TIL that Noam Chomsky answers emails. It's always been my thing to reach out to personal heroes of mine. What's the best way to reach out to him?
Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
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Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#152Interesting move given the hostile AZ political climate.
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what you mean by how "he has been proved devastatingly wrong about Venezuela". When Chavez was first elected, Chomsky noted how the oil wealth of Venezuela was finally being shared beyond a small coterie of wealthy European descendants, and was now accessible to the poor and working class Venezuelans of various races. Then six years ago, Chomsky said in an open letter that the Venezuelan government was b…
Aren't you reading about the recent developments of president Maduro?
How did Chomsky respond to these developments? Did he downplay them or encourage Maduro's authoritarian reaction to the protest?
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a pretty good argument to me. I defer to Wiles and other mathematicians on FLT. Full stop, that's sufficient to me.
The purpose of an argument is to show why something is true. Saying an 'expert' believes something is true does not show why it is true nor that it is true. Deferring to Wiles is just ceasing to argue.
I see it as being more along the lines of there have been entire books written on the subject by people with more expertise than me that can cover the matter in far greater detail than a mere email. If the questioner is truly curious, then he has a resource to indulge his curiousity. If the questioner is acting in bad faith, then all of the information in the world isn't going to change his mind.
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#155He's 88, still mentally very sharp and probably moved there for the weather(aside from the great department filled with old students). His work ethic is incredible, he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public- I've received a detailed response every time I've sent one. The amount of time he spends engaging with even terribly misinformed(but well meaning) people is truly astounding, and unparalleled a…
> he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public rms, another MIT "affiliate", is like this too, although many of his replies are brief. Whenever you see him cracking open his laptop while he's sitting on a panel waiting for his turn to speak, he's almost surely answering email. Here are pictures of him answering email around the world: https://rms.sexy/ I call this one, "The Birth of Emacs": http://sta…
"Our GNU/Lord and GNU/Savior is 100% sexy!"
This is my favorite thing I've found on the internet in a good long while.
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
China is not a socialist country.
They are more socialist than capitalist. Besides, there is no pure socialist or capitalist society on earth. Using that logic, the US isn't a capitalist nation and venezuela isn't a socialist nation. And the guy's assertion that venezuela is suffereing because of state socialism is pointless. China and venezuela are both socialist countries. You can't just decide to accept one because it fits into your worldview and…
> They are more socialist than capitalist.
No they're not. Production isn't controlled by the public. China doesn't even classic social-democratic policies like free health care, free higher education or a strong welfare system. It's much more a cut-throat proto-capitalist state, which happens to also also a not a democracy.
China is an autocracy, which is a form of government associated with the east block that used to call itself socialist and communist. Socialism is an economic system that China doesn't have.
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#157TIL that Noam Chomsky answers emails. It's always been my thing to reach out to personal heroes of mine. What's the best way to reach out to him?
His public MIT email
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there some crucial factor in Venezuela's woes which clearly arises from socialism? Ah, the never-ending cycle of socialist revolution, followed by establishing socialism, and finally followed by a string of desperate attempts to pin the effects of socialism because no true socialists would ever do any wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
Or the realization that capitalist Venezuela had a worse version of this same crisis. Why are the socialist policies to blame this time?
> Or the realization that capitalist Venezuela had a worse version of this same crisis.
Don't go lecture me about how bad "capitalist Venezuela" was. I have family members living in Venezuela, and not only did they saw their property and livelihood seized by Maduro's thugs, one family member also died due to restrictions imposed on access to basic medical care by your pet socialist utopia.
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#159I just about died when I read, 'He formulated the algorithm "context-free grammar"...'
Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
"These 'experts' agree with me" is not an argument. Indeed, clearly Chomsky did not want to engage the argument so ceasing responding would have been logical.
Its called Appeal to Authority, and it is considered a logical fallacy - basically the opposite of Argument Ad Hominen.
You're only committing a "appeal to authority" fallacy if you contend that something is true because the person saying it is "an authority." Pointing out that someone is clueless on a topic and suggesting they read the literature and gain some baseline knowledge is not the same thing at all.
As to whether it is, as someone said above, "simply ceasing to argue" one can rightly say "so what?" None of us owe some random person on the Internet our participation in their argument. Time is valuable and it's entirely reasonable to check out of an argument or discussion and say "here, go read these books" if you don't stand to gain anything from continuing the dialog.