Even if Chomsky knew nothing of Epstein’s sex crimes, being chummy with arch-fascist Steve Bannon is unforgivable

~ Kell w Farshéa ~

What was it about multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein that enabled a highly-educated senior professor at one of the top fee-paying universities in the world to turn a blind eye to rumours circulating about his taste for teen girls?

Let’s be frank: no one was surprised when JK Rowldemort appeared in the files, inviting Epstein to her Harry Potter-inspired show. Nor when she tried to quietly delete the logs of her yacht. She is a serious transphobe who puts children’s lives in danger through her funding of hate campaigns, and whose books and films were filled with racist and antisemitic tropes. But Chomsky? Old libertarian professor and proclaimed public intellectual?

When Norman Finkelstein was invited to hang out with Alan Dershowitz and Epstein by Robert Trivers in 2015, he replied: “My guess is, if Epstein put your daughter at age 15 in such a position, you wouldn’t publicly describe him as a ‘friend’ and person of ‘integrity.’ In fact, I would hope that you’d promptly throttle both Epstein and Dershowitz.”

So how were the Chomskys so secluded in their ivory tower that they hadn’t heard these rumours when Noam attended the town house soirées in 2015?

Epstein had spent jail time for trafficking a minor in 2008 but his wife Valeria wants us all to believe that 7 years later they were still naïve, trusting innocents duped by the brilliant con man. Her whole explanation depends on Noam’s idealism and goodness – a man who was an expert in linguistics and the machinations of the American state, but somehow in other respects an innocent abroad. So either Valeria was also equally naïve, or the couple simply didn’t have the moral backbone of Norman Finkelstein.

What’s striking about her text is how little there is in it about her own responsibility, knowledge or complicity.

I don’t believe Chomsky went to sex parties or the island. But he and Valeria did go to Epstein’s town house and the Zorro Ranch (which is now being exposed as another hell hole for teenage child abuse). And remember, Chomsky is in the files “fantasising about the Caribbean island”. So he and Valeria certainly were fellow travellers and hangers on at the rich, well-connected events of an exceptionally revolting man.

Even if we are to believe Noam and Valeria, wandering through parties of rich and powerful people, all friends of the generous Mr Epstein, that they knew nothing about his sexual offences; What then of that 3 hour lunch brokered by Epstein? The one Valeria hasn’t apologised for and is seriously hoping we haven’t noticed?

Because as the pictures show, Chomsky, libertarian scold of American imperialism and hero to many on the left and anarchism, struck up an acquaintance with an unlikely friend at those notorious gatherings. Enter, stage right: Steve Bannon.

No one expected Chomsky to appear in the files, and absolutely no one expected him to be a drinking buddy with an international fascist. What were the Chomskys doing hosting him on 10 February 2019 for lunch? Bannon, who was not only in Trump’s first cabinet, but spent years building links between far right and fascist parties across Europe and North America. Bannon of Breitbart, of nativist white supremacy.

They can’t pretend they had never heard of Bannon. And this isn’t just awkward photos at parties. It was an actual 3 hour lunch. With an actual fascist. Perhaps it was that conceit. That as liberal intellectuals, tenured professors, you can talk to people across the divide in a civilised truce, no matter how disgusting they are, in the name of intellectual discourse and objective curiosity. That as one of world’s ‘public intellectuals’ Chomsky had a free pass to sit and chat to an international fascist organiser. And Valeria, what did she do? Was she there at the table? Or was she washing her hands repeatedly in the bathroom?

It makes me vomit to think that while anarchists, anti-imperialists and antifascists held Noam Chomsky in some regard for decades, were quoting his books and paying him dues – he and his wife were chit-chatting over lunch with a powerful fascist organiser. After WW2, people who had collaborated with the Nazis were dragged into the streets, their heads were shaved and they were paraded for all to see. I’d really like to know why we shouldn’t fetch the clippers.

(Remembering all the victims of Epstein and in particular Ava Cordero, a 16 year old trans girl he abused in 1999-2001 and who was then disbelieved, abused and trashed by the media protecting him).