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Noam Chomsky's Surprising Take on the Russia Scandal
Big Think ^ | August 6, 2017 | Paul Ratner

Posted on 08/06/2017 5:13:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Noam Chomsky has generally been one of the strongest intellectual voices of the left for decades. But he has an unexpected take on the growing scandal around President Trump and the alleged “collusion” with Russia. The 88-year-old MIT professor Chomsky, a celebrated linguist and philosopher, thinks that the Russia story is a major distraction and it’s wrong for Democrats to focus their energies on it.

In an April 6th conversation, organized by the American Association of Geographers, Chomsky characterized President Trump as not having a strong center of beliefs, while “his only ideology is ‘me’. What is instead happening is that Republicans, led by Paul Ryan, whom Chomsky called “the most dangerous and savage group in the country, are implementing “savage” programs that they planned for decades designed to favor the rich and “kick everyone else in the face.”

This kind of planned attack is supported by how Trump’s cabinet was designed, according to Chomsky.

“Every cabinet official was chosen to destroy anything of human significance in that part of the government. It’s so systematic that it can’t be unplanned. I doubt that Trump planned it,” says Chomsky in the conversation.

And to distract attention from their real agenda, the Trump team is running a “two-tiered operation,” claims Chomsky, with advisor Stephen Bannon in charge of “the effort to try to make sure you capture the headlines.” With one outrageous incident at the White House or incendiary tweet succeeding another, President Trump is keeping the media occupied and people talking. And what happens is that they very soon forget whatever the latest scandal was and move on, while the real issues get left unexplored.

See the segment of the interview on Trump and Ryan here:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

Chomsky also called out Democrats for “cooperating in a very striking way”. The biggest part of that cooperation is their insistence on stoking the Russian scandal and making it a major distraction from more significant problems. Chomsky thinks that finding a common ground with Russians is essential even if you believe they hacked the 2016 elections. The United States has not only influenced elections, it has even installed military dictatorships overseas and cannot claim high moral ground here, explains the professor.

A better way would be to look at what happened through the prism of diplomacy, even if members of the Trump team met with Russians, including the now-infamous meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. In fact, President Trump’s attempts to improve relations with Russia is “one of the few decent things Trump has been doing,” says Chomsky.

“So maybe members of his transition team contacted the Russians. Is that a bad thing?” expounds Professor Chomsky. “Recent ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, had a blog where he pointed out that ‘It’s exactly what you should be doing. It’s the job of ambassadors and diplomats coming in. There are serious problems and tensions you want to talk over to see if there’s anything you can do about them. Instead of just building up force and violence.’ That’s what the democrats are focusing on, and meanwhile all these other things are going on and they’re not saying anything about them.”

In a recent interview with RT, Chomsky doubled down on his criticism of the Republican Party, which he previously called an organization “dedicated to the destruction of organized human life on Earth.”

"The position of the savage wing of American capitalism, the Republican Party, is really striking, they are really racing toward a precipice. Has there really been an organization in history that has dedicated itself to the destruction of human life?" said Chomsky. ”The US is racing toward the precipice, while the world is trying to do something.”

Here’s the full interview with Professor Chomsky at the American Association of Geographers:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)


TOPICS: Issues; Parties; State and Local
KEYWORDS: chomsky; democrats; russia; trump
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
" “dedicated to the destruction of organized human life on Earth.”

In case anyone wondered if Chomsky is a complete lunatic, the answer is YES.
21 posted on 08/06/2017 7:28:20 PM PDT by Enchante (Searching throughout the country for one honest Democrat....)
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To: Paladin2

I partially credit Chomsky with development of my conservatism.

I saw him speak in college, twice. I decided the crowd thought he was “intelligent” because his ideas were complicated, rube-goldberg hairballs of conspiracy theories. Because Chomsky’s theories of the whys and wherefore’s of American policy and history were beyond comprehension, yet seemed to support what they believed, the leftist students lapped it up.


22 posted on 08/06/2017 7:32:08 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: Wuli

Can you briefly explain those theories that you mentioned have been proven wrong? Just curious.


23 posted on 08/06/2017 7:46:29 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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Zip it, Noam.


24 posted on 08/06/2017 11:41:37 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: PGR88

>> Chomsky’s theories ... were beyond comprehension

Is that to say his perspective has technical merit? And that’s an honest question.


25 posted on 08/06/2017 11:48:18 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: All

Why hasn’t anyone grown a pair and given Noam his congratulatory dirt nap yet?


26 posted on 08/06/2017 11:56:20 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: SoCal Pubbie

O.K.

You can start with these:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/25/daniel-everett-human-language-piraha

https://aeon.co/essays/the-evidence-is-in-there-is-no-language-instinct

http://thelousylinguist.blogspot.com/2010/09/debunking-chomskys-poverty-of-stimulus.html
http://childsplay.scientopia.org/2010/09/02/754-revision/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-rebuts-chomsky-s-theory-of-language-learning/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/865339/posts

But next time, do your own research instead of merely excepting someone as “expert” because that claim has been offered so frequently in the primary public media sources. The primary public media sources are not an educated persons best friend. Their venues ARE agendas.


27 posted on 08/07/2017 6:46:04 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

Dude, I’m to my ass in alligayors right now.I had hoped you might just give me a brief overview in a few words but I guess that was too much to ask. Quite frankly Chomsky is not worth my time to chase him around the internet. Thanks for the advice, I’ll look at it as being worth exactly what I paid for it.


28 posted on 08/07/2017 4:04:47 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Chomsky is a dirty commie liar. He has a fancy way of speaking and that is how he is able to sell his lies to young people. Young ones think fancy speaking means he is wise.


29 posted on 08/08/2017 5:58:02 AM PDT by Krosan
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