In chapter two of our Epstein Class series, we examine a strange absence in the photographic record -- and the greatest fear of the men in Epstein's circle
Anan, this piece combined with David Rothkopf's Substack piece published last night are both foundational to bringing us forward to solve this mess we are in. I have instinctually understood, but haven't been able to bring all the pieces together. RE: David's piece, I have been saying for some time that people just do not understand the level of mental illness swirling about in this country; David wove my incoherent thoughts together. The same with your piece and Lina Khan's observation of the Venn diagram. The level of sexism is no different here than other places. It's the same with racism. What Trump administration has done is pull the blinders off. What happened to white people in Minneapolis is an ongoing occurrence for people of color....or women. Thank you so much for your unwillingness to look away.
I’ll add Virginia Heffernan to this discussion as well. Would love to see all three in a panel talking about different aspects of the same misogyny coin. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of Stacey Abram’s 10 Steps, a fierce defense of DEI, became a step in their tool box.
I thought this chapter/essay was brilliant. It drew connections I heretofore had missed - the absence of adult women with strength, ideas, opinions, and sovereignty over their bodies and minds on the one hand and the ubiquitous presence of girls too young to possess those pesky attributes or capacities of resistance. The most intriguing thing is how this manifests in every other area of these men's lives, from the board room to politics, academia and foundations. I have a lot to ponder today.
Thanks for the insight. I encountered this frightening aspect of men for the first time when I was 12. It was shocking to me, as I grew up in a family in which the men had respect for its women and girls. As I got older, I found that I enjoyed, and often preferred, the company of gay men, because it offered true friendship, as well as the comforting qualities of male energy, without the lechery.
Thank you, Anand! As usual, your analysis is brilliant and immediately recognizable as truth--a truth that lurked beneath consciousness but now seems plain as day in the light of your words.
That last connection you drew to AI as a frictionless empire was chilling. That's the plan, it seems: a world without touch points (i.e., regular people).
Your writing is so important. I'm glad you're getting out there and speaking on shows and podcasts, and when you do, you're typically the most incisive and interesting voice in the room!
I also want to say that I salute your integrity. Your personal integrity shines through in your writing. I don't know how the dollar or crypto are doing, but the value of integrity has shot way up in our times!
Oh yes Anand, the Epstein class wishes to take us back to smoking rooms and sewing circles, to parties for sixteen year old girls who would “come out” dressed in their finest virginal gowns to be displayed for the young men waiting to pick their plum. Oh for the good old days…. Don’t worry, they’re here.💔🇺🇸
Thank you for writing this! I always appreciate your insights. Your comments here re: how they can't face hindrance/obstacles/resistance is particularly insightful. I agree we can't decouple the Epstein class's abuse of women and children from their abuse of society at large: I've been reading lately about the origins of Patriarchy and, according to Gerda Lerner, it likely first began with men beginning to control women's reproductive labor. I understand (thanks to Grace Blakely) that control over the means of production is how Marx defines capitalism. It's striking to me that controlling women seems to me a very clear expression of that definition.
This is why we need matriarchy, not just a shift away from men in control but a system shift toward what is important for all, instead of convenient for few!
You are absolutely right about this, Anand. And as I read your essay I couldn't help thinking that these men are exactly like unfettered AI: they do exactly what they feel like without regard to the effect on anyone or anything.
Anand…I read you first thing daily in company with my morning coffee. Your words continue to rattle around in my mind and become the measuring stick through which I filter further word ingestion. Your clear-eyed caring, honesty and quality intellectual assessment guides me as I grapple with all of our collective “stuff”! This Grandma says “thank you”.
Thank you for this well-written cogent explanation of norms and attitudes that seem mystifying until we see the whole picture you paint. Simple greed seemed insufficient to arouse the amount of animosity, even vitriol, aimed at Lina Khan.
Your depth of writing about this “untouchable”(no pun intended) class of arrogant, contemptuous and self serving white men has been swirling around in my head for decades. Thank you , Anand, for your words that have connected with my musings. While I don’t feel good that this has been uncovered as reality; I certainly can now make sense in the belief that this is truly the way of the Epstein Class and not an imaginary, horrifying scenario.
Wow, this is brilliant! As I read this, I kept seeing faces of men who have ignored, belittled, been uninterested in what I offer, over and over again for all these years! I feel such relief reading this. It makes so much sense! Thank you!
Yes, it makes sense. It also makes me profoundly sad. In these men's eyes, women--and most egregiously, girls--are denied their agency. There is no reason for us to exist except for their pleasure and only on their terms.
Awesome. I never use this term but for you, Anand, it fits. You make so much sense, it actually hurts. That "touch-point-free existence" is actually a thing that is marketed. And that this sense of entitlement to such an existence surely has to lead to a worldview that ignores most of humanity. Policies that destroy people. I read just recently that Nick Fuentes thinks all women should be imprisoned---and---I guess---sorted for their compliant nature. We have let this disease of misogyny fester alongside racism and greed. Sadly, it is very likely that there are many men (and women) in this country and around the world who might just want to join the Epstein class, not put an end to it. Happy International Women's Day!
