Steven Pinker's Aid in Jeffrey Epstein's Legal Defense(insidehighered.com) |
Steven Pinker's Aid in Jeffrey Epstein's Legal Defense(insidehighered.com) |
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.
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).
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.
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.
It was linguistic interpretation of what some sentence means. Not defense of any kind.
Pinker is a great mind. I don't think his guileless version of events is a truthful account. What's most likely: This whole thing was embarrassing for his good friend Alan Dershowitz and his Alma, and if Epstein was found guilty of a lesser charge things wouldn't look so bad. He underestimated the ensuing backlash and claims he was just tossing out free legal advice for a friend.
He certainly knew after the fact that a sweetheart deal was struck with Epstein in part due to his legal input. Regardless, he allowed himself photographed with him and made no attempt to speak-out about the fact that he had no idea he was helping Epstein and in fact when on to tweet about his contributions Dershowitz in 2015.
Again, just bad judgement on the part of Pinker. He's not a monster, "bad guy" or anything, it's just frustrating he's defending elite power.
For his original charge, he only served 13 months in prison, in a private wing of the Palm Beach Jail w/private security detail, and was permitted up to 12 hours of work release each day. We have people who do longer, harder sentences for marijuana possession.
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.