in this interview, (and in a few others), Chomsky says that the left is to blame for the tea party: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWs6g3L3fkU
and in another interview, he intimates that, if we don't get it together, we can be blamed for the rise of fascism.
WTF! how on earth do you engage in all that analysis of the media ideology machine, yak away about powerful interests, etc. and then actually blame the left for the Tea Party and, possibly, fascism.
he says he "wouldn't ridicule the answers that are being given to" the Tea Party by the right - Limbaugh, Palin, etc. Instead, those answers are understandable and he assumes they are "sincere." (referencing Limbaugh interviewing Palin back in dec 2008). "If Limbaugh says, 'what do you think about this junk science elitist liberals are trying to foist on us?' and if she (Palin) says, 'yeah, just look out the window, you can't see any palm trees growing in Alaska.' (as refutation to the junk science)
then he says that the "answers they *are* getting are not only crazy but extremely dangerous. so the *right* response is to ask *ourselves*, why are we failing to organize these people."
so, don't ridicule their ideas - except when you do(and call them crazy)?
it's as if chomsky tremendously admires the idea that you merely need give really simple answers to make an impact. be more like Sarah Palin, I guess, and point out the window at a "fact" - a palm tree is not growing in Alaska - and, voila!, the people will get it and be moved to your position.
how do you trace the duplicity of the press - where lies and truth are told on the exact same page (figuratively) speaking - revealing the stronghold capitalist ideology has on people, talk about the massive propaganda from the business class and then think ideology is so easilyl undone. if the propaganda requires so much effort to implant and sustain itself, relently shaping hearts, bodies, and minds to keep people in line, adhering to that ideology, how it is that it just melts away at mere exposure to the facts.
Later, the interviewer asks him why, if there are shared ideas about the bank bailouts, etc on the left and right, why can't unify them since we're going after the same targets. Chomsky's answer: "because we have not succeeded in unifying them. it's our fault."
this is really strange. it's as if all you have to do is yak it up with people, talk away about the facts and the way it is, and --voila! -- the left/right will be unified against the common enemy of capitalism.
and where does he get the idea that the left hasn't been giving people answers for a damn long time, in all kinds of venues, in all kinds of ways, through all kinds of media, in easy-to-understand phamplets (like his!), in activist organizations, in their participation in various groups (like antiwar, feminist etc. - that's where i first encountered marxist analysis -- though no one told me they were marxist or identified what they were saying as a marxist-inspired idea.)
feh!
how do you write about this huge propaganda machine and then turn around and pretend that getting a hearing in the face of the machine is pretty difficult. but it isn't the fault of a capitalist system that rejects and viciously puts down those ideas, it is, rather, the fault of leftists for not making their views sufficiently clear.
yeah yeah i know. but chomsky's your hero. whatever.
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