I had to stop reading when I read that line of this article. As a victim of CSA, I just cannot understand why anyone references children as โwomenโ, there are no โwomenโ high school students, there is no โsexโ with children, that is called rape. Words matter and you can speak from the perspective of the abusers, or from that of the abused, not both. They get away with it for so many reasons, and one is because of normalizing this vernacular
True, and itโs absolutely worth saying, but I wouldnโt throw out the rest of this analysis. If weโre going to build a world that doesnโt work like this, we wonโt be doing it perfectly in every moment. Referring to women as underage instead of children in this context is not the root problem, although language matters a great deal.
I get that, but in our attention economy, my attention is currency. If Iโm not finishing reading this, Iโm reading someone elseโs words who knows how to speak from the victims perspective, the only way to truly tell this story. Iโm tired of hearing the perspective of the monsters. The shame must change sides.
That makes sense completely. I respect it, But on the point of language I have a friend who is a victim of child sexual abuse and she is wildly offended when people abbreviate it - CSA - as you did. She thinks is sanitizes it and shows a lack of willingness to talk about it seriously. I wonder, what would you say to her? Iโm not saying sheโs right, but like you itโs language that stops her and she cannot move forward.
Thank you for saying this. I've really enjoyed his writing, especially his grasp of nuance and precision, and care with communication - and "underaged women" is incorrect, imprecise, and normalizing.
You have so succinctly delineated the mechanisms of our society. I have been an activist and organizer for almost 40 years and still many in this space do not have this clarity of the realities of the system we live under. Instead they focus on single issues or work to get a democrat in office and "hold them accountable" to their campaign promises. I've started a different approach by making a documentary that seeks to speak to the theme of empathy and our basic humanity told through the voices of activists, posing questions that touch the basic question of what it means to live in a just society.
Itโs worth noting that Epstein wasnโt just an independent agent for wealthy perverts. He was an agent of Israel furthering not just the capitalist cause, but also Zionism.
This canโt possibly be shocking to anyone. We are talking about an entire bipartisan political and cultural class enabling and backing genocide. Is the Epstein ring really shocking?
Like if someone told you that Nazis often participated in a bacchanalia of violence and sex including raping victims of all ages while they orchestrated a genocide, youโd probably be like โyeah, sounds like them. The only good thing hitler did was fucking kill himself.โ
So now here we are in 2025 and an entire bipartisan political class is revealed to be participating in a bacchanalia of sex and violence while orchestrating a genocide and people are like โmen should not play womenโs sports.โ
โCapitalism creates an incentive structure where the worst among us are rewarded for their ruthlessness, their lack of empathy, their willingness to ruin lives.โ
The Panama papers should have been enough to let us know that we needed to tear the whole fucker down. Let's hope the extra gruesome details of the Epstein files is enough to finally get through.
First, we should not confuse capitalism with commerce. Nor should we pretend this depravity is unique to the capitalist elite. Long before modern markets, long before the forces the article critiques, human beings found ways to turn one another into units of exchange. Once value could be placed on an item, it was only a matter of time before value was placed on a person. The Atlantic slave trade, the trafficking routes of the Ottoman world, bonded labour in the ancient Mediterranean, the sex markets of Imperial Japan, the sale of daughters in famine-stricken dynasties, indenture systems across the early modern world; different eras, different ideologies, identical logic. Commerce is ancient. The tendency to commodify human beings is older still.
Second, this is not simply the fault of the ruling class; the rich and powerful are the most visible expression of the problem, but the problem itself spans nearly all classes, cultures and ages. As above, so below. If Epstein represents the pinnacle of depravity, the foundations of that structure are laid in the everyday habits of ordinary people. Look to your left and look to your right. It is not difficult to imagine how many, given the opportunity, secrecy, or the insulation of wealth, would choose to perpetrate such bleak things.
I'm not saying everyone is insidious. I resurfacing the quote, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" to change it to "Power is a magnet to the corruptible".
In my country we love pointing at elites who plunder sovereign funds. Yet the same public will slip a bribe to a traffic officer without hesitation. If you want to run a concert, you factor in โsettlingโ the police so they will not raid you. If you want your licence approved quickly, you find someone to โhelp move the fileโ. If your F&B business has misclassified migrant workers, you do not fix the paperwork, you look for an immigration officer who can make the problem disappear. Everyone complains about corruption while knowing full well that the same 'grease' lubricated the nation.
We recoil at the horrors of Epsteinโs island, yet the cultural seeds of that behaviour are scattered everywhere. Boys circulating nudes in school corridors. Men sending around contact numbers of women like menu items. Telegram groups trading folders of non-consensual photos. Group chats where rape is a punchline and โbody countโ is a status symbol. Sex tourism. The blue collar man knowingly participating in prostitution with often trafficked women. We have an issue that frames women as commodities to be ranked and traded. These narratives do not merely sit online and are not far disengaged from your social circles, wether you like to believe it or not.
