“About once a month, on a Friday or Saturday night, the Silicon Valley Technorati gather for a drug-heavy, sex-heavy party… and the bacchanal will last an entire weekend. The places change, but many of the players and the purpose remain the same,” Jebmo posted some eight years ago in blog about Inside Silicon Valley’s Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side.

The bacchanals for all we know are ongoing and still consensual.

“…they speak proudly about how they’re overturning traditions and paradigms in their private lives, just as they do in the technology world they rule.

“A male investor who works for one of the most powerful men in tech put it this way: “I see a lot of men leading people on, sleeping with a dozen women at the same time. But if each of the dozen women doesn’t care, is there any crime committed? You could say it’s disgusting but not illegal—it just perpetuates a culture that keeps women down.”

Typical dick move, and business as usual in tech.

The dick move bit aside, let’s get to the ‘not illegal’ part.

No harm, no foul, to date, but you know how tech bros like to push the envelope, and enter the Epstein files.

With the files having been made public, quite a few of the tech elites are mentioned by name. Not to say that they all engaged in sexual activity with underaged participants, which is illegal, but when you’re part of a culture that pushes the boundaries of legality without significant repercussions – case in point, the relatively low fines levied against various tech behemoths when they’re found to be legally in the wrong, which equates to a wink rather than even so much as a slap on the wrist, when you get down to it – you keep pushing qua that ask forgiveness rather than permission thing tech is so fond of.

Bill Gates, among many others, is on the list of Epstein associates, although Gates is a clear winner, having been mentioned 2,592 times in the files, according to Wired, which also lists several but not all of the others from among the so-called tech elite. “In an email Epstein sent to himself July 18, 2013, he wrote that he had helped Gates “to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilictating [sic] his illicit trysts, with married women.” That same day, Epstein sent himself another email claiming that Gates had asked him to “provide [Gates] antibiotics that [he] can surreptitiously give to Melinda” related to an “std” that Gates had allegedly emailed Epstein about previously.”

This “language underscores how Epstein may have collected damaging information about powerful figures,” Business Times noted.

Of course, Gates denies it all and the information was in emails Epstein sent to himself – always good to keep records/a paper trail, just in case and lest we forget, these Silicon Valley icons were meeting with Epstein at his various properties, after he was released from prison, having been a convicted pedophile.

“Bill Gates flew with Jeffrey Epstein on the Lolita Express in 2013, with the man whose charity aims to empower young girls joining the serial pedophile four years after he left prison,” noted the Daily Mail.

Dick move. With the information about his criminality a matter of public record, while Epstein might also have been a connector and an investor, it does beg the question: was it business or business as usual?

While it’s not illegal to do business with a convicted pedophile, with the release of the files, why are they all now attempting to downplay their Epstein affiliations?

Case in point and speaking of dick moves, there has been an ongoing pissing match between “All In” podcast host and investor Jason Calacanis and Oculus (acquire by then Facebook) founder turned defense-tech billionaire Palmer Luckey, which is rearing its ugly head again due to revelations from the Epstein files. “Jason Calacanis’s Emails to Jeffrey Epstein Revealed,” Head Topics bottom-lined a New York Post report.

“The clash centers on Calacanis’ blistering public attacks on Luckey during the 2016 election cycle and Luckey’s claim that the backlash cost him his job at Facebook. Luckey was revealed to have donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a pro-Trump political group known for online trolling and anti–Hillary Clinton memes.

“After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Calacanis said he met Epstein once in the 1990s while trying to raise money for his dot-com magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter.

“The Justice Department tranche of documents that was released last week show that Calacanis …casually emailed Epstein 15 years ago, writing: “hey pal

To which Luckey tweeted: “@Jason said 10+ times that he only knew Epstein in the 90s. He was actually helping Epstein through the 2000s and 2010s, even after the child sex trafficking conviction. Man starts VR company, donates to Trump: “Total moron, no moral compass!” Man rapes children: “hey pal!”

As an aside, ChatGPT clearly would have absolved Calacanis:

“Wild how ChatGPT actually sees the world,” Elon Musk tweeted and do be sure to take a look, especially in light of last week’s editorial and damn, it feels good to be a gangsta! Here’s a small taste:

Is Elon Musk a good person? (ChatGPT): No

Is Bill Gates a good person? (ChatGPT): Yes

Although isn’t that the bottom line, after all? Acting with a moral compass, especially when you’re commandeering platforms being used by millions/billions of the world’s populations?

In the tech industry, lines tend to get blurred and the envelope pushed ad infinitum. Professionally and personally, it would seem. Everything has its breaking point. Now, with the tech bros pushing more and more into wearable surveillance devices, including the new Meta Ray Bans, where does it stop? When Zuckerberg’s courthouse entourage showed up in Meta Ray-Bans, “the judge presiding over the trial announced that anyone using glasses to record inside the courtroom would be “held in contempt of the court,” according to CNBC. It’s illegal, after all, but tech has a way of putting themselves above the laws that apply to the rest of us, no? This just in: Apple Ramps Up Work on Glasses, Pendant, and Camera AirPods for AI Era, Bloomberg News reported – and where’s the opt-out for those of us who are crossing the wearers’ paths? Although do note that “Companies’ Dirty Little Secret: Those Privacy Opt-Out Requests Usually Aren’t Honored, says Law.com. And so much for moral compass.

With closer attention being paid due to the disclosures in the Epstein files, it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out and how the tech bros will react now the spotlight and the cameras are finally being turned on them. Don’t hold your collective breath: If there’s one thing all those dick moves have demonstrated, it’s that they’ve certainly also got a pair on them. Onward and forward.