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  1. #1
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    Unwearied at 90 Noam Chomsky

    Dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky at 90

    Though Noam Chomsky has made his name as arguably the foremost political dissident of the last half a century, his intellectual legacy is firstly as a linguist. At the age of 90, he continues to talk the talk.

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    ---

    Yet while the darling of the global anti-imperialist left, Chomsky has faced sustained criticism for whitewashing the genocide committed by the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

    "What filters through to the American public is a seriously distorted version of the evidence available, emphasizing alleged Khmer Rouge atrocities and downplaying or ignoring the crucial US role, direct and indirect," wrote Chomsky in The Nation about the unfolding horror in Cambodia.

    Chomsky has also been criticized for refusing to call the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia a genocide, again focusing instead on alleged US war crimes that he says have never been held to account. "[It's] certainly a horror story and major crime, but to call it "genocide" so cheapens the word," he told English journalist George Monbiot in 2011 of the Srebrenica Massacre.

    "An intellectual and moral teacher and inspiration the likes of which one rarely encounters in the human record," said left news site Counterpunch on the eve of Chomksy's 90th birthday.

    The publication contrasted the thinker's legacy with that of the recently deceased George H. W. Bush, of whom Chomsky was a major critic — primarily for invading Iraq during the 1990 Gulf War, and for Bush's invasion of Panama to overthrow Manuel Noriega the year before.

    Though the dissident intellectual has been a fierce opponent of US imperialism under both major political parties in America, in 2017 he called the Republican Party "the most dangerous organization in human history" for its consistent rejection of the science of climate change.

    "Has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth?" he said in an interview with Amy Goodman of the Democracy Now news program after President Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement.

    While nonagenarian Chomsky might no longer be protesting on the front lines, his words have not lost their impact.

    Read more
    https://www.dw.com/en/dissident-inte...-90/a-46629642

  2. #2
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    Hopefully this will be transferred to the "RIP Famous People" thread soon. He has given nothing to society.

  3. #3
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    A great intellectual and author on a number of different topic areas.

  4. #4
    RIP pseudolus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    Hopefully this will be transferred to the "RIP Famous People" thread soon. He has given nothing to society.
    Except for constantly calling out most of the people who have taken everything from society. I say most because I am of half a thought that he is an officially sanctioned contrarian gate keeper.

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    ^Maybe. If he was any real threat to his targets, he would'nt have got anywhere near 90 I dare say.

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    RIP pseudolus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kmart View Post
    ^Maybe. If he was any real threat to his targets, he would'nt have got anywhere near 90 I dare say.
    The powers that shouldn't be are safe with people like him in his ivory towers because the mass of people simply have no idea who he is or know anything about him and what he says. Take Can123 for example who worked in an industry in a region which has been decimated by design and who really should pay attention to what Chompers has to say, but instead wishes he was dead. That's how it works I guess.

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    ^Yep. Sad but true.

  8. #8
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    I do not want the man to be dead. I am opposed to people who set themselves up as a sort of God who tells others how to think and behave. The irony is that Chomsky does not adhere to anybody else's beliefs yet he expects others to conform with his. He is an intellectual smart-arse. I also have little regard for those who pontificate on language/linguistics.

    Language is all about communication and a study of linguistics may be helpful to those seeking to acquire a new language. It is, however, of secondary importance.

    I am not keen on academics who, go to school, go to university, teach at university, and do fuck all else. A little physical effort is necessary in my book so any road sweeper contributes more than Chomsky has ever done.

  9. #9
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    ^Quite a simplified view...
    Somebody has to tell to the population (if they want to know) that there are bad things happening that should be avoided and not supported by an exciting crowd at the election masquerades. However, sometimes it is quite difficult to tell to people who think they are exceptional.
    (that cannot be told by a "road sweeper")

  10. #10
    RIP pseudolus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    and do fuck all else.
    well he does publically challenge the assumed leaders of this world quite a lot. He's a weedy dork - do you really expect him to grab a gun and mount a coup?

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by pseudolus View Post
    I say most because I am of half a thought that he is an officially sanctioned contrarian gate keeper.
    A typical paranoid theory that you would have because lizard people. SMH

    The fact is that the powers that be recognize that he is speaking to a very small audience and that he is not a threat. He is no gate keeper. That is absurd. The fact is that there are only so many who are listening to what he is saying.

    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    However, sometimes it is quite difficult to tell to people who think they are exceptional.
    In the case of an egomaniac like pseudo he thinks that he hatched the golden egg of knowledge and has all the worlds problems figured out. People like Sid Witless are more a part of the problem then the solution.
    Last edited by bsnub; 17-12-2018 at 07:07 PM.

