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‘Those Are Alleged Threats’: Noam Chomsky on China, Iran and a Nuclear Middle East
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this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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Chomsky was in the Epstein files.
I've removed every book of his that I owned and tossed them in the trash. Someone else in this thread said it best, even if he isn't a pedophile, he's a capitalist collaborator for his own ends. But, honestly, from what I read, pretty sure he was an island boy through and through. I've always thought he was a reductionist anyway tbh.
Just adding this link,so anyone who doesnt know has a starting point for researching this: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9ykjlyv50o
I believe Valéria Chomsky, I think Epstein took advantage of Noam.
Like maybe he really did not check out anyone who wrote him, but even that by itself is problematic.
I agree. I think he was a victim, but I don't think Chomsky smells like roses from this. If problematic was a dis-qualifier for all political thought, the world would have no politics. I think anarchists (rightly) have higher standards for the people who speak for them. I'm speaking up because I worry this can go too far. This is a stain on Chomsky's legacy, but I don't think it invalidates his observations on the Palestinian genocide.
If anything, Epstein was a supporter of Netanyahu's politics. Signal boosting his 'friend' in contradiction is an attack on Epstein's legacy.
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.
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
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.