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SHALIZI_CHALLENGES_CHOMSKY

                                             September 14, 2021

More about:

   http://bactra.org/chomsky.html

A lot of Shalizi's piece, perhaps unfortunately,
spends a lot of time trying to deflate the             For one thing I had
exhalted regard many people have for Chomsky--         trouble *finding* this
                                                       piece again because to
This is awkward: yes, many overrate                    my mind it has next to
Chomsky, but Shalzi overworks this                     nothing to do with
complaint and has to keep pulling-up                   Chomsky, but that's
the reigns to remind himself to give                   how it's titled.
Chomsky his due.

The low point, I think:

   As for his criticisms of the existing state of affairs,
   one should very much like to know how it has come to pass
   that many of those who feel qualified to judge
   intellectual eminence take it as a revelation that the
   United State of America is an imperial power which has
   committed, supported and denied atrocities all over the
   world, or that centralizing the news media in the hands
   of large, advertising-supported corporations, owned in
   whole or in part by other huge companies, leads to
   bias. These are important facts, of course, and they are
   news to many people. ...

It occurs to me that you could ask Chomsky the question of
"how it has come to pass" and he could probably do a pretty
good job of answering it-- he's good at tracking these
quirks of the history of American political discourse.

I suspect that the answer Chomsky would come up is
similar to the one I would: "Twas ever thus."
There's never been a time in the history of the
United States when the intellectual climate was
actually receptive to criticism of US policy-- and
Shalizi certainly knows this.  Further, I don't think
there's ever been a time when anyone with the courage
to try to check American triumphalism has not paid a
price for it-- to our credit, we (rarely) jail people   Unfortunately, there
for speaking their mind, but we do a fine job of        have been a number of
marginalizing them, shuffling them off into corners     exceptions on the
where few feel the need to pay much attention to        no-jail-for-dissent:
them.                                                   "whistle-blower"
                                                        protections are nearly
                                                        non-existent where the
                                                        federal government is
                                                        concerned, e.g. Bradley/
                                                        Chelsea Manning.




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