Noam Chomsky: The ACLU Is a Conservative Organization

[Odraciralot]

@MyTotalRemedy He wasn't saying that the ACLU was a far-right wing organization, but a conservative organization. Chomsky used the term "conservative" here with the definition of being dedicated to preserving older, traditional institutions and values, and American traditional values are embodied in the constitution and bill of rights. The ACLU is dedicated to defending the bill of rights and the rights affirmed in the constitution, so by definition it is conservative.

[Doversreturn]

@Odraciralot the constitution isn't perfect though,why could'nt it say to just protect property ,rather than just the opulant minority.

[MyTotalRemedy]

He's so far left he's off the scale.

[PhilJRose]

@MyTotalRemedy Not off my scale. He's off the scale of those who only consume the mainstream.

[JagjeetMann]

@MyTotalRemedy seems normal to me, people like you are off the scale of insanity

[prophetchannel]

I disagree with Chomsky on many things, but I agree that ACLU is basically a conservative organization. They defend 19th century Liberal values. Many people do not understand their principles. They would defend a student-organized bible study group in a public school using an empty classroom, but would attack a bible class organized by the school administrators and teachers of the same school. This subtlety might be too much to bear for many people who say they are "anti-christian".

[thirdshift47]

The ACLU board voted 36/30 in favor of the Citizen's United ruling equating speech with money.

[OneforEating]

I would say that, even as someone who knows Noam Chomsky's definition of what a conservative is, the title is a little misleading. It would give one the initial impression that he was bashing it. But it drew me in and I found out what Chomsky is really saying. Keep in mind this isn't a criticism at all; I'm saying nice job of giving an attractive title.

[buzzybeemarketing]

@OneforEating You are actually projecting your opinions. The title just says it's a conservative organization. If you perceive that as negative, that's simply your assumptions and perception. It's not misleading it all. But you might be misled yourself. It sounds like you view everything from an anti-republic paradigm, left versus right. I guess I can't blame you too much since modern republicans have corrupted the idea of conservatism.

[cryptickripke]

@buzzybeemarketing Conservatism in the U.S. has been a negative force since at least the Great Depression, and probably since Lincoln was shot. Modern conservatism means opposing the use of public resources to help the poor and suffering, which should be perceived as negative. Chomsky of course is using the term to mean preservation of the principles of the country (the Bill of Rights in this case), but as he says, nobody uses the term that way anymore. So OneforEating is totally correct.

[poodlesusan]

ACLU lost my support by defending street gangs and internet corporations that harbor pedophiles and facilitate international human trafficking.

[PoliticsStudent]

The ACLU is both conservative and liberal. They are conservative because, as Chomsky noted, their sole purpose is to defend the Constitution and the values it promotes, and they are liberal because the Constitution itself was established based on liberal values.

Both terms have been completely distorted.

[MultiSmartass1]

First of all, Chomsky is right about the essential conservative nature of the ACLU.

The ACLU is not a left-wing organization-at best it is center liberal at best which is not left-wing.

He also accurate when it comes to the label Conservative.

From a political standpoint, there are few to any conservatives in the US.

What you have is a varied Right Wing-moderate to far right-in this country.

The defintion of a Conservative is a defender of the status quo and of traditional institutions.

[petie32]

Which should tell you how totally f...up Chomsky is.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

They probably alienate so many moderates and libertarians on that one issue one wouldn't believe the numbers. I just don't get it I guess.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

I'll never understand why the ACLU doesn't speak out against abortion. Balance the privacy rights between mother and baby for minors, rape, incest, life of mother, etc. It just flies in the face of everything else they do and is so fundamentally repulsive from an individual rights perspective. It screams life the same way someone being wrongfully executed does.

[CyberspaceCosmonaut]

@BillofRightsBrutus Then there is a lot of thing's you won't understand. Like women's rights and right to bodily integrity. Of course you are free to hold your ideas, But don't force them on the rest of us. Now that is what civil liberties is about. How would you suppose to impose your idead that foetuses have individual rights? It's not only wrong but completely unenforceable. Your artificial, and quite modern, concept of foetus having human rights fly in the face of very existing rights.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

@CyberspaceCosmonaut The science is archaic.  You actually could state your proposition to someone with a straight face? I'm not about arguing that the unborn, currently, from the point of conception forward, are entitled to full constitutional rights. Medicine and science say "no" and the Court has no choice but to defer to experts on a matter confined to expert analysis/conclusion. However, I wouldn't concede, either, that they should not be entitlted to them someday when science is modern.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

@BillofRightsBrutus Never forget that the same fields of science that say the unborn aren't "people" and provide no medical procedures as an alternative to abortion are the same people that can't keep people from dying, cure cancer, or a lot of other things. At least be honest; are you arguing philosophy, legality, or reality? The berth is wide depending on your angle. Science isn't really all that modern, resources are inadeqate, the unborn have no rights, and pregnant women have no options.

[USA4July1776]

When you're Noam Chomsky, everything is conservative.

[samerk321]

Does he say the ACLU is conservative in the 18th century sense or in the modern sense?

[SheikahZeo]

In the classical 18th century sense. Why not just watch the video?

[samerk321]

Its just I am confused because the ACLU is a right wing organization. It supported the recent supreme court case that allows corporations to spend money on elections with no limits.

[SheikahZeo]

Oh right, I hadn't heard that. Whilst you can't judge a whole organisation on one action, especially one that's been around for so long, i'd still say that that decision would be congruent with the ACLU's conservative ideology.

[BillofRightsBrutus]

@samerk321 That's a pretty pure freedom of speech issue, which they support. The problem in elections isn't independent ad funding. It is ads without info disclaimers, current individual contribution limits that make equality and voting illegitimately undemocratic, and a myriad of other complications. You have to look at the speech separate from the effects aforementioned. An amendment would probably do good; curtailing speech would just make things worse.