In a culture where “who you know” is all that matters, it is no wonder they stick together like manure on your boots.
I knew him but…..
Really? I am sick to the back teeth of the lies.
'The Epstein scandal is astonishing by the scale of the complicity and rape culture at the top of society' — LeMonde [Paywall free: archive.is/...]
Marc Crépon, professor of philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, analyzes how this sexual abuse scandal has put our society to the test. The director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has written numerous books on violence, including Le Consentement meurtrier (Murderous Consent). After the writer Gabriel Matzneff was accused of raping minors, he published Ces temps-ci. la société à l'épreuve des affaires de mœurs ("These Times: Society Put to the Test by Sexual Scandals"), an essay in which he examines the extent of society's past complacency in the face of such sexual violence
There is nothing new in this scandal except perhaps its international scope. [It helps to have private jets and islands]. You can hear it every time Trump opens his gob, privilege pours like sewage from that open maw.
The Epstein case exposes a system of using and exploiting young girls, reduced to the status of sexual objects and made available to the powerful. It is obvious that such a sex scandal puts society to the test, not only because it confronts it with its past silence, but also because it carries with it several traps. The first is the slide into conspiracy theories, assuming that all those in power are sexual predators – when in reality, it was not a vast network, but rather a pool in which young women were offered to very specific individuals who benefited from the "in-kind" favors Epstein provided. The second trap is to focus solely on the perpetrators, forgetting the victims and the ways in which sexual violence destroyed their lives.
The actual pool of predators may or may not have been relatively “small,” but the protection is widespread.
The victims have been reduced to “a hoax” by the most powerful of them all. Forgotten every time this scandal is publicized, ignored by the highest prosecutor in the land, whose only role has been to hide the powerful, ignoring her constitutional duty.
Yes, "murderous consent" is precisely about setting aside the responsibility of care, help and attention that is owed to young women exploited sexually because of their vulnerability.
For me, the risk in this kind of sexual scandal is to lose sight of the nature of the acts in question, which I call the "derealization of evil," meaning a lack of consideration for the suffering and trauma of the victims. We no longer perceive evil as it is. The derealization of evil leads people to see this sexual abuse scandal as a simple case of prostitution, rather than the systematic exploitation of minors. That is why, every time the Epstein case is discussed, the victims of this system must remain front and center.
*The rest of the piece is worth reading.
It is time this “high society” regards women as more than depositories for their sperm. Many of us wish they had remained faithful to the socks and Kleenex of their youth.
Until it is proved otherwise, anyone mentioned in those files I regard with utmost suspicion and don't believe a word they utter.
I expected a cover-up from the word go; sadly, my belief is being justified daily.
I met him but….
Who knew…..
Do not wash.
Power corrupts and even silences all it touches, apparently.
Shame, Ha.
Don't kid yourself: until the light is shone under the rocks, it will continue.
A Morning Muse
~A
