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Noam Chomsky

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  • 17-02-2018 11:46am
    #1
    Gringo180
    Registered Users Posts: 9,205 ✭✭✭


    Have been listening to alot of his stuff on youtube recently and I seem to agree with most of the stuff he says, especially about U.S foreign policy and Capitalism in general. Why is it that one of the greatest minds and most cited scholars in history never gets any air time on the big news channels in America? Is it because he speaks the truth about American society and its moral decline in recent decades or do yous think hes just too far to the left?

    Hes a genius in my opinion.


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    #2
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    He is one of the most famous people in America and gets a lot of air time.


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    #3
    Gringo180
    Registered Users Posts: 9,205 ✭✭✭Gringo180


    biko wrote: »
    He is one of the most famous people in America and gets a lot of air time.

    Have never seen him on any of the big news channels in America? Any links to him on CNN or Fox for instance?


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    #4
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    biko wrote: »
    He is one of the most famous people in America and gets a lot of air time.
    No he doesn't.

    Chomsky is rarely invited on to the bigger networks because his politics are too far left and because he refuses to do sound bites. That is, by choice, he dislikes giving short interviews because he lacks the time to sufficiently explain his position.

    OP, if you're watching his videos he actually touches on this fairly regularly.


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    #5
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    Maybe you need to spell his name right - Chomsky ;)

    I don't know what you definition of "never gets airtime" is but Noam is mentioned and interviewed many times if you look.
    https://www.google.ie/search?q=Noam+Chomsky+site%3Acnn.com
    https://www.google.ie/search?q=Noam+Chomsky+site%3Afoxnews.com

    Of course these are not the only two networks and if he was so suppressed, how come everyone here knows who he is?


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    #6
    F1fan
    Registered Users Posts: 187 ✭✭F1fan


    I wouldn’t have expected him to ever be on Fox, but a quick google seems to confirm your suspicions that he does not appear often on Us networks. However, I can recall several interviews and response pieces featuring him, so there is definitely material out there.

    https://www.alternet.org/media/noam-chomsky-unravels-political-mechanics-behind-his-gradual-expulsion-mainstream-media


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    #7
    Richard Hillman
    Registered Users Posts: 12,033 ✭✭✭✭Richard Hillman


    A contrarian that feeds off the contrarious nature of other folk.


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    #8
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    Fox are a right-wing network and probably not very interested in left-wing politics of Noam
    Yet they has at least an article or video interview with Noam at least once a year.

    I don't think that is what's known as "no airtime"...


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    #9
    brevity
    Registered Users Posts: 8,504 ✭✭✭brevity


    He's in a heap of documentaries on Netflix.

    I think he could do well on Joe Rogan's podcast or Sam Harris maybe? Bring Peterson on as well for the laughs. Although I think I've had enough of Peterson.


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    #10
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    He had an email exchange with Harris at one stage and it was pretty acrimonious. Doubt he'll ever do the show.


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    #11
    ceadaoin.
    Registered Users Posts: 8,148 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    I went to an IT in west Dublin and even there I learned about Noam Chomsky ffs.

    Edit: almost 20 years ago.


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    #12
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    He's 89 years old, how much air time do you want him to have?
    Without capitalism Noam Chomsky wouldn't have the freedom or resources to be able to to theorize about how awful capitalism is.


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    #13
    Mountainsandh
    Registered Users Posts: 6,700 ✭✭✭Mountainsandh


    I remember being taught Chomsky's in school (lycée) back in France in the late 80s into 90s. He's a real interesting man, I'm always curious and impressed listening to him, yet one day I decided to fact check a little bit of what he was saying on a particular topic, and he had finely chopped and selected bits out of some studies he was referencing.
    The biased editing above turned me off him somewhat. The grandfather look inspires wisdom and trustworthiness but I felt a bit let down tbh.

    I'm still interested, but always a bit dubious now listening to him.


