Let me stipulate that I have no reason to think Chomsky did anything heinous with Epstein.
Is there such a thing as critical thinking in the sense of a meta-skill that applies across knowledge domains? In the last few decades, cognitive psychology has made scant progress defining and measuring—let alone teaching—critical thinking.
So in exchanging ideas frequently with Epstein for ~10 years after Epstein’s first conviction, was Chomsky just demonstrating that outside a few areas of expertise he’s the same kind of doofus as the rest of us? 