“My heart is racing,” she says after a moment, fluttering her hand over her chest.
Fluttering her hand over her chest? Really? This sounds like a comical drag performance of femininity. I'd like to turn away and look at a lake, but I keep reading:
“Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?” she asks a moment later. “There you go. You just have your answer. We need to listen to our feelings about people.” When she said her heart was racing, was she reliving the gut reaction she had on meeting him? “I’m done. I can’t do any more questions,” she says. I am watching French Gates, trying to read her reaction, but can sense to my right her comms person, who is listening in, tense and ready herself to end the interview if I push things too far.
Yes, this sounds coldly calculated. She had someone there to rescue her if she was not pulling off the performance. And she herself had the tactic of claiming to be "done," unable to "do any more questions." Based on the trauma of having met Epstein once and sensed his evil?
Then she answers. “Yes. Any woman who has ever been around somebody who is evil or had an experience and then if you’re around somebody else who is evil. Just no, no.”
Now, we're supposed to believe women's intuition, women in general, not this one older billionaire. You know how we women are just stunned into incapacity by the memory of a man we just know is evil. The interviewee is refusing to talk about the topic of greatest interest.
I notice that while she usually speaks in full sentences, her grammar has broken down. I’m sorry, I say, I can see you’re having a strong – “Visceral reaction, yes,” she interrupts.
Was the interviewer lying? Did she really think, I'm sorry, I think you're acting, ham acting?
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77 comments:
Let's see, degrees from Duke University, executive at Microsoft which meant she was working in a male dominated field, and regular attendee at the Bilderberg Group conferences. And turns into Blanche DuBois at the mention of Epstein. A line of questioning she had to know was coming.
From this I suspect the heat is on, or will be coming on, Bill and she is wanting to place as much space between her and him.
BTW, why does no one ask, “Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is a saint?"
I want to know, who was this evil person(s) that so shook her life?
Like Epstein came off as Hannibal Lecter. What a crock of shit.
…when your nerdy man banged other women it feels good to have a scape goat…
…if I had to keep reliving watching my nerdy man dance at the Windows 95 launch I’d be quick to flutter my hand over my chest, too…
If she was talking about Bill I would believe it. Bill Gates is evil.
Bill Gates isn’t interesting enough to be evil. Neither is his Ex-Wife.
You dont think Epstein was evil and some people weren't fooled by his charm and actually picked up on who he was?
Especially post Palm Beach County conviction? You are a dumb blonde. American girl who worships money...
…so long as there is fu money and pr firms…
Bill Gates was the high school nerd who was stuffed in a locker, Epstein was the Alpha that did it.
I can tell you that if I were trembling and distraught, I wouldn't be able to get out the words "visceral reaction" to describe how I felt.
Anyone who (1) got hired by cutthroat MS in the Gates era, (2) was socially/romantically compatible with psycho-nerd Bill, (3) was aware of Bill's rich playboy reputation from his early days, and (4) served as an elite tech industry manager knew exactly what she was doing.
Females routinely affiliate with power and then claim innocence. It's as old as time. When things go bad, half the time they stand by their man (Hillary) and half the time they cut their losses (as here).
Ancient female survival strategies: Indirect aggression via gossip and trashing others' reputations, operating in the shadows, the use of poisons, the seduction of males to assassinate other males, etc.
The lady doth protest too much. I thought Melinda was out of the Epstein loop before reading this, but perhaps she was playing ball like Fergie played ball?
Dramatizing or not, I certainly can believe that she was horrified by Epstein, or, more to the point, at least her ex-husband's embarking on some sort of relationship with Epstein after it was well-known what he was. I can see her disapproving and rejecting Bill Gates' actions in this regard. I sure as hell would have.
Epstein is not defensible, and nor are those who engaged with him (thus helping to normalize him) once stuff got out. And it go out a long time ago.
Regards,
Lori (reader_iam)
P.S. I'm not a big fan of shunning (it's gotten too cheap these days), but I absolutely do think Epstein should have been shunned by those in his milieu. Anyone who didn't, I have an issue with.
I don't want to pile on too much, but... we're supposed to believe that Melinda Gates alone, of all the women who ever encountered Epstein, recognized the Mark of the Beast on him, and that she alone continues to be so triggered (I think I'm using this word accurately here, based on her apparent reaction) by simply being asked to think about him that she loses her ability to speak or function?
I mean, I guess maybe? Is she also an Aspie, and therefore maybe doesn't express her feelings in standard ways? I can imagine - barely - that she could have been the only woman with Asperger's to have interacted at all closely with Epstein.
