State of the Apology, 2026

 The state of the apology, 2026

“I continue to be appalled by his crimes and remain deeply concerned for its many victims,” Mr. Ross wrote. – David Ross, who discussed pedo porn with Epstein.

"He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved." – Peter Mandelson, British ambassador to U.S., Starmer’s consigliere

Had I known any of the facts about Epstein's sickening and repulsive conduct, which I learned in late 2018, more than the year after I stopped working with him, I never would have had anything to do with him." – Leon Black

i apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.” – Peter Attia.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein. – Larry Summers.

“I want you to know that in all of my interactions with Epstein, I was never involved in, never heard him talk about and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of.” – Joi Ito

“It was deeply disturbing for both of us to realize we had engaged with someone who presented as a helpful friend but led a hidden life of criminal, inhumane, and perverted acts.” – Valeria Chomsky

““I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.” – Casey Wasserman, chairman, LA Olympic committee

“When I learned of Mr. Epstein’s arrest and subsequent conviction, I was deeply disturbed. (I should have been equally disturbed by his plea bargain. His crime was termed “soliciting prostitution.” Children are not prostitutes.) But upon reflection, I decided to visit Mr. Epstein during his prison term in Florida. I believed, at the time, that I was doing a good deed.” – Seth Lloyd, MIT

““My association with Jeffrey Epstein represents a serious lapse of judgment which I regret. I apologize to my friends, colleagues and students for the problems this unfortunate association has caused.” Richard Axel, Nobel prize winner, Columbia

“We had no idea, the public record had no indication, that he was anything more than an ordinary — if you could say such a thing — sex offender who had been convicted and went to jail.” – Leon Botstein, Bard College President

“In my 47 years working in the entertainment industry, I’ve encountered thousands of people,” he added. “My biggest regret, bar none, is that I foolishly believed his denials of wrongdoing. I was impressed by his circle of acquaintances from caried industries, and it blinded me. I apologize to all who were hurt by this clearly terrible and depraved individual.” – Barry Josephson, producer – man who sent Epstein an email describing a girl with an “insane rack”.

I haven’t put these apologies in chronological order, but I still think we can reverse engineer the P.R. of the apology to show patterns. For instance, at first, it is all about the very important self of the apologizer and the institution. The MIT guys were pioneers in that kind of thing. All very 2019.

However, PR is nothing if not environmentally adaptive. If you apologize now, you have to show “repulsion” over the “horrific crimes” - which at the same time you knew nothing about! The last of course is important. As social media has noticed that nobody gives a shit about the victims, and a certain indignation has emerged, the P.R. industry has accordingly added provisions about of course, it is all about the victims, here. But as these are the most important people in the world, one has to also see that the real victim is always – the apologizer. Jeffrey -the blessing, Uncle Jeffy, my good friend, my savior – was an evil trickster who didn’t destroy my emails to him!
Some apologies actually do mirror the personalities of the apologizer. For instance, Larry Summers, an all around pig whose “brilliance” was worshipped by the Dem party bigwigs for decades, put together a sort of identikit apology that shows he doesn’t give a shit and is sure this will all blow over as he and Kathy Ruemmler become advisors to the Newsom presidential campaign. In this, sadly, he’s probably right.
Seth Lloyd’s might be the most unique apology of the bunch. Who knew that somebody somewhere thought a good deed, in the case of a billionaire accused of raping – excuse me, soliciting – underage girls was --- to see the rapist! I would say this was a very unique worldview, but unfortunately, I think it is the template among the elite. As Ghislaine Maxwell explained once: the girls were “trash”. By which she meant trailer trash. And it is the general agreement among producers, college presidents, hedge funders, and politically connected peeps that the vast majority, the people whose incomes are a piddling 40, 50 thou a year, are deep trash, a manipulable and undistinguished heap who should thank their lucky stars they have some quality that their betters can exploit.
My biggest regret, bar none, is that people found out. This is the real noise, behind these fake statements.
So, now we know the character of who rules us. And maybe this means: we are woke?