Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

independent.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 500 posts

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#151

Post by phatfish »

hughesjj wrote: post #141
roenxi wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know why chomsky's beliefs and supported causes are so inconsistent with the morals he pushes The obvious resolution to that paradox is either you don't understand Chomsky's morals or have mistaken what his beliefs are. Judging by some random interview from 2022 [0] it looks like he has a position on Russia/Ukraine that is easy to defend. He describes it as a "principled, internationalist, anti-imperialist…

I was thinking more about February 2022, where he tries to blame the Ukrainian invasion on nato expansion or something https://chomsky.info/20220204/ Oh also his georgian take https://chomsky.info/200809__2/

He is still annoyed communism failed so epically. In his mind the Soviet satellites were to blame for wanting independence. It can been seen again with Ukraine, it's not that the Ukrainians are standing up for their independence, it is somehow NATOs fault.

He has made some good points about western politics from time to time. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#152

Post by KptMarchewa »

therein wrote: post #130
jjeaff wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of whether you think vaccines should be required or not, the mRNA COVID vaccines have objectively proven to be both safe and effective. Though not as effective as everyone would have liked at reducing spread, it certainly reduced severity of cases.

[flagged]

No.

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#153

Post by foobarqux »

drekembe wrote: post #111
throw__away7391 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

His view regarding the Bosnian genocide is really strange imo. I would correct you that the people perpetrating it weren't really communists, but serbian nationalists. However, his "USA bad" take is correct because it's true. Being anti-US, anti-NATO, anti-imperialism is the only moral view to have when you look at the history and current politics of the US.

They are not strange it's very easy to understand: He says that throwing around the word genocide for every atrocity cheapens the word and diminishes how bad the holocaust was.

As for the parent the "fat man" he is referring to is the man in the back, not the man in the front. And the picture is pure propaganda: as he points out (and I believe was confirmed by the actual photographer) what is depicted and understood to show a prison isn't even fenced in. I would love to know what the "false claims about what the sources he cited said". I only know of one case were he mis-cited someone and it didn't change the meaning.

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#154

Post by pydry »

hughesjj wrote: post #141
roenxi wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know why chomsky's beliefs and supported causes are so inconsistent with the morals he pushes The obvious resolution to that paradox is either you don't understand Chomsky's morals or have mistaken what his beliefs are. Judging by some random interview from 2022 [0] it looks like he has a position on Russia/Ukraine that is easy to defend. He describes it as a "principled, internationalist, anti-imperialist…

I was thinking more about February 2022, where he tries to blame the Ukrainian invasion on nato expansion or something https://chomsky.info/20220204/ Oh also his georgian take https://chomsky.info/200809__2/

He was entirely right about that too.

NATO is an aggressive alliance that has exclusively invaded three countries in the last 20 years, zero of whom were threat to it.

The worst one was probably Libya, because NATO pretended to engage in a humanitarian mission to gain approval from the security council and then left the country utterly destroyed state afterwards. The country was shredded.

It's a tool of western imperialism that dangles the false promise of protection. In this respect it operates with the same logic as a gang recruiting teenagers before using them as cannon fodder.

Of course you can't say these things in polite company just as I couldn't say that WMDs were a complete load of bullshit in 2003 without being verbally attacked.

In 20 years time it will be seen as obvious, however.

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#157

Post by foobarqux »

hughesjj wrote: post #141
roenxi wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know why chomsky's beliefs and supported causes are so inconsistent with the morals he pushes The obvious resolution to that paradox is either you don't understand Chomsky's morals or have mistaken what his beliefs are. Judging by some random interview from 2022 [0] it looks like he has a position on Russia/Ukraine that is easy to defend. He describes it as a "principled, internationalist, anti-imperialist…

I was thinking more about February 2022, where he tries to blame the Ukrainian invasion on nato expansion or something https://chomsky.info/20220204/ Oh also his georgian take https://chomsky.info/200809__2/

The same view that is held by a plethora of senior western officials such as Obama, William Burns (Former ambassador to Russia), Gates (Former Secretary of Defence), Angela Merkle, etc.

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#158

Post by foobarqux »

hughesjj wrote: post #51
turndown wrote: post #29

Intellectual giant whose shadow will be cast deep into the future. I don't need to review any of his work wrt to CS or linguistics to tell you that his legacy will be massive. I think Manufacturing Consent should go down as one of the most important books ever written in our culture. He was right about much, but wrong about much also. His beliefs on Cambodia strain credulity and I still have trouble separating that C…

His thoughts on Serbia/Kosovo, Russia/Ukraine, likely Russia/ Georgia etc have all been problematic too. Chomsky was illuminating in my personal character development. I grew up in a pretty conservative area, and his name carried a lot of hate like Hillary/Clinton did, but i didn't know why. Later, I saw some of his writings on American interventionism, and I found myself nodding my head in agreement over the mistake…

[flagged]

Re: Noam Chomsky 'no longer able to talk' after 'medical event'

#159

Post by foobarqux »

cm2187 wrote: post #149
feedforward wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US began arming the "Khmer Rouge" (whatever that means) in 1979 as well as protecting them in the UN, so the equivalence seems pretty valid to me. Not to mention the US 1970 invasion of Cambodia and concurrent CIA-backed overthrow of the Cambodian government, which including shooting dead US students who protested against it at Kent State and Jackson State, or the US carpet bombing of Cambodia during and after Op…

1979 was after the genocide and after Pol Pot was pushed out of power. Implying the US had something to do with the killing fields defies common sense. The khmer rouges were primarily China and North Vietnam backed. Now the US did support some incompetent and corrupt militia in Cambodia to oppose the Khmer rouges, and those did their fair share of misdeeds, to the frustration of local US officers. But given the crime…

It's like saying the war in Iraq has no effect on the current situation there.
Post reply on HN