
Steven Pinker's Aid in Jeffrey Epstein's Legal Defense - ehudla
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/17/steven-pinkers-aid-jeffrey-epsteins-legal-defense-renews-criticism-increasingly
======
dang
This submission is off topic for HN. Please post stories that gratify
intellectual curiosity, and avoid stories that pile on the sensationalism of
the moment.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
nabla9
Suspicion of hypocrisy or even bad character should not affect the strength of
scientist's arguments. It may increase the scrutiny of those arguments and
decrease the fanboy attitude around them. There is nothing wrong with that.

If you take the default attitude that every academic is devil incarnate, then
look at their argumentation separate from their character, you should be able
to stay more objective.

~~~
mc32
No doubt Epstein is guilty of horrible crimes. And while he is a troubling
character, defending troubling people hasn't usually been much of an issue (OJ
Simpson, Bundy, Khalid Mohammed, etc).

So why the outrage over another bad guy? I think the obvious answer is some
things are to the public conscience more terrible than others, at least at a
given moment, specially if they are in the zeitgeist.

As for the weight of the testimony, that should be up to the judge and jury to
decide whether it was valid. I mean, lots of these high dollar defenses rest
on semantics rather than the spirit of things (tax cases, etc).

~~~
spamizbad
I don't really have much of an ax to grind with Pinker as an academic but I do
find it very sad that he chose to use his considerable intellect to intervene
on behalf of an (alleged) jet-setting billionaire pedophile sex trafficker.
And I think that reflects poorly on his character as a person.

The Epsteins of the world will always have a tremendous amount of legal
resources at their disposal. I wish we lived in a world where the people like
Pinker would lend aid to those wrongfully on Death Row or perhaps the
economically downtrodden, rather than ultra-wealthy college donors who got
jammed up in what looks like, if not for their tremendous wealth and legal
resources, something that should be a slam-dunk case.

~~~
mc32
So, I think the right to be represented for many lawyers is like the right to
free speech. If you're not willing to defend the worst, then you're not
defending the right at all.

~~~
tzakrajs
Totally, but he wasn't even getting paid to be the attorney. He was doing
favors.

~~~
mc32
Hmm, good point.

An unanswered question is why are judges and juries swayed by testimony or
opinion which goes contrary to the spirit of the law, unless the law is
unjust. I mean in this case, it appears to have rested on how certain things
in the analogue world always meant something but then when it goes on to the
digital world it should take on different meaning.

Obviously this is sensitive and has controversy, but why is the topic now
flagged? It's not party politics, or other really sensitive subject.

~~~
tzakrajs
Maybe Pinker is the type of thinker who doesn’t care about the relevance or
repercussions of his ideas. But then why is he world renown and constantly in
the limelight?

------
kevinarcher
Pinker's comments on his connection to Epstein:
[https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/07/12/tarring-...](https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/07/12/tarring-
steve-pinker-and-others-with-jeffrey-epstein/)

~~~
shdh
This is all you need to read.

------
mr_puzzled
This article is terrible. It tries so hard to paint Pinker as some sort of
evil guy with the main argument being (what seems to me) how Pinker
unintentionally helped Epsein a long time ago. They think somehow bringing in
unrelated criticism of Pinker's work helps their case? Ridiculous.

To be very clear : Epstein is obviously guilty of some horible crimes. Pinker,
seems like he crossed paths with Epstein and now people are out to get him.

~~~
itsameta4
Don't mind me, just unintentionally submitting an amicus brief to a
pedophile's plea deal. Totally accidental, could have happened to any
linguist.

~~~
nabla9
Pinker offered the opinion to Dershowitz and was not aware who was the subject
in the case.

------
tzakrajs
Adia Benton, an assistant professor of anthropology at Northwestern
University, said that beyond Pinker and Dershowitz, “I think there’s a
tendency for men to overlook the foibles of their acquaintances and
colleagues. The shunning of assholes and creeps is just not done. Especially
when it comes to sexual misconduct and misogyny.”

