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Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

antonyloewenstein.com

31–40 of 98 posts

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#31
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Irrespective of anything Chomsky says on the whole Snowden affair, Chomsky is bad American/borderline traitor. If there's an anti-American government position to take on an issue, he'll find it and take it.

Dissent isn't treason, even if you do it a lot.

He dissents, per Chris Hitchens, even when such dissent is "stupid and ignorant." So if Chomsky is too smart to be "stupid and ignorant," he must do so out of his need to be a bad American.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_wor...

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#32
post #27
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomskyhoax.html Please do familiarize yourself with his views on other issues.

Excellent! I always wanted to read a completely unbiased (and totally not cherry-picked and wasn't compiled by a fanatical detractor) resource on Chomsky's collected works. Clearly, this is it. Worth noting, Paul Bogdanor contributed to The Anti-Chomsky Reader : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anti-Chomsky_Reader While I'm educating myself, I really should tune to Rush Limbaugh to learn about contraception, feminism…

Good point, stay in the communist bubble.

G-d forbid you read something critical that changes your mind. Much better to hide behind 'criticism is written by people who dislike him, so not worth reading' defense. Perhaps you should consider that they dislike him for a reason.

What I can tell you is that the man is vile - read up on his excuses for Pol Pot, Stalin and the like.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#33
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soup10 takes the anti Chomskian side and writes whiny comments full of ad-hominem attacks. He makes no attempt to consider Chomsky's side. But I still have hope and I am sure soup10 unlike Chomsky of course has a long list of documented bullet points that explain government's side.

I am a huge fan of Snowdens, of ending the Orwellian institutionalization of our democratic society, and even of Chomsky's statements in this instance but in Soup10's defence, Noam Chomsky IS an anti-American/anti-Government liberal socialist anarchist (in fact that is how he would describe HIMSELF) who uses linguistic gymnastics to de-construct cultural norms in a way the reflects his own ideology. As such he almost…

I don't think he would use the term "anti-American" in describing himself (or anyone else):

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20021209.htm

The concept "anti-American" is an interesting one. The counterpart is used only in totalitarian states or military dictatorships, something I wrote about many years ago (see my book Letters from Lexington). Thus, in the old Soviet Union, dissidents were condemned as "anti-Soviet." That's a natural usage among people with deeply rooted totalitarian instincts, which identify state policy with the society, the people, the culture. In contrast, people with even the slightest concept of democracy treat such notions with ridicule and contempt. Suppose someone in Italy who criticizes Italian state policy were condemned as "anti-Italian." It would be regarded as too ridiculous even to merit laughter. Maybe under Mussolini, but surely not otherwise.

Actually the concept has earlier origins. It was used in the Bible by King Ahab, the epitome of evil, to condemn those who sought justice as "anti-Israel" ("ocher Yisrael," in the original Hebrew, roughly "hater of Israel," or "disturber of Israel"). His specific target was Elijah.

It's interesting to see the tradition in which the people you refer to choose to place themselves. The idea of leaving America because one opposes state policy is another reflection of deep totalitarian commitments. Solzhenitsyn, for example, was forced to leave Russia, against his will, by people with beliefs very much like those you are quoting.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#34
post #23

Chomsky is one of the greatest intellectuals of our time. The man has nothing to lose and nothing to gain by voicing his thoughts. Too bad he is getting up there in age but hopefully we will enjoy his presence for many more years.

He is a great intellectual, but he MAY also be acting as just another control mechanism, a gatekeeper: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/noamchomskygatekepper26sep05.... https://startpage.com/do/search?query=chomsky+gatekeeper Bio of the author of the first article - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-abrahamson (Has the mention of this simple possibility offended you? If you think it's impossible, tell me why.)

[deleted]

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#35
Stop posting Chomsky stuff to HN. He is not an intellectual. He either cannot, or refuses to see both sides of the coin--either in his political writings or academic writings (e.g. there profound and valid empirical cracks in his universal grammar model that he's failed to acknowledge).

