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Related: About this forumThe Pathetic Price of Entry to Epstein's World
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(AND THE MISOGYNIST, PATRIARCHAL, CHRISTOFASCIST, THEOCRATIC, WOMAN-HATING WAR ON WOMEN CONTINUES APACE)
The Pathetic Price of Entry to Epsteins World
PUBLISHED 2/12/2026 by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
Access, favors and gifts were enough, apparently, for already-powerful people to continue to associate with a sex trafficker.

Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivors in the audience as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Feb. 11, 2026. She was there to answer for her departments handling of the files related to Epstein, President Trumps investigations into political foes, and the two fatal ICE shootings of U.S. citizens. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
This story was originally published by The Contrarian.
The latest batch of Epstein filesover 3 million documents, only around half of what the Department of Justice reports to have amassedhas unleashed a new cast of characters, a list that includes tech titans, health influencers, litigation rainmakers, university leaders, sports executives, Hollywood moguls and international royalty. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has championed the release of the files, remarked that these revelations should shock the conscience of this country.
Honestly? None of the named men (and women) are individuals I presumed would possess particularly stellar moral character. Call me cynical, but their collective fall from grace stirs no sense of shock on my part. The litany of expressions of regretI am ashamed, this is not who I am!reek merely of being the ones who got outed. That said, I have to admit to feelingstunned? blindsided? nauseated?by how pathetically small their price of entry was. That includes absurd favors curried (an internship with Woody Allen
really, does anyone still aspire to work with him?), crude jokes traded (pussy is, indeed, low carb), dating advice sought (pro or civilian?), or, most of all, shared handwringing over the #MeToo movement. For others, that meant giddily accepting giftsApple watches, Prada bags, monogrammed sweatshirtsthey surely could afford to buy themselves. All in emails littered with typos, as if the rules of punctuation dont apply, then surely no rules apply. (This might explain a whole lot about President Trumps ALL CAPS and errant caps approach to posting, a.k.a. the Epstein code?) Whether anyone who appears in this round of files participated in or bore witness to sexual abuse and trafficking is only a fraction of the story. Rather, the overt, desperate desire to stay in Epsteins circlein many instances, well after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from girlsspeaks volumes.
Molly Jong Fasts standout piece for The New York Times drove home the bizarre need for Epstein adjacency among power players:
[T]he plight of the victims often seemed to be an afterthought. Thats most likely because whatever they received from him in the pastaccess to career-enhancing people, access to young girls and an endless supply of freebiesmight still be on offer. This is the nature of the Epstein files: Its the record of what a global class of very privileged, accomplished and self-important people want to get gifted.
Objects, even when they were humans, mattered because they kept the connectivity to the source relevant and close.
The overt, desperate desire to stay in Epsteins circlein many instances, well after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from girlsspeaks volumes.
. . . . .
They deserve our protection, they deserve our respect, they deserve accountability. So do we. So does democracy.
https://msmagazine.com/2026/02/12/epstein-emails-trump-petter-attia-doctors/
spooky3
(38,716 posts)jfz9580m
(17,381 posts)To sort of avoid literature from such networks. Science is so vast. One does not need the output of Epstein associates.
I thought this was really lame:
https://paw.princeton.edu/article/professor-corina-tarnita-epstein-files-i-wish-i-had-never-known-him
I so dont get women who could even stand to be around creeps this extreme. I found my last mentor ott and he was at least thoroughly respectable though I have frequently railed at him all over the net. He was not exactly the most thoughtful manager, but he means well. It has stressed me out to have a relationship more complicated than with my main mentor who exists in a different universe from this type of shitshow that elites live adjacent to.
I feel these oblivious systems force extra and very pointless effort.
This is gross:
https://www.science.org/content/article/meet-three-scientists-who-said-no-epstein
This is outright shameful:
I dont want to upset a powerful person, Agus says. It wasnt my job to judge him, and Im not a confrontational individual. Im also not a moralist, and I dont pretend to know the whole story.
This is a time when many of us are considering balancing nuance and not being judgemental and overly moralizing with such options as exist re day to day living (e.g. : I dislike Effective Altruism, Reid Hoffman, EFF and Substack, but I still donate to EA affiliated non-profits (The Humane League via ACE); lefty groups I like such as Indivisible have received donations from Reid Hoffman; DU is represented by the EFF and I follow Yasha Levine/Lucien Greaves/Chris Ketcham and Matt Stoller on Substack. I shop from Amazon. I use WhatsApp).
And as such these corner cases are very useful to define the tails of distribution.
I semi-jokingly use this article. Mainly because I really like that author and well, that specifically no, but I am not unfamiliar with the thought process. This is too much virtuous for me:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/05/can-the-love-of-menswear-be-justified-in-a-time-of-global-crisis
And more seriously, I thought a few instances of mobbing were ott - Justine Sacco, Tim Hunt and Amy Cooper are three examples I noted:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html
I did think Hunts remark was clunky, but at the time he made that remark I was the victim of an early attempt to slander someone who was reflexively protesting against the kind of sleazy technocratic surveillance state push (but probably sold with nice seeming justifications like mental healthcare, open science, prison reform) that is common now but was more shocking back in 2011. And all sans any meaningful IRB protocols or informed consent beyond grudgingly trusting my direct mentor, his lab and another malescientist, though I was and remain dubious about these various Prisoners /Porcupines Dilemmas.
That sleazy PMC class that writes hypocritical opeds in Nature etc and quickly condemns someone targeted by a net mob, BTS also just goes with the money and lawyers who paint every woman as unstable, litigious.
What they are good at are lame apologies that are insignificant in any real sense.
Importantly other female scientists supported Hunt and as far as I know there have never been any sexual harassment or other allegations against him.
He made a cringe-inducing joke that blew up on social media.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/women-scientists-defend-sexist-nobel-winner-rtm367wr6px
I have given Scott Aaronson a pass, mainly because he is an editor at Quanta Magazine which I enjoy reading and well..I did look a bit suspiciously at this. A bit overly wholesome, but to quote Titus from Tina Feys The Unbreakable Kimmy, Ill allow it:
Her wise counsel, Aaronson says, saved him from doing something he later would have greatly regretted. If not for my mom, I might have gone and talked at a workshop to kick off the project, he says. I dont think doing that would have made me complicit. But, you know, it would have been very embarrassing for me.
Well..in fairness, the flipped version is that I invoke my dad vaguely attempting to conciliate conservative men. At least more honest and completely non-creepy men so I can streamline my messy conflicts with the men who have harassed me without randoms jumping in to support those guys. I hate using the net for what would in a well run system..actually not exist at all.
They should appreciate efforts like these, specially crafted for men!
I am a lefty feminist but there is no need to be scared! My dad is conservative and we get along! I have met men and we can get along! My best friends are male! I am still filing complaints but if they arent about you they arent about you!
I try to check male panic as I have come to fear male panic.
The worst part about these tech creeps ruining HR, the public sector and most systems with buggy ai or gig workers role playing ai is that it net increases the length of HR chores by increasing the amount of net interaction one is forced into.
They are not saving time or making science or healthcare more efficient in any real way.
It is a space grab and a sacrifice of my work time so some creepy men and their enablers have their rears better covered.
It is a terrible dynamic-mob theatre shit and awful systems that force communication on the communication averse.
I think I have communicated enough for now! Hopefully all that made sense! I must go offline to work!
So lame..