Noam Chomsky on George Orwell, the Suppression of Ideas and the Myth of American Exceptionalism 

Yes it would appear the false belief that Islam is a religion of peace seems to be bumping up against solid reality. My favorite Orwell quote "So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."

Stuart, one of many great quotes, I suppose its an early observation of cognitive dissonance which is so relevant in today's world.

The so-called civilized West constantly invades Muslim countries, supports dictators there, and kills about 1,000x more than they kill of us. Then the people supporting these invasions and occupations use mental gymnastics to quote Orwell as a defense. Conservatives love quoting Orwell, and apparently none of you have ever read his books, articles or diaries.

All this 'my favourite ' and 'my top 5' etc. shit really annoys me. Its just rhetoric and reeks of desperation to be heard. How boring to have a favourite quote and, no doubt, repeat it endlessly to anyone who will listen. Please, good as it is, go find another one. Sorry, thats been building and you arent solely to blame.

What B.S.. I am incapable of believing stuff that contradicts verifiable facts. I'm not wired with your 'relativity' disease =)) I am immune.

Orwell thought the same thing... 1984 ends with him loving Big Brother.

onthelibrarycomputer Huxley was right

Orwell was a snitch search about Orwell's list. And his hate for communism.

Do you think Postman is correct in his thought? Quoting doesn't really day that you understand. In fact it's a bit if a cop out

@@hacgarimman9660 Yeah right, not trying to prove that I understand, it's not about me - it's about you. Trying to be understood, I'd write a book. A youtube comments section is limited scope. I like the above quote for its broad tone for the general nature of modern society. That broad scope can then be taken by people here for their own context as a generalisation to use however they want. For example you used it to try and show that I copped out. You got out of the quote a reason to say I am intellectually lazy. Cool.

The two issues aren't mutually exclusive. Besides, Noam's a putz.

I've heard many unflattering references to Chomsky but never as a putz. Then again, his opinions are predicated on whats between his ears, not welling up from the vacuum inside a big hat.

A man can be bright and still be a putz. Take yourself, for example.

".... what I do care about is, the man, while purporting to be libertarian, is in fact a statist: he believes the government is the voice of the people, and that it's the only voice." No, I don't think you're self centered, a moron or looking for a hero figure but your references to the terms libertarian and statist as descriptive of an individuals political leanings tells me something about how hopelessly naive you are about discursive political theory... indicative of why you would support Trump as a potential candidate for the presidency. Chomsky's academic accomplishments in linguistics and socio-political theory are uncontested in his field so I feel no need to defend his "intellectual superiority" and, just as importantly, feel threatened by his force of intellect, which brings me to your support of Trump. You may not be so superficial as to care about his hair... but you're not too far from that mark.

You'd do well to unload your bag of "intellectual superiority" bricks Brad. Nobody's arguing a sharper intellect but rather an appreciation for those who can articulate a more expansive view of the world and its generally accepted within Academia that Chomsky is foremost in such things. Trump has neither academic credentials nor a political lineage to support his "world view"... and it shows in most spectacularly embarrassing fashion. No, I don't worship anyone, but I do admire those who can prove their mettle by example, effort and academic rigor, not showmanship and bullshit. Its likely your intellect missed the beat there... but hey, who's counting. I'm not the type of troll who would want to add any more bricks to that bag you're carrying.

2+2=5 always and always the TRUTH Is dead under new totalitarian Thailand. We love the great wise leaders and his ministries from newspeak.

Zombus Ignoramus 🙈

neither did they

Maybe it was his hair.

"Politics and the English language" I believe...

You can find it an obscure journal.

Chomsky is a good part of what Orwell warned about and it is the greatest act of "doublethink" not to understand this.

user220370 And Arnold had the greatest body!

You're doubleplusungood, sir. xD

Uh no, chomsky is just an academic nightmare. Orwell was the man

Sorry, Orwell was one of the greatest minds in history. Chomsky is a talking machine who in the end says nothing of importance.

Animal Farm is not a collection of essays, so no.

yes it is in latest penguin modern classics under the section of appendix.

@@deepakanjna2722 👍

@@XXX-hr5bb The essay was the original introduction to the book.

krumi Freedom of the Press

'Freedom of the Press'

I find it astounding that the masses don't care. I like to ask alexa how to over throw the government or how to kill the president just for the fact they are listening. I have no intention of such things. But if they are going to spy they may as well have something to hear.

The identity of patriot is anathema to what he did. Rightly he could never be a patriot. Wrongly he could never be a patriot.

@@danielplainview1 Patriotism is a sign of mediocrity. Trump has well exploited this trait of Americans

iPhone culture… 🙄

It's most probably called "Notes on ..." and just add in whatever the topic is that he mentioned.

