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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

This is all well said, James. I struggle sometimes with how to think about the aspect of Chomsky's thought (and others on the left who share it) that so radically divorces them from the rest of us in terms of our attachment to the US. You can knock it as bad politics -- as you say "we have nothing to say to our fellow citizens, who are, for the most part, attached to their homes, their jobs, their families, their neighborhoods, and yes, their country" -- but what if it's right, morally speaking?

My instinct is that there is something actually arrested in their point of view, psychoanalytically speaking. It's a problem because not because it's un-strategic politics but because it's immature politics, because it's refusing to address something fundamental in the human condition. I haven't quite been able to articulate this point yet, but your post seems to be pushing in this direction.

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José Luis's avatar

Nonsense. The hit piece against Chomsky is a straw man. Chomsky takes care of referring to the US government, not the US nation. Why this dude can’t see the difference is the reason why one should be cautious with the ideologies of the propaganda machine.

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