The Epstein Class and Crocodile Tears

Now that the Epstein Files are coming to light, slow and painful as that process is, the men who were associated with him are being forced to confront their decisions and face their behavior. The Epstein Class is treating us to a cascade of crocodile tears as they express their phony regrets.

Businessman, rubber stamp, Epstein class, press release, retro regretsWhether they were actual pedophiles and rapists or just slimed by a long association with him, they appear in the public eye as perverts and criminals. The men of the Epstein Class now answer questions and issue statements explaining and lamenting what they did back when they could be certain the public eye would never turn on them.

In the spotlight of publicity, they say what they have to say. “I regret my actions.” “I am sorry for what I did.” They weep crocodile tears. You could have written the statements yourself. They could have made a rubber stamp with the same words and now pass it around as they get outed one by one. “Here, use this. It will get the press off your back.”

Shedding Crocodile Tears

The words express remorse but don’t be fooled. We can’t believe any of it. Their lamentations shed crocodile tears.

They are not sorry for what they did; they are only sorry they got caught. Their after-the-fact remorse about associating with Jeffrey Epstein means only that they bemoan being publicly shamed and humiliated.

The Epstein Class and Responsibility

In the privacy of their mansions and yachts, they probably feel more anger than guilt. After all, the club of elite men was supposed to stick together, just as It always had.

Right now, for example, the press applauds Bill Gates for “taking responsibility” for his two affairs and long association with Mr. Epstein. Oh, please. He should have taken responsibility a long time ago, before his wife divorced him.

Mr. Gates just recently apologized to staff at the Gates Foundation for his past association with Jeffrey Epstein, admitting it was a “huge mistake” to spend time with him and introducing foundation executives to Epstein. He emphasized that he did not participate in any illicit activities and expressed regret for the impact of his actions on the foundation’s reputation.

He also clearly did not stop to think that the two Russian women with whom he had affairs might have been KGB plants, a honey trap set to get inside information and set him up for blackmail.

Men’s Rule Number One

None of this was a problem before, when he thought his huge mistake would never come to light. He didn’t worry about palling around with a convicted sex trafficker and pedophile back then. Or introducing other board members to Epstein. That’s what I mean by retro regret. They don’t apologize until they have to.

crocodile tears, Epstein Class,

Courtesy of dreamstime.com

The Epstein Class lives by Men’s Rule Number One: you don’t rat out another guy. Even when he’s a bully, a criminal, a threat to you or your job, you don’t turn him in. This applies to all men, but even more so when the men are rich and powerful, greedy and shameless.

Rule Number One is ingrained in them from boyhood by fathers and uncles, teachers and coaches. They know other boys are watching and reprisal will be swift should they turn an offender in to the authorities.

Which means they aren’t really worried about what most people think of them. The only thing of concern is what others of their ilk think of them. The crocodile tears aim at minimizing the public damage.

Pulling Together When the Stakes Are High

When the stakes ratchet higher, men pull together even more tightly, determined to be stand-up guys and unworried by retaliation. They may be rewarded for their silence and complicity with money, jobs, promotions, and women. If they have to throw someone else, preferably a woman but often an underling, to the wolves, they will do it without compunction. The Epstein Class considers this fair play.

What they didn’t count on was that the slippery Mr. Epstein wasn’t their friend and he didn’t follow any rules. Instead, he played a different game. He used all the luxury and pandering, the gifts and the girls, the proximity and introductions to create a network of men he could use for a variety of purposes.

He used his network to build his wealth, to acquire insider information, to get introductions to other powerful men, and to create a treasure of kompromat he could use when needed for blackmail or defense.

Storing Kompromat on the Epstein Class

Epstein Photos, Jeffrey Epstein, sadists

Courtesy of RNZ News

What amuses me is that the men in Epstein’s underground network didn’t realize this because they assumed he followed Men’s Rule Number One. They didn’t know he was saving their messages, taking photographs, shooting videos, and storing all the evidence. Even the self-described smartest guy in the room didn’t have the smarts to know he was being conned.

So don’t be taken in by the crocodile tears and the retro regrets. These men feel no guilt. They only feel sorry for themselves. They say what they have to and pretend to experience remorse but it’s all just part of the game for them. The real goal is to minimize the damage so they can get back to business as usual. Just watch Larry Summers, clinging desperately to planks and railings as he slowly, slowly slides off the deck of his own personal Titanic at Harvard.

And One More Thing . . .

Oh, and one more thing. It also amuses me that these men are compensated to the tune of millions and billions of dollars for their wisdom, foresight, and good judgement. Every day more of them turn up in the Epstein Files, thus proving that they lack all three of those virtues.

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About Aline Kaplan

Aline Kaplan is a published author, a blogger, and a tour guide in Boston. She formerly had a career as a high-tech marketing and communications director. Aline writes and edits The Next Phase Blog, a social commentary blog that appears multiple times a week at aknextphase.com. She has published over 1,000 posts on a variety of subjects, from Boston history to science fiction movies, astronomical events to art museums. Under the name Aline Boucher Kaplan, she has had two science fiction novels (Khyren and World Spirits) published by Baen Books. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies published in the United States, Ireland, and Australia. She is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston and lives in Hudson, MA.

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