Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for 'assault' on democracy
The Guardian ^ | 7/3/11

Posted on 07/03/2011 1:41:45 PM PDT by markomalley

Hugo Chávez has long considered Noam Chomsky one of his best friends in the west. He has basked in the renowned scholar's praise for Venezuela's socialist revolution and echoed his denunciations of US imperialism.

Venezuela's president, who hasrevealed that he has had surgery in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumour, turned one of Chomsky's books into an overnight bestseller after brandishing it during a UN speech. He hosted Chomsky in Caracas with smiles and pomp. Earlier this year Chávez even suggested Washington make Chomsky the US ambassador to Venezuela.

The president may be about to have second thoughts about that, because his favourite intellectual has now turned his guns on Chávez.

Speaking to the Observer last week, Chomsky has accused the socialist leader of amassing too much power and of making an "assault" on Venezuela's democracy.

"Concentration of executive power, unless it's very temporary and for specific circumstances, such as fighting world war two, is an assault on democracy. You can debate whether [Venezuela's] circumstances require it: internal circumstances and the external threat of attack, that's a legitimate debate. But my own judgment in that debate is that it does not."

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: chavez; chomsky; hugochavez; venezuela
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last
To: All

GRRRRRREAT FReeper comments BUMP!


21 posted on 07/03/2011 3:21:00 PM PDT by PGalt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley
Noam Chomsky is about social justice and "people-centered movements."

Is that what makes one an intellectual? Being able to express Marxist feeeeeeeelings in one's own words?

That's what made the MSM, et al rave about the 1960s Marxist-Alinsky street/campus revolutionary rabble as the most intelligent generation ever.

Chomsky is certainly in that category. Probably mentored lots of kids with their copies of Alinsky's "Rules For Spoiled Brats".

Like they say about Stalin.. things just got out of hand that's all. Everything is right about the system . . . .

22 posted on 07/03/2011 3:22:24 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: haroldeveryman

I thought that I was the only one that knew that Chomsky is a libertarian.


23 posted on 07/03/2011 3:26:12 PM PDT by ansel12 (America has close to India population of 1950s, India has 1,200,000,000 people now. Quality of Life?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: haroldeveryman
If you don't already know check out what Obama and Cass Sunstein propose with libertarian paternalism.

Basically I believe it means they absolutely respect your unalienable right to choose.. that's right YOU! It's American as apple pie!

We name the choices from which you freely choose, say Obama and Sunstein.

24 posted on 07/03/2011 3:32:10 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac
It is not really Chomsky, an MIT grad student hacked Chomsky's brain and now has remote control. Next week he will endorse Sarah Palin.
25 posted on 07/03/2011 3:41:02 PM PDT by W. W. SMITH (Islam is an instrument of enslavement)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: W. W. SMITH

First of all, Chomsky is NOT a libertarian...not a true one anyway. Secondly, he is only saying this is because Chavez is dying, and once he dies, all the crap that he did is going to come out and embarrass people who supported him. Just like when Castro dies and the people revolt and open up all the crap he did and embarrass all of the people who supported him.


26 posted on 07/03/2011 4:32:15 PM PDT by gman992
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: WilliamofCarmichael

It sure is easy to voluntarily decide what’s in your best interest once you have a gun pointed at your head. It shouldn’t have to take a shyster, nor even a professor of semantics, to figure that out.


27 posted on 07/03/2011 4:39:08 PM PDT by haroldeveryman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: lowbridge

Chomsky is an idiot. No population EVER submits willingly to socialism, therefore EVERY socialist government resorts to cracking down on freedoms to enforce it.


28 posted on 07/03/2011 4:41:07 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Thus does Noam Chomsky prove himself a total hypocrite.


29 posted on 07/03/2011 5:05:32 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Noam Chomsky has to choke on any sentence that has the words Democracy, Freedom, Liberty in them.


30 posted on 07/03/2011 5:20:10 PM PDT by jongaltsr (It)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Curly vs. Shemp.

Ya gotta laugh.


31 posted on 07/03/2011 5:37:41 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants
Chomsky is an idiot.

Oh, the irony.

I say old boy, isn't rather odd how Chomsky is allowed to be a "Key-Note" speaker at the West Point military academy(?).

yawn

32 posted on 07/03/2011 8:59:09 PM PDT by LjubivojeRadosavljevic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Fantasywriter
How long is this guy going to be around? (Chomsky, not Chavez.) I remember talking to his obnoxious students years ago. They liked to explain to me, like geniuses talking down to a moron, that if the terms were properly defined, an atheist and a Christian would discover they actually agreed on the question of whether God exists.

I can not, for the life of me, understand why Chomsky is considered a respected source on the left.

The man is a linguist, his specialty is language, and this main claim to fame in this field, may actually be falling down as its been in dispute for some time (its a theory about language and thinking, I'm not qualified to say if its right or wrong), either way, he has NOTHING what so ever to do with politics, what qualifies him anymore then a guy flipping burgers at a fast food joint ????????

This guy has made a pretty penny simply spewing out whatever it is leftists want to hear, he has "preached to the choir and been paid for it", the amazing thing is......he isn't even a real preacher, lol.

33 posted on 07/03/2011 9:19:34 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: lowbridge
“So where was Chomsky when we were saying this all along years ago?”

Well....he was a communist then...now he's a fascist.

Fascist???? He's evening will to have a strongman fascist if it means that global warming can finally be addressed.

34 posted on 07/03/2011 10:52:32 PM PDT by Puckster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Puckster

“He’s evening will “

He’s even willing.....


35 posted on 07/03/2011 10:58:37 PM PDT by Puckster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: markomalley
Noam's a little late to the party. Most of the abuses for which he now criticizes Chavez took place years ago.

What did he expect? His Venezuelan socialist paradise turned out to be a mess just as all the other ones did, and it wasn't U.S. hegemony that made it that way. Chomsky knows perfectly well what Marx meant by "internal contradictions" but he won't see it in his own political models until his nose is rubbed in it. No sympathy here.

36 posted on 07/03/2011 11:17:42 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Hilarious watching the leftists turn on each other . . . again.


37 posted on 07/04/2011 1:24:56 AM PDT by Olog-hai
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac

Sounds like the Carr Centre agreed to pay him more than Chavez was paying him.


38 posted on 07/04/2011 9:38:14 AM PDT by Brilliant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

/snicker

Liberals say the darnedest things


39 posted on 07/04/2011 9:39:26 AM PDT by Oceander (The phrase "good enough for government work" is not meant as a compliment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LjubivojeRadosavljevic

Politics undoubtedly played a part in the selection. The commander of West Point is bucking for promotion and thinks that if he curries favor with the current administration he will go to the top of the list, just like they used to do in the USSR.


40 posted on 07/04/2011 9:44:12 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson