Cover: The former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, part of which has been turned into an anti-American museum. (Vahid Salemi / Associated Press), via https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-08-26/a-cia-backed-1953-coup-in-iran-haunts-the-country-with-people-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-it Omid Memarian || If talks in Vienna fail to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of, in violation of the agreement,
If you’ve ever heard Chomsky talk about feminism or womens rights, you would find his inclusion in a list of pedophiles curious. He was explicitly against pornography, even while much of the anarchist scene held a more nuanced pro-sex worker stance. He’s lived a life indicative of a strong moral compass, and while his principles are counter-intuitive to some, they never included the abuse, degradation, or sexual exploitation of women.
Epstein brought several types of people to his island - people who served as attractions, and people who he used those attractions to leverage for money. Jeffrey was a major donor to MIT which employs Chomsky. Chomsky has rarely turned down a speaking opportunity, and his correspondence with Epstein consists of political discussion, on which they rarely agree.
Chomsky’s role as a Jewish voice against Palestinian genocide continues to be valuable, and permitting such a simple smear to dismiss his decades of work should be beneath us. No one has come forward to accuse Chomsky of sexual abuse. The reputational hit is much less serious than the suffering and trauma of the women who were trafficked. Still, Chomsky should be numbered among Epstein’s victims, not his clients and collaborators.
you must have missed the advice he gave to epstein abt ignoring the “hysteria” women were causing:
A reply from an account labelled in the documents as Noam Chomsky reads: “What the vultures dearly want is public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts.”
“That’s particularly true now with 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,” the email added.
you must have missed the advice he gave to epstein abt ignoring the “hysteria” women were causing
No, I haven’t. If you’re familiar with Noam Chomsky’s history of his free-speech activism, anti-violence stance, and criticism of Israel, you’ll also be familiar with how those positions have been characterized as support for holocaust denial, nazis, and antisemitism.
It’s pretty clear where Noam is coming from in his advice to Epstein, and is an understandable misstep for an ageing man who was not aware of the extent of Epstein’s depravity.
“Epstein had claimed to Noam that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted, and Noam spoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media. Epstein created a manipulative narrative about his case, which Noam, in good faith, believed in.”
I appreciate the BBC for reproducing Valéria Chomsky’s assessment, which matches my own. I am disappointed by Noam’s relationship with Epstein, but not enough to throw away decades of lucid insight into media, politics, and society.
Yes, it is very understandable that an old white guy would side with a multi-millionaire old white guy against the lower class women that accuse him of rape while describing those women as hysterical vultures. When you join the old boys’ club, you agree to look out for each other and you leave your ideological differences at the door. And then maybe one of the old boys likes the cut of your jib and invites you to be a guest on their TV show, and hey, now you’re the most famous anarchist of your generation. You scratch their backs, they scratch yours.
It is genuinely very understandable. But to call someone doing that ‘a victim’ because people found out? That’s not a good lock.
So were many other of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
If you’ve ever heard Chomsky talk about feminism or womens rights, you would find his inclusion in a list of pedophiles curious. He was explicitly against pornography, even while much of the anarchist scene held a more nuanced pro-sex worker stance. He’s lived a life indicative of a strong moral compass, and while his principles are counter-intuitive to some, they never included the abuse, degradation, or sexual exploitation of women.
Epstein brought several types of people to his island - people who served as attractions, and people who he used those attractions to leverage for money. Jeffrey was a major donor to MIT which employs Chomsky. Chomsky has rarely turned down a speaking opportunity, and his correspondence with Epstein consists of political discussion, on which they rarely agree.
Chomsky’s role as a Jewish voice against Palestinian genocide continues to be valuable, and permitting such a simple smear to dismiss his decades of work should be beneath us. No one has come forward to accuse Chomsky of sexual abuse. The reputational hit is much less serious than the suffering and trauma of the women who were trafficked. Still, Chomsky should be numbered among Epstein’s victims, not his clients and collaborators.
you must have missed the advice he gave to epstein abt ignoring the “hysteria” women were causing:
A reply from an account labelled in the documents as Noam Chomsky reads: “What the vultures dearly want is public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts.” “That’s particularly true now with 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,” the email added.
nice moral compass. get fucked, noam chomsky.
No, I haven’t. If you’re familiar with Noam Chomsky’s history of his free-speech activism, anti-violence stance, and criticism of Israel, you’ll also be familiar with how those positions have been characterized as support for holocaust denial, nazis, and antisemitism.
It’s pretty clear where Noam is coming from in his advice to Epstein, and is an understandable misstep for an ageing man who was not aware of the extent of Epstein’s depravity.
I appreciate the BBC for reproducing Valéria Chomsky’s assessment, which matches my own. I am disappointed by Noam’s relationship with Epstein, but not enough to throw away decades of lucid insight into media, politics, and society.
Yes, it is very understandable that an old white guy would side with a multi-millionaire old white guy against the lower class women that accuse him of rape while describing those women as hysterical vultures. When you join the old boys’ club, you agree to look out for each other and you leave your ideological differences at the door. And then maybe one of the old boys likes the cut of your jib and invites you to be a guest on their TV show, and hey, now you’re the most famous anarchist of your generation. You scratch their backs, they scratch yours.
It is genuinely very understandable. But to call someone doing that ‘a victim’ because people found out? That’s not a good lock.
chomsky was either too stupid to understand what was happening all around him and epstein, or he knew and chose to look the other way.
In either case his status as a public leftist intellectual is gone