American Psychos: Inside The Epstein Files

In the film “American Psycho” the character of Patrick Bateman is a representation of the real face of capitalism. He’s a narcissistic, self-involved sociopath who abuses and kills women. Everything and everyone is a commodity to him.

The film is set in the 1980’s during the heyday of capitalist yuppies when Reaganism ruled the roost in the USA. The Bateman character is a suit wearing psychopath whose sole interest is climbing the corporate ladder and showing off his superficial elite lifestyle.

He even engages in performative morality, decrying Apartheid in South Africa, to assume a some semblance of humanity, but beneath this facade he is empty, devoid of humanity, a true representative of capital.

When the film came out reviewers praised it as an insightful “metaphor” for the capitalist elite. But Bateman is closer to the true nature of the capitalist elite than anyone imagined. They are all “American Psychos” engaged in mask wearing, performative acts where they hide their violent acts behind a pretence of concern about the planet, or starving children or whatever the fashion of the day dictates.

Meanwhile, in their role as ruthless profiteers they are the very ones causing the problems they claim to care about. The drive for more profit is their only purpose, no matter the consequences. They’ll trash workers’ bodies, burn the forests, poison the seas, as long as there’s money to be made.

One of the many American Psychos featured in the Epstein files is billionaire Bill Gates. He was the richest man on the planet for 18 of the 24 years between 1995 and 2017. He set up the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in 2000, which according to its website is a “non-profit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world.”

This type of philanthropy is typical of the capitalist class, it’s a token act designed to cover up their true nature as exploiters. Bill Gates’s billions were made from the ruthless exploitation of Microsoft’s workers who were denied trade union recognition.

Gates is one of the many super rich with links to Epstein. In one email draft which he wrote in 2013, Epstein alleged that Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”

Bill Gates rubs shoulders with hundreds of other rich and powerful figures in the Epstein files. It’s like lifting a rock and finding lots of creepy crawlies scurrying around underneath.

All sorts of parasites, from British royals like Prince Andrew and Norway’s Crown Princess Mette Marit to Israeli war merchants, had links to Epstein. You’ll also find a whole bunch of celebrities, some with their own accusations of abuse like Michael Jackson, Woody Allen and Kevin Spacey. Others like musician Mick Jagger and comedian Chris Tucker are seen in photos with Epstein.

Notable politicians from all sides of the fake political divide featured multiple times in the files include the likes of Bill Clinton, Peter Mandelson, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and of course the current US President Donal Trump. In a 2002 interview Trump famously said about Epstein: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Many of the people named in the Epstein files are not necessarily, although we do not know for certain, linked to sexual abuse and trafficking crimes. Some, like Peter Mandelson, had a financial relationship with Epstein. Mandelson has been accused of leaking market-sensitive government documents in 2008 which Epstein could clearly make money from.

Previously, Epstein made $75,000 in payments to Lord Mandelson in three separate $25,000 transactions in 2003 and 2004. This type of corruption goes on all the time, what’s shocking is the scale of corruption by Epstein and the wide network of individuals involved. Mandelson also encouraged Epstein to “fight for early release” after being convicted of child sex related offences in 2008.

Shamefully, anarchist academic Noam Chomsky was a friend of Epstein’s and was even photographed hanging out with far right guru Stephen Bannon. Chomsky’s wife was emailing Epstein back and forth even after he was charged.

A lot of people are shocked about the extent of Epstein’s reach. This leads some to think that it must be because all the rich are paedophiles and that’s why they all knew Epstein. Others, like neo-Nazi groups, are looking at the links to Israel and concluding that it’s because they are all Jews. Neither of those things are the truth. There a millions of capitalists in the world. They weren’t all in Epstein’s network.

Epstein was not rich and powerful because he was a paedophile. He was a protected paedophile because he was rich and powerful. And he could get away with it for so long because he was rich and powerful. Those capitalists who weren’t involved in the filth taking place around Epstein were willing to turn a blind eye as long as money was being made. Epstein had the ulimate cover - a system that doesn’t give a damn about anything except money.

Epstein first became rich after he worked for the bank Bear Sterns in the late seventies. He was not just a broker making money from the stock market but it’s alleged that he left Bear Stearns in 1981 after he was discovered executing “illegal operations.” He was sued multiple times for a variety of fraudulent activities.

For example, in 1998, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office sued Epstein for illegally subletting the former home of the deputy consul general of Iran. Epstein paid $15,000 a month in rent to the State Department, but he charged the sub-lettees $20,000. In 2003 Epstein was sued by Citibank for defaulting on loans worth $20 million. He was a criminal working for the super rich for a long time before being charged with sex offences.