Down with Chomsky. Down vote me, I don't really care. I'd surely trade all my HN Karma for a reduction in Chomsky related posts to HN. It will make HN a better community.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#36
post #34
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is a great intellectual, but he MAY also be acting as just another control mechanism, a gatekeeper: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/noamchomskygatekepper26sep05.... https://startpage.com/do/search?query=chomsky+gatekeeper Bio of the author of the first article - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-abrahamson (Has the mention of this simple possibility offended you? If you think it's impossible, tell me why.)

[deleted]

Sorry...what does colloidal silver have to do with it?

Did you read the author's bio? He's no slouch - Yale grad, litigator with experience in the Supreme Court, writes for HuffPo...but I guess we should write it off immediately because...colloidal silver? You tell me because I don't know anything about colloidal silver.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#37
post #27
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomskyhoax.html Please do familiarize yourself with his views on other issues.

Excellent! I always wanted to read a completely unbiased (and totally not cherry-picked and wasn't compiled by a fanatical detractor) resource on Chomsky's collected works. Clearly, this is it. Worth noting, Paul Bogdanor contributed to The Anti-Chomsky Reader : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anti-Chomsky_Reader While I'm educating myself, I really should tune to Rush Limbaugh to learn about contraception, feminism…

Excellent! I always wanted to read a completely unbiased (and totally not cherry-picked and wasn't compiled by a fanatical detractor) resource on Chomsky's collected works. Clearly, this is it.

Well, clearly you will also want to read the criticisms leveled against the hokey "logic" and arguments employed by Bogdanor himself. It is difficult to take Bogdanor seriously as a contribution to the body of knowledge on the topics covered by Chomsky over decades and decades of in-depth study when Bogdanor argues from an unabashedly pro-Israeli nationalist point of view. Views often basted with copious amounts of neo-con jingoism.

Unbiased? Hardly.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#38

Chomsky is one of the greatest intellectuals of our time. The man has nothing to lose and nothing to gain by voicing his thoughts. Too bad he is getting up there in age but hopefully we will enjoy his presence for many more years.

Irrespective of anything Chomsky says on the whole Snowden affair, Chomsky is bad American/borderline traitor. If there's an anti-American government position to take on an issue, he'll find it and take it.

Says the Ayn Rand disciple. Anti-government is great, unless it's anti-American government, then it's treason.

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#39
post #32
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent! I always wanted to read a completely unbiased (and totally not cherry-picked and wasn't compiled by a fanatical detractor) resource on Chomsky's collected works. Clearly, this is it. Worth noting, Paul Bogdanor contributed to The Anti-Chomsky Reader : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anti-Chomsky_Reader While I'm educating myself, I really should tune to Rush Limbaugh to learn about contraception, feminism…

Good point, stay in the communist bubble. G-d forbid you read something critical that changes your mind. Much better to hide behind 'criticism is written by people who dislike him, so not worth reading' defense. Perhaps you should consider that they dislike him for a reason. What I can tell you is that the man is vile - read up on his excuses for Pol Pot, Stalin and the like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/27/books/l-chomsky-and-the-kh...

His further assertion that Noam Chomsky attributed the deaths of the Pol Pot era to ''nothing but'' a war-induced famine is an outright lie. Mr. Chomsky (and the present writer, who was co-author with Mr. Chomsky of his published works on Cambodia) went to great pains to stress that there was no doubt that the Khmer Rouge was committing serious crimes, although we took no position on their scale (which was very uncertain at the time).

Also http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2779086.html

This looks interesting, but I've no clue as to the reputation or connections of the source: http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/chomsky.htm

Re: Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

#40
post #3

"Prism is an attack on American citizens" -Chomsky

It's actually pretty strange that even he limits the damage to the US only. Whereas it's clearly worldwide damage. EDIT: I suppose he phrased it this way so that we listen more closely (or listen at all).

Attack on American citizens is a way more powerful message than attack on German or some other "second class" citizenry :)

But also, it is American elected officials who deployed the program on American taxpayers money. Therefore, American citizens, unknowing to themselves, have become a major investor into the greatest surveillance network in history, which spies back on them and the rest of the world.

So Chomsky's quote hit it right home.

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