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    #14
    Roger Hassenforder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,555 ✭✭✭Roger Hassenforder


    Taking the US military dime, to make more money givng about about the US military.


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    #15
    biko
    Registered Users Posts: 81,223 ✭✭✭✭biko


    New York Times is a big news outlet and mentions him almost monthly
    https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/noam-chomsky


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    #16
    Charmeleon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 437 ✭✭Charmeleon


    Used to have enormous respect for Chomsky, but when you look at his past denial of the genocide in Cambodia and his questioning of the motives of refugees fleeing it, you realise he's just as blind to the dangers of radical politics as he is blind to the enormous progress social democracy has brought us, built on capitalism.


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    #17
    JohnnyFlash
    Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    Never heard of the dude. Must not be that famous.


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    #18
    Koala Sunshine
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 125 ✭✭Koala Sunshine


    Gringo180 wrote: »
    Have been listening to alot of his stuff on youtube recently and I seem to agree with most of the stuff he says, especially about U.S foreign policy and Capitalism in general. Why is it that one of the greatest minds and most cited scholars in history never gets any air time on the big news channels in America? Is it because he speaks the truth about American society and its moral decline in recent decades or do yous think hes just too far to the left?

    Hes a genius in my opinion.

    Captilism is the best known method of allocating capital efficiently.


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    #19
    Gringo180
    Registered Users Posts: 9,205 ✭✭✭Gringo180


    Koala Sunshine wrote: »
    Captilism is the best known method of allocating capital efficiently.

    Capitalism in its early days was fine but it has now evolved into Corporationism. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Big difference.


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    #20
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 12,968 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Chomsky's views on free markets are a bit more nuanced than "capitalism is bad". Here's something he said back in 1999, and events since then have only backed it up, in my opinion:
    I should say that when people talk about capitalism it's a bit of a joke. There's no such thing. No country, no business class, has ever been willing to subject itself to the free market, free market discipline. Free markets are for others. Like, the Third World is the Third World because they had free markets rammed down their throat. Meanwhile, the enlightened states, England, the United States, others, resorted to massive state intervention to protect private power, and still do. That's right up to the present. I mean, the Reagan administration for example was the most protectionist in post-war American history. Virtually the entire dynamic economy in the United States is based crucially on state initiative and intervention: computers, the internet, telecommunication, automation, pharmaceutical, you just name it. Run through it, and you find massive ripoffs of the public, meaning, a system in which under one guise or another the public pays the costs and takes the risks, and profit is privatized. That's very remote from a free market. Free market is like what India had to suffer for a couple hundred years, and most of the rest of the Third World.
    There have been a few threads on "neoliberalism" recently, the definition of which can be a bit fluid: the definition I've settled on is an over-emphasis on or over-application of "free markets" in cases where there isn't actually a free market. Examples of this would be the privatisation of the railways in the UK or the Healthcare system in the USA: industries playing at free markets but not really being exposed to free market competition - instead enjoying cartels or monopolies in practice.

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #21
    DickSwiveller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,697 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller


    Chomsky's most interesting work is in the field of Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Philosophy etc. He completely transformed the entire field of linguistics in the 1950's. I don't care much for his political stuff, but he is an extremely intelligent person, no doubt.


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    #22
    dd972
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,563 ✭✭✭dd972


    He's the archetype adult in the room, each day we've still got him is a good one.


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    #23
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    He's 89 years old, how much air time do you want him to have?
    Without capitalism Noam Chomsky wouldn't have the freedom or resources to be able to to theorize about how awful capitalism is.

    I’m pretty sure he would.

    Whatever about capitalism he’s solid on US imperialism.


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    #24
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    bnt wrote: »
    Chomsky's views on free markets are a bit more nuanced than "capitalism is bad". Here's something he said back in 1999, and events since then have only backed it up, in my opinion:

    There have been a few threads on "neoliberalism" recently, the definition of which can be a bit fluid: the definition I've settled on is an over-emphasis on or over-application of "free markets" in cases where there isn't actually a free market. Examples of this would be the privatisation of the railways in the UK or the Healthcare system in the USA: industries playing at free markets but not really being exposed to free market competition - instead enjoying cartels or monopolies in practice.