  12. #12
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    If Mr Chomsky was knocked down by a bus tomorrow, nobody would miss him. Nobody could point to anything he had done unlike my road sweeper friend. Plain silly to put him on a pedestal.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    Hopefully this will be transferred to the "RIP Famous People" thread soon. He has given nothing to society.
    Have you actually read, at least one of Chomsky's books?

  14. #14
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    ^
    Not a whole book, no. I read four pages of Mr Hitler's "Mein Kampf" before I put it down for the last time. I am not simple and recognise rubbish when I see it.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    Not a whole book, no.
    While I agree with most of what he says I must confess I have never got through one of his books. I have tried more than once but to be honest he is fucking boring.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    If Mr Chomsky was knocked down by a bus tomorrow, nobody would miss him. Nobody could point to anything he had done unlike my road sweeper friend. Plain silly to put him on a pedestal.
    No one is putting Chomsky on a pedestal. Chomsky just has a way of putting controversial issues into perspective, and answering many of the "what or why is"

    questions, the mainstream media dares not to broach. I admire Chomsky's intellect and respect his grit,...especially when facing threats made against his literary life.
    Last edited by TuskegeeBen; 17-12-2018 at 07:26 PM.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123 View Post
    ^
    Not a whole book, no. I read four pages of Mr Hitler's "Mein Kampf" before I put it down for the last time. I am not simple and recognise rubbish when I see it.
    Ok! Happy Holiday cheers!

  18. #18
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    He just calls the things by their correct names. That's a big problem for some...

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat AntRobertson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by can123
    Hopefully this will be transferred to the "RIP Famous People" thread soon. He has given nothing to society.
    I see you're from the Indiscriminate Lobbing Of Dynamite School of trolling. No subtlety or finesse.

    This a reaction to not being noted in the poll?

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by pseudolus View Post
    well he does publically challenge the assumed leaders of this world quite a lot. He's a weedy dork - do you really expect him to grab a gun and mount a coup?
    No, but Chomsky is definitely the goto person, to consult w/ for a clear-view perspective, especially when the heat of battle pushes revolutionary combatants to that threshold,...of crossing the morality line...

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by AntRobertson View Post
    I see you're from the Indiscriminate Lobbing Of Dynamite School of trolling. No subtlety or finesse.

    This a reaction to not being noted in the poll?
    Says one who has been sent to jail for shitfests.

  22. #22
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    While I agree with most of what he says I must confess I have never got through one of his books. I have tried more than once but to be honest he is fucking boring.
    Perhaps in the written form and presentations - might be difficult for some to comprehend. Understandable.

    But....his lectures, speaking engagements, interviews, etc are usually quite brilliant.
    The receptive stimulation comparatives from a scholarly tome/listening to him speak are two different worlds.

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by AntRobertson View Post
    I see you're from the Indiscriminate Lobbing Of Dynamite School of trolling. No subtlety or finesse.

    This a reaction to not being noted in the poll?
    Just like w/ your Nevernice colleague, barking-up the wrong tree, and sporting a misnomer of an avatar there ^,..eh... "bud"...
    Last edited by TuskegeeBen; 17-12-2018 at 08:20 PM.

  24. #24
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    (Not sure how is the current situation)

    Chomsky Is Citation Champ

    April 15, 1992

    Many are the authors who may wonder if anyone is paying attention to what they write.

    Professor Noam Chomsky, MIT's preeminent linguistics authority, doesn't have that problem.

    Recent research on citations in three different citation indices show that Professor Chomsky is one of the most cited individuals in works published in the past 20 years.

    In fact, his 3,874 citations in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index between 1980 and 1992 make him the most cited living person in that period and the eighth most cited source overrall--just behind famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and just ahead of philosopher Georg Hegel.

    Indeed, Professor Chomsky is in illustrious company. The top ten cited sources during the period were: Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, Freud, Chomsky, Hegel and Cicero.
    But that isn't all.

    From 1972 to 1992, Professor Chomsky was cited 7,449 times in the Social Science Citation Index-likely the greatest number of times for a living person there as well, although the research into those numbers isn't complete. In addition, from 1974 to 1992 he was cited 1,619 times in the Science Citation Index.

    "What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines," said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers.

    "In fact," she added, "it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."

    Chomsky Is Citation Champ | MIT News

    (it needs a bit more than to be a "road sweeper")

  25. #25
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    I have never favoured the "arts" way of doing things. By that I mean that all individuals are able to think and that these thoughts cannot be "patented" by somebody who might have put the same thought to paper at an earlier date. If one looks to any dissertation in the arts subjects one has to wade through a sea of acknowledgements which are referenced and neatly placed as a footnote. In my opinion this is arse-licking taken to an extreme.

    "In fact," she added, "it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."

    Yes, very sad. Hardly any room left for the individual to express his own views. If theirs should coincide with those of Chomsky to any extent, they are going to be accused of plagiarising his work. Good old Mr Chomsky ! Please feel free to quote him when you cannot think for yourself.

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