A friend (JD) asked and excellent question:
Are there any other public figures depicted in this saga whose fans feel the need to publicly explain away the obvious implications of such factual depictions?
My answer:
I guess it depend who you’re asking, dunnit? I don’t have much patience with the current left-esque priggishness, which fanatically casts the worst moments of someone’s life as the most representative. Kant was right that “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made,” and that’s before the timber meets the long and winding road of life, so to speak. Every one goes wrong, many of us very wrong. It seems to me we need to find a more humane way to think about humanity — one that does a better job of learning from liberationist movements but treats our failures more gently. But only up to a point — and for me that point is marked by casual contempt for others’ lives and rights. When we was younger, Chomsky actively carved out a role as an advocate for others in that way, and we should remember that — but not in a way that excuses this. Epstein was within spitting distance of being an enslaver, and that’s a pretty bright f-g line that most of us, even seriously problematic people, somehow manage not to cross.