On Power, Dissent and Racism-Noam Chomsky (2/6)

[StephenAndersonhk]

@Darkertone - what a load of rubbish -

[notyou009]

Can anyone suggest a third-world intellectual who doesn't "join the parade" like Noam mentions? 

[ShlomoBarak]

chomsky likes to talk truth to power and has always encouraged people to challenge received truth. however

when people ask him about 9/11 and the possible questions

to be raised about the 9/11 commission he disregards them

as a waste of time???

the man is suddenly not consistant at all.

having said that i admire the man for many other positions he has taken.

[DonVoghano]

@ShlomoBarak Look at it this way: in the present social arrangement it's impossible to get any 9-11 truth, conspiracy or not. Pushing for 9-11 truth today is like asking a hen to hatch an omelet.

So first we take what we know that is CERTAIN, UNCONTROVERSIAL and DOCUMENTED about power and how it's used, and THEN, once we have restored some sort of democracy, we can hope to get an actual free and open inquiry into the events of 9-11.

[kelly980]

Bit random, but i love reading chomsky but hate listening to him. His voice does my head in!!!!

[portoxali]

Chomsky is a think tank for critically minded people who have opposing views towards current political developments. The analogy between Chomsky and listed activists are insuffcient to my mind, while Chomsky having classical philosophical and scientific backround, Malcolm and Kind both had ethincally and religiously oriented backgrounds, stemmed from folk and not sicentific ideologies. Therefore, Chomsky can not in principle pose the similar direct threat to the government as these activist did.

[FA8T]

What's the evidence that Malcolm X and King were murdered by the US government?

[agenttachyon]

without stars you cunt!

[kmardes]

then tell yuour fat sister to get off the remote and you might learn something you redneck

[oneatwobthreec4d]

How has Chomsky not been murdered by the gov? He has too much info.

[danieleriskay]

Because Chomsky works for the government, silly.

[portoxali]

what you mean by this? Nowadays US government allows critically minded intellectuals to express their opinions freely, otherwise they would definitely cause outburst of opposing public attitude towards them. The other thing is that such critically minded thinkers still does not much affect widespread public opinion, so therefore their harsh criticism is allowed as an alternative idology possesing no threat to their power

[danieleriskay]

Chomsky is a government employee, that's what I mean. And I've no idea what you mean by saying "Nowadays US government allows critically minded intellectuals to express their opinions.." Even a cursory understanding of US history provides plenty of evidence that all sorts of people (even intellectuals!) have spoken out about domestic and foreign policy.

I also find your claims as to why this criticism is allowed to be very amusing.

[portoxali]

From you previous post it seemed to me that you were pointing that all Chomsky and his politic criticism is fabricated by the government.. In any case, Does the fact that he works for the govrenment protect him from assasination or something? what did you intend to say with the fact that he is a government employee?

[danieleriskay]

Intellectually speaking, Chomsky is really an empty suit who has very little influence, not just on the general public but on anyone in any disciplines related to the study and application of foreign policy in the United States. People educated in geopolitics and geostrategy simply do not find Chomsky to be compelling or even somewhat interesting.

His only following seems to be on mediocre lit students and profs, various sundry leftists, and their ilk.

[portoxali]

That's exactly what he mentions in this documentary when he is talking about the loyalty of intellectuals and academics who mostly praise the govrenment and support their political course. Of course the educational system is pro-governmental and this is clearly shown in this deocumentary. However people are getting more and more aware of this undemocratic policy of the power-oriented government and this tendency should eventually lead to more critial evaluation of the political culture

[danieleriskay]

" the loyalty of intellectuals and academics who mostly praise the govrenment and support their political course."

I'm not sure what you're talking about. There's more than enough criticism of US foreign policy, as well as significant and very real debates about what our foreign policy objectives and means should be. I do not see this as evidence of pro-governmental bias, nor do I understand how you can suggest it to be "undemocratic."

What exactly do you mean by "more critical evaulation?"

[portoxali]

Yes there is enough criticism and debates on the geopolitical issues, however most of the critics and politicians agree on the core principle of imperialism, which is aimed at world domination through agressive military and economic policy implementation. And by critical evaluation I mean the fundamental reevaluation of the past, present and forthcoming political course and strategy

[portoxali]

While Chomsky did not give exact receip of the change that is needed, he provides very deep analysis as to where US policy went wrong and what negative results it brought to the country over the recent history. Current political establishment is undemocratic as most of political actions of US are disguised by fair democratic and human rights principles..Almost every american is now confident about the double standard of such political statements

[optimistsRUS]

@danieleriskay

"Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare, and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities—and is the only writer among them still alive."

—THE GUARDIAN

[Dalambam]

Yet I have never managed to find a serious rebuttal to his main points about how U.S. power functions, the media etc.

Criticism of Chomsky seem to be focused on saying he doesn't have the required skills to talk about it, or that e's not part of mainstream opinion, or trying to him to neo-Nazis or something, or setting up strawmen or pointing out he works at the MIT etc. Do you have any actual criticism of his ideas in general, or of what he says in this video?

[optimistsRUS]

@danieleriskay,

You, Sir, are too dumb to recognize reality, or I am reading it wrong, Noam Chomsky is amongst the most quoted authors ever, and he is the most quoted intellectual living today.

"What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines," said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers.

"In fact, it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."

[chinopisces]

@danieleriskay: Your use of vocabulary does not disguise your apparent lack of rational intellect.

[DisidenciaTricolor]

En Colombia todos quieren que le canten hosannas y alabare a Uribe.

[raist2]

The people love you Noam!

[b4skin]

So...if superimposed within ANY other governmental rule (country) can you say he would be supportive/understanding of that system.I think he would rail against ANY countries gov't/system and I do think RIGHTLY SO, but then the question becomes(surely Lesser-of-2-evils)but also 'rightly' so given human behavior,--just which system allows for dissention (at least did before "patriot act")..are there some gov't bodies which would suppress the watching/posting/blogging of this interview??

[DarkestOne7]

I'm gonna ignore your boring and imbecilic right-wing propaganda and just ask what exactly is bullshit about wage slavery?

[DarkestOne7]

You don't have a brain, but what you do have is a lot of anger towards people that Faux News tells you need to hate.

It's sheep like you that follow the line, not dissidents like Noam Chomsky

[darkelf172002]

You'd have to be a "braindead individual" to call Noam Chomsky a "braindead individual."

Congratulations.

[DarkestOne7]

Low IQ is synonymous with right wing

[DarkestOne7]

Is there any topic that righ-wing foxnews-nuts could have an opinion on without the use of word "communism"?

[Dalambam]

Yes, Muslims. Lol!

[DarkestOne7]

nash912 why don't buy yourself some brain?

you sure sound like you could use it

[lapinoja]

Why watch videos that you obviously disagree with and seem to upset you? There are other videos on Youtube. Maybe it would be a more relaxing experience for you. I've seen many things I don't agree with on Youtube, why get so upset.

[KentAllard]

"they hate us because we have McDonalds" - PWND!

[GrassAndRocks]

lol