But I really have to stretch the limits of my credulity to get there.
We also don't know how much this has to do with simply the words the reporter/writer (and maybe the editors) chose to use in describing the interview. Well, maybe we do: Is there video? I did read the linked article. It seems to me that the writer chose the word "fluttering."
And there's nothing wrong with Melinda stating that the topic makes her heart race (or stating that she went through a period of panic attacks; I've suffered through that condition myself, and it's no joke.). I don't think that part's particularly loaded (unlike the "fluttering" word choice).
Regards,
Lori (reader_iam)
She's confusing accurate reception and accurate reaction, using overreaction to prove acute discrimination.
Jeff Childers, commenting on a Wall St. Journal piece about Bill Gates:
The first remarkable, if unsurprising, fact dished by the WSJ was that Bill Gates employs a small army of PR professionals to carefully manicure his public image. He spends more on public relations than most big corporations do. He’s practically addicted to it.
“Bill Gates’s employees,” the article began, “have spent years carefully cultivating his image—down to keeping a custom-size mannequin to test his outfits for different days of the week.” They used their life-sized test doll, not trying to achieve an image of competence or masculinity (both long shots for Gates). They are shooting for harmlessness.
If that doesn’t scream action movie super-villain, I don’t know what does.
Their goal was, and I am not making this up, to make Gates look and sound like Mr. Rogers. From that old kids’ show. “Calm and approachable,” the Journal explained. Maintaining the charade involves entire departments. It begins with the “styling group,” which chooses dressing options from “neutral tone crew and V-neck sweaters, button-down shirts, slacks and extra pairs of the Silver Lining Opticians ‘Carbon’ glasses.”
image 6.png
The styling group then sends 3-4 outfit options to “senior staff” who choose the ultimate apparel for Gates to wear to any public event. Two sets of polling teams then monitor whether it’s working. Their ultimate objective is to bathe Gates, 70, in “the soft-knit glow of a global philanthropist.”
Until very recently, and for decades, Bill Gates has been getting his public relations money’s worth. “Gates ranked at the very top of a 2019 survey of public figures that people look up to—ahead of the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis,” the article noted.
If you don't think that Melinda has a similar operation, I have a bridge to sell...
“Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is a saint?"
We use 'saint' in common parlance to mean a perfect person. Which is not the real definition. Saints are saintly primarily because they are painfully aware of their imperfections and throw themselves on God's mercy. In their daily carrying out of God's business, many saints were quite unpleasant people. See eg the two Tudor Thomases: More and Cromwell (I don't know if Tom Cromwell is on the Kalendar, but he should be). Or JC himself, although he is sui generis, but had many traits in common with saints.
Of course, no saint deliberately hurts people just to get their rocks off. That would be the main difference from Epstein.
This episode of Religious Pedantry was brought to you by the Institute for Ecclesiastical Nerdiness. CC, JSM
"...giving away billions..."
I'd be more impressed if she gave away billions she had actually earned. It's not that I am not impressed by Melinda French Gates, I am, but not in a good way. How am I impressed, one may ask? Melinda Gates (I won't use the maiden name Gates herself almost never used for decades.) strikes me as someone who desperately wants to be admired and respected, but without the strength of character to achieve her desires except by marrying the planet's wealthiest man. It's every easy to be a philanthropist with money one hasn't earned. Once Mr. Gates lost his top dog position to others, Mrs. Gates sought a different route to adulation.
Althouse writes, "You can see her attempt to compose herself?"
Which reminds me of this cartoon.
“Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?”
you mean? Like your husband Bill Gates?
"We use 'saint' in common parlance to mean a perfect person. Which is not the real definition. Saints are saintly primarily because they are painfully aware of their imperfections and throw themselves on God's mercy. In their daily carrying out of God's business, many saints were quite unpleasant people. See eg the two Tudor Thomases: More and Cromwell (I don't know if Tom Cromwell is on the Kalendar, but he should be). Or JC himself, although he is sui generis, but had many traits in common with saints."
Thomas Cromwell is not on a saints calendar (unless there's one I don't know about). In his particular time, he was a loser in the battle. His opponents, including More, for example) were the ones got canonized.
In any case, beneath their strong advocacy for their sides, and their strength in defending and trying to propagate their beliefs, there was a fundamental humility within their Christianity. That is an essential thing, by my lights. And it is an important aspect of Christianity itself. IMO.
