On Jul 21, 2006, at 2:48 PM, ravi wrote:
> Today I came across two old bits on the net. One by some guy named
> Michael Berube at Penn State suggesting that Chomsky's words (on the
> invasion of Yugoslavia) a pack of lies (Berube doesn't offer much
> support for this claim) and then another by blogger Atrios (Duncan
> Black) who writes this:
>
>> In any case, Chomsky's problem is not that he's anti-War -- this
>> "war" is getting sillier by the minute - the problem is that he's an
>> idiot.
>
> Is this the face of the new left? I say that because Berube contrasts
> Chomsky to "real progressives" (I guess Berube's point being that
> he is
> part of the real progressives, while clearly Chomsky is some lone
> poser), and similarly from Atrios.
>
> This if bloody fucking depressing. Half-wit punks with a web site can
> actually suggest Chomsky, of all people, is an "idiot"?!!
Amazing, isn't it? Berube's not a bad sort otherwise, and I don't know why he has to do this. But it seems like denouncing Chomsky is a way to be taken "seriously" by the mainstream - even when he cites impeccable sources (as on Yugo), and the denouncers can do nothing but say "Lies!" Or if not taken seriously, at least to differentiate yourself from the allegedly loony left, despite the fact that the relentlessly logical and informed Chomsky is about as un-loony as you can get.
Doug