• JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    Is that expected of paleontologists?

    I mean really, honestly most people didn’t give a shit about Epstein until someone suocided him. And even then, gave very few shits until earlier this year.

    Like I’d expect that bar for politicians, celebrities, public figures…people who have money to begin with and staff to tell them that this person shouldn’t be associated with…I don’t know if I can set that same expectation on academics reaching out for funding from somebody whose been known to fund academia.

    • velma@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      You don’t think the line should be drawn at pedophilia?

      What are we doing here? We’re wholesale signing off on supporting a prolific and dangerous pedophile?

      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Epstein wasn’t a household name until his death; even post “suicide” and the revelations about his pedo empire it’s still not common for people to extensively research the background of strangers they’re cold-calling, and Epstein had more than enough money to SEO away reports of his conviction.

        If you didnt know him or weren’t told directly about him being a pedo, it was unlikely that you could have known about him at the time. Most of the folks in the epstein files did know him though - and it’s pretty easy to check which group someone falls into.

        • curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
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          13 hours ago

          Epstein wasn’t a household name until his death

          I would say his name became pretty well known before his death. I’d say more like 2018 with the Miami Herald exposé.

          Less known but still pretty public was Giuffre in 2011 with the allegations against the Andrew formerly known as a prince. It was a pretty big story for the UK royal family. Maybe not “household” level though.

          Epstein’s arrest was also pretty big news, though yes it was only a month or so before his death, but I would have to say he was known by a pretty significant number of people by this point, definitely household name by the time of arrest.

          After his death is when the conspiracy theories went all over the place, but I wouldn’t equate that to his being a household name.

            • curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
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              12 hours ago

              You said he wasn’t a household name until he died.

              I would not agree with that, it was definitely earlier enough to cause issues, including reopening investigations, long before he died.

              Thats all.

              • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                Thank you for clarifying! And I’m sorry, I don’t think you’re right. You may have known about him, but prior to his death practically nobody else knew or cared about him.

                • curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
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                  11 hours ago

                  Even his arrest was global news, random google chart aside.

                  Reps were calling for Acosta to testify about the plea deal before his arrest, following the herald’s exposé.

                  Before that it was brought up for ties to Clinton, quite regularly, especially during the campaigning up to the 2016 election…

                  Skyrocketing interest following his death (more to find out about his death than anything else) or following a very public and continual series of comments about the Epstein files doesn’t really indicate anything other than google searches following significant events, not whether people were aware of him. That is really all that “interest over time” chart says, IMO - more people were searching for additional news, nothing more, on very recent, very public, very notable news.

                  • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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                    10 hours ago

                    Do you have any evidence of your claims? Because your casual dismissal of the Trends data is based on your anecdotal impressions and really isn’t valid. It even shows the very clear spike in interest following his arrest which you brought up.

                    Please back up your position with anything concrete or drop this, I’m not interested in playing “facts vs. feelings” with you.

                    edit: clarity.