For what it is worth I do think it is possible for some people to be able to get a read on another person as that person being no good. As evidence I will offer up one of my friends from several decades ago who whenever commercials for a particular fast food company would come up, he would have a visceral reaction of disgust and exclaim things like, "Ugh, I just can't stand that guy. There is something very very wrong with him." These were commercials that featured Jared from Sub-Way, and were aired more than a decade before any criminal proceedings against him.
I don't think there is anyone that is a good read on everyone or even most people. And I am also skeptical of Melinda Gates' purported visceral negative reaction, especially given it coming out in the context of an interview and her performance in giving the interview. But I do think sometimes, some people can read some other people at seeing and that vibe check is accurate.
We lack humility in general, and I suppose that's part of the human condition. I feel that this lack is on steroids in our modern age. So destructive. Bluster in too many cases has taken its place. Again, IMO.
Regards,
Lori (reader_iam)
As someone who underwent sexual abuse as a very small child, I have to say that over the decades since, I'm been pretty damned good at spotting creepy people who either turned out to have been molesters or went to be identified as such.
I think profound experiences can make people more attuned to certain things, and it doesn't have to be sex abuse. It's just makes people in part who they are. I don't know Melinda's background. Maybe there is something there, either due to experience or just plain instinct, that makes her a bit perspicacious. I have no idea.
I have no problem with her using "French." After all, her husband did cheat on her, etc. Both names would be part o her identity. Why shouldn't she, or anyone (male or female) make distinctions?
Regards,
Lori (reader_iam)
"How am I impressed, one may ask?"
No one asked.
Until very recently, and for decades, Bill Gates has been getting his public relations money’s worth. “Gates ranked at the very top of a 2019 survey of public figures that people look up to—ahead of the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis,” the article noted. (h/t boatbuilder)
I was at IBM when Big Blue was struggling to free itself from the consequences of Gates piratical unscrupulousness, an epically futile struggle, I might add. Things got so bad, IBM couldn't sell a mass-market PS/2 without the capability of dual-booting OS/2 Warp and Windows, and even then the company lost money. IBM's faustian bargain bought its collapse. Tim Paterson at least got $50,000.
A woman friend worked at MS, knew Melinda during her dating-marriage-1st pregnancy years. Melinda did the proverbial "deal with the devil" when she married Gates. The guy is not likeable, is not a "good person". We older folks recall the Microsoft trial, the "Darth Vader" Gates before he employed army of PR image-polishing experts.
Melinda's marriage to Gates was probably not a happy experience; he did give her at least one STD memorably commemorated in Epstein files, cheated on her many times with women more becoming and attractive than her. "Birds of a feather flock together"; Melinda's negative experiences as wife of vile man Gates were reflected in her "evil man" gut reaction to Epstein. Suspect there are lots of women at Microsoft who were sexually-harassed by Gates, as well as some extramarital partners.
She seeds the 'good trouble" ngos that make civilization impossible
How long did she know this and didnt speak out
But I do think sometimes, some people can read some other people at seeing and that vibe check is accurate.
Entirely agree! My skepticism here is that Melinda Gates would be the only woman to feel it. No one else is describing a similar reaction, at least as far as I've seen. Some women, and indeed some men, have described some kind of ick, but she is the only one I've heard about who is rendered helpless and speechless just by thinking about him.
Also - contemporaneous self-reporting of the ick (or worse) is worth a lot more, it seems to me, than after-the-fact "I always felt there was something bad about that guy."
This reminds me of Anne Rule meeting Ted Bundy:
Ann Rule and Ted Bundy were coworkers at the Seattle Crisis Clinic. At the time Rule was researching and writing about an unidentified serial killer in the Pacific Northwest who would later be revealed to be Bundy.
Rule said that while Seattle was terrified of the unidentified killer, Bundy would insist on walking her to her car after their late hotline shifts. She experienced it as gallantry on his part. I’ve often wondered what he experienced it as.
Melinda Gates frankly has a fair amount of moral responsibility for Gate's disreputable personal conduct during their marriage. She tolerated, like Hillary Clinton, a lot of martial infidelity, but also a lot of plain old horn-dog bad behavior which has no pseudo-romantic entanglement aspects. She, probably like Hillary, endured probably several STD episodes. Both women faced the moral predicament of reconciling their personal feelings towards these blatantly amoral personality-disordered men with their personal ambitions, resulting in business partnerships to achieve their larger image-building power-focused endeavors. In that regard, both women kept their names in headlines as supposed feminist role-models while in real-life scorned wives.