In some states of my country we are dealing with an epidemic of pedophilia, arranged marriages, and the normalisation of child brides, especially where conservative norms prevail. Globally, estimates suggest hundreds of millions of women alive today were married before 18, with the highest rates in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and practices such as bride kidnapping in Central Asia still forcing girls into marriages they never consented to. Different continents, different religions, different legal systems, yet the same underlying gesture: treat a person as a bargaining chip, a debt payment, a tool for survival, a thing to be used, as we've done throughout history.
Epstein implicates everyone at the top. But if we are honest, he also implicates the whole ladder.
Spot on. It would be more accurate though to say everyone who was/is implicated in the system is implicated. According to early philosophical Marx, capitalism is the result of the self alienation of human beings. So itโs not just a political crisis. Itโs an economic crisis and a crisis caused by capitalism. If we really want to go to the roots and be radical when we have to say that the roots of capitalism are spiritual, in the best sense of that word.
And I think we need enlist insights from
relational intersubjective psychoanalysis and existential hermeneutic philosophy to unravel this complex topic.
YOU ARE SO UGLY THAT IT WOULD END ANY LIBIDO OF FEMALE GENDERโฆTHAT AUDACITY OF MALES TO LOOK LIKE A FUCKIN TOILETโฆ.I WARN ANY FUCKER FROM NOW ON DONT DARE TO EVEN LOOK AT ANY PRETTIER FEMALE THAN YOUR FUCKIN UGLY SELVES!!!!!
I read your work all the time and I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your thoughts and your work. I found this post especially poignant. Thank you.
Yet again, this scandal isnโt proof that the system is rotten to its core, but that itโs working exactly as intended. The point of a system is what it actually does.
You talk about changing the system. Can you describe the system in terms real and clear enough that we can change it, when itโs so tremendously pervasive?
Underage women are CHILDREN.
I had to stop reading when I read that line of this article. As a victim of CSA, I just cannot understand why anyone references children as โwomenโ, there are no โwomenโ high school students, there is no โsexโ with children, that is called rape. Words matter and you can speak from the perspective of the abusers, or from that of the abused, not both. They get away with it for so many reasons, and one is because of normalizing this vernacular
True, and itโs absolutely worth saying, but I wouldnโt throw out the rest of this analysis. If weโre going to build a world that doesnโt work like this, we wonโt be doing it perfectly in every moment. Referring to women as underage instead of children in this context is not the root problem, although language matters a great deal.
I get that, but in our attention economy, my attention is currency. If Iโm not finishing reading this, Iโm reading someone elseโs words who knows how to speak from the victims perspective, the only way to truly tell this story. Iโm tired of hearing the perspective of the monsters. The shame must change sides.
That makes sense completely. I respect it, But on the point of language I have a friend who is a victim of child sexual abuse and she is wildly offended when people abbreviate it - CSA - as you did. She thinks is sanitizes it and shows a lack of willingness to talk about it seriously. I wonder, what would you say to her? Iโm not saying sheโs right, but like you itโs language that stops her and she cannot move forward.
Interesting that you mention your friend being offended by "CSA" bc it sanitizes it, the same thing that calling children "underage women" does.
I can see that.
Exactly!
I came here to say exactly this
His wording really irritated me. Now I'm wondering why he used that wording๐ง๐ค
Thank you for saying this. I've really enjoyed his writing, especially his grasp of nuance and precision, and care with communication - and "underaged women" is incorrect, imprecise, and normalizing.
Exactly.
You have so succinctly delineated the mechanisms of our society. I have been an activist and organizer for almost 40 years and still many in this space do not have this clarity of the realities of the system we live under. Instead they focus on single issues or work to get a democrat in office and "hold them accountable" to their campaign promises. I've started a different approach by making a documentary that seeks to speak to the theme of empathy and our basic humanity told through the voices of activists, posing questions that touch the basic question of what it means to live in a just society.
Iโd love to see more about this project, Tom!
I write about my journey of making it on my Substack. @immakingmyfirstfilm. I'm glad it sparkes your interest!
Mine too! Community organizing ftw. Instantly subbed, Iโll start reading with your next post and will catch up later.
Itโs worth noting that Epstein wasnโt just an independent agent for wealthy perverts. He was an agent of Israel furthering not just the capitalist cause, but also Zionism.
This canโt possibly be shocking to anyone. We are talking about an entire bipartisan political and cultural class enabling and backing genocide. Is the Epstein ring really shocking?
Like if someone told you that Nazis often participated in a bacchanalia of violence and sex including raping victims of all ages while they orchestrated a genocide, youโd probably be like โyeah, sounds like them. The only good thing hitler did was fucking kill himself.โ
So now here we are in 2025 and an entire bipartisan political class is revealed to be participating in a bacchanalia of sex and violence while orchestrating a genocide and people are like โmen should not play womenโs sports.โ
Stunning dissection of the reality that this massive, systematic, child abuse ring has exposed.
