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In reply to the discussion: If You Lose Chomsky ... [View all]struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)3. um ... well ...
oh dear
Chomsky's at MIT, not because he sucked up to the elite, but because of important work he has done in linguistics and also in theoretical computer science
Despite this background, which would have allowed him to sit back comfortably in his professorship, he has been for many years a prolific and very cogent commentator on institutions: the propaganda model, developed in his work with Hermann, for example, explains in considerable detail exactly how one can understand the conformity of, and limits of dissent in, standard US corporate media coverage without any need to appeal to conspiracy theories
His reflex there has always been to doubt the official justifications for US foreign adventurism, and for many years he regularly churned out highly informative and thought-provoking interpretations of events, and decodings of official speech, rather well documented by one little snippet after another, teased from a bit of news coverage here and a bit of official document there, which several generations of activists have found quite useful
I don't always agree with him, and I don't regard him as a particularly useful observer of day-to-day political nitty-gritty, but he is a sparkling gem of a curmudgeon -- a genuine leftist who has often given careful attention to details and who has again and again shown a real and creative intelligence when comparing what our institutions say with what they do
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To be clear, I'm not very interested when he just gives his opinion without supporting argument
struggle4progress
Nov 2013
#33
I think I understand your LOL: Chomsky, at his worst, seems to me entirely unhelpful
struggle4progress
Nov 2013
#34
...you've lost Chomsky. And he admits he has no opinion or relevant expertise.
BelgianMadCow
Nov 2013
#5
I'm a civil engineer (licensed in 3 states) and my background is not in structures, but...
Blanks
Nov 2013
#8
To lose something, first you have to own it. It was never the case with Chomsky.
jakeXT
Nov 2013
#28