I like dirt as much as the next person, but I have yet to hear anything big to come out of all this Epstein slop.
just to recap, when Bill Gates purchased Melinda, part of the contract stated that Bill was "allowed" to spend a few weeks a year with his "former girlfriend"..
What SORT of woman allows THAT to be in a contract?
The sort of woman that PRETENDS to not be a whore, that's who.
Melinda was purchased to be ONE THING:
Bill Gate's beard. She appears to be homely (might Even BE)..
WHY would Bill pick something like that when making a purchase?
For the same reason he wears the "neutral tone crew and V-neck sweaters, button-down shirts, slacks"
Every Thing about Bill Gates is fake.
And y'all Know the old saying:
once you can fake being fake, the rest is easy
Fluttering her hand over her chest? Really? This sounds like a comical drag performance of femininity.
I know nothing about French Gates. Considering it's The Guardian, would they give us any hint that their subject was a transwoman? The sort that perform comical performances of femininity?"
Not with a name like "Melinda" though.
This boogie man has been dead for half a decade now. If an experience with him several decades ago left you speechless and frightened, well he's gone now. I agree it is an act now. Her husband, who befriended the boogie man, is still around, but I bet she fears the NDA more than him.
It seems like Melinda or the author of the article ...or probably both......are being rather histrionic, over the top dramatic about her reaction to Epstein.
I don't doubt that she had a recoil type of reaction to the man. It is something that many people experience. A survival instinct that "this is wrong" without actually being able to pinpoint what it is.
I once met a man when I was younger and dating who was nice, polite, good looking and did nothing wrong to me.....YET....my instincts said ...ick!!....creepy.....sweaty ...greasy....fake....back away Kind of like I felt I needed to take a shower after being anywhere around him and politely avoided this guy without histrionics. Just no thanks. Turned out that he was abusive, kinky and raped some of his dates.
Trust your instincts.
"But I do think sometimes, some people can read some other people at seeing and that vibe check is accurate."
Sometimes. But what about the sometimes when these visceral intuitions are just plain wrong? We've seen the indictment, and we've heard some testimony, but no cross-examination or witnesses for the defense. Is that really how we want to conduct our affairs, by inventing monsters? Yes, Bill Gates probably cheated on Melinda Gates, but to blame his moral failings on Jeffery Epstein strikes me as disingenuous. The history of Microsoft suggests morality and fidelity were never important to Bill Gates or, by extension, to Melinda French, either. If her ability to detect evil was so keen, why did she marry Bill Gates?
My wife has proven over 40 years to have a sense about people. At first I thought she was overly judgmental and even a bit irrational. “You’ve only met the person once.” I have seen her sense prove out enough times that now I listen. There are some people who can detect wolves in sheep’s clothing. (If you can’t do it, how did Christ expect us to “beware”
Jamie said, “ My skepticism here is that Melinda Gates would be the only woman to feel it.”
Some people are aspiring, grasping, and striving so much they are willing to and do ignore or suppress their feelings.
'Trust your instincts."
I'm going to be everybody's hate-object for what follows, nevertheless...
Don't trust your instincts. Trusting instincts gets people burned at the stake. We have a tremendous capacity to do harm with our words, our gossip, our ostracisms, but no commensurate capacity to make whole. Trust only what is demonstrably true in the light of cold reason.
What flutter when Bill is close?
"That sounds terrible Mrs. Gates, but why were you meeting with Epstein?" "He was evil." "No, I got that part, but why were you palling around with him in the first place?" "Did you not hear the part about me thinking he was evil?" "Yeah, I did, but why were you even talking to him, what were you talking about?
My wife has proven over 40 years to have a sense about people.
Imagine the savings if we dispensed with trial by jury -- no courts, no judges, no attorneys-at-law. We can retire the national debt by relying on such sense about people. I'm all for it!
pious agnostic wrote, "considering it's the Guardian"
Well, exactly.
Performative PR drama informs not by content, but by motive. Like what Pravda does not print.
From what boatbuilder notes ....
Trump really is naked (unclothed)
“For what it is worth I do think it is possible for some people to be able to get a read on another person as that person being no good”
Definitely the case. My ex wife and my partner both have that ability. Partner’s mother had it in spades. Unfortunately, her daughter has some of it, but it didn’t show through when it counted.
