[cattlefarmer]

> This is well-known now.

Please avoid this.

Let me preface this by saying that I have no idea who Epstein is except that he's some rich, white guy that got caught up in some kind of sex scandal, was arrested and is now dead. I'm not belittling his acts nor ignoring his accusers, I'm saying that I did not know. Now let me explain why.

Over the past couple of years, there have been non-stop stories of one powerful white man after another being revealed doing heinous sexual things to women. The reports are non-stop and it has come to the point that I have tuned them out. A good number of us here are in the tech industry, we're busy enough as it is. Whatever free time we have is focused on things that are more immediate. A large number of people in my immediate bubble have no idea who Epstein is. I'm not even sure if his first name is Jeff or James, except that it starts with J.

I'm likely not the only one.

So according to the HN guidelines, please assume good faith when people ask why.

[topspin]

> A good number of us here are in the tech industry, we're busy enough as it is.

Might want to tune back in a bit; the demise of Epstein is one of the most kelptocratic things that's ever happened in the US. It doesn't even matter exactly how he died; there is no 'fact pattern' you can subscribe to that isn't a consequence of in-your-face public corruption.

[ljm]

To be fair, remember also that this happened in the US, and there are plenty of people who are tuned into what is going on closer to home.

We're not all Americans here.

Although if I was going to comment on something very specific to the US and wasn't quite sure what it was about, I'd probably do some fact-finding beforehand.

[sverige]

There are some international implications in the Epstein case. Prince Andrew is not American either, for example. And apparently the British media had some inkling, or he likely wouldn't have had the nickname 'Randy Andy' when he was younger.

[rubatuga]

Saying "This is well-known now" is fine, because he/she is indicating that it is well known by people following the Epstein case. On a side note, everybody should keep the minimum level of effort to stay up to date on politics and news, especially when it is the case of high level corruption. Saying "we're busy", is not a good enough excuse, and we have more responsibilities working in tech than to take care of stuff that is simply immediate to us.

[colechristensen]

How can we expect the republic to survive if some of the most capable people try so actively to not pay attention to what's going on outside their bubble?

[jknoepfler]

This might surprise you, but I'd prefer people be up to speed on matters of public policy (school funding, environmental regulation, labor laws, etc.)

I can't imagine what relevance you think this case has to the lives of most people on this forum, or even to most people living in the USA. It doesn't impact their future, their well-being, the well-being of people they know or are likely to know, or have (any? much?) lasting meaning for rational policy decisions.

The survival of the republic is most assuredly not dependent upon everyone on the internet clinging to the details of every morbidly awful high-profile sexual misconduct case.

[colechristensen]

Epstein wasn't just gossip or a one-off terrible person. He was a network, he provided services, and his clients/friends/co-conspirators were some of the most prominent people in the country. Not because they were popular but because they were powerful.

Corruption at the highest level that goes far and wide. You shouldn't ignore it because it's "just" sex abuse and not anything important. When you shine light on any kind of high level corruption, you get corrupt people out of their positions. The collateral damage is that the other corrupt things they do which might be more "important" and honest people who don't do those sorts of things get promoted into the spots vacated.

Not to mention validating the many victims of similar abuse around the country who are most often the prey of powerful people.

If you don't care and think there are more important things than that... well ok, but I think that not caring about that kind of corruption and ignoring it is a real threat to the stability and longevity of the republic.

[paganel]

Because they’re too busy counting their money. We’re the lackeys of the mighty and powerful and when the “common people” sometime try to react to the visible power imbalances some of us feel the need to obey and defend our masters. Source: me, a desilusioned programmer approaching my 40s

[rmrfrmrf]

> too busy counting their money.

Or lack of money. The current economy, even for those in the professional class (given the absurd costs of living in tech cities), is designed to maximize precarity and force people into such a hustle mentality that they can barely pay attention to the world around them. It is truly the billionaire class vs the rest of us. We're all in this together.

[paganel]

You would think so from the outside but given the current level of technological development today's billionaires would be nothing without us, IT people (I include here everything from devops, to programmers to QA etc etc), without some lawyers and some medical professionals. Even the billionaires' goons are almost nothing without the technological-heavy guns they employ to potentially carry out their goon-related stuff, and said technology depends, like I said, on us, IT people.

[zentiggr]

What makes you think anyone with billionaire status thinks about anyone of lesser status as anything but cogs in their personal machine? So their existence depends on others, in reality... when did they last have any contact with reality in any meaningful way?

If you can be bought and sold, you are a pawn, not a player.

[Amygaz]

I am there with you. Part of me worries about overreactions, but the other part is glad this is happening, because, at one point, people have to figure out that those narcissistic douche bag are the bane of humanity, and that we should avoid them and socially isolate them, and that there are consequences to enabling them.

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20908317.