In case you missed it, these are people who knew Epstein was an unrepentant child molester. Epstein was proven guilty in court, made no statements of remorse, and these scientists continued to validate and support his behavior for years after, up until his death. If he had accepted responsibility for his crimes, I would feel differently about people who decide to associate with him while he spent the rest of his life in prison. But I doubt these scientists would have. The reason they liked Jeffrey was because he got away with everything. They admired his ability to rape on an industrial scale without consequences.

Nobody should ever be guilty by association. However, nobody is entitled to be a respected dino scientist. That is something you earn, and I see no reason not to include their feelings about child rape when discussing whether most attendees would feel comfortable with them at a conference.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 12 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

According to the Montana Standard, after his name surfaced in the released files, Horner posted, and later deleted, a social media statement calling his decision to pursue Epstein’s support an extremely poor judgment. He said that while he knew Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution, he was unaware of Epstein’s broader sex trafficking operation until years later.

Horner wrote that his visit involved only Epstein, staff, and several women introduced as college students. [...]

I can see where the judgement lapse happened, but that's a pretty big lapse. I'm pretty ok removing these folk until the dust settles from events like this.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 11 points 18 hours ago

Sounds like Horner was being willfully ignorant, or pretending to be, about the trafficking.

Either way he can fuck off.