Both liberals and Republicans have been using associations to Epstein to attack their opposing leadership. Truth is, anybody who’s paying attention should’ve already hated Clinton for Haiti, Trump for everything.

But it now also adds a moral character to the denounciation of figures that portray themselves as “anti-hegemonic” or “progressive”. Folks like Chomsky, Dawkins, Gates and Krauss now have another flank open for attack, that can be a wedge to drive in order to deconstruct their images as “great thinkers”.

All else is pure distraction. No billionaire is getting arrested over this, and no, the US isn’t engaging in geopolitics recklessly due to this minor internal PR crisis. But at least if somebody who once liked Chomsky starts questioning themselves after knowing of his friendship with Epstein, that’s an improvement.