I don't understand this fascination with Epstein, maybe someone can tell me what I'm missing.
It's pretty clear Epstein was in involved with intelligence agencies. Which ones, or if he was acting independent isn't interesting to me. The reality of the world is at a nation-state level, anything outside your borders is anarchy. Intelligence agencies take advantage of that—it why throughout human history the punishment for espionage has been a slow and painful death. Another reality of the world is the panopticon also applies to intelligence agencies, and sometimes they need financial institutions and other transnational corporations to look the other way on things, e.g., there's a lot of civilian ships in shipping lanes comprised entirely of paramilitary folks.
Why would intelligence agencies risk uncovering the financial networks necessary to do their job, and why would they implicate many companies and individuals inside those companies for very serious crimes?
From an anarchist perspective, the idea that a government can't allow certain companies and individuals managing significant geopolitical and economic interests to break the law is nonsensical. If a government passed a law that required everyone to starve, out of self preservation the government would simply allow everyone to break the law. The real world is no different.
If you believe Epstein was some puppet-master of the ruling class for some other ambiguous evil person/group, what do you think you think is going to happen if that were to be made public? Imagine such revelations get 9/11-level media coverage. Do you honestly believe that the ruling class will miraculously step-aside?
> If you believe Epstein was some puppet-master of the ruling class...
Huh? The guy was a fixer for upper-crusters. Think "That sales guy who can -and is willing to- do anything for a client to close a big sale" times a million.
The fascination is a combination of
1) How so very many of the "powerful class" went to him to get things.
2) How it's very hard to believe that few of those who went to him to get things weren't even a little bit aware that he could get you anything.
3) How this has gotten approximately zero airtime.
There's also the fact that he died in prison. "Kill a guy who has dirt on everyone after he transitions to a position where he might decide to start spreading that dirt around." is a movie plot point, but it also makes a lot of sense to do if you're the sort of person who's willing to kill to keep yourself and your friends from going to jail for the rest of forever. [0]
[0] ...and before you dismiss that as baseless conspiracy bait, consider both the fairly-well-substantiated rumors of world leaders like Putin killing those who become political rivals or threats, as well as the callous disregard for human life demonstrated by entering into and engaging in the Vietnam War (knowing what we know that they knew from the Pentagon Papers), Bush starting Gulf War II and the invasion of Afghanistan (and the protracted occupation of both), Trump starting the war in Iran, and many other poorly-justified (or unjustifiable) acts of war. I find it hard to believe that the sort of person who will kill hundreds, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people to enrich themselves and/or their allies will balk at having one man who has dirt on everyone of importance killed to prevent him from ever changing his mind about delivering said dirt.
I never found any of those things surprising. Of course rich men are getting away with those things. Of course he killed himself when he finally got caught.
I don't understand this fascination with Epstein, maybe someone can tell me what I'm missing.
It's pretty clear Epstein was in involved with intelligence agencies. Which ones, or if he was acting independent isn't interesting to me. The reality of the world is at a nation-state level, anything outside your borders is anarchy. Intelligence agencies take advantage of that—it why throughout human history the punishment for espionage has been a slow and painful death. Another reality of the world is the panopticon also applies to intelligence agencies, and sometimes they need financial institutions and other transnational corporations to look the other way on things, e.g., there's a lot of civilian ships in shipping lanes comprised entirely of paramilitary folks.
Why would intelligence agencies risk uncovering the financial networks necessary to do their job, and why would they implicate many companies and individuals inside those companies for very serious crimes?
From an anarchist perspective, the idea that a government can't allow certain companies and individuals managing significant geopolitical and economic interests to break the law is nonsensical. If a government passed a law that required everyone to starve, out of self preservation the government would simply allow everyone to break the law. The real world is no different.
If you believe Epstein was some puppet-master of the ruling class for some other ambiguous evil person/group, what do you think you think is going to happen if that were to be made public? Imagine such revelations get 9/11-level media coverage. Do you honestly believe that the ruling class will miraculously step-aside?
> If you believe Epstein was some puppet-master of the ruling class...
Huh? The guy was a fixer for upper-crusters. Think "That sales guy who can -and is willing to- do anything for a client to close a big sale" times a million.
The fascination is a combination of
1) How so very many of the "powerful class" went to him to get things.
2) How it's very hard to believe that few of those who went to him to get things weren't even a little bit aware that he could get you anything.
3) How this has gotten approximately zero airtime.
There's also the fact that he died in prison. "Kill a guy who has dirt on everyone after he transitions to a position where he might decide to start spreading that dirt around." is a movie plot point, but it also makes a lot of sense to do if you're the sort of person who's willing to kill to keep yourself and your friends from going to jail for the rest of forever. [0]
[0] ...and before you dismiss that as baseless conspiracy bait, consider both the fairly-well-substantiated rumors of world leaders like Putin killing those who become political rivals or threats, as well as the callous disregard for human life demonstrated by entering into and engaging in the Vietnam War (knowing what we know that they knew from the Pentagon Papers), Bush starting Gulf War II and the invasion of Afghanistan (and the protracted occupation of both), Trump starting the war in Iran, and many other poorly-justified (or unjustifiable) acts of war. I find it hard to believe that the sort of person who will kill hundreds, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people to enrich themselves and/or their allies will balk at having one man who has dirt on everyone of importance killed to prevent him from ever changing his mind about delivering said dirt.
I never found any of those things surprising. Of course rich men are getting away with those things. Of course he killed himself when he finally got caught.
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