I have no idea the sequence of events but it makes for a great antihero origin story.
That's one way of putting it. Here's another: https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=x80EbmX5xys
She didn't go into this much detail - but she could probably confirm/deny a few things if asked about it now.
Being specifically attracted to underage girls that could very well be adults seems vastly weirder than pedophilia, given the obvious alternative of being attracted to adult women who look like teenagers.
Looking at the pictures of the women that have been in the media, "conventionally attractive young women, a significant portion of whom were under 18" seems like a far more accurate description than "children". While "children" may be technically correct, someone trying to effectively describe what happened would not choose that word.
I am not going to make excuses for pedophiles.
"Child" is most often a young human below the age of puberty. Consider how ridiculous you'd sound if you claimed that jurisdictions with an age of consent of 16 allow sex with children.
Yeah, but we're not just talking about 16 year olds here, we're talking about (way) younger than that.
And besides, okay, an 18 year old, for hookups that's fine up to age 25 in my book. 30 is also fine in most of Europe's moral view, in France they'd probably accept 35. But ffs. Gates was around 58 back at the time. That's far too old to hang out with 18 year olds, much less having sex with them.
There's been little indication that Epstein was interested in prepubescent girls. There's "as young as 14" in the indictment, still old enough to feasibly be visually indistinguishable from 18 year olds.
>And besides, okay, an 18 year old, for hookups that's fine up to age 25 in my book. 30 is also fine in most of Europe's moral view, in France they'd probably accept 35. But ffs. Gates was around 58 back at the time. That's far too old to hang out with 18 year olds, much less having sex with them.
There's little doubt that this stuff was weird, and that Epstein was a predator. It's less than obvious that those hanging out with him were any weirder than your average john engaged in buying sex from young attractive women.
The thing is, the law doesn't care. People all over the world got busted for such things (including, and that's what I find ridiculous, combinations like 17/19).
My recommendation - even if legal, as soon as you have doubts the other person is of age, just don't. Plenty of fish in the sea.
Yeah? Well, you know, that's just like uh, your opinion, man.
It's not the law. As a matter of fact there are special provision to lower the age of consent if some conditions apply, although this is not one of them.
How about we right all the wrongs that stemmed from violating laws (as there is plenty of work to be done there) before we try to pass personal opinions as laws
NYT : "Epstein Notes Suggested Bill Gates Engaged in Extramarital Sex"
HN : Bill Gates had sex with children! :(