<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Brian Leiter has a good anatomy of Chomsky hatred here:<DIV><A href="http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/chomskyhaters_a.html">http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/chomskyhaters_a.html</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>As for the compulsive need of some self-styled progressives to attack Chomsky - well, here are a couple of guesses:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>(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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>(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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>(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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Michael McIntyre</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><A href="mailto:mcintyremichael@mac.com">mcintyremichael@mac.com</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><A href="http://morbidsymptoms.blogspot.com">http://morbidsymptoms.blogspot.com</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>On Jul 21, 2006, at 1:48 PM, ravi wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Today I came across two old bits on the net. One by some guy named</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Michael Berube at Penn State suggesting that Chomsky's words (on the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">invasion of Yugoslavia) a pack of lies (Berube doesn't offer much</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">support for this claim) and then another by blogger Atrios (Duncan</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Black) who writes this:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">In any case, Chomsky's problem is not that he's anti-War -- this</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"war" is getting sillier by the minute - the problem is that he's an</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">idiot.</DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Is this the face of the new left? I say that because Berube contrasts</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Chomsky to "real progressives" (I guess Berube's point being that he is</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">part of the real progressives, while clearly Chomsky is some lone</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">poser), and similarly from Atrios.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This if bloody fucking depressing. Half-wit punks with a web site can</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">actually suggest Chomsky, of all people, is an "idiot"?!!</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I wondered on Sivacracy whether words like 'nuts' were useful in such</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">discussions, but I realize now I am pretty naive.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>--ravi</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Support something better than yourself: ;-)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">PeTA: <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><A href="http://www.peta.org">http://www.peta.org</A>/</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">GreenPeace: <A href="http://www.greenpeace.org">http://www.greenpeace.org</A>/</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If you have nothing better to do: <A href="http://platosbeard.org">http://platosbeard.org</A>/</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">___________________________________</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</A></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV><BR><BR><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>