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That's precisely my point. In polite society the idea of mature adults having sex with minors is generally considered so outrageous that it's easy to imagine h

That's precisely my point. In polite society the idea of mature adults having sex with minors is generally considered so outrageous that it's easy to imagine how those around Epstein wouldn't have had to try very hard to convince themselves that the young looking girls around Jeff are totally adults. It simply wasn't obvious to onlookers that Epstein was doing what he was doing, you wouldn't jump to assume that the young women around him were underage. Most of them apparently weren't. Had Epstein surrounded himself with prepubescent children instead, it'd be far easier to assume that the people hanging out with him were interested in specifically minors rather than conventionally beautiful young women.

archagon 9mo ago
But he was already convicted of trafficking underage girls in 2008. How was it not obvious to onlookers?
- JasonADrury 9mo ago
  I'd assume it was well known before 2008 that Epstein is a sex addict, he was always surrounded by a multitude of young women. Those women did not look like minors. I don't think it's particularly surprising that his friends might have concluded that he isn't actually into underage girls, but simply accidentally ended up sleeping with a minor or two while having sex with hundreds of women. I know a couple of people who spend excessive amounts of time and effort in order to hook up with lots of women. I don't particularly like either of them, but if one of them ended up facing statutory rape charges, my first assumption wouldn't be that they were deliberately trying to have sex with minors. The charges faced by Epstein in 2008 must have looked so outrageous that it's not hard to imagine why those around him might have given him the benefit of the doubt, especially after the government basically let him off and communicated to everyone that his crimes weren't actually that bad. There are some people aggressively misunderstanding me, I'm certainly not defending Epstein. I'm just offering a slightly more reasonable alternative theory than "everyone around him was a pedophile", which just seems fundamentally unlikely.
  - simgt 9mo ago
    You're trying very hard to project your way of thinking onto others, or simply giving them excuses. We've understood with other cases like Strauss-Kahn that their social networks know. The ones involved here are not particularly known for being gullible idiots, they chose to ignore it because it was more convenient than the truth. Or they are simply paedophiles who knew exactly what they were doing.

archagon 9mo ago

But he was already convicted of trafficking underage girls in 2008. How was it not obvious to onlookers?

JasonADrury 9mo ago
I'd assume it was well known before 2008 that Epstein is a sex addict, he was always surrounded by a multitude of young women. Those women did not look like minors. I don't think it's particularly surprising that his friends might have concluded that he isn't actually into underage girls, but simply accidentally ended up sleeping with a minor or two while having sex with hundreds of women. I know a couple of people who spend excessive amounts of time and effort in order to hook up with lots of women. I don't particularly like either of them, but if one of them ended up facing statutory rape charges, my first assumption wouldn't be that they were deliberately trying to have sex with minors. The charges faced by Epstein in 2008 must have looked so outrageous that it's not hard to imagine why those around him might have given him the benefit of the doubt, especially after the government basically let him off and communicated to everyone that his crimes weren't actually that bad. There are some people aggressively misunderstanding me, I'm certainly not defending Epstein. I'm just offering a slightly more reasonable alternative theory than "everyone around him was a pedophile", which just seems fundamentally unlikely.
- simgt 9mo ago
  You're trying very hard to project your way of thinking onto others, or simply giving them excuses. We've understood with other cases like Strauss-Kahn that their social networks know. The ones involved here are not particularly known for being gullible idiots, they chose to ignore it because it was more convenient than the truth. Or they are simply paedophiles who knew exactly what they were doing.