It was a terribly misjudged relationship - though Chomsky was in his late 80s and past it by then - but there is not one iota of evidence that Chomsky "raped kids", and I think that highly implausible. Why make such a childish, unfounded slur?
replyI haven't seen any allegation that Chomsky raped anyone, let alone kids. But Chomsky was quite close to Epstein and some of their leaked conversations tarnish his reputation quite a bit, irreversibly IMO.
replyI agree there is no proof, but merely calling it misjudged is too forgiving. I have had a lot of respect for Chomsky and his moral stance in life, so this relationship to Epstein was gravely disappointing. He tried to justify it a long time ago by saying Epstein was out of prison and had paid his dues, and that it was intellectual curiosity or something like that, and on paper I agree with this, but it was clear Epstein got off easy and in hindsight it should've been clear to the people around him he had never stopped. I don't think Chomsky raped anyone for what it's worth. But it's a big stain on his legacy.
replyThere is absolutely no evidence or even any allegations whatsoever that Chomsky "raped kids".
replyThere's also communications of his where he talks with Epstein about the allegations being ridiculous. Obviously, they weren't, and Epstein knew that, but I think the odds are good that Chomsky actually did think they were fabricated. Epstein knew so many people, it's highly unlikely that he would start chatting about child sexual abuse with everyone. Chomsky probably didn't get that version of Epstein - he just got the Epstein who liked to splash money around, help out famous friends with introductions, etc.
replyI haven't seen the evidence for "raped kids", but it's certainly true that Chomsky advised and benefitted from Epstein long after any sensible person would have realized that Epstein JUST MIGHT be a bad person.
replyUnfortunately, Chomsky's always had a problem pulling the ripcord in similar situations. As one of his colleagues once explained, "When most people step in dogshit on the sidewalk, they scrape it off their shoe and keep walking. Chomsky gets stubborn and just keeps stepping in it again and again."
Not that this is relevant to his intellectual contributions, unless it crosses your personal line where involvement becomes complicity.
Chomsky is also somewhat unique in that he would communicate with literally anyone who wanted to talk to him. I remember seeing Manufacturing Consent for the first time in 9th grade in 1999, and I sent him an email, and he responded within the hour.
replyHis Wikipedia article [0] gives a good summary of the connection they had.
reply[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky#Friendship_with_J...