But that's about it, isn't it? Everyone else who hung out with them just has to say "whoops, I totally didn't know about their pedo side", and that's the end of the story. Which is amazing when even low-level socialites like Ellen Pao were apparently aware of Maxwell's side business. Where was the pressure from journalists on law enforcement, and from law enforcement on those involved? Too late now anyway, I guess?

For what it's worth, my own pessimism is mostly based on the disastrous Dutroux case over here in Europe. If 27 witnesses can get killed over what is presumably a much lower-profile pedophile ring, then what chance do we have to ever know about the depth of Epstein's connections, or even just his death? (I'd love to be proven wrong!)

I'm not saying that this validates any particular conspiracy theory (I agree with [1]), but that it highlighted an immense imbalance of power and transparency between the 0.001% and the rest of us. Epstein was a comic-book villain walking free. I believe that if the media can make it clear that they're fighting _for us_, people won't look to QAnon for salvation.

[1] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/does-the-jeffrey-eps...