Ian Cushing

Some people are shocked at how Epstein comes across as so mediocre and dumb in his emails, citing his sloppy correspondences riddled with misspellings, erratic punctuation, absent capitalization, random spacings and weird syntax. These aren't actually signs of illiteracy though. They are, in fact, assertions of status and also a window into his psyche. Meticulous adherence to proper sentence structure and formatting in emails is the hallmark of the earnest professional - the diligent academic, the public intellectual seeking a donation, the ambitious subordinate eager to demonstrate competence and respectability. Those who already command outsized power and deference can get away with communicating in ways that are deliberately terse, unpolished, even negligent. Such indifference to linguistic norms signals that the sender operates beyond the rules that constrain others. They need not invest time or effort in refinement because their position ensures the message will be received, deciphered, and acted upon regardless. The recipient, aware of the hierarchy, instinctively compensates by overlooking errors and trying to decode meaning. In this way, this negligence is a flex, an assertion that ordinary standards of clarity and courtesy simply do not apply to the author. This pattern echoes broader codes of elite behavior. Just as certain high-status circles treat dress codes with studied nonchalance by say wearing the "wrong" thing precisely because they can, the powerful can afford to write poorly. The more unassailable one's position, the less one needs to perform propriety in prose. (Interestingly there's horseshoe theory in action here where the only other people who will refuse to conform to linguistic standards are the indignant anti-imperialist woke types who think that insisting on proper linguistic standards is basically white supremacy)