NOAM CHOMSKY ~~ DILETTANTE EXTRAORDINAIRE

November 11, 2009 at 12:15 (Activism, DesertPeace Editorial, Gaza, Israel, Palestine)

Just my two cents…..

Noam_Chomsky“It is wise to attend to deeds, not rhetoric” – Chomsky …… it would be wise if he made this his mantra.

At one time I was impressed every time Noam Chomsky spoke. Seeing his name on lists endorsing political actions was most encouraging…. but NOT seeing him participate in those actions sort of put a damper on the situation.

In recent days he has been very vocal about the situation in Gaza. He speaks of International Solidarity as a new phenomena in People’s Struggles. Did he never hear of the International Brigades that went to Spain to fight Franco? Did he not hear of the worldwide movement to eliminate apartheid in South Africa? Does he think Cuba could have survived as a free nation all these years without the support of International Support Groups?

Chomsky overlooks the movements of Palestinians within Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. He gives the impression that without his endorsements, nothing will change. So typical of so many ‘ivory tower’ dwellers. The problem with these people is that their views of reality are often obstructed and they never really see the entire picture of a situation.

The struggle of the Gazans, and all other struggles of people throughout the world need more than endorsements. They need action, they need your ‘body on line’. People often ask me to define the word zionist….. I often say that a zionist is a person, not living in Israel, that writes a TAX DEDUCTIBLE check to the Jewish National Fund every year. Perhaps that definition oversimplifies such a vile movement, but even there you see a large ‘movement’ of talkers, not doers.

We in the People’s Movements cannot afford talk…. to quote from Chomsky himself, “It is wise to attend to deeds, not rhetoric”.

You can read about the Free Gaza Movement HERE. See where you can fit in…. we need YOU, not your endorsement.

The following is a recent interview with Noam Chomsky, the interview that soured me as far as he is concerned….. I usually refrain from this type of post, but the dilettantes of the ‘left’ are really getting to me.


13 Comments

  1. mary said,

    November 11, 2009 at 14:26

    Steve, I am totally with you here! I published Mamoon’s review of the talk for “chronicle” sake, but I am not a Chomsky fan personally for all the reasons you state.

  2. Amerikagulag said,

    November 11, 2009 at 22:26

    I’ve become sour on Chomsky of late too. There was a time, but that time is over. There are many covert zionists in the world. Also many covert Jews. Their aims are similar. Many people are put in places to recite lines and scripts to give the appearance of opposition when in fact none exists. I believe Chomsky to be one of them. He says there is ‘no point’ in reopening an investigation into 911. Complicity with treason does not command respect.

  3. andrew said,

    November 12, 2009 at 00:33

    i’m not sure why you guys are so angry at him? because he’s an old man and he won’t travel over to palestine in a boat? because he won’t sign a petition to boycott an israeli dance group?

    as for the 9/11 truthers, we can ignore them until they show the same concern for the lost lives and suffering of non-americans

  4. kenny said,

    November 12, 2009 at 01:57

    Chomsky fails all of the litmus tests. He’s old and can’t even cover up his role as controlled opposition anymore. Good riddance.

  5. Ellis said,

    November 13, 2009 at 19:57

    In Barry Zwicker’s book called “Towers of Deception — The Media Cover-Up of 9/11,” there’s a 50-page chapter called: “The Shame of Noam Chomsky and the Gatekeepers of the Left.”

    Here’s a link to a review of the book which has a good description of that chapter (scoll down or search for the word “Chomsky”).

    http://reprehensor.gnn.tv/blogs/18203/Barrie_Zwicker_Towers_of_Deception_a_review

    But I don’t think Chomsky’s ashamed of anything, he just does the job that he’s been there to do (for decades), which is to pose as the great intellectual leftist who uses the very fact that people respect him, as a way of diverting their attention from what really are *ALL* of the key issues. He’s been very effective at doing that but now people have caught on.

  6. John Dudley said,

    November 13, 2009 at 20:55

    Give the poor guy a break. He is simply getting on in age and is increasingly unable to convincingly fulfill his role as the loyal opposition to the more belligerent Zionists. Within the last few years Chomsky has mangle the prestige he once enjoyed by, among other things, exhibiting a strange sort of covert hostility to and denial of the rather obvious findings of Mearsheimer and Walt on the power of the Israel lobby over US foreign policy. He then became further damaged by his either ignoring or criticism of the of 9-11 truthers. I believe this was the result of his suddenly dawning belief that further investigation might find Israeli complicity. This was just another example of his long time tendency to look the other way when things point to the almost absolute independence of Israeli foreign policy from American controls.