After leaving Bear Sterns he became a money manager for billionaires, managing their investments and tax affairs. He made most of his money from working for two billionaires, first Les Wexner and later Leon Black. By becoming a resident of the US Virgin Islands in 1996 Epstein avoided paying tax on almost all his income. It’s estimated he saved almost $300 million in taxes between 1999 and 2018.

When he died he had a personal net wealth of over $500 million, he owned multiple properties in New York, London, Paris and Florida , as well as his two private islands and private planes. In 2003, a Vanity Fair reporter who visited his home described how:

“Inside, amid the flurry of menservants attired in sober black suits and pristine white gloves, you feel you have stumbled into someone’s private Xanadu. This is no mere rich person’s home, but a high-walled, eclectic, imperious fantasy that seems to have no boundaries” and: “guests are like pygmies next to the nearby twice-life-size sculpture of a naked African warrior.”

In one of the rooms there was: “a stuffed black poodle, standing atop the grand piano… No decorator would ever tell you to do that” Epstein bragged to visitors. “But I want people to think what it means to stuff a dog.”

“Yes, he lives like a ‘modern maharaja… and there are many women in his life, mostly young”. In another passage the journalist who interviewed associates of Epstein described how: “Gell-Mann rather sweetly mentions that “there are always pretty ladies around” and he’s under the impression that Epstein’s clients “include the Queen of England.”

She also described Epstein’s office: “On the desk, a paperback copy of the Marquis de Sade’s The Misfortunes of Virtue was recently spotted.”

The journalist commentted on the house and said that: “Despite its eccentricity the house is curiously impersonal, the statement of someone who wants to be known for the scale of his possessions.” Just like Bateman in American Psycho, Epstein was interested in the overt display of wealth and power, a performance designed to not only cover up his horrific crimes but also to fascinate and impress the capitalist elite.

It was predominantly his role as money manager, investor and tax advisor that made him attractive to the rich and powerful. He was paid hundreds of millions by Les Wexner alone and in return he made Wexner billions. This is the real reason why everyone wanted to be his friend, no matter what horrors lurked beneath the surface.

In American Psycho the killer Bateman returns to an apartment where he left victims of his crimes. A middle aged women greets him in the flat and asks him to leave. The bodies and blood have been cleaned up. The elite estate agent wanted to sell the place for millions and didn’t care about the crimes.

The capitalist class is corrupted by what they do. They can make decisions every day that will lead to the exploitation, suffering and death of millions. The US elite murdered half a million in Iraq alone. Every day the elite toast each other while workers toil in far away sweatshops.

They pile misery on top of misery and celebrate it as success. The abuse of hundreds of women and girls is horrific. But it’s a small part of a wider system of exploitation, violence and abuse. That wider system is why Epstein was allowed get away with it. The German philosopher Karl Marx once wrote about how messed up the rich really are. he wrote:

“The property-owning class and the class of the proletariat represent the same human self-alienation. But the former feels at home in this self-alienation and feels itself confirmed by it; it recognises alienation as its own instrument and in it it possesses the semblance of a human existence. The latter feels itself destroyed by this alienation and sees in it its own impotence and the reality of an inhuman existence.”

We are all subordinated to the power of the market. Even the rich bow down as if before a God. The rich feel “at home” in an “inhuman existence”, they get power in return for it. The darkest feelings are the home turf of the rich, feelings that drive poor people to drink or drugs or to revolution.

For working class people reading about the abuse of young women by Epstein we are rightly horrified. Every single person who took part in the abuse should be held accountable. Every victim of Epstein and of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trafficking scheme deserves justice. But a sick system that turns a blind eye to such filth as long as money is being made is a system that needs to be overthrown.

The horrific truth is that the Epstein abuse is miniscule compared to the wider abuse and exploitation inflicted by the capitalist class every single day. It doesn’t make the Epstein crimes less vile or unimportant and it doesn’t mean that the perpetrators shouldn’t be held accountable.

But only a working class revolution can hold them all accountable for all the horrors they have inflicted and continue to inflict every day. It’s a sick system that creates sick people.

Young women are commodities to be bought and sold and used, not human beings. What has been uncovered in the Epstein files is not an anomaly but it’s at the very core of the capitalist system. The rich and powerful knew about the abuse committed by Epstein but because of his money, and his powerful connections, they chose to look the other way. Looking the other way is necessary in a world where profit is God and everything has a price.

All those mentioned in the Epstein files knew that looking the other way was necessary to gain what they needed from Epstein, whether it be financial advice, tax advice or connections to other powerful people. They are all Capitalist Psychos and they have to be stopped. Only a working class revolution can do that.