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>Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2001 10:47:20 +1000
> extropians@extropy.org Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au> Re: Chomsky (was: Christopher Hitchens' Column)Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>
>At 12:33 AM 06/10/2001, Michael Wiik wrote:
>>Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Considering that Chomsky is one of those types who continues to make
>> > excuses for the Khmer Rouge's killing fields (one of Chomsky's cause
>> > celebre), he is indeed as John describes.
>>
>>I've heard that, but never actually read it myself. Which is good, since
>>I think I got some useful stuff out of some writings of his about the
>>differences in american press coverage when reporting on el salvador vs.
>>nicaragua. If I had first encountered Chomsky via his defense of the
>>Khmer Rouge I doubt I would have read further.
>>
>>What think you, extropians? Would you rather be judged by the best thing
>>you wrote, or the worst?
>
>Interesting point Michael.
>
>Hmmm... Lorrey's quote you give above is a good example of why I plonked
>him. The harebrained assertion by Lorrey that Chomsky makes excuses for the
>Khmer Rouge's murders is not even worth arguing about.
>
>Joe Dees has gone completely off the deep end about Chomsky too. I wonder
>what it is about Chomsky that they hate so much. He has always seemed to me
>carefully honest.
>
>I doubt that either Lorrey or Dees has actually read what Chomsky has
>written -- just what others have said about him. I don't idolise the guy, I
>just recognise that he's an honest person seeking the truth, and has some
>valid info to contribute. To vilify him the way some people here have been
>doing strikes me as downright weird. It is not even guilty till proven
>innocent, but prejudgement on whim. Hardly the kind of quality we