    Chomsky’s role as arbiter will probably be taken over by the much younger Amy Goodman who might be even worse. It was Goodman you will recall who went out of her way to make sure that none of the widespread opposition to the Iraq war that came from the paleo conservative wing of the Republican Party became known to her audience. When Antiwar.com’s Justin Raimondo was, under pressure, finally allowed on her TV program her extreme distaste for him couldn’t have been more obvious.The absolute look of disgust on her face while interviewing Raimondo made it blatantly clear what she felt about Raimondo and his ilk.

    In effect, by her deliberately ignoring this right wing opposition she turned the Iraq War into merely another crypto Marxist confrontation between the “bad” right and the “good” left wing. She, in effect, was just as responsible for the continuation of the Iraq war as was either Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly. After all, these two boobs were simply following the dictates of Rupert Murdoch who had undoubtedly ordered them to ignore the right wing opposition to the war because such opposition might have given made more mainstream Republican voter question their support of the war. Goodman didn’t have either of these two limitations but chose, like the “Foxers” to similarly, for ideological reasons alone, to virtually totally ignore this opposition. Goodman’s actions as regarding this have made me question her underlying motivations.

    The left wing site Counterpunch.com, very much to its credit, did the right thing and has continually offered up doses to its readers of both right wing and left wing opposition to the war. If this site had had the same media access as Amy Goodman, they might have made much more of a difference as regards this ongoing travesty.

  7. smokingmirrors said,

    November 13, 2009 at 21:48

    I had my Chomsky epiphany when he said it didn’t matter who did 9/11. He has that sort of bloodless indifference that reminds me of The Walrus and the Carpenter. His vanity, which is the size of the Hindenburg when there was a Hindenburg, combined with his unctuous and smarmy manner of speaking, all contribute to make him someone I would avoid like the plague. He’s the premier left gatekeeper in the world today and he KNOWS who did 9/11 and that is why he says it doesn’t matter. All these engagements of his with the Palestinians is just one more photo-op. I’ve had to restrain myself from saying what I really feel but they would just be words anyway.

  8. Adam Zettler said,

    November 13, 2009 at 23:24

    I have to echo what others have said here but add one more (I hope), point.
    Noam Chomsky has always been “controlled opposition”, working within the framework of the machine. The gatekeeper left, like Goodman, Chomsky and for instance Democratic Underground, will eventually fall the wayside as more and more people abandon the left right paradigm and move towards a simple truth and freedom paradigm. The elites worst fear is the joining hands of the “left” and the “right” and that is what I see happening everyday.

  9. Jessica Ramer said,

    November 13, 2009 at 23:47

    I have listened to other interviews with Chomsky in which he has strongly condemned the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians. This isn’t one of his better interviews but his best stuff is still wonderful.

    Jessica Ramer

  10. Sam said,

    November 14, 2009 at 04:23

    “Give the poor guy a break. He is simply getting on in age and is increasingly unable to convincingly fulfill his role as the loyal opposition to the more belligerent Zionists.”

    Give ME a break. Chomsky knows (do you know yet?) that the 9/11 mass murder wasn’t done by Muslims, and he knows that it was done by Israeli zionist Jews for the express purpose of blaming it on Muslims. And he has been operating as a very influential part of the post-9/11 media-management program by using his prestige (“America’s greatest intellectual,” he has been called) to trick people into believing that the true facts about 9/11 are just a “conspiracy theory,” so that people will go on believing the crime was done by Muslims! Really no way to say how vile that is. The crime itself was designed to be blamed on people who didn’t do it, and Chomsky has been using his position in our culture to make sure that the false blame *STAYS ON* the people who didn’t do the crime! He’s doing what he can to make sure the 9/11 mass murder succeeds in its indescribably nasty purpose of mass defamation.

  11. Jane Doe said,

    November 14, 2009 at 13:19

    Chomsky’s daring, Amy Goodman’s, show Democracy Now! is called “Hypocrisy Now!” by producers at some fellow Pacifica stations.

    Democracy Now cuts deals that strangle other indie TV and radio news shows, so ends up actually killing independent news in this country while portraying itself as some bastion of truthiness.

    Chomsky’s about the most irritating man alive.

  12. brian said,

    November 14, 2009 at 22:18

    andrew,. as a 9-11 truther, i have more concern for the sufferings of non-americans than you do. The current WAR ON TERROR(REGD TM) had its beginnings in the neocons PNAC, with their desire for a New Pearl Harbor.