This text alone is quite an "engagement with his opponents." And he's spent more than thirty years calling upon his country to live up to his best traditions. He constantly insists that he's writing in America, for Americans. --CGE
On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, James Baird wrote:
> This is really sad to observe. Chomsky has been an intellectual idol
> of mine for a long time. Most of what I've learned about U.S. foreign
> policy I learned from his books. Now he seems so caught up in absolute
> hatred for any and everything to do with the U.S. that he quite
> literally cannot think in any other terms. If Martians appeared and,
> a la "Independence Day" destroyed the White House and Empire State
> building, he would no doubt blame it on the imperialist depradations
> of the Mariner spacecraft.
>
> But even sadder is his inablity to even reasonably engage with his
> opponents. Someone who questions his judgement or his facts is not
> merely wrong, they are either a racist or a "commisar" who is trying
> to distort the truth for nefarious ends. This backhanded way of
> engaging in ad hominim attack (step back and pretend to be instructing
> your readers in the way "these people" think, or pretend to not
> understand the question, since surely no rational person could think
> such things) was always distasteful, but lately it seems to be the
> only thing he's able to do.
>
> A sad end for a great mind.
>
> Jim Baird