Anan, this piece combined with David Rothkopf's Substack piece published last night are both foundational to bringing us forward to solve this mess we are in. I have instinctually understood, but haven't been able to bring all the pieces together. RE: David's piece, I have been saying for some time that people just do not understand the level of mental illness swirling about in this country; David wove my incoherent thoughts together. The same with your piece and Lina Khan's observation of the Venn diagram. The level of sexism is no different here than other places. It's the same with racism. What Trump administration has done is pull the blinders off. What happened to white people in Minneapolis is an ongoing occurrence for people of color....or women. Thank you so much for your unwillingness to look away.
I’ll add Virginia Heffernan to this discussion as well. Would love to see all three in a panel talking about different aspects of the same misogyny coin. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of Stacey Abram’s 10 Steps, a fierce defense of DEI, became a step in their tool box.
(oops, apologies: Anand....left off the "d"}
I thought this chapter/essay was brilliant. It drew connections I heretofore had missed - the absence of adult women with strength, ideas, opinions, and sovereignty over their bodies and minds on the one hand and the ubiquitous presence of girls too young to possess those pesky attributes or capacities of resistance. The most intriguing thing is how this manifests in every other area of these men's lives, from the board room to politics, academia and foundations. I have a lot to ponder today.
Thanks for the insight. I encountered this frightening aspect of men for the first time when I was 12. It was shocking to me, as I grew up in a family in which the men had respect for its women and girls. As I got older, I found that I enjoyed, and often preferred, the company of gay men, because it offered true friendship, as well as the comforting qualities of male energy, without the lechery.
Thank you, Anand! As usual, your analysis is brilliant and immediately recognizable as truth--a truth that lurked beneath consciousness but now seems plain as day in the light of your words.
That last connection you drew to AI as a frictionless empire was chilling. That's the plan, it seems: a world without touch points (i.e., regular people).
Your writing is so important. I'm glad you're getting out there and speaking on shows and podcasts, and when you do, you're typically the most incisive and interesting voice in the room!
I also want to say that I salute your integrity. Your personal integrity shines through in your writing. I don't know how the dollar or crypto are doing, but the value of integrity has shot way up in our times!
Brilliant!
Hell of a read on a Sunday morning but I thank you for it. Once I began I could not put it down and I found myself nodding along in agreement.
Oh yes Anand, the Epstein class wishes to take us back to smoking rooms and sewing circles, to parties for sixteen year old girls who would “come out” dressed in their finest virginal gowns to be displayed for the young men waiting to pick their plum. Oh for the good old days…. Don’t worry, they’re here.💔🇺🇸
This is amazing and truly brilliant. You are a gift.
Happy International Women’s Day!!!
Thank you for writing this! I always appreciate your insights. Your comments here re: how they can't face hindrance/obstacles/resistance is particularly insightful. I agree we can't decouple the Epstein class's abuse of women and children from their abuse of society at large: I've been reading lately about the origins of Patriarchy and, according to Gerda Lerner, it likely first began with men beginning to control women's reproductive labor. I understand (thanks to Grace Blakely) that control over the means of production is how Marx defines capitalism. It's striking to me that controlling women seems to me a very clear expression of that definition.
This is why we need matriarchy, not just a shift away from men in control but a system shift toward what is important for all, instead of convenient for few!
Amen sister 🙌🙏!!
You are absolutely right about this, Anand. And as I read your essay I couldn't help thinking that these men are exactly like unfettered AI: they do exactly what they feel like without regard to the effect on anyone or anything.
Anand…I read you first thing daily in company with my morning coffee. Your words continue to rattle around in my mind and become the measuring stick through which I filter further word ingestion. Your clear-eyed caring, honesty and quality intellectual assessment guides me as I grapple with all of our collective “stuff”! This Grandma says “thank you”.
Thank you for this well-written cogent explanation of norms and attitudes that seem mystifying until we see the whole picture you paint. Simple greed seemed insufficient to arouse the amount of animosity, even vitriol, aimed at Lina Khan.
Your depth of writing about this “untouchable”(no pun intended) class of arrogant, contemptuous and self serving white men has been swirling around in my head for decades. Thank you , Anand, for your words that have connected with my musings. While I don’t feel good that this has been uncovered as reality; I certainly can now make sense in the belief that this is truly the way of the Epstein Class and not an imaginary, horrifying scenario.
Wow, this is brilliant! As I read this, I kept seeing faces of men who have ignored, belittled, been uninterested in what I offer, over and over again for all these years! I feel such relief reading this. It makes so much sense! Thank you!
Yes, it makes sense. It also makes me profoundly sad. In these men's eyes, women--and most egregiously, girls--are denied their agency. There is no reason for us to exist except for their pleasure and only on their terms.
Awesome. I never use this term but for you, Anand, it fits. You make so much sense, it actually hurts. That "touch-point-free existence" is actually a thing that is marketed. And that this sense of entitlement to such an existence surely has to lead to a worldview that ignores most of humanity. Policies that destroy people. I read just recently that Nick Fuentes thinks all women should be imprisoned---and---I guess---sorted for their compliant nature. We have let this disease of misogyny fester alongside racism and greed. Sadly, it is very likely that there are many men (and women) in this country and around the world who might just want to join the Epstein class, not put an end to it. Happy International Women's Day!