Epstein Class Clowns
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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Society
/ February 17, 2026
Epstein Class Clowns
One key revelation in the wide correspondence of the late pedophile: the rich and powerful just aren’t all that bright.
Elizabeth Spiers
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Jeffrey Epstein, along with some of the many plutocratic dopes of his acquaintance.
(Martin BUREAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A disturbing number of the oligarchs responsible for the mess we’re in are not very smart. I realize that this seems like a minor complaint when so many of them are also evil, incompetent and causing enormous amounts of human suffering. (Though perhaps it’s better that they’re dimly lit, because who knows how much worse things would be if they were truly evil geniuses?)
Still, after reading through the Epstein files this past week, I think it’s important to underline this basic point—especially since so many of the plutocrats clustered around the late pedophilic sex trafficker get described in press accounts as s geniuses and brilliant thinkers solely because they are powerful and wealthy. It’s precisely this benign assumption of competence and intelligence that lets them get away with murder. (For any lawyers reading this: I am not talking about any specific or literal murder, though I think I can safely and legally say that the hyperbolic overestimation of their collective intelligence lets them get away with, among other things, participating in a global sex-trafficking ring.)
Is it more important that they’re immoral than that they’re wildly incurious people—mediocre thinkers who only seek out opinions and research that conform to their worldview that their privilege and power as wealthy white men (they’re almost all wealthy white men) is both natural and correct? Sure. But their evil and their ignorance are neither mutually exclusive nor unrelated. On some level, much of society thinks these men are wealthy because they know better than most and deserve the power and plunder they luxuriate in. This idea is intertwined with the Horatio Alger myth–that if you work hard, you’re smart and determined, and apply yourself and you’ll be a great American success. The myth is so ingrained in our hyper-capitalist culture that it’s often also assumed that the equation is true in reverse: if you’ve achieved success in America, by any means whatsoever, you must have worked harder and been smarter.
That presumption of intellectual capacity and competence protects the uber rich from accountability, and allows policymakers to hold the poor to a higher standard of behavior than they do for any given billionaire. It is not a small thing, and it’s not ancillary to the systemic problem of an unequal society controlled by …
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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Current Issue
Society
/ February 17, 2026
Epstein Class Clowns
One key revelation in the wide correspondence of the late pedophile: the rich and powerful just aren’t all that bright.
Elizabeth Spiers
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Jeffrey Epstein, along with some of the many plutocratic dopes of his acquaintance.
(Martin BUREAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A disturbing number of the oligarchs responsible for the mess we’re in are not very smart. I realize that this seems like a minor complaint when so many of them are also evil, incompetent and causing enormous amounts of human suffering. (Though perhaps it’s better that they’re dimly lit, because who knows how much worse things would be if they were truly evil geniuses?)
Still, after reading through the Epstein files this past week, I think it’s important to underline this basic point—especially since so many of the plutocrats clustered around the late pedophilic sex trafficker get described in press accounts as s geniuses and brilliant thinkers solely because they are powerful and wealthy. It’s precisely this benign assumption of competence and intelligence that lets them get away with murder. (For any lawyers reading this: I am not talking about any specific or literal murder, though I think I can safely and legally say that the hyperbolic overestimation of their collective intelligence lets them get away with, among other things, participating in a global sex-trafficking ring.)
Is it more important that they’re immoral than that they’re wildly incurious people—mediocre thinkers who only seek out opinions and research that conform to their worldview that their privilege and power as wealthy white men (they’re almost all wealthy white men) is both natural and correct? Sure. But their evil and their ignorance are neither mutually exclusive nor unrelated. On some level, much of society thinks these men are wealthy because they know better than most and deserve the power and plunder they luxuriate in. This idea is intertwined with the Horatio Alger myth–that if you work hard, you’re smart and determined, and apply yourself and you’ll be a great American success. The myth is so ingrained in our hyper-capitalist culture that it’s often also assumed that the equation is true in reverse: if you’ve achieved success in America, by any means whatsoever, you must have worked harder and been smarter.
That presumption of intellectual capacity and competence protects the uber rich from accountability, and allows policymakers to hold the poor to a higher standard of behavior than they do for any given billionaire. It is not a small thing, and it’s not ancillary to the systemic problem of an unequal society controlled by …
Epstein Class Clowns
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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Current Issue
Society
/ February 17, 2026
Epstein Class Clowns
One key revelation in the wide correspondence of the late pedophile: the rich and powerful just aren’t all that bright.
Elizabeth Spiers
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Jeffrey Epstein, along with some of the many plutocratic dopes of his acquaintance.
(Martin BUREAU / AFP via Getty Images)
A disturbing number of the oligarchs responsible for the mess we’re in are not very smart. I realize that this seems like a minor complaint when so many of them are also evil, incompetent and causing enormous amounts of human suffering. (Though perhaps it’s better that they’re dimly lit, because who knows how much worse things would be if they were truly evil geniuses?)
Still, after reading through the Epstein files this past week, I think it’s important to underline this basic point—especially since so many of the plutocrats clustered around the late pedophilic sex trafficker get described in press accounts as s geniuses and brilliant thinkers solely because they are powerful and wealthy. It’s precisely this benign assumption of competence and intelligence that lets them get away with murder. (For any lawyers reading this: I am not talking about any specific or literal murder, though I think I can safely and legally say that the hyperbolic overestimation of their collective intelligence lets them get away with, among other things, participating in a global sex-trafficking ring.)
Is it more important that they’re immoral than that they’re wildly incurious people—mediocre thinkers who only seek out opinions and research that conform to their worldview that their privilege and power as wealthy white men (they’re almost all wealthy white men) is both natural and correct? Sure. But their evil and their ignorance are neither mutually exclusive nor unrelated. On some level, much of society thinks these men are wealthy because they know better than most and deserve the power and plunder they luxuriate in. This idea is intertwined with the Horatio Alger myth–that if you work hard, you’re smart and determined, and apply yourself and you’ll be a great American success. The myth is so ingrained in our hyper-capitalist culture that it’s often also assumed that the equation is true in reverse: if you’ve achieved success in America, by any means whatsoever, you must have worked harder and been smarter.
That presumption of intellectual capacity and competence protects the uber rich from accountability, and allows policymakers to hold the poor to a higher standard of behavior than they do for any given billionaire. It is not a small thing, and it’s not ancillary to the systemic problem of an unequal society controlled by …
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