this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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Noam Chomsky’s life and work cannot be understood without taking into account his militarily-funded linguistics research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)...

... [W]hen confronted by journalists about his involvement with Epstein, Chomsky ... explained his behaviour by saying (a) that Epstein had ‘served his sentence, which wiped the slate clean’ and (b) that ‘far worse criminals’ were associated with MIT. When speaking to the Harvard Crimson, Chomsky was still more forthright, pointing out that MIT’s donors included the ‘worst criminals’ and that he’d met all sorts of people in his lifetime including ‘major war criminals’ and didn’t regret having met any of them.

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[–] yesman@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Chomsky knew all about Epstein and continued to defend him publicly until his death.

... while Chomsky was advising Epstein on how to respond to press coverage about his history of sexual abuse.

Again, from the article:

...the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder’ -Chomsky in an email to Epstein in 2019. (Same year Epstein died, MeToo was 2017)

There is not much benefit of the doubt here. Chomsky was aware of what Epstein was about, and was at the very least sympathetic.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

People forget that Chomsky is from an inherently misogynistic era. He was born in 1928 for fucks sake. I wouldn't ever expect his thoughts on gender politics to be particularly illuminating or forward thinking.

Not that this justifies anything, just more to me why it's not shocking that he absolutely sucks in this regard.