Noam Chomsky under fire over Epstein ties and Pentagon past

Chomsky, Epstein and the Pentagon: the perfect storm against the icon of the left

February 2026. Noam Chomsky's vvife apologizes for the philosopher's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, calling it a "grave error." The news, published by El País, opens Pandora's box. Within hours, the debate is no longer about the content of his work, but about the ties staining his biography: Epstein, the U.S. Department of Defense, and a feminism that brands him patriarchal. Is the last myth of pogre intellectualism collapsing?

The Epstein connection: a mistake or something more?

Valeria Wasserman's apology leaves no room for doubt: the relationship with the financier convicted of sens trafficking was a mistake. But the analyses question whether it was only that. While some point out that Epstein donated more to Democrats than to Republicans, others recall that Chomsky worked for the Department of Defense during the Cold War. The question that arises: is this a targeted attack on an inconvenient figure or the left's internal purge? What is certain is that the linguist's past stirs anger both in feminist circles and among the most skeptical of the establishment.

Feminism and the left's excommunication

The label "heteropatriarchal macho faschazi" is no anecdote. It reflects a current that sees in Chomsky a representative of the old order: white, male, critical of certain currents of modern feminism. Some analysts argue that the left, turned into a postmodern religion, needs to excommunicate its heretics. And Chomsky, with his skepticism toward postmodernism, is the perfect candidate. The underlying question is whether ideas should be judged by their content or by rumors about the person who formulates them, as one of the sharpest reflections in this debate points out.

There is no consensus. What does seem clear is that the twenty-first century does not forgive its old idols. Chomsky, the intellectual who unmasked propaganda, is now fodder for it.