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Comment by MatthewPhillips | Hacker News Reader

I hope you're kidding about his contributions to political debate. Chomsky has the maximalist attitude that represents everything that is wrong with political debate today. His hatred of U.S. foreign policy is so extreme that he will defend absolutely everyone the U.S. opposes which means occasionally defending tyrants and denying genocide.

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> His hatred of U.S. foreign policy

Sadly enough for (U.S. foreign policy and its supporters) he actually supports his claims very well with sources and footnotes, and if you read through this works, you might find that perhaps there is a reason others (who don't just watch Fox News) don't agree with said policy, and also that somehow Americans in certain parts of the world are not "hated because of our freedoms". There are other reasons.

Cranks can load their screeds with sources and footnotes, too.

There's a reason no one outside the campus left takes Chomsky's political opinions seriously, and it's not a massive conspiracy.

He's no saint, but is commonly dismissed due to committing the cardinal sin of pointing out truths make people uncomfortable.

I think his political thinking and language thinking share a similar problem: preference of ideal theories over practical solutions.

I'm amused by the idea that Chomsky is somehow some kind of dunce when it comes to science but a brilliant thinker when it comes to politics. At least with either claim individually, I can conceive of who might say that, even while thinking they're radically wrong (no pun intended).

But the idea that Chomsky's political "contributions" somehow dwarf his contributions to science? That seriously floors me.

"My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state, for two reasons. For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence. But also for a much more important reason than that; namely, I can do something about it. So even if the U.S. was responsible for 2 percent of the violence in the world instead of the majority of it, it would be that 2 percent I would be primarily responsible for. And that is a simple ethical judgment. That is, the ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated and predictable consequences. It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century."

— Noam Chomsky

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