First look at Jeffrey Epstein ‘John Doe’ files: Clinton, Copperfield, Trump and more (www.miamiherald.com)

submitted 10 months ago by NightOwl@lemmy.ca to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I just don’t understand this. I mean, I can comprehend the facts, and I acknowledge that it’s true, but I don’t get it.

I don’t understand how something so nauseatingly reprehensible can be alluring, especially on such a large scale. I could almost grasp it if we were talking about a weird, rare kink… but we’re not. It’s way too common, and an open secret among too many people. How can so many people be so incredibly depraved, or even look the other way, when such awful, nightmarish things are happening?

All I can do is shake my head and think to myself “people are fucked up, man.”

[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago

My theory is that people naturally want things they can't have. For the wealthiest people, there aren't many things that are elusive. Epstein provided a venue to access something that wasn't easy to get, something exclusive.

The other thing is how huge amounts of money affect a person's mind. In order to justify hoarding that much wealth, you have to ignore the humanity of other people. And if other people (especially those without wealth) don't mean anything, it's easy enough to justify the abhorrent things they've done to them.

Wealth hoarding is bad for everyone, including the hoarders.

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago

After just reading the first paragraph, I was thinking “categorizing children as ‘something you can’t have’ is still too extreme”, but then you went on to explain dehumanizing others. Together, that makes the best explanation I’ve seen!

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 10 months ago

Absolutely, and wealthy people having less empathy is something that can be seen in studies.

[-] sonori@beehaw.org 17 points 10 months ago

From my, admittedly limited, understanding of Epstein’s operations and why it’s been so hard to actually nail anyone who recived his ‘services’, while he definitely prostituted minors he did not only prostitute minors, and the full list of which was which died with him. Most of his ‘clients’ got young but legal, but younger could be acquired if desired. It helped insulate him because when people in thouse circles talked about it they could be assured that the ‘escorts’ were fully legal and anyone making a fuss was just exaggerating their age to get attention.

I think the root of the problem is that, from Hollywood actors and Celebrity appearances to Fluxbait here on Lemmy, people are constantly shown and told that young is beautiful and desireable when it comes to women, and the younger the more beautiful and desirable. We know that what styles and appearances are considered attractive varies by culture, and our culture is based around young and smooth when it comes to women.

Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to apply to men as much. What are pitched as hottest men in film and magazines are often twenty to thirty something’s with a decent amount of muscle, but when it comes to women it’s thin, snooth, and just turned 18.

This very much isn’t a justification, but I think it is a reason.

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's very easy to understand. Capital owners are all a bunch of pedos and they don't let other people at their level unless they are as well. Now the reason why THOSE people got to the top is equally simple: the desire to have power over others usually in ways that are less-than-legal lines 1:1 with the traits required to fuck over the average person for a buck. Put more directly; all pedos are nazis and all nazis are pedos.

The only way to make it all stop is to cut off the one thing feeding these monsters and keeping them in power: Capitalism.

[-] sqgl@beehaw.org 12 points 10 months ago

It is not a list of pedos though there probably are a few on the list. Hawking for instance accepted an invitation to a conference (funded by Epstein) on gravity along with 19 other scientists.

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

I'm sure that conference on gravity was all Trump was on the list for too.

I'm not gonna put the s. Figure it out

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

True. That’s why I included the “look the other way” part. I’m sure there are people who didn’t abuse minors themselves, but knew it was going on. How could they sleep at night knowing that? If you’re helping keep the secret, you’re part of the problem.