โCapitalism creates an incentive structure where the worst among us are rewarded for their ruthlessness, their lack of empathy, their willingness to ruin lives.โ
Thank you for this article!
Epstein: bringing together pedophiles from both sides of the political aisleโฆ
The Panama papers should have been enough to let us know that we needed to tear the whole fucker down. Let's hope the extra gruesome details of the Epstein files is enough to finally get through.
Good work on this JP.
Morris Katz is correct.
And look to Graham Platner in Maine for a change.
This was a great read , thank you!
I DONT KNOW BUT THIS BOY HAS MASK ON IN PROFILE PICโฆTELL HIMโฆ
First, we should not confuse capitalism with commerce. Nor should we pretend this depravity is unique to the capitalist elite. Long before modern markets, long before the forces the article critiques, human beings found ways to turn one another into units of exchange. Once value could be placed on an item, it was only a matter of time before value was placed on a person. The Atlantic slave trade, the trafficking routes of the Ottoman world, bonded labour in the ancient Mediterranean, the sex markets of Imperial Japan, the sale of daughters in famine-stricken dynasties, indenture systems across the early modern world; different eras, different ideologies, identical logic. Commerce is ancient. The tendency to commodify human beings is older still.
Second, this is not simply the fault of the ruling class; the rich and powerful are the most visible expression of the problem, but the problem itself spans nearly all classes, cultures and ages. As above, so below. If Epstein represents the pinnacle of depravity, the foundations of that structure are laid in the everyday habits of ordinary people. Look to your left and look to your right. It is not difficult to imagine how many, given the opportunity, secrecy, or the insulation of wealth, would choose to perpetrate such bleak things.
I'm not saying everyone is insidious. I resurfacing the quote, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" to change it to "Power is a magnet to the corruptible".
In my country we love pointing at elites who plunder sovereign funds. Yet the same public will slip a bribe to a traffic officer without hesitation. If you want to run a concert, you factor in โsettlingโ the police so they will not raid you. If you want your licence approved quickly, you find someone to โhelp move the fileโ. If your F&B business has misclassified migrant workers, you do not fix the paperwork, you look for an immigration officer who can make the problem disappear. Everyone complains about corruption while knowing full well that the same 'grease' lubricated the nation.
We recoil at the horrors of Epsteinโs island, yet the cultural seeds of that behaviour are scattered everywhere. Boys circulating nudes in school corridors. Men sending around contact numbers of women like menu items. Telegram groups trading folders of non-consensual photos. Group chats where rape is a punchline and โbody countโ is a status symbol. Sex tourism. The blue collar man knowingly participating in prostitution with often trafficked women. We have an issue that frames women as commodities to be ranked and traded. These narratives do not merely sit online and are not far disengaged from your social circles, wether you like to believe it or not.
In some states of my country we are dealing with an epidemic of pedophilia, arranged marriages, and the normalisation of child brides, especially where conservative norms prevail. Globally, estimates suggest hundreds of millions of women alive today were married before 18, with the highest rates in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and practices such as bride kidnapping in Central Asia still forcing girls into marriages they never consented to. Different continents, different religions, different legal systems, yet the same underlying gesture: treat a person as a bargaining chip, a debt payment, a tool for survival, a thing to be used, as we've done throughout history.
Epstein implicates everyone at the top. But if we are honest, he also implicates the whole ladder.
Power is a magnet to the corruptible!!!!!
Spot on. It would be more accurate though to say everyone who was/is implicated in the system is implicated. According to early philosophical Marx, capitalism is the result of the self alienation of human beings. So itโs not just a political crisis. Itโs an economic crisis and a crisis caused by capitalism. If we really want to go to the roots and be radical when we have to say that the roots of capitalism are spiritual, in the best sense of that word.
And I think we need enlist insights from
relational intersubjective psychoanalysis and existential hermeneutic philosophy to unravel this complex topic.
YOU ARE SO UGLY THAT IT WOULD END ANY LIBIDO OF FEMALE GENDERโฆTHAT AUDACITY OF MALES TO LOOK LIKE A FUCKIN TOILETโฆ.I WARN ANY FUCKER FROM NOW ON DONT DARE TO EVEN LOOK AT ANY PRETTIER FEMALE THAN YOUR FUCKIN UGLY SELVES!!!!!
I read your work all the time and I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your thoughts and your work. I found this post especially poignant. Thank you.
Yet again, this scandal isnโt proof that the system is rotten to its core, but that itโs working exactly as intended. The point of a system is what it actually does.
As Germans say "the fish rots from the head"
You talk about changing the system. Can you describe the system in terms real and clear enough that we can change it, when itโs so tremendously pervasive?
As an indigenous social work tutor told our class last year: " burn the whole system to the ground and rebuild from the ground up"
Not a very creative solution. What keeps them from just recreating the same basic dynamics?