Noam Chomsky On The Election

He left out the most critical reason which is that Americans don't make any distinctions between mob rule and democracy. In over ten years of my asking I have yet to hear a single person who knows the simple distinction between a lynch mob and a democracy. Americans tend to think majority rule is what its all about, then shake their heads when they see people rioting in the streets and executing cops as if they really think for one minute that the minorities are going to let the wealthy and majority just stomp on them without mercy. The war on drugs, for example, has made no progress whatsoever with some 12% of all federal prisoners being incarcerated for pot violations, often being over 40 years old, never incarcerated before, getting 88 month sentences, and don't even own a gun. If you can't distinguish between war and democracy then war it will be and Germany needed Hitler to show them the error of their evil ways.

 

He's not saying anything I haven't heard from every other liberal academic "intellectual" who's far superior to the angry, ill-educated white men who voted for Trump (as if minorites did not also vote for him).

Sure, there is a grain of truth to what he says, but it always seems to go back to the issue of race and white people hating minorities. Otherwise they would have voted for Hillary (apparently), since she cares so much about minorities and the downtrodden.

I DO see many frightening things coming out of a Trump presidency, however, and I do see a trend towards fascism in the authoritarian / statist sense of the word (we have already begun to see this trend over the last 15 years). However, the whole racial slant seems like it's being played up by liberals to create more of a divide and conquer mentality.

Most of the fear and hatred people have towards Muslims, for instance, is tied directly to the media and its perpetual fear peddling.

 

The people voted for change ........ any change.
Clinton was NO change, Trump was change.

Same for Brexit,
Remain was NO change. Leave was change.

It will happen in France next, then maybe Germany.
They've pushed us around for long enough, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin ...... they would all mean change ..... and they'd all get elected.

 

Oh yay, another person who I've never heard of has an opinion on the election that I look oh so forward to reading .... NOT!!

What's the point in stating your business AFTER the election like seriously god damn. People have more to say now than before. Well if you had something to say you should have said it then, not now that it's done. Fuck. Just accept and move on with your lives already!!

 

That's the part of the press that we really need to address. They paint a duplicitous picture of Muslims, first portraying them as murderers and terrorists, for years. Then suddenly switching gears and accusing Americans of being "racists" for thinking of Muslims as murderers and terrorists.

Yes, I realize the press can be counted on to play both sides of the street, it's why we have Fox News (paid opposition) and the like. What's disgusting is watching them not only fan the flames, but we have them lighting the fires as well, twisting information into plausible lies.

I think they had more integrity back when they were called reporters. Ever since they became wealthy "journalists" a person has to read dozens of media sources to get even close to the truth. If you take it at face value alone, you're probably wrong.

 

Are you against the American system of 2 parties? Are you against the 1st Amendment's protection of free speech? Freedom of religion? Just curious.

 

You seem to be kind a bit rash. It says in the op this was from before the election. Noam Chomsky's has been prominent for a looong time. I'm sorry you've never heard of him. He's a pretty bright guy.

 

Oh so we are reading pre election opinions post election? Oh yeah, that's completely making sense now... :unsure:

No need to be sorry, homie. I've never heard of 80% of people folk talk about here.

 

That, there is exactly what is happening. lol

Sometimes if we "take apart" where we went wrong sometimes, we can figure what we should have done.

or something like that.

 

Some wit once remarked that when the Soviet Union fell apart freedom in the free world immediately became more expensive. My constitutional rights have been suspended indefinitely, every cop in the country now uses warrantless searches and wiretaps, the NSA is reading a third of the country's emails, and congress has already given the military the authority to round citizens up like cattle and made all the necessary preparations to do so, while the 2% now own everything in the country and we now have the world's largest ever prison population. Meanwhile, both political parties like to talk about words on paper as if they have some nostalgic meaning and they would never use them for toilet paper. While they copyright freedom of speech and start charging by the syllable.

 

And look how that turned out!

 

I agree. Le Pen in France and I think the election in Germany is the one to watch, they hold a lot of power in the EU.

Good interview with John Pilger, one of the only journalists out there speaking truthfully and openly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Ho8OrBzig

 

The USA always looks bad when taken out of context. Compared to the rest of the world, when it was created, and today, it isn't that bad. Heck, immigrants often say so. At least we have reporters who can report on the bad, without getting jailed, beaten, or killed, as happens in Russia and China, today.

Anyway. Not trying to diss your entire point.

 

Meaning his biases are congruent with your own.

 

You seem proud of that.

 

It's difficult to generalize about "the Meida". FOX has been relentless in its "duplicitous picture of Muslims"; CNN and MSNBC tend to swing in the opposite directionAnd then we have Breitbart and talk radio. Scapegoating "the Media" doesn't work.

 

Oh, I am proud of that. The way I see it, the less politicians names I know the better my life is going to be.

Imma just call him Gnome. Good ol' Gnome Choadski.

 

Proudly ignorant! That's okay, but why should anyone take anything you say seriously?