
i think it’s a psychology thing. i read a scientific article once that said the majority of people in prison for pedophilia don’t actually experience attraction to minors— for them the act is about power and domination, and generally they have extremely little empathy. people who are attracted to power and domination and have such little empathy generally also are attracted to large amounts of money and willing to do things most of us wouldn’t do to get it
Because a lot of people in general are. If you listen to how people regardless of class talk about children you’re going to hear weird things. It happens at different class levels too but because they don’t have that type of money they usually go for kids they’re related to. That’s why so many people have the “weird uncle/aunt”. The main difference is that rich people have the money to get other people’s kids, pay them off, and cover it up better
and also both billionaires and offending pedophiles are generally quite charismatic and manipulative— they hide who they really are when around normal people. it makes sense to me (in a really really sick way) that they would find each other at the top and create a place where they can act on all their horrid fantasies and urges openly together
honestly no i don’t think its a cult— more like a conspiracy. cults are usually made up of a few charismatic leaders who manipulate psychologically vulnerable people into entirely relying on them to make sense of the world. i think the men on the Epstein list do not have the psychological vulnerabilities that would let them be indoctrinated into a cult— on the contrary, they are much more similar to the typical cult leader
i think it is very very possible (not that i know a lot of specifics) that Epstein’s victims were indoctrinated and manipulated in a cult-like way. but the perpetrators did this because they wanted to and they could. i also wouldn’t be surprised if there is an intoxicating effect of having so many sociopathic individuals in one space with no consequences that causes them to go to greater extremes than they might have on their own. but even with that, they had full autonomy
the occult stuff i believe was a fairly minor part compared to the sexual abuse and i do not think (may be wrong) they had any kind of consistent or cohesive religious narrative. i imagine it was more like they wanted to try out outrageous things that would never be allowed in society for the “rush”
i mean it definitely could be, i wouldn’t know. but i am a bit skeptical that these men had any kind of genuine belief in anything that made them think it was necessary— i think they did it for fun (makes me want to puke writing that). also from what i read the temple has a lot of features in common with ancient Greek and Roman and Renaissance art and architecture. this is complete and total guesswork but maybe the men liked imagining themselves as gods or emperors
also i think the jewish supremacy thing is kind of complicated. i don’t think he believed Jews were actually racially superior. i think he believed HE in particular was superior, and he was disturbed that other people might think he was inferior because of his ethnicity. he also i think may have resented that people thought he had the power he had because he was a Jew when in his mind he had “earned” it himself. so he fixated on those things and made fun of them and turned them inside out