• volkvulture [none/use name]
          2·
          4 years ago

          Chomsky's not a "baby leftist" though, he's just an anti-communist liberal with some light criticism of American foreign policy

            • volkvulture [none/use name]
              1·
              4 years ago

              leave what? we aren't providing hot meals here or newfangled tech sector jobs or mainstream pop cultural absolution, we can only provide different ways of thinking & processing information with a larger historical justification

              outside of that, liberalism will continue be the order of the day in the American mind palace at least. And it unfortunately remains the primary touchstone for all of those who think more than 3 seconds about politics & political potentialities

          • Pezevenk [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Wouldn't really call it "light". At least that's not how it comes off in his books.

            • volkvulture [none/use name]
              3·
              4 years ago

              Chomsky worked at MIT on the same grants & in the same milieu of State Department/MIC nexus intellectuals & researchers as the ones he's trying to dog on

              To hear Chomsky talk about Lenin in the way he does sounds just as Russophobic & ignorant to alternatives as what Noam tries to criticize neocons for

              • Pezevenk [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                I know he worked with these people, I am talking about the critique of US foreign policy, which is not "light" or whatever.

                • volkvulture [none/use name]
                  1·
                  4 years ago

                  yes, it is light

                  Chomsky doesn't want American military reach to contract, he just wants it to be "less" openly & brazenly expansionist

      • Pezevenk [he/him]
        1·
        4 years ago

        I was neutral on him until he endorsed Biden,

        That's kind of a silly thing to get sour on him. He's done and said worse stuff in the past, when he wasn't a billion years old (personally I give a pass for almost anything said by someone after 85). Overall he has kinda shitty politics BUT he has many books that are pretty dope for radicalising people and exposing US imperialism.

          • Pezevenk [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Joe Biden is a war criminal and a rapist, so I think it’s valid.

            So is Trump. That was the whole point. It's the whole harm reduction thing. It's dumb but it's not evil.

            I believe in respecting the elderly,

            It's not so much about respect for me. I just know that after a certain age most people lose their marbles to one extent or the other.

            If someone over 85 is no longer able to communicate coherently, then they should retire from public life and give up their platform.

            That's true but the issue is that due to their age their judgement is no longer good enough to do that.

            including support for Pol Pot

            I'm pretty sure he did change his stance on that long ago.

            I think his work can help introduce concepts to someone and bring them left, but when talking with other leftists I am definitely going to criticize his behavior.

            I don't disagree.

              • Pezevenk [he/him]
                1·
                4 years ago

                Then they should either have someone they trust step in to initiate that or be bullied publicly until they break and lose credibility.

                Well if they don't have someone to step in that's not really their fault.

          • Tychoxii [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            chomsky specifies that voting for him doesnt mean you endorse biden as a person. Basically he believes a biden administration would be better than a trump administration for the american left, for other countries and for the American public at large. I mean cornell west makes the same argument, but i havent seen any chapo radlibs cancelling him.