Dear lord, I have been programmed. For two-thirds of this story I am thinking, "ah... a wanna be actress in LA got close to stardom, and then nothing happened. Until one day a reporter calls her up, gives her attention, and she spins a tale to get the attention she so craves..." Which is exactly the narrative of the abuser; the high-ranking official, the movie star, the politician, the celebrity, who wants to make stories of their salacious assholery go away, by blaming the victim. I read two stories simultaneously in this piece: The one on the page, and the "star-seeking" narrative going on in my head that has been pounded into my brain by the culpable media for my entire life. It's frustrating. But yeah... "it's grifters all the way down" is pretty much America in the 21st century in a nutshell.
There's a real need in all of our myth-making to avoid "it could happen to you" syndrome. We're always looking for Satan so we know not to be Faustus. I decided to start watching the Netflix series last night because of this. There's a lot of myth-making about the genius of Epstein but fundamentally he said "I will give any underage girl $200 to let me molest her and if she doesn't like it, I will give her $200 if she sells out her friends." And by starting with the vulnerable, and keeping things working among the vulnerable, and making his juvenile madams accessories, he was able to get a hand job from a teenager whenever he wanted. And sure - it's easy to say "no smart teenager would take that bet" but obviously it's not the smart ones getting victimized, it's the messed-up ones for whom $200 is a lot of money. The difference between liberals and conservatives is the liberals think the idiots should be protected while the conservatives feel they should be predated upon.