting movie roles.
Epstein was likely embedded into this system as a black mailing agent by someone who already knows it.
The ICE part seems a bit extreme though. I think the whole reason ICE is allowed to act like this is to terrorise immigrants, ethnic minorities etc so they leave the US in their own accord. And what easier way to terrorise people than to stalk their kids like a bunch of pedos.
Epstein was not just a pedo pimp. He was a power-broker and a fixer for the American and Israeli rich elites. Not everyone was in for the girls, some of them were in for the other illegal stuff.
Beyond just the pedophilia, his (Epstein) operation was largely one of socialising, and securing (probably coerced) introductions from people he helped facilitate and now held blackmail over.
e.g. using blackmail material on a Bill Gates to secure an introduction to another wealthy and influential individual, offering them a “massage” and then producing kompromat at a later date to bring them into his circle.
Now don’t get me wrong, everyone who found themselves in this position was a willing participant, not a victim - but I can understand how so many oligarchs eventually found their way into his little black book.
Just oligarchs? Oligarchs don’t suprise me at all. The more surprising aspect is so many artists, scientists etc. I guess humans have a weakness for someone who makes them feel like a privileged member of a boy’s club.
Noam Chomsky, that’s what broke my faith in humanity. His work in linguistics is why I’m a computer scientist, his work in political activism was my introduction to leftist theory, so much of what I do and think every day is directly influenced by his work.
Turns out at the end of the day he’s a neo-liberal apartheid supporting hypocrite and possibly a pedophile.
Yeah it sucks. Don’t know if you are still in the field but I guess best reaction to this would be to set a better example in your corner of the world. Take what is good leave what is shitty and make sure to inform people who don’t know.
I’m way further left now, but I still recommend Manufacturing Consent as an essential reading, as it opened my eyes to how the rich controlled media shapes narratives and enables genocides and destructive imperial wars and regime changes. It’s just hard to recommend it now with his name attached.
I’m kinda surprised that him proposing that the US should throw Ukraine to the wolves (Russia) didn’t completely tank his career. In hindsight, for the past 20 years he’s kinda just turned into a tankie (or at least tankie-adjacent) due the the US’s misdeeds in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
While the US has done wrong, that doesn’t automatically make its adversaries right.
Epstein’s “day job” was being a socialite. He was the guy who knew everybody. If you wanted an introduction, he could do it. He was the guy who made sure that the riff raff stayed out, even if they were rich.
I’m pretty sure that everybody knew he was always around “young women”, but I strongly suspect that most of the people he interacted with didn’t know about the child sex abuse. They were there for his “rolodex”.
But, the end result is that because he was the guy who knew everybody in a position of power, his network shows who has the power. My guess is that at least half the people he had in his network were not into child sex abuse, and didn’t know that he was involved in that. But, I have only the world’s tiniest violin to play for those people. I think they’re guillotine-worthy because of their abuses of power, and how they hoarded obscene amounts of wealth. For far too long, the ultra rich have had a good public image in the US. People should have been furious with them just for hoarding all that wealth. And, the Epstein folks are the ones who not only hoarded the wealth, but spent it to gain power, which they used to warp society to benefit themselves. So, now everybody’s disgusted with them and hates them, it’s for the wrong reasons, but at least they’re hated.
There were also single contact people that can be explained by Epstein operating a honeypot. If he couldn’t work with you, he would get blackmail on you. And then you get scenes like this in The Simpsons after Matt Groening’s name appeared on the flight list.
I think people still could have still realised that if you get into a social circle involving many billionaires, you are getting into a shitty circle. This guy sort of tried to act as saint patron of science by handing out influential scientists favours. I think that was just PR and may have probably delayed his actual demise (i.e “a guy loved by many famous scientists and artists around the world, surely he can’t be bad”). Granted definitely not as bad as going to a place where you know there is sex trafficking. But still this looks like people not being able to contain themselves when someone promises to make them a member of an exclusice elite boy’s club.
I’m genuinely baffled how many oligarchs had contact with Epstein. I do believe their primary job qualification is a lack of morals, but there’s so many ways to be amoral, you don’t have to all be friends with the guy that offers pedophilia.
What this whole thing has taught me is that there is a market among billionaires for someone to peddle enslaved kids.
Now epstein is gone, and has been for years, but that demand doesn’t just die. I don’t have proof, but there is zero doubt in my mind that epstein is not a one and done. There’s either another epstein, or more likely a dozen smaller epsteins out there.
There’s a part of me that thinks all these ICE abducting kids is being done at trumps order, specifically as a means to replace epstein.
