A friend of mine made a good point on FB recently: “The most depressing thing about the Epstein files is how very very boring billionaires are. All the money that ever existed and they use it to perv on 13-year-olds. If I were a billionaire, I would commission the *HMS Surprise* with 24 guns of confetti cannons, and I would require the crew to wear Lord Nelson-era uniforms. If I wanted a second yacht, I would build the *Queen Anne’s Revenge* and have the crew dress and talk like movie pirates.”
How Karen chooses to spend her billions is not the way I’d do it but her point is still valid. These are men who could probably find willing, attractive partners; in many cases they have the income to hire adult sex workers. They can travel around the world, afford to live pretty much anywhere — Paris, Cairo, London — trek up the Amazon. Pay $50,000 to charity so Bon Jovi or Bad Bunny will give them and their friends a private concert. Or simply sit on the beach with a piña colada and a good book and chill. Instead, they opted to hang out with a notorious pedophile on Statutory Rape Island, write smirking birthday cards about how Epstein liked ’em young or tell Epstein how underage girls are slutty temptresses.
As several women have observed online, sexualizing underage girls isn’t something Epstein came up with. It’s common. Epstein’s inner ring weren’t uniquely depraved slimeballs. Rape culture is a thing and plenty of other people in the same boat would have looked at those girls and said “yummy!” That is not an excuse. That other men do what Epstein did and get away with it is not a reason to shrug and not care about him or his cronies. Nor, contrary to Attorney General Pam Bondi, should we stop worrying about the victims because the economy’s doing well (as noted at the link, not as well as she implies). Hey, at least some of Epstein’s BFFs are suffering consequences.
The web of connections around Epstein keeps spreading wider. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for instance: “Lutnick has in the past vehemently denied having any association with Jeffrey Epstein, insisting that he severed all contact with the pedophile ringleader in 2005. But even the highly limited, extremely redacted release of the Epstein files — everything we’ve seen reeks of a major coverup — shows that he was flat-out lying. Not only did he stay in close contact with Epstein, the two men appear to have gone into business together.” Steve Bannon gave Epstein advice on rebuilding his reputation, such as “crush the pedo/trafficking narrative.” You can’t get much more morally bankrupt.
Paul Krugman: “I believe (and hope) that only a small minority of the hundreds and hundreds in Epstein’s extended circle received sexual favors. A larger number of people were probably receiving financial favors, but most weren’t … I believe that a lot of his reach came from his skill at seducing people by providing them with a sense of exclusivity and privilege. To be associated with Epstein meant receiving invitations to participate in fancy dinners or to stay at one of his many luxurious residences in all the best places, including his private island. If you were chums with Jeffrey Epstein, you felt that you were a member of a glittering set of insiders. And that was enough to make you look away when the young woman pouring your drink looked just a little bit too much like your teenage daughter.” C.S. Lewis makes the same point about the appeal of joining the cool kids: “It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face—that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face—turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected.”
Or consider Valeria Chomsky’s account of her husband Noah Chomsky (yes, the Chomsky) and how Epstein charmed him: “Epstein began to encircle Noam, sending gifts and creating opportunities for interesting discussions in areas Noam has been working on extensively. We regret that we did not perceive this as a strategy to ensnare us and to try to undermine the causes Noam stands for.” That I can understand. However Chomsky sympathizing with him over the “horrible way” the media had treated Epstein — that’s getting sucked in further than I think is excusable. It’s along the lines of refusing to believe your buddy/father/kid/roommate could possibly have done what that chick says he did, regardless of the evidence.
It’s possible some of the people in Epstein’s orbit were genuinely unaware of his activities beyond rumors — I certainly hadn’t heard of him until about eight years ago. But others, as Krugman says, were willing to turn a blind eye for the chance to hang out at glamorous parties or suck up to Epstein for research funding. And some, judging from the jokes or the chatter in their emails weren’t that blind. Knowing about it or suspecting it and continuing to hang out isn’t as bad as having sex with Epsteion’s underage victims. But it’s bad enough.
