[Vision2020] Re: Noam Chomsky

[David M. Budge]

Ted, I too have read almost everything that Chomsky has ever written.  
I'll find the quote.  He said it in 1975 after the fall of Saigon.

And yes, I detest his logic.  He proclaims himself a anarchest, but he 
is really a communist.  He reconstructs both his history and others.  
He's a fraud and I'll address this in full when I have some time.

db

Tbertruss at aol.com wrote:

>
>
> Dave Budge wrote:
>
> "Noam Chomsky (hey, anybody who ever endorsed Pol Pot qualifies as 
> "really scary.") "
>
> I have followed Chomsky from the late 1960s till the present day, both 
> his work in linguistics and its implications for theory of mind, and 
> his political analysis and investigations.  I read his extensive 
> analysis comparing the media's reporting of the horrific human rights 
> abuses that were committed in East Timor in the 1970s, abuses 
> committed by Indonesia with military aid from the US government, 
> compared to how the media reported Pol Pot's psychotic rampage in 
> Southeast Asia, in "Manufacturing Consent." 
>
> Chomsky is fairly regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the last 
> century, primarily due to his work in linguistics.  But his political 
> writing is rich in detail and documentation, his logical capabilities 
> are superb, and he will take unpopular positions on principle, which 
> has caused him significant grief.  He defended the free speech rights 
> of a writer who was arguing that the holocaust was a historical 
> distortion, and for his "politically incorrect" defense of said free 
> speech principle for a politically unpopular opinion, was publicly 
> dragged through the mud.
>
> Chomsky never "endorsed Pol Pot."
>
> I can see why Chomsky's formidable political and economic arguments 
> that contradict your approach would cause you grief.  But asserting 
> that he "endorsed" psychotic dictators like Pol Pot is simply unfair 
> and false. 
>
> Your aside about Chomsky strikes me as an expression of libertarian 
> "group think."  He is on a short list of the thinkers and writers that 
> libertarians must delegitimize and denigrate to maintain the integrity 
> of their own political ideology.
>
> Ted Moffett

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20050211/90b98a25/attachment.htm