I don’t think there’s any reason to find a replacement for Epstein. There’s almost certainly other people already running those sorts of events. Jared Leto has a sex cult island. I think they’re all consenting adults, but you know he’s trading favors to producers that want to visit so he can keep getting movie roles.
Epstein was likely embedded into this system as a black mailing agent by someone who already knows it.
The ICE part seems a bit extreme though. I think the whole reason ICE is allowed to act like this is to terrorise immigrants, ethnic minorities etc so they leave the US in their own accord. And what easier way to terrorise people than to stalk their kids like a bunch of pedos.
Epstein was not just a pedo pimp. He was a power-broker and a fixer for the American and Israeli rich elites. Not everyone was in for the girls, some of them were in for the other illegal stuff.
Beyond just the pedophilia, his (Epstein) operation was largely one of socialising, and securing (probably coerced) introductions from people he helped facilitate and now held blackmail over.
e.g. using blackmail material on a Bill Gates to secure an introduction to another wealthy and influential individual, offering them a “massage” and then producing kompromat at a later date to bring them into his circle.
Now don’t get me wrong, everyone who found themselves in this position was a willing participant, not a victim - but I can understand how so many oligarchs eventually found their way into his little black book.
Just oligarchs? Oligarchs don’t suprise me at all. The more surprising aspect is so many artists, scientists etc. I guess humans have a weakness for someone who makes them feel like a privileged member of a boy’s club.
Noam Chomsky, that’s what broke my faith in humanity. His work in linguistics is why I’m a computer scientist, his work in political activism was my introduction to leftist theory, so much of what I do and think every day is directly influenced by his work.
Turns out at the end of the day he’s a neo-liberal apartheid supporting hypocrite and possibly a pedophile.
Yeah it sucks. Don’t know if you are still in the field but I guess best reaction to this would be to set a better example in your corner of the world. Take what is good leave what is shitty and make sure to inform people who don’t know.
I’m way further left now, but I still recommend Manufacturing Consent as an essential reading, as it opened my eyes to how the rich controlled media shapes narratives and enables genocides and destructive imperial wars and regime changes. It’s just hard to recommend it now with his name attached.
I’m kinda surprised that him proposing that the US should throw Ukraine to the wolves (Russia) didn’t completely tank his career. In hindsight, for the past 20 years he’s kinda just turned into a tankie (or at least tankie-adjacent) due the the US’s misdeeds in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
While the US has done wrong, that doesn’t automatically make its adversaries right.
Epstein’s “day job” was being a socialite. He was the guy who knew everybody. If you wanted an introduction, he could do it. He was the guy who made sure that the riff raff stayed out, even if they were rich.
I’m pretty sure that everybody knew he was always around “young women”, but I strongly suspect that most of the people he interacted with didn’t know about the child sex abuse. They were there for his “rolodex”.
But, the end result is that because he was the guy who knew everybody in a position of power, his network shows who has the power. My guess is that at least half the people he had in his network were not into child sex abuse, and didn’t know that he was involved in that. But, I have only the world’s tiniest violin to play for those people. I think they’re guillotine-worthy because of their abuses of power, and how they hoarded obscene amounts of wealth. For far too long, the ultra rich have had a good public image in the US. People should have been furious with them just for hoarding all that wealth. And, the Epstein folks are the ones who not only hoarded the wealth, but spent it to gain power, which they used to warp society to benefit themselves. So, now everybody’s disgusted with them and hates them, it’s for the wrong reasons, but at least they’re hated.
…
Exactly. He was actively seeking out wealthy and influential people to add to his circle of influence.
Pre 2008 conviction contacts can be excused by ignorance. E.g. Stephen Hawking visited Epstein Island with other scientists in 2006.
Gates was happy to make house visits to Epstein in 2011-2014
There were also single contact people that can be explained by Epstein operating a honeypot. If he couldn’t work with you, he would get blackmail on you. And then you get scenes like this in The Simpsons after Matt Groening’s name appeared on the flight list.
https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f69c968e-00c8-4835-b87c-22679aa214ba
I think people still could have still realised that if you get into a social circle involving many billionaires, you are getting into a shitty circle. This guy sort of tried to act as saint patron of science by handing out influential scientists favours. I think that was just PR and may have probably delayed his actual demise (i.e “a guy loved by many famous scientists and artists around the world, surely he can’t be bad”). Granted definitely not as bad as going to a place where you know there is sex trafficking. But still this looks like people not being able to contain themselves when someone promises to make them a member of an exclusice elite boy’s club.