• zante@lemmy.wtf
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    3 months ago

    Not at all and criticising him like this is churlish - and putting him next to Kissinger is grotesque misrepresentation of him.

    He’s been completely clear on his views on America, and why they are the subject of his focus. He, together with Herman, have revised their initial comments on The Khmer Rouge (which were not exclusive to them but held by many academics of the time) but stand by their criticism of the general media narrative at the time.

    You can read this in Manufacturing Consent

    No one is perfect and there are errors in his work, but no one has written more truth about American imperialism and likely no one will.

    Perhaps for this reason, there are continual and considerable motivations to discredit him.

    • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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      3 months ago

      He is making it easy to discredit with comments he made even about Ukraine.

      Don’t get me wrong, I still really respect the man, but as I got older, I see him as an academic. I don’t see him as someone who can explain how the world really works.

      • blurg@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        someone who can explain how the world really works.

        And that person is?

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I haven’t read probably 99.9% of what Chomsky’s wrote, so I don’t have a strong opinion, but from what I have read his position always ends up being much more nuisanced and reasonable than the extremist denialism random billionaire-owned MSM articles and social media comments have wanted me to believe.

        Also, he is 95 for fucks sake! I could not give two shits about his opinion on Ukraine because, based on my experience with 80+ year olds, he may not even be able to remember what happened 5 minutes ago most days. You’d be a fool to judge someone’s life and character based on their opinions in their twilight — quite possibly at their most vulnerable, and least capable of defending themselves.

        • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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          3 months ago

          For sure, I agree. Much respect to chomsky, a great man that influenced a lot of people for good, but I don’t think he would mind a jab from me on this relatively obscure social network 🙂.