[foldr]

>In order to clarify the check: Epstein asked Noam to develop a linguistic challenge that Epstein wished to establish as a regular prize. Noam worked on it, and Epstein sent a check for US$20,000 as payment. Epstein’s office contacted me to arrange for the check to be sent to our home address.

This part honestly makes no sense. There is no 'Chomsky linguistic challenge'. I guess the claim is that Chomsky was paid as a consultant to develop the supposed challenge which was then to be administered by Epstein (who – guess what – did nothing of the sort). But it sounds an awful lot like an entirely spurious reason for sending someone $20k.

[ticulatedspline]

Taking the narrative as presented in this article seems plausible Epstein just crumpled it up and threw it out. He just wanted a way to further endear himself to Noam in order to have someone credible vouching for him. Work like this is a good way to do that, like that old Ben Franklin trick of having someone do something for you.

[foldr]

Yeah, of course. But the question is what Chomsky thought about all this. His wife seems to want us to think that Chomsky genuinely believed he was being paid $20k to develop a 'linguistic challenge'. I think what's nearer the truth is that he was happy to receive mystery money from rich financiers without asking too many inconvenient questions. And this is someone who we know was very good at asking inconvenient questions when he had a mind to.

[markus_zhang]

TBH, if you are a top scientist, or whatever, and you meet a rich admirer who wants to donate some $$$, it is very easy to accept. Chomsky probably knew this was just a way to give $$$ to him, but he didn't see anything wrong with it.

[foldr]

Chomsky won't be the first or the last person to be tempted by offers of free money from dodgy gentlemen. There are consequences to accepting such offers, as we now see.

[markus_zhang]

Yes there is. There is always the other side of the equation.

[basedrum]

Why do you find it implausible that he got money to develop this challenge? I work in the non profit space and we get these kind of gifts all the time, with minimal strings attached or sometimes the deliverables don't see the light of day. 20k is actually small in my experience and they often come from random people who support our mission. Sure we do investigate and sometimes refuse based on findings, but we don't know or find everything. Taking money doesn't mean you know and support everything the person who have the money ever did, thought, said...

[foldr]

Primarily because there is no evidence that the challenge exists, and it's hard to imagine what it could even be. Chomsky's own research interests didn't really lend themselves to setting some kind of math olympiad style 'challenge'. If he was excited about setting up prizes or challenges in linguistics, you have to wonder why he never once did it. He certainly could have if he'd wanted to.

[basedrum]

Just because you can't find it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also just because you give it hard to imagine, does not mean that it didn't happen, or that people with better imaginations as you could accomplish that.

[foldr]

I was a generative linguist in my previous career and no linguist that I know has ever heard of this Chomsky challenge thing. It’s hard to prove that something doesn’t exist, but I’m fairly sure it doesn’t.

[ticulatedspline]

Noam strikes me as someone deeply attached to their "art", honestly this "linguistic challenge" feels like a nerd-snipe and Noam might have even done it for free.

I think the payment aspect works more in favor of Epstein than Noam. I don't think Epstein was oblivious to the "we go down together" nature of some of his relationships, quite the opposite.

[bambax]

The talent of Epstein was to offer to each prominent people things they cared about. To Chomsky it was "linguistics"; to Jack Lang (a very public figure, former Cultur Ministry, who just resigned from his position yesterday because of the scandal) it was to make an "art foundation" of some sort, and a movie about his (Lang's) life work.

Bezos paying tens of millions to Trump's current wife to make a "documentary" about her hats is similar. The only difference is, Bezos is not (yet?) accused of statutory rape. But the idea is the same.

You never "bribe" people up front, offering them money in a direct, obvious quid pro quo. You're sincerely excited to contribute to their pet project.

[INTPenis]

But wait, there's more, also a strange explanation about 270000 dollars being sent from Epstein to Chomsky. Apparently something had happened to Chomsky's retirement fund, and Epstein was helping him recover money?!

It makes no sense to me.

Honestly, Chomsky I am willing to believe unconditionally. He has spent his entire life speaking out on US imperialism, and Israel. His career is longer than Epstein's whole life.

Tinfoil hat on, I'd rather believe this was Israels attempt to discredit Chomsky, through Epstein.

[cthalupa]

> Regarding the reported transfer of approximately $270,000, I must clarify that these were entirely Noam’s own funds. At the time, Noam had identified inconsistencies in his retirement resources that threatened his economic independence and caused him great distress. Epstein offered technical assistance to resolve this specific situation.

Yeah. What? This paragraph answers nothing and just raises more questions. Epstein just magically walked Noam through making 270k just reappear in his account? This is played off like he accidentally sent a quarter of a million dollars to his checking account instead of his savings account and Epstein told him how to use the bank's website to transfer funds between the two.

[Der_Einzige]

Chomsky, like most involved in arguing for or against Post-modernism/post-structuralism/Neo Marxism, was likely doing it on purpose to neuter any meaningful left wing opposition to US policy and keep them in "fashionable nonsense" territory. Anyone engaging with them in anyway is suspect by definition.

https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-cia-reads-french-theor...

https://indecentbazaar.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/deleuze-and-...

There's so much more evidence than just this. I'm tired of always linking it all and getting me that much deeper into shit with people who I hopefully will never meet face-to-face.

[cmrdporcupine]

Chomsky is about as far from post-modernist and post-structuralist as you can get in terms of the American left. He spent his career insisting on rational & logical discourse and using reason as a tool and opposing the postmodernist turn in the left.

He believed in true and false, and insisted those were tools to be used to disarm the powerful. Which... man that would be nice right about now.

I don't always like the guy or agree with his arguments, but this is a bizarre claim from you.

[Der_Einzige]

Reading comprehension (for OR against). Engaging at all is what flags him as part of this. Really intelligent people just write them off and don't engage.

See the foucault chomsky debate.

[wvbdmp]

I don’t even see what would be incriminating about receiving money? Is the implication that it’s some kind of hush money? Why would that be necessary? Surely Chomsky received similar amounts as speaking or consultancy fees or grants all the time?

It would be another matter if Chomsky had paid Epstein for mystery services or whatever.