"It's easy enough to understand the appeal of Jeffrey Epstein to some in the late pedophile's vast circle of friends and quasi-friends. The scientists whom Epstein collected like so many Beanie Babies were charmed less by his supposedly witty repartee than by his money; some no doubt were also more titillated than horrified by the stories of his private life."
"But at first glance, it seems harder to explain the five-year friendship of Epstein and tech investor extraordinaire Peter Thiel, which began in 2014, long after Epstein's pedophilic tendencies were widely known. Still, Thiel is all over the Epstein files; the two exchanged more than 2,000 messages over the years and met on multiple occasions. Epstein would ultimately invest some $40 million in venture capital funds managed by Valar Ventures, a firm cofounded by Thiel."
"You might think that Thiel, who fancies himself a sort of philosopher king of the tech set, would find himself irritated by Epstein's intellectual playacting. Epstein surrounded himself with academics in hopes that some of their intellectual glamor would stick to him. But what really interested him wasn't ideas; it was sex, and he was known to regularly interrupt the conversations of his pet scientists with the query "What does that got to do with pussy?""
Jeffrey Epstein cultivated a vast circle of friends and quasi-friends, attracting scientists with money and salacious stories while associating with figures like Donald Trump and Woody Allen who shared his attraction to younger women. Peter Thiel began a five-year friendship with Epstein in 2014 despite Epstein's widely known pedophilia, exchanging over 2,000 messages and meeting multiple times. Epstein invested about $40 million in funds managed by Valar Ventures, cofounded by Thiel. Epstein used academics as ornaments, prioritized sex over ideas, and frequently interrupted scientists with crude questions. Thiel projects an intellectual persona and periodically issues long disquisitions.
Read at The Nation
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