All three of the ones have/had it had some psychic abilities. Ex and partner were scared of it, and turned away from it, as much as she could. Partner’s mother embraced it, and scared her daughter on several occasions,
Part of it is noticing small details that most people miss. For example, several years ago, we met partner’s husband’s best friend from HS. They started hanging out together again. Daughter was uncomfortable around him. Partner took an immediate dislike. Analyzing it later, they realized that his dogs didn’t like him, but feared him instead. Big pit bulls. They were fine around everyone else, and even doted on my partner. Found out later that he really was a bad person. The guys (including me) thought that he was an ok guy, but a bit of a braggart.
I learned to trust my ex’s instincts about people, and so it wasn’t hard with my partner to do the same. The two of them are just a lot more perceptive about people than I am, or ever could be. Latter’s ex would be hundreds of thousands of dollars richer if he had trusted her instincts. And her mother kept her father from going to prison, by staying an employee, despite his best friend’s repeated offers to make him his partner. Her sister did get one of the biggest weddings in Las Vegas that year, to that guy’s son. We think that part of what her mother subconsciously noticed was the relationship between him and his daughter. They think maybe a bit of coke fueled incest was going on.
“ Jamie said, “ My skepticism here is that Melinda Gates would be the only woman to feel it.””
Probably wasn’t. But he had a type that he preyed on. And they tended to be young, impressionable, and needed. The perfect victims for someone like him.
And I agree with your trust in your wife’s intuition of people. I do too.
Play acting. It's what they do. They've gotten where they got by the ability to read the room and act accordingly. That means understanding not to talk about the things one should not talk about. But these fockers knew, or knew enough to be asking questions. They knew, all of them knew. Melinda Gates knew.
We focus on Melinda, while true visionaries like Gwynne Shotwell are ignored by the press.
Why does a billionaire sit for an interview that will be published for common people? In my experience with very rich people, the thing most staunchly guarded is their privacy. Most of them will go to great lengths to avoid any mention at all to the hoi polloi, and even greater lengths to prevent public mis-casting of their life. 'Damage to the brand' translates to 'damage to the wealth'. Best to remember, they are not like you.
So she's granted the interview for a reason. What is the reason? Probably not to bare her soul, so anything taking on that hue is performative. I think I'll not get hooked on the elevation of Jeffery Epstein.
"All three of the ones have/had it had some psychic abilities."
What other psychic abilities should we be investing in, Bruce Hayden? How about dowsing? A forked stick is a lot cheaper than a professional degree in analytical geophysics.
“I’d like to turn away and look at a lake” = 11 on a 1 to 10 scale.
Rule said that while Seattle was terrified of the unidentified killer, Bundy would insist on walking her to her car after their late hotline shifts. She experienced it as gallantry on his part.
Exactly - this seems to me to be the more common situation, with a predator. The predator hunts by stealth and gets good at disguising the fact that he's hunting. Some might still pick up on something, but most won't. I take the point a couple of people have made here that Epstein's targets were young, needy, and therefore more apt to set aside any "visceral reaction," but if everything bandied about concerning Epstein were true, there should be more than this one person coming forward now to say "I sensed pure evil."
Therefore I throw in with our host in thinking that this reaction was performative.
I like dirt as much as the next person, but I have yet to hear anything big to come out of all this Epstein slop.
Also exactly - before whatever hit the fan with Matt Taibbi and Walker Kirn, Taibbi was doing a series about Epstein. In the first installment, he pointed out that although everyone calls Epstein a "known pedophile," he was never actually indicted (possibly not even credibly accused; I can't remember that detail) of pedophilia. The closest was the woman who was giving him massages while underage, who said that they did have sex one time, literally the day before she turned 18. Have any other accusers come forward under their own names? I largely stopped reading Racket News when the breakup happened; I don't even know whether Taibbi finished the series, and even back then I was pretty done with the story, in the absence of something concrete.
Bill Gates gives me the same creepy feeling.
The on-air talent at Microsoft Now gives me the same feeling.
The creeps.
It doesn’t take much women’s intuition to asses a convicted felon and ex-con who’s already on the sex offender registry, as Jeffrey Epstein was when Melinda Gates met him in 2011.
She shouldn’t discount her years standing next to Bill Gates!
Was that an interview by the Guardian or a tongue bath?
Epstein probably didn't like her very much either.
Eyes Wide Shut was a documentary. BTW, Kubrick died unexpectedly soon after production finished, but before release, parts of the movie that he had refused to remove were then removed.
Now we hear that the Mossad is merging with the CIA, time will tell if that one is true, but there’s a provision in the Defense Authorization Act that allows Israel complete access to our global intelligence assets, and Epstein’s partner was the daughter of an Israeli spy chief. Epstein was a key figure in our ruling elite.
