[lbo-talk] FW: My Very, Very Allergic Reaction To Brad Delong On Chomsky (from ZNet)

[C. G. Estabrook]

This comment is either vicious or remarkably ignorant.  No one who has
read any of Chomsky can regard him as anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi.  But he is
a principled defender of free speech, who asserts that if you don't
believe in free speech for people you despise, you don't believe in it at
all. (He's also said that he thought these matters were decided in the
Enlightenment -- of which apparently some soi-disant liberals have not
heard.)  --CGE

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Brad DeLong wrote:


> ...Ed Herman claims that Chomsky's defense of Nazi sympathizer Robert
> Faurisson "soley [as] a defense of the right of free speech and that
> from beginning to end that was all the struggle was about for
> Chomsky."
> 
> PUH-LEEAAZE! Chomsky did not write that Faurisson was a Nazi
> sympathizer--and for that reason it was the more important to protect
> his free speech. Chomsky wrote that Faurisson seemed to be "a
> relatively apolitical liberal" who was being smeared by zionists.
> 
> Herman then repeats the lie by claiming that Faurisson's critics were
> "unable to provide any credible evidence of anti-Semitism or
> neo-Naziism."
>