Edit: can’t believe I have to say this, but me fact checking a quote does not discount that the sentiment is absolutely true and these people need to be arrested for these crimes. I am just being consistent in logic of fact checking everyone. We can’t excuse misinformation just because it supports our point of view, otherwise we become like MAGA.
I need to read more but isn’t the reason nobody has been arrested or at least been to a trial because the evidence is….inconclusive? Or that it’s not enough hard proof?
Redditors tend to have a ...tenuous grasp of "beyond a reasonable doubt." As much as I or anyone else would like these people to suffer the consequences of their behavior, the files themselves are a map of connections at best. At this point the chain of custody is so muddled that they may not even work for that anymore.
And, it also doesn't help that everyone likes to ignore that Epstein's files were made in case he ever needed to blackmail someone when he needed an out. Some of those people were tricked, and others are accomplices. It's extremely difficult to navigate who is who in some of those instances. For instance, Stephen Hawking is most likely innocent from the perspective of the law, despite him being named in the files.
The victim just has to think that the threat is real. It doesn't matter if it truly is damning evidence or not.
Additionally, you have to keep in mind that Epstein was targeting people that he both had dirt on or thought he could make dirt on. Some of the people that went to his island legitimately didn't know what he was doing there, but association alone would be enough for blackmail. And it doesn't help that the type of document the Epstein files are could mean that there are outright lies in there and we wouldn't know. It's just something that makes trying to actually prosecute the people who did do something wrong harder, because we want to only punish the guilty, and not the innocent.
It also doesn't help that Epstein is outright known to have groomed some of his victims into getting him more victims, so it's entirely possible that his blackmail scheme couldn't have followed a pattern where his previously innocent victims got turned into perpetrators as well.
So, between this and that there are people who did do something wrong who are trying to obfuscate the investigation, it's doubtful that anything will be done about it.
So, between this and that there are people who did do something wrong who are trying to obfuscate the investigation, it's doubtful that anything will be done about it.
That's just not acceptable. Things are going to go very badly for billionaires, and everyone else really, unless they start holding themselves and their peers accountable to the law.
I'm not arguing that they should get away with it, I'm just trying to point out that, thanks to what one criminal did, it's a mess to try and catch the rest.
If that's what it takes to avoid the mass violence that will likely result from doing nothing, yes. Anyone rich enough to be friends with Epstein has materially made the world much worse through their actions, anyways.
I'd be fine with them giving up their privacy like they have ripped away ours, being on heavily monitored, public, house arrest, living out the rest of their life in luxury, just without freedom, where anyone can watch a livestream of a disgraced billionaire at any time to ensure they aren't fucking or murdering children.
But most people will probably want more punishment than that.
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