Bill Gates bought a forty million dollar horse in Wellington, FL, which is the next town over from Royal Palm Beach, both up the road from Palm Beach, and RPB high school was prime recruiting grounds for Epstein.
“I have horses, little girl.”
Blech!!
“ Imagine the savings if we dispensed with trial by jury -- no courts, no judges, no attorneys-at-law. We can retire the national debt by relying on such sense about people. I'm all for it!”
You’re overplaying the inference and projection. She doesn’t claim to know it for everyone. And she doesn’t forever label a person. But she’s pretty attentive to her feelings in regard to herself and how much she’s willing to trust.
Epstein looked personable and presentable. Katie Couric and Chelsea Handler, two of the shrewdest women who ever lived, found him to be an okay dinner companion. Harvey Weinstein, on the other hand, gives off many pig like vibes. Harvey, nonetheless, flourished in Hollywood for decades. Many women probably look back on their experience with him and shudder. Many of these same women, probably regard him as being their big break in pictures.......I'm not sure what moral I can draw from these observations. Some women can read the lay of the land and avoid predators. Some women can read the lay of the land and become predators. I note without comment that Melinda Gates is one of the richest women on earth.
"Nevertheless, she persisted"
Jaq said...
Bill Gates bought a forty million dollar horse in Wellington, FL
-----------------------------------------------------------------
He did not buy a horse. He bought extensive properties in Wellington, known as a center for polo and horse ranches.
To the music of "The Green Berets"
(let that drum part go for at least four bars before you start.)
It was an op, as plain as day,
The cameras rolled, the lights were gay.
The lady wept on cue so fine,
A perfect tear at the perfect time.
(add the chorus)
She hit her marks and sold the part,
With trembling lip and breaking heart.
The script was old, the players paid—
Another scene in the grand charade.
Many thanks to my good friend Grok
“Katie Couric and Chelsea Handler, two of the shrewdest women who ever lived…”
Presented without evidence. “shrewiest” is the word you were reaching for.
If I paid $40 million for a horse, I'd expect the danged thing to at least talk.
I was going to say that Bill Gates reminds me of Walter White on Breaking Bad. No matter how evil White got, his annoying wife was always less likeable. But a few minutes looking at or listening to Bill Gates convinces me that he and Melinda really are a good match for one another.
Can we all simply agree that Melinda French Gates was/is as morally creepy as her ex-husband? Aren't we over that "Believe all Wymmen" crap by now? Water seeks its own level and Bill Gates' lack of good character was certainly matched by hers, as has been abundantly shown by the objects of her "philanthropy." Abortion now, abortion tomorrow, abortion forever!
If I paid $40 million for a horse, I'd expect the danged thing to at least talk.
I had a horse that could talk, but pretty soon I got rid of it.
It was a neighsayer.
Surely the causes Melinda will promote with her wealth will do more harm than Epstein has done.
Perhaps what she felt was just an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato.
Suppose she let rich and famous Bill grab her ......?
Been busy all day so I couldn't read the other comments.
Trusting your instincts about other people...doesn't mean running around and bad mouthing the person or demeaning their character. It means that YOU should be careful in how interact with them. If it means a polite....no thanks I'm busy and studiously avoiding or ignoring them...that's probably enough.
If you are wrong and that person is not icky, weird, evil, creepy and it is just you being paranoid....well then... you lost a chance to make an acquaintance or friend. Too bad. There might be other chances.
If it...a person....animal....situation....makes you uneasy the answer is to trust your instincts to remove yourself from the situation. I've been in many situations in "low places as Garth Brooks says, that you get a "feel" about people, their actions, and the probably outcome.. I'm usually right and I am alive today to prove it.
If your instinct says that Melinda Gates is a terrible person faking her reactions...trust it....and ignore her.
Her reaction to Epstein is of interest only if it were on the first meeting and she recorded it somewhere--in a diary or whatever. After the fact testimony is less convincing. And oh hell yes, trust your instincts. As DBQ points out, that doesn't mean going around bad mouthing people, it means protecting yourself. Also spoken as someone who suffered childhood sexual abuse. I know some people feel with a sense of cringe. Sadly, a man I thought to be okay turned out to be a serial abuser of young boys including my godson. These people do so much damage their sentences are far too short. My godson's abuser was finally caught and convicted at the age of 71! It seems they never stop. And I think he was given a sentence of two years. It's not a crime we take seriously enough and I do have to wonder if it's because so many people in positions of power are committing it.
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