Noam Chomsky, 93, issues warning: 'We're approaching the most dangerous point in human history'

[Checkerboard Strangler]

In another interview with Glenn Greenwald, Chomsky said
"fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
"His name is Donald J. Trump,"



Chomsky is on the record saying Ukraine should give up some territory in a "diplomatic solution".
Yeah, I'd like to imagine that a Chomsky residing IN Ukraine rather than in his safe comfortable library might feel differently about ceding a third of your territory and your only water port to a madman.
The ends of "the Horseshoe" have now officially french kissed.



UPDATE: And now I am hearing that this tweet may have been satirical...I hope to God it really is, because I don't mind being humiliated as long as Noam Chomsky hasn't lost his mind. And if so, why did the author wait till a month after April Fool's Day?

 

[multivita-man]

In another interview with Glenn Greenwald, Chomsky said
"fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
"His name is Donald J. Trump,"

View attachment 67388488

Chomsky is on the record saying Ukraine should give up some territory in a "diplomatic solution".
Yeah, I'd like to imagine that a Chomsky residing IN Ukraine rather than in his safe comfortable library might feel differently about ceding a third of your territory and your only water port to a madman.
The ends of "the Horseshoe" have now officially french kissed.



UPDATE: And now I am hearing that this tweet may have been satirical...I hope to God it really is, because I don't mind being humiliated as long as Noam Chomsky hasn't lost his mind. And if so, why did the author wait till a month after April Fool's Day?

As soon as I saw the name Glenn Greenwald, I knew that this was headed down the toilet.

 

[Allan]

Noam Chomsky, one of the great thinkers of our time (not to be confused with the DP poster, who is a pretty thinker in his own right)

I'm not convinced @Chomsky is pretty.

 

[Chomsky]

I'm not convinced @Chomsky is pretty.

Wow, how'd I miss this thread?

Thanks for the call!

 

[Chomsky]

In another interview with Glenn Greenwald, Chomsky said
"fortunately" there is "one Western statesman of stature" who is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine rather than looking for ways to fuel and prolong it.
"His name is Donald J. Trump,"

View attachment 67388488

Chomsky is on the record saying Ukraine should give up some territory in a "diplomatic solution".
Yeah, I'd like to imagine that a Chomsky residing IN Ukraine rather than in his safe comfortable library might feel differently about ceding a third of your territory and your only water port to a madman.
The ends of "the Horseshoe" have now officially french kissed.



UPDATE: And now I am hearing that this tweet may have been satirical...I hope to God it really is, because I don't mind being humiliated as long as Noam Chomsky hasn't lost his mind. And if so, why did the author wait till a month after April Fool's Day?

Another poster recently hit me with this Tweet as sort of a, "Ah ha . . . your namesake revere's Trump!".

But the Tweet is an excerpt, where it ends at the moment DJT's name is mentioned, whereas in the full interview Chomsky immediately follows DJT's name by calling him the most dangerous man in the world, etc., etc.

The Tweet ending is at 8:00 in the YouTube video, below:

 

[Chomsky]

Without discussing his thoughts on the environmental question (with which I largely I agree) I find this position on Ukraine having as much moral clarity and solidity as a meringue.

It seems that he has managed to re-frame Russia's brutal invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine as a truly horrible atrocity...committed by the United States.

In his mind, the United States is like some sort of cruel God of his universe. A first mover around which all other nations revolve, and can merely react to. There can be no other wicked actors without first blaming the prime wicked actor: America.

I get the bolded. And it is bothersome.

But essentially, Chomsky forces us to deconstruct our reality and POV, clear our minds, and look at the world from a clean slate. That's what I like best about him. And I accept some chaff to get to the wheat. Also, I like having my fundamental understandings questioned, forcing me to question and re-examine them; these are good things.

Specifically to his "America bashing'', Chomsky is often thought to be an Anarcho-Syndicalist. As the beacon of free-market capitalism, America is the antithesis of his ideology. I suspect that's why America is so often in his cross-hairs. Not because it's America alone, but because America represents the pinnacle and example of much of what he rallies against in the world, not just in America.

As for me, as an avowed free-market capitalist, there's much I disagree with in Chomsky. But he opens my mind, and I'm extremely grateful for that. He's the last of his era of Liberal Jewish Intellectuals. When we lose him, the mold gets broken.

 

[Chomsky]

There is something really troubling about us being responsible for destroying all life on a planet. Killing a planet?
It's sick.

Chomsky is a critical thinker. They're often hard to listen to, but they tend to cut to the chase.

I wish I felt the same in the bolded, as you do!

Quite honestly, I hate listening to Chomsky. It's one long monotonic drone that goes on forever.

But, reading him is a completely different thing. His words come alive, jumping off the page. It's really quite a juxtaposition!

 

[The Mark]

Without discussing his thoughts on the environmental question (with which I largely I agree) I find this position on Ukraine having as much moral clarity and solidity as a meringue.

It seems that he has managed to re-frame Russia's brutal invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine as a truly horrible atrocity...committed by the United States.

In his mind, the United States is like some sort of cruel God of his universe. A first mover around which all other nations revolve, and can merely react to. There can be no other wicked actors without first blaming the prime wicked actor: America.

Russia these days is an authoritarian oligarchic plutocracy.

In some ways you could argue the USA is too, although hopefully not to the same degree.

In many ways the USSR was as well, but I think some of the thinkers/philosophers on the left tend to think of the place as a thing that might have been, if done right.
I suspect that, from the perspective of someone who thinks that communism and socialism has never been given a fair chance, the cold war fight against the USSR spilling over to negatively affect them drove them into thinking more positively of it.
Especially if, like Chomsky, they were alive in that time and probably greatly looked down on/maligned for thinking that communism/socialism was acceptable, when the big enemy was claiming to be such.

After all, the argument that NATO is a threat to Russia (or at least seen by them as one) is not without merit - it's just one I don't think can be taken to the extreme of making Russia the good guy in this war.

 

[Chomsky]

Noam Chomsky, 93, issues warning: 'We're approaching the most dangerous point in human history'​

Unlike our contemporary political parties, our major media sources, and our ever swaying public sentiment, one thing that can be said about Noam is that he never thinks and speaks like he was born yesterday. He understands history, not merely because he has studied it, but because he has lived through it - including most of the last century. He recognizes that, however well-intentioned we'd all love to believe our country is, nobody's hands are clean. Especially in regards to US foreign policy, and despite history's best efforts to educate us all, we still fail to recognize and acknowledge the Law of Unintended Consequences.

May Chomsky's voice still be with us another 20 years.

Bingo!

He is the last of the War-Era Liberal Jewish Intellectuals. He lived through the formation of the Marshal Plan, when the world was in flux, unresolved, and unordered. That's why he's so much more creative than many of us. We all have lived under the same world order for the past 70 years. We know no other reference! He remembers when it was all getting figured-out!

 

[Chomsky]

I'll invite you to mine--as long as you promise not to start throwing that hat around.

I know these are scary times, but I can't help thinking we'll pull out if it. My older relatives talk about World War II, when they had similar fears. And some of them even thought the 1960's race riots would bring down our government.

I'm not discounting the seriousness of the situation. Nor am I trying to be a "Pollyanna." But when we face things like this, we have to believe there's a way out of it, or else we will have already given up and conceded defeat--a position that almost guarantees that very outcome.

Cherish them. Learn from them. You are lucky to have them as a resource. Like Chomsky, there are few of this era left. Once they're gone, all we'll have is words on a page . . .