Chomsky's book on 9/11 was required reading for an American Politics class at my university as of last year. This guy still has tremendous sway amongst the collegiate intelligensia and his propaganda is still a valuable tool of indoctrination for them.
It is this academic credibility which earned him the kind of fawning respect from people who should know better. He is no Abbie Hoffman - he is a well-published PhD.
It's interesting that academics who disagree with his linguistic research and the "Minimalist Program" that he has articulated to support it, are frightened to challenge his linguistic work because they know his political influence on campus may hurt their careers.
My son had a one semester intro to Psych course at his (non public) high school last winter and of all things there was an entire section praising Chomsky. Now, I have a minor/near major in Psych, so I expected to see familiar names from that time period. None. Just Chomsky. I did mention it to the teacher at conference time. He wasn't too pleased.And my son, already familiar with Chomsky and his 'views', heard more of my opinion and also the facts about Chomsky and how he continues to poison minds in our society. It's little wonder that the college's are so radically liberal.
---Since the 1960s, when he parroted Vietcong propaganda and ignored mass executions, Chomsky's star has continued to rise.---
Rather like that Kerry fellow!
When the worker's paradise collapsed the left lost all legitmacy in terms of offering hope to mankind. The only thing they have is hatred of America (the strongest and purest manifestation of Western Civilization) and mass graves. So they have done what lefties always do when they are caught red-handed, they say "well everybody does it" or "both sides are equally guilty".
"The Soviets killed millions but whites stole the land from the Native Americans." Now we all are supposed to be ashamed of ourselves and hang our head low. What they won't do is put the story in correct context. At that time, if a population could take land from another it did. That didn't go out of fashion until America became the baddest dude on the block. If we hadn't taken the land from the Indians, the Japanese or the Russians or the Mexicans or the Canadians or the French or the Britsh... you get my drift. Then we might have had a hostile power on our western borders.
The whole story just doesn't fit into the "America is evil" propaganda, so they conveniently leave it out.