Noam Chomsky Attacks American "Libertarians"

Everyone's favorite subversive intellectual cuts through the right-wing rhetoric.

Language can be a minefield of evolving, ambiguous, and confusing definitions. This is why we have the study of semantics. Here are some of my favorite words, terms, and phrases that many of us on the Web are now dealing with:

freedom, equality, liberty, liberalism, libertarianism, conservatism, socialism, communism, marxism, anarchism, individualism, mutualism, fascism, classical liberalism, neo-classical liberalism, neoliberalism, neoconservatism, (lots of "isms"), free will, determinism, democracy, workers' rights, labor value, natural law, natural rights, natural freedom, natural aristocracy, meritocracy, capitalism, state capitalism, the state, government, free markets, free trade, laissez-faire, etc, etc.

If you're reading this then you are a member of a tiny minority of Americans who're curious about things like political science, political philosophy, history, and economics. Most Americans couldn't care less because thinking about these things is difficult. And these concepts aren't taught in our public schools because not only are they difficult but they could pose a threat to the status quo. Should the electorate in even a limited democracy such as ours be knowledgable on these subjects? I would say, yes. But most say, no. Throughout American and world history our leaders have always referred to the majority of people as the "mob," the "rabble," or the "unwashed, uneducated masses." I hope that the free exchange of ideas now occurring on the Web will begin to change this situation, one day resulting in the rise of educated citizenship over careerism and consumerism.

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[HyperboreanBrew]

Chomsky was an apologist for the mass murder of Pol Pot and his goons. Libertarianism is dedicated to the non aggression principle, which is why Chomsky does not subscribe.

[TheForwardGaze]

@HyperboreanBrew I've heard Chomsky say that the Cambodian genocide was smaller than the one in East Timor which didn't get the media coverage Cambodia did. But that's not an apology. What's your source for Chomsky apologizing for Pol Pot?

I like the non-aggression principle, but it has nothing to do with the exploitation possible under anarcho-capitalism. What will that principle mean when a desperately poor person has to enslave themselves to a rich man to avoid starvation?

[HyperboreanBrew]

@TheForwardGaze The poor, freed from the depredations of government fiat currency and free to establish their own currencies, will have greater power than they do under a welfare state.The real exploitation possible under the monopoly of the State is the real question.

[TheForwardGaze]

@HyperboreanBrew You should read what America's founding fathers had to say about the printing of currencies and fiat currency. One of them is very bad and the other very good.

[Navywxman]

@yogishkamath Actually there is no nonsense in what he mentioned about Smith. Smith wrote about it, so maybe your reading on Smith is sloppy.

Corporations are unaccountable unlike Government. The people don't vote on who and how the corporation is run, the type or quality of things it does, its wages, its investments, its exploitation of people and wages, otherwise the corporation would actually be accountable. Corporations regulate society in countless ways and how people shop is naive

[QwidgyboMan]

@HyperboreanBrew

I'd love to see a source for that outrageous claim. When and where did Chomsky apologise for Pol Pot?

[BoloBeachBall]

I read profit over people, it seemed like something a child would right. It was so boring I couldn't finish

[Navywxman]

@RealityStar9 Actually not buying or working isn't often an option, nor does it effect the structure of a corporation, how decisions are made, or change anything, and certainly not anymore since things are more globalized, they'll just shift jobs and sales elsewhere leaving devastation behind. Gov. can be and has been and still can be altered by the people, made to serve the publics interests, but as long as big money owns it, it won't happen. Sorry, but libertarianism is a sad joke

[RealityStar9]

@Navywxman You're dead wrong. Government is NOT accountable while corporations ARE accountable. All the people have to do is not buy or work for a corporation to keep it accountable which is real and direct action while unless you overthrow the government there will still be that government therefore it is not accountable.

[BroodjeEend]

chomsky needs to stop speaking about things he doesn't know anything about

[GohModley]

@TheForwardGaze Shut up you booger eating butt pooper

[neuterallrednecks]

@neuterallrednecks s/b 'therefore' not 'there'

[neuterallrednecks]

@yogishkamath ..(cont). 2 of the main causes of the GFC were that Greenspan (a devotee of Rand), left monetary policy alone for too long coz he believed markets were 100% efficient, there a bubble could not occur. Result --> housing bubble. Also regulations on financial institutions were removed - another bit of Rand doctrine- result --> GFC. The GFC was in the main, a result of laissez faire policies not interventionist policies.

[neuterallrednecks]

@yogishkamath You sound like you're quoting straight from a Ron Paul flyer. When it comes to Economics, you're a special needs student. The whole point of the bank bailouts was because banks were NOT lending to each other. The Treasury bought shares/assets of the banks. They have now sold them and made a profit. ....(cont)