Rousseau: to be is to do Nietzsche: to do is to be Sinatra: doo be doo be doo

+ljwoolley1950 do you know the secret handshake...lol....

lol!!!

Noam Chomsky reminded me of Julian Assange who told the truth but still is on the dark side of US media, no one should see, listen or understand him as he tells the truth, and is not a benefit zionist Jew leadership of the United State of America

Takimora is an unusual Japanese name. Sounds fake to me.

Have you read Understand Power? It’s just a collection of long form interviews.

There are videos on here. Looks them up. The one with Buckley is my favorite.

brutally stupid..

i'm dead lmao.

What do you think happens at J-Ep's place? :D Of course he's visited there, J-Ep was a black mailing operation, you do not get to position of influence without being being controlled completely.

He just said absolutely nothing. Nothing. Study that.

Nice avatar.

noam 'just get injected' chomsky

+Jeffrey Bernard You surely mean self-deception?

+Swip Swapkovski Under 20 club

fetus club here

Spermatozoa club here.

Swip Swapkovski Strip Club, here.

Don’t tell him that Orwell and Buckley shared a close mutual friend.

​@@roughhabit9085who?

Were his ideas to complex for you?

@@MsColl90 he has no ideas troll

What are you saying in this word salad?

@@stevewilson3791 Saying that Chomsky’s work led to him being a better intellectual but he didn’t do anything to truly help the poor or make any meaningful impact to help make people’s lives better is basically what this post is saying. But he’s wrong, Chomsky’s books and his other works have helped people wake up and see the crazy messed up world we live in. Don’t listen to this guy he’s just a hater

Yeah, they woke up, went on with their lives, and that's it. If you give a sandwich to a hungry homeless guy today, you'll accomplished more than Chomsky in his entire life. I respect him , but truth is truth.

I did not notice if he had any hair ...

Turn up the volume on your computer, you jackass!

and other hilarious stories you can tell yourself at night

@@turolretar You apparently don't know your history. Great example here of why history classes are imperative.

Why?

Explain.

So do I. Orwell was a cynic but he was an honest journalist, too. He watched as the Communists took over the Spanish Revolution, heard what they said, and saw how differently they acted, demanding total obedience and subservience to the Party. Animal Farm was all about real communism, based on his own experience. Orwell defined totalitarianism partly by what they took away: individual rights, and he knew that totalitarianism had to be fought with force because that was the only thing they understood. By contrast, Chomsky is a weasel. He asserts, refers to a quote or two, tells you what that "proves," then asserts something else as fact, brings up a reference that, on proper examination doesn't mean what he says it means, and so forth, spinning a web that sounds so good and enlightened, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny. He'll tell you he isn't criticizing the US, then spends the next four pages doing just that. It's tedious to listen to him because virtually everything he says needs to be fact-checked for reference and context. He criticizes but offers no solutions. He's the Ministry of Truth for the revolution. Orwell would have despised him.

Yep

Boring babbling old fart, loved by the Right On Student types though.

What you've demonstrated here is another perfect example of American Exceptionalism. "Anything I disagree with must be communist because it goes against my typically American worldview."

The Majestic Spider-Man No! I come from a Communist Country. You dip shit. I know exactly how they run things. Half my family were killed by them. You know nothing. Your experiences in life has all been through a life of envy of the entire world. I have traveled all over the world for over 25 years and seen and experienced what systems work and don't. Seen the rich and poor in every continent. You know NOTHING.

He never happened to ‘‘insult’’ the non vaxed in any way, but just knowingly put them in front of their own irresponsibility in the midst of a globally unprecendented threat in human history. If you figured out the very man of ‘The Manufacturing Consent’(!) has been capable of betraying his most valuable achievement, at the time, you missed the point completely. Or do read more about the Socratic method before making another unconsiderate judgement of the kind.

@@fabiengerard8142 Thankfully I read enough of Chomsky in my youth to be on my guard when authoritarian powers try to coerce a population to act in a certain way for ‘the greater good’. Which is why I was so stunned when he fell for the trap. In his later years his brain is obviously not as alert as it once was. Perhaps you missed The Great Barrington Declaration where a group of the worlds most eminent biologists, virologists etc stated their absolute rejection of the handling of the pandemic response where they stated that only the vulnerable should be vaccinated and that blanket vaccination would lead to increasingly strong and quicker developing variants ( exactly what happened). Perhaps you have more faith in Bill Gates’s knowledge of MRNA technology than the actual co creator of that technology, Robert Malone, who stated that mandatory vaccination was a recipe for utter disaster and would lead to stronger and more regular variants ( again proven right) Perhaps you missed the CEO of Pfizer admitting recently that at the time of the release of their vaccine they had no idea if it stopped the spread of the virus from person to person ( despite their claims at the time that it did which subsequently proved to be completely false) I could go on. If you can’t see how the Davos lunatics are planning our future and using Covid amongst other things to get there then you aren’t really looking. A younger Chomsky ( if he is the Chomsky I grew up reading) would have spotted it a mile away. Hopefully one day you will work it out too.

