Maya Angelou said it, many others have repeated it since, but apparently not enough have heard it and understand it and act accordingly.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
Americans (maybe the entire world?) seemed pleasantly surprised that a jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to years of sexual abuse of dozens of minor children. One would think the general pattern of techniques used by Epstein and Maxwell are very familiar. Literally scoping out teenagers in poorer areas facing economic hardships and / or abuse in their families. Whisking them away to experience short bursts of the lux life, partly to entice them, partly to disorient them. Then introducing inappropriate conduct with an older woman to explain it away and normalize it as the level of abuse escalates.
Any sense of justice from hearing that verdict was quickly tamped down as a different story came to the forefront again, courtesy of a story in Rolling Stone magazine about Brian Warner / Marilyn Manson.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/marilyn-manson-abuse-allegations-1256888/The title says it all: Marilyn Manson: The Monster Hiding in Plain Sight
The essence of the RS story is that over twelve women have come forward with nearly identical stories of abusive physical and psychological treatment of women around him since before his first album in 1994. Details range from use of a home-made vocal recording booth an apartment as a human cage ("no one can hear you scream"), what was likely a pretty warped home life as a child (leading him to first label his "art" as "beat up your mom music"), an early stage act featuring simulated physical abuse of a woman on stage, etc.
That's warped enough. Recollections from the twelve women (and some men) go far beyond that. Warner kept illicitly recorded video of nearly every sexual encounter AND PLAYED IT for others in his circle over time with more and more footage. After breaking up with a girlfriend, he recorded a song in 2009 called "I Want to Kill You Like They Do In the Movies" and filmed a video for the song featuring a lookalike for the ex-girlfriend. A later girlfriend after the fact described his behavior as "love bombing" -- overwhelming you with adoration and attention to race past normal relationship milestones while exploiting inner "neediness" to assist.
Stop and think for a moment about these two extremes of the same psycho / sexual abuse coin.
At first glance, the Epstein / Maxwell tact seems almost fairy tale like (at least a Fractured Fairy Tale) in comparison to the Brian Warner modus operandi. Mid-40s / 50s people in stylish clothes driving through your neighborhood in a luxury vehicle offering to give you pay for favors in a rich guy's condo on the beach? Later, you find out you "get" to fly on a private plane? To a private island?
Compared to... A creepy 20 year old made up like a retreaded Gene Simmons playing dissonant heavy metal noise with lyrics talking about killing and rape? Who behaves much the same way off stage? Who shows off an isolation chamber AND TELLS YOU WHAT IT'S FOR on your first date? Or the same guy doing the same thing in his 40s?
Are these scenarios really different from each other?
If you have been raised in America, it should be readily apparent that our society has not organized itself around the concept of reaching across multiple class boundaries and routinely giving a hand up to those closer to steerage. If it happens, it happens in a very organized, controlled sense -- usually through church groups, organized charities, scholarship programs, etc. That hand up doesn't EVER come from a random rich dude driving down your street in a Mercedes offering $200 for an afternoon of "chores around the mansion." People who own private jets have ZERO interest in offering free rides for fun to awkward teens to private islands. Forty year old music stars don't invite teenagers over for launch parties for their new album or sleepovers at the ranch. Something ELSE is ALWAYS going to be expected. People who employ those trappings to create relationships are very adept at tailoring those techniques to the psychological weaknesses of those in their sights.
Is this self delusion only limited to people around entertainment meccas or enclaves of the idle / evil rich?
Hardly.
Here's an odd story from personal experience.
About five or six years ago, I had taken some vacation days and decided to have a late breakfast at IHOP before getting started on my time-off chores. It's a weekday (Thursday) but apparently some local school had a holiday or staff day because within a minute or two of me being seated, two high school aged girls were immediately seated to my left.
I do my best to stay engrossed with perusing the news and deleting useless work emails on my phone but the girls began talking from the moment they sat down. And they talked. And talked. Their table was only two arm lengths away from me so it was impossible to NOT hear the conversation.
It started off with normal school stuff… After-school activities, softball practice, conflicts between different sports team practices (teens are HIGHLY overscheduled, BTW), college applications, parties...
Then they started talking about this one guy who is like TOTALLY the class Brad Pitt OMG OMG who goes to the same church they go to and is active in some youth church organization and was like pressuring me to go to a party sponsored by the CYC and I didn't really want to but he got real adamant about it and it had me really conflicted cuz like I'm not that religious and I didn’t' like being publicly pressured like that but he's like really cute but I think he might be a racist but he's like such a nice guy and so popular in school...
At that point, I put my phone down and just stared off into space to my right.
Amid that long, uninterrupted chatter there was that little phrase tossed in there... "I think he might be a racist." Just tossed into the larger description like it was a harmless personal choice like "cargo pants versus jeans" or "French fries versus onion rings."
The two girls kept talking and the conversation didn't slow down to reflect a SINGLE SECOND of cognitive dissonance registering in either of their minds. A student leader of your CHURCH group MIGHT be a RACIST? Getting ANGRY with you after initially pushing back on attending a party you clearly don't want to attend?
I live in an area where no new homes are being constructed for under roughly $450,000 and probably average $650,000. I'm pretty sure the public school district was in session that day so I'm pretty sure these girls attended a private high school. In other words, these were NOT disadvantaged youth with one might stereotype as empty "bad school" educations. They were both college-bound high achievers attending expensive private schools with every conceivable advantage.
Yet both had become seniors without developing the appropriate radar to spot looming problems like their racist Christian hunk. No adult in their life had sat them down for "the talk." Not about the birds and the bees. They probably learned that in third grade on the internet. I mean "the talk" about recognizing behaviors and attitudes so far beyond what anyone should see in public behavior from strangers that they act as GIANT RED FLAGS to stay the hell away. No one apparently had "the talk" about sexual boundaries, not only pertaining to physical behavior and when but even DISCUSSIONS about sexuality on an ongoing basis - a CONTINUOUS basis.
When things appear MILES out of the ordinary -- either in an unexpected good way or a reprehensible bad way -- SOMETHING IS UP. Get the hell out of there and stay away.
It seems very clear that social media is worsening this psychopathic feedback loop. Perpetrators use free media to normalize deviancy and fan their fame while millions are exposed to people flaunting the good life and great abs and bikini life that destroys self esteem making people so much more vulnerable if they ever cross paths with a manipulative psychopath. Until THAT cycle is broken, adults (teachers?) need to urgently rethink discussions about these matters with their children (students?). Maxwell and Manson won't be the last horror stories in the news reflecting this problem.
WTH
