You’re absolutely right, but I think some of us are worried about losing sight of how he managed to rule via blackmail: he blackmailed incredibly shitty people who did incredibly shitty things. Epstein was a monster of a human whose own proclivities will haunt most of our nightmares for the rest of our lives, but we shouldn’t forget that he didn’t coerce the people he blackmailed. Sure, he enabled and catered to them, but these people already had their own horrifying habits that they thought (probably correctly) they were rich or powerful enough to practice with impunity.

I know you already said that you’re not calling Gates a victim. But also, focusing too hard on a (made up) quote like “Epstein blackmailed me into 90% of the crimes I committed,” runs the risk of a large portion of the population forgetting that 10% of those crimes were catered by requesting using resources from other people Epstein blackmailed because they also wanted to do some shit that was so fucked up that only someone like Epstein could make it happen quickly, quietly, and conveniently.