Thanks a lot for your kind and detailed reply. I’ll be researching the sources you suggest me to read.

He literally defended a holocaust deniers right to free speech

No, Orwell. Not Huxley

You're too careful a listener, Mr H. I suspect that these two countries may be the US's 2 closest allies in the Middle East (although Turkey may be #2 instead of Saudi Arabia). Nonetheless, they are both much less important than Canada, Germany, the UK, France, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and possibly even Mexico. However, careful, thoughtful & discriminating analysis is NOT one of Amy Goodman's strong suits.

Chomsky has always been a dissident and it would be no surprise that he would seek to destroy the very foundation he lives on. Which is not a criticism of him, but rather a compliment.

BMyVision: Just as individuals that fail to address their own flaws without any kind of searching self-critique never change, societies also stagnate and fail to progress without any kind of similar self-critique. Individuals like Chomsky that interrogate the nature of the status quo, highlighting its flaws and inconsistencies, are essential voices within any functioning democratic system, regardless of how much their voices are overlooked by the mainstream society they critique. When a government denies its citizens the right to criticise their nation or utilizes its infrastructure and the media to control opinion and insulate it from any criticism that could undermine its power and authority, it becomes totalitarian. Under such systems the status quo remains unchallenged and political power is increasingly the preserve of an elite minority, free to pursue their interest at the expense of the majority. If the early ideological frameworks upon which all seemingly democratic systems are based are taken into consideration, Chomsky's continued criticism of American exceptionalism arguably renders him a greater defender of American democratic liberty than any current politician or the corporations that they serve. Suggesting that Chomsky's criticism of the country in which he resides renders that criticism somehow invalid, is a common piece of sophistry which is itself invalid.

You have a logical point?

@@SandfordSmythe He's a freeloading hypocrite....Why doesn't he live in one of his utopias? N Korea, Venezuela? China?

@@BMyVision Standard answer to this: Because he is an American and as an American he is entitled to his beliefs and to live where he wants. He wants to improve America, not to run away.

Haha the 'funding fathers' .....quite appropriate typo lol

There's profound love for humanity, not his country. Which is a good thing.

Cite sources? I know he sees the Palestinians as having a legitimate claim to their territory and thinks Israel oppresses them. I don't think he's ever endorsed attacks on civilians. Though when Western states are attacked he points out that this is what we routinely do to others. On the other hand, America helped arm both Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Which makes you start to suspect that it is not so clean cut as good guys versus bad guys.

Fouad Kurban he's just rambling....

Eric Watchtower rambling to you maybe ,but then again you don't know any difference, as you are buried in you're ignorance

Spam Doyle

aww, are you fantasizing? How cute.

You stole that from a line in Houlebecq.

Neither of which has worked historically.

He's been employed as a professor for decades

Can you give an example of him being proven wrong in the last 5 years?

@@KirinDave Give an example ever

@@Dylan-hy2zj I don't really have a substantial one. He's pretty careful about what he says.

You seem very confident in that delusional mindset there, friend...

@@themajesticspider-man6116 makes a statement but fails to provide a counter argument. You've convinced me good sir.....

@@humansvd3269 How's this for counter-argument: NSA spying is perfectly legal somehow, and yet, not a part of the constitution. The constitution doesn't protect us from that shit if you actually let it happen. That piece of paper means fuck-all when we allowed ourselves to be victimized by the NSA and the Patriot Act. You didn't make a single fucking argument at all, just a baseless assumption that America wasn't deemed the "exception to the rule" regarding everything else from being the world police, thought police (starting to punish boycotts of Israel over their mistreatment and occupation of Palestinians), moronically thinking we're better than other developed countries by an order of magnitude in every way, to the idea that it's morally deplorable to burn the American flag and thus, wanting to make the very act of that free expression/speech illegal. When so many of these things (and more) have been clear examples of American Exceptionalism time and time again, for you to just disregard it as something that is non-existent is a dangerously misguided and naïve way of thinking.

So you're saying that blindly accepting the idea of American Exceptionalism is necessary for 'national cohesion'. How Orwellian.

Tell him the Goulag was in Marx and still is.