At 03:33 PM 7/21/2006, you wrote:
>Brian Leiter has a good anatomy of Chomsky hatred here:
><http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/chomskyhaters_a.html>http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/chomskyhaters_a.html
>
>As for the compulsive need of some self-styled progressives to attack
>Chomsky - well, here are a couple of guesses:
>
>(1) Partly, it's craven pandering. Chomsky has been stigmatized for
>decades, so to publicly and violently dissociate oneself with Chomsky is
>to brand oneself as respectable.
>
>(2) Partly it's a defense mechanism. The things that Chomsky gets
>indisputably right will force you to change your fundamental view of the
>world. How do you avoid thinking about that stuff? Find something,
>anything, that you think Chomsky got wrong, and fixate on that error as
>not just an error, but as evidence that Chomsky is a pathological liar, an
>apologist for criminals, a charlatan, etc.
>
>(3) And quite possibly it's envy. Chomsky has remade his own discipline,
>while showing that a large part of mine (political science) is foolishness
>(to put the kindest face on it). Perhaps the small feel bigger when they
>proclaim that a man of genius is an idiot.
>
>
>Michael McIntyre
><mailto:mcintyremichael at mac.com>mcintyremichael at mac.com
>
>http://morbidsymptoms.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>On Jul 21, 2006, at 1:48 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"?!!
>>
>>I wondered on Sivacracy whether words like 'nuts' were useful in such
>>discussions, but I realize now I am pretty naive.
>>
>>--ravi
>>
>>--
>>Support something better than yourself: ;-)
>>PeTA: <http://www.peta.org>http://www.peta.org/
>>GreenPeace: <http://www.greenpeace.org>http://www.greenpeace.org/
>>If you have nothing better to do:
>><http://platosbeard.org>http://platosbeard.org/
>>___________________________________
>>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
>
>
>
>
>___________________________________
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