I decided to search for my name in the Epstein files, expecting nothing, and I’m mentioned in a couple of email messages. The two mentions are kind of pathetic. I was briefly included in one of John Brockman’s email list along with a swarm of other people, so when he wrote to Epstein, my name got incidentally dragged in. Nothing specific. No flights to sex islands. No sexcapades. I was just briefly one of the “cool kids”.
Very briefly. For a short time, I was regularly getting missives from various members of the new atheists and the scientific publishing industry, which was nice to be part of a community (although it also left me uneasy). Then, suddenly, they stopped. I was suddenly removed from the list with no fanfare, no announcement, not even a courtesy warning…I think it’s because I criticized Richard Dawkins.
It turns out the “cool kids club” is fragile and doesn’t allow much introspection.
I am left out again. Only two brief occurrences of my surname, with different first names.
Hey, some clubs and groups and company you really DON’T want to be included in.
I barely feature in my own correspondence, let alone that of the celebrity billionaire paedophiles.
Meh, what’s so great about the cool kids club? I always felt much more comfortable with my fellow dorks.
And the cool kids club at my school was nowhere near as evil as that dung heap.
Gotta roll my eyes at the terrible redaction job they did on the first PDF — OK, Daniel Dennett has passed, so I guess letting his e-mail addr be visible isn’t that big a deal. But Jared Diamond is still alive, as are Richard Thaler and Leda Cosmides. Come on, FBI mooks, how hard is it to blank the part with the @ symbol?
Degrees of separation were mentioned on the previous thread. Adding to that a bit:
[ All regular commentators on Pharyngula ] ➞ PZ Myers ➞ Seed Media/Adam Bly/John Brockman ➞ Jeffrey Epstein
I noticed that Bockman was responsible for Edge (mentioned in the second PDF). I still remember that Epstein wrote an essay for Edge, long ago. A very unimpressive essay, but I guess Brockman had hi$ rea$on$ for including it.
That’s nothing, PZ. Punxsutawney Phil appears in the files 4 times.
On the other hand, Trump barely knew Jeffrey, of course. Trump is mentioned a mere 1,000 times, some 5,300 files refer to Trump, and Trump, his family and Mar-a-Lago garner 38,000 references. See!
(Jaws just posted this link in the other thread)
Ye$, $o many $pecial $uperior rea$on$, indeed.