this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Honestly, this raises so many questions and just downright confuses me.
Noam Chomsky is a critic of modern capitalism, and just generally on the left. Why in the hell would be want to spend time with Epstein?
He seems to believe in Epstein's innocence, even though he had long before been proven guilty. Chomsky is, as far as I can tell, quite the intellectual - did he not know, and if, how could he not know?
It legitimately sounds like Chomsky is speaking from the experience of being falsely accused. I mean, he has been arrested a couple of times for his activism, but that's a completely different story than being accused of raping someone or similar. Maybe his experience being on Reagan's list, but still, that would seem like something different to me. Maybe I'm off.
Assuming there's nothing more sinister going on with Chomsky (and I really don't know what to think there), what does that tell us about the world and the people around Epstein? I find it odd to have some of the greatest minds with a positive influence but also some of the most disgusting people in the same circle.
Tbh, I had been more and more annoyed and frustrated and alarmed with Chomsky over the years as I’ve paid more attention to him and his stance on modern issues. He was hailed as some sort of modern oracle for so long, and I feel like he just doesn’t really deserve nearly that much respect anymore. I don’t know if it’s senility or a boomer-ification of his thought processes or what, but I have vastly less respect for him than I once did. And learning of his defense of Epstein kind of nuked any remaining respect I had.
I'm already pretty agist but the man is nearly 100 years old and if I'm honest the number of 75 plus year olds I have met who are still as sharp as they were is less than 50 percent for sure.
When people are like " I can't believe such and such would say or do this" and they are old I just assume senility.
Well, he wrote in defense of the Kamer Rouge in the 70s and 80s.
All because Pol Pot claimed to be communist.
The man lived in luxury while starving, and murdering, his people.
Which is how every single dictator pretending to be communist has acted since Lenin betrayed the revolution and appointed himself king while killing the actual communists of Russia.
But the point here is that Chompsky has always fallen for this line of bullshit.
If someone feeds him a story and claims that the CIA or some capitalist corporations did it, then Chompsky will buy it. If someone claims to be "of the people" he'll buy that too.
Epstein apparently fancied himself an intellectual and cultivated contacts in the sciences for their own sake—he was also a major donor to the Santa Fe Institute and seems to have made a favorable impression there.
I think we underestimate the ability of predators like Epstein to appear as something other than they are when it suits them.
I mean it isn't even that.
People are not one dimensional.
You can definitely have a trafficking ring and also be other things at the same time.