Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Chomsky (and I'm talking about his political activism, not his work in linguisitcs) is about the most dogmatic and narrow-minded intellectual alive today. Has he changed his mind about anything, or recognized any nuance, since 1968?
He's almost single-handedly responsible for fostering the notion among college-aged North Americans that the only aspect of foreign affairs they should take any interest in is the misdeeds of the U.S., and entrenching the 60s myth that the modern West is utterly broken and the worst thing on the world. He's a utopian anarchist who can't even carry on a rational debate without insulting his opponent. He's everything that's wrong with modern political academia.
I get that college undergraduates are prone to fall under the spell of gurus who take it to the man. But it's alarming how many of those undergraduates never mature past the 'bad-daddy' stage when they grow up, and continue to fawn over unshakably anti-Western radicals like Chomsky.
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Chomsky's had some good lectures regarding the decline of organized labour in the U.S. and its effect on quality of life metrics in comparison to some European countries but I can do without most of his foreign policy analysis.