this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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A pretty huge amount of people on the epstein files though are just individuals who were emailing regarding grants, donations, etc
Which is extremely normal, they just email all rich benefactors known for donating to causes.
Id expect like over half the names in the files just fall under that category...
The difference here is that they continued to engage in correspondence after his conviction.
oh yeah in that case fuck em
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.
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?
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.
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.
I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're saying here.
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.
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.
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.
Do you have any evidence of your claims? Because your out of hand dismissal of the Trends data is based on your anecdotal impressions and really isn't valid. It even shows a very clear spike in interest following his arrest, like you'd expect.
Please back up your position with anything concrete or drop this, I'm not interested in playing "facts vs. feelings" with you.
You provided an opinion, I provided mine.
There is nothing we can point to as evidence. I have pointed out why that chart isn't evidence, its simply searches, and greatly impacted by active and ongoing events. Change it to the past 12 months, the peak in February is massive, and there was no apparent interest in August of 2025.
Except there was - its just relative. February is when files began being released.
Google trends is not evidence or proof of anything in the slightest.
I'm sorry this bothers you so much to have someone disagree, but I do, and there isnt much more to say about it.
Enjoy your day/evening.
Yeah, didn't think you had anything. Charcterizing hard data as opinion, and dismissing something becoming common knowledge because it was receiving too much coverage, are both pretty absurd things to retreat to. And this is my opinion: it's deeply weird you're so hung up on not being wrong about something this dumb. Seriously.
edit: ...presumably it was searched for because of Epstien? That doesn't contradict anything I've said thus far, I'm once again confused as to what you're trying to say here.
Re-read the note they put. It's people who continued to email the org and ask for money and shit after Epstein was convicted
These are people who did not give a fuck and continued to work with a rapist
oh yeah in that case fuck em
Oh there are absolutely people in this very thread who don't understand why it's immoral to continue to do business with a rapist as long as it's in pursuit of science.
I don't think being wrongfully persecuted for being in the Epstein files is a thing. It's kinda the point of the meme that plenty of scientists did go on his plane and to his island. And some of those emails from scientists were commiserating over how "me too has gone too far".
But sure, not all scientists....
There absolutely are some cases of people who were in there, pre-conviction, simply for such reasons. Had nothing to do with the pedo stuff, never were on planes, merely were just emailing for whatever normal reason.
But idiots in the public can't distinguish such things.
However others have corrected me here in that these are scientests who were emailing after the conviction which is a valid reason to ban them yeah
Funding is way more important than holding a pedophile accountable. /s
Yeah but what paleontologist doesn't get excited when the insanely rich guy funding your research shows up and offers them to take a plane ride to his private island?
That's literally the stuff of movies, man.
He was a shitty human but he did appreciate science/academia...or at least that's what his public spending seems to have indicated.
Paleontologists who've read "The Island of Doctor Moreau"? Private islands and science lead to a bad time.
Paleontologists that aren't pedophiles that want to go to pedophile island?
I think there is value in how those who asked or accepted funding think about it. People who just see the cash, yeah, deplorable. People who feel conflicted about it, but can provide for their aids and families because of funding, maybe not so much. Anyone excited to go interact and associate directly, going to the island; super slimy and needs to be excommunacated from the scientific community.
Yep which is why I highlighted that sentence in particular. You're right, there's some grey here and it's not completely black and white.
The problem is that this kind of thing, this looking the other way in order to fund projects, helped cover Epstein's crimes for so long. Not everyone who helped is directly guilty. But this is the system that helped Epstein operate with no consequences simply because he was able to bribe people.