    Neo liberalism is the policy that abandoned Keynesian theory in the 70’s and went back to more laissez faire ideology of the 19C.


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    #25
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    JohnnyFlash wrote: »
    Never heard of the dude. Must not be that famous.

    I’d say he wouldn’t be your cup of tea.


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    #26
    Donald Trump
    Registered Users Posts: 19,208 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    ceadaoin. wrote: »
    I went to an IT in west Dublin and even there I learned about Noam Chomsky ffs.

    Edit: almost 20 years ago.

    Ah Jaysus, ffs is right. Morto for ya :pac:

    Eamonn Dunphy used to have him on his radio program all the time. That is probably why people had heard his name then


    (Going off on a serious tangent, and speaking of Dunphy, anyone remember the genius of Zig and Zag doing the "Amoan Grumpy" and "Johnny Styles" pisstakes)


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    #27
    Donald Trump
    Registered Users Posts: 19,208 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    JohnnyFlash wrote: »
    Never heard of the dude. Must not be that famous.


    Doesn't get his baps out on instagram or appear on Celebrity Big Brother you mean?


    Although he was rumoured to have released a lot of homemade sex tapes. Don't google them though unless you want to be permanently scarred


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    #28
    Cheerful Spring
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,893 ✭✭✭Cheerful Spring


    American establishment does like hearing their country is not the greatest country on Earth. They still can not believe a reality TV host beat Hilary Clinton the establishment politician. They had to blame Russia for it to make themselves feel better.


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    #29
    Ajsoprano
    Closed Accounts Posts: 698 ✭✭✭Ajsoprano


    He says stuff I been saying for years but people call him a genius and me an idiot.

    Must be in the delivery.

    I read here people talking about car finance and how if they didn’t do x people wouldn’t be buying new cars and something needed to be done.

    This got me thinking.

    Should we all live in a system where pulling resources out of the ground and making jobs for people and hoovering more money to corporations is a good thing and people being happy with the cars they have a bad thing.

    Surely we should be saying there’s not as work to be doing this is great cut the working week by a few hours and stash off all that steel Incase we need it in the future.

    What if they realise they can harness to power of steel to fuel space travel in a few years and it’s all rusted in scrapyards.

    Say ten people landed on an island and had enough food and a luxury life and somebody tried to trick them into thinking they needed to work 40 hrs a week writing their name in the sand. Then when all when all the sand was wrote on panicked because the people had no jobs so he decided they needed to write their names on the trees until the sand got a wash.
    This is pretty much society.

    People worry about robots taking jobs because people would have no jobs.

    Can’t there be a system where the robots can do all the work and we can cruise around to the robot shop and buy what we want for free with a don’t take the piss rule.

    No there can’t be that system because it’d be too fair and I want to have more than my neighbour.


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    #30
    Cheerful Spring
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,893 ✭✭✭Cheerful Spring


    Gringo180 wrote: »
    Have been listening to alot of his stuff on youtube recently and I seem to agree with most of the stuff he says, especially about U.S foreign policy and Capitalism in general. Why is it that one of the greatest minds and most cited scholars in history never gets any air time on the big news channels in America? Is it because he speaks the truth about American society and its moral decline in recent decades or do yous think hes just too far to the left?

    Hes a genius in my opinion.

    George Carlin was a great thinker even though he day job was being a comedian. I love his comedy about capitalism and not much has changed in 2018..





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    #31
    Princess Consuela Bananahammock
    Registered Users Posts: 33,236 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    Koala Sunshine wrote: »
    Captilism is the best known method of allocating capital efficiently when you're filthy rich and don't have a conscience...

    FYP

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



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