Not at all and criticising him like this is churlish - and putting him next to Kissinger is grotesque misrepresentation of him.
He’s been completely clear on his views on America, and why they are the subject of his focus. He, together with Herman, have revised their initial comments on The Khmer Rouge (which were not exclusive to them but held by many academics of the time) but stand by their criticism of the general media narrative at the time.
You can read this in Manufacturing Consent
No one is perfect and there are errors in his work, but no one has written more truth about American imperialism and likely no one will.
Perhaps for this reason, there are continual and considerable motivations to discredit him.
He is making it easy to discredit with comments he made even about Ukraine.
Don’t get me wrong, I still really respect the man, but as I got older, I see him as an academic. I don’t see him as someone who can explain how the world really works.
I haven’t read probably 99.9% of what Chomsky’s wrote, so I don’t have a strong opinion, but from what I have read his position always ends up being much more nuisanced and reasonable than the extremist denialism random billionaire-owned MSM articles and social media comments have wanted me to believe.
Also, he is 95 for fucks sake! I could not give two shits about his opinion on Ukraine because, based on my experience with 80+ year olds, he may not even be able to remember what happened 5 minutes ago most days. You’d be a fool to judge someone’s life and character based on their opinions in their twilight — quite possibly at their most vulnerable, and least capable of defending themselves.
For sure, I agree. Much respect to chomsky, a great man that influenced a lot of people for good, but I don’t think he would mind a jab from me on this relatively obscure social network 🙂.
For sure. I have much respect for the man and everything he has done.
The reason I stopped having him in the highest regard is not that he got some stuff wrong, but that I started taking him as academic in the sense that his view is limited by the direction of his studies. I don’t think he has a deep grasp on how the world works, because he has spent more than half a century preaching the same stuff. I don’t think he is the kind of man, who can step away from his work and say there is more to global politics than American hegemony, if I can exaggerate a bit. The are certain grey areas and paradoxes in the world that chomsky tries to rationalize, but fails to notice how incredibly subjective his academic viewpoint is.
What I resented recently was his comments on Ukraine, where he couldn’t get out of his skin and immediately tried to put invasion of Ukraine into context of American wars. He should have been completely aware that that is exactly what the worst of Russian propagandists are saying. Ok, he is really old now, but Geez.
Anyway, incredible body of work of great importance.
Not everyone grows out of it. Like with Howard Zinn, those (rightly) disillusioned with American jingoism often find and latch onto him to justify a reversal of their (originally pro-US) Manichean worldview without concern for whether it is consistent, moral, or correct.
I really adored chomsky when I was a teen. Is he sort of a teen idol everyone grows out when they get older?
Not at all and criticising him like this is churlish - and putting him next to Kissinger is grotesque misrepresentation of him.
He’s been completely clear on his views on America, and why they are the subject of his focus. He, together with Herman, have revised their initial comments on The Khmer Rouge (which were not exclusive to them but held by many academics of the time) but stand by their criticism of the general media narrative at the time.
You can read this in Manufacturing Consent
No one is perfect and there are errors in his work, but no one has written more truth about American imperialism and likely no one will.
Perhaps for this reason, there are continual and considerable motivations to discredit him.
He is making it easy to discredit with comments he made even about Ukraine.
Don’t get me wrong, I still really respect the man, but as I got older, I see him as an academic. I don’t see him as someone who can explain how the world really works.
I haven’t read probably 99.9% of what Chomsky’s wrote, so I don’t have a strong opinion, but from what I have read his position always ends up being much more nuisanced and reasonable than the extremist denialism random billionaire-owned MSM articles and social media comments have wanted me to believe.
Also, he is 95 for fucks sake! I could not give two shits about his opinion on Ukraine because, based on my experience with 80+ year olds, he may not even be able to remember what happened 5 minutes ago most days. You’d be a fool to judge someone’s life and character based on their opinions in their twilight — quite possibly at their most vulnerable, and least capable of defending themselves.
For sure, I agree. Much respect to chomsky, a great man that influenced a lot of people for good, but I don’t think he would mind a jab from me on this relatively obscure social network 🙂.
And that person is?
Nobody is right about everything - you can’t blindly follow even the most brilliant minds.
You’ve gotta take the good where you find it and work out a philosophy that works for you. Plenty of good to be pulled from Chomsk
For sure. I have much respect for the man and everything he has done. The reason I stopped having him in the highest regard is not that he got some stuff wrong, but that I started taking him as academic in the sense that his view is limited by the direction of his studies. I don’t think he has a deep grasp on how the world works, because he has spent more than half a century preaching the same stuff. I don’t think he is the kind of man, who can step away from his work and say there is more to global politics than American hegemony, if I can exaggerate a bit. The are certain grey areas and paradoxes in the world that chomsky tries to rationalize, but fails to notice how incredibly subjective his academic viewpoint is.
What I resented recently was his comments on Ukraine, where he couldn’t get out of his skin and immediately tried to put invasion of Ukraine into context of American wars. He should have been completely aware that that is exactly what the worst of Russian propagandists are saying. Ok, he is really old now, but Geez.
Anyway, incredible body of work of great importance.
As someone getting a master’s degree in linguistics… yes.
Joking aside, he’s got a pretty good track record, he just goes big when he goes wrong.
Not everyone grows out of it. Like with Howard Zinn, those (rightly) disillusioned with American jingoism often find and latch onto him to justify a reversal of their (originally pro-US) Manichean worldview without concern for whether it is consistent, moral, or correct.
Same, but the more I learned the more I was repulsed.