Mehdi Hasan interviews Noam Chomsky. From 2019. The legendary philosopher and activist discusses impeachment, the 2020 field, and why he opposed Trump’s Syria troop withdrawal. Support The Intercept: theintercept.c...
Chomsky: “You have to not deal in slogans as if they are religious catechisms but look at the reality of each situation” Interviewer: “I take your point but I’m going to ignore it and ask the same question you just answered”
this is scary. the way chomsky says that we're gonna have to make a decision of "cosmic significance" scares me absolutely. we are truly in a grand struggle for survival. in a naturalist universe that doesn't care about us, it can feel a bit... insular and perhaps lonely sometimes. :-(
Seriously? The Pullout of troops in Syria. I don’t know who the interviewer is but Noam answered the question and you asked it again. Noam isn’t supporting interventionism nor imperialism; he said that you have to evaluate each individual situation. This situation is/was the presence of a small number of troops deterring Turkey from slaughtering a group of people. That’s not imperialism. That’s protection of human lives without any threat to our troops. Turkey is a NATO country. I looked up the interviewer. Your questions could use improvement. You sound like mainstream media; a parrot repeating talking points.
Why do interviewers think they have to be confrontational? You can ask questions without trying to sound superior. The hubris it takes to think you have a better understanding on what Chomsky thinks than Chomsky is breathtaking. Whether you agree with him or not, he has more than earned respect. Regardless, I welcome every opportunity to listen to him regardless of the annoyance factor of the interviewer.
Noam is an absolute phenomena. I love the way he answers questions so calmly and never gets pressured into giving an answer that the interviewer wants to hear.
Mehdi, you showed your bias in this interview. Subtly (or not) opposing Bernie and giving Warren credibility, though thankfully, Noam provided clarity despite some loaded questions. Bernie does NOT call himself a socialist - everyone else does, and I am surprised that you would try that angle this late in the game.
I am not sure Chomsky is right about Kosovo. Sure, if they bombed the rate of murder and ethnic cleansing would go up, but to do nothing or pin hopes on diplomatic channels may have slowed that down, but led to a longer period of murder and ethnic cleansing just as easily. Of course, is bombing worse than whatever would have happened if there was no bombing?
@Gleep Glop I was not looking for someone to pull assertions out of their butt. I can do that just fine on my own. The - *uses Amy Goodman voice* - "world renowned linguist and dissident" used a word in a way that can be read ambiguously, and justified in either reading. I would simply like to hear him talk more about how he views Sanders' positions.
@Gleep Glop He precluded that with, "If I was going to vote in the primary...". If you have listened to Chomsky speak about his political positions, you know that Bernie is relatively far right of Noam and most social anarchists. I think it is reasonable to say that Bernie is pretending to be farther left than he really is, because he is very unlikely to stop the global state terror campaign being proliferated by the US. That's just for starters. One could also mention the economic motivations of the global top players who maintain US citizenship, which are heavily interwoven with the worst genocide and slavery campaign in the history of our species. Much less the inequality and oppression in this very country. Bernie will do almost nothing to really get labor what we are owed, much less a reasonably equitable deal. We need a massive overhaul on social programs, making those who oversee them justify their authority under critical scrutiny. This is very unlikely to happen, even if we get single payer healthcare. This will mean that just like every other social program, M4A will be used to funnel taxes to the propertied. If this is what happens, then what good was electing Bernard over Warren, or even Tulsi or Kamala? P.S. I will vote for Sanders too, if I vote.
One Card Short I don’t think Chomsky would agree with much of your analysis/cynicism. If you’re expecting to vote for a candidate to solve all of the country’s/world’s problems then yes.. that’s not going to happen. No political candidate is ever going to come and save the day and implement “socialism”/worker control of production. There’s certainly no candidate like that in America or the world today (as far as anyone knows) and if they did exist, they wouldn’t receive many votes nor would they be able to truly confront the power systems and obstacles which stand in the way of implementing that agenda. Sanders is the best option for organizing working people/the labor movement that has a feasible chance of winning so therefore he’s the best one to vote for. I don’t believe he’s being disingenuous in his efforts nor do I really think it’s possible to really prove one way or the other. Will the power structure try to dilute, steer, coerce, commandeer his efforts/the Left? Of course. That should be expected without question. The struggle is still the same. Not all politicians are equal, there are gradients of evil and some give better opportunities to the Left than others. Certainly better than the Right where we’ll cede/defend ground, with little expectation of any remote alleviation of oppression/suffering.
@@Fhshaoaksbd I obviously don't expect any of the current candidates to push us in any real progressive direction. I expect the worldwide protests leading up to popular revolution to create the real change. I am dismayed that the US is not demonstrating like the rest of the world is. Then again, the rest of the world is demonstrating against global capitalist hegemony led by the US, so maybe that is why US citizenry isn't revolting. We ARE the terrorists. You think Chomsky would disagree with this assessment? I have refined much of my POV from his critique of US propaganda and social structure. I know there is more to the conversation, but I am not sure I have said anything controversial or critically refutable.
Because he has little chance of winning. Do you want 12k a year? Or Trump out of office, just kidding it wouldnt get that far, Yang is a joke politically. But a cool dude with ideas we can all get behind nontheless.
I think Yang is an opportunist who lacks the broad appeal & ideas to be a POTUS. But I thought that about Dump who is 1000 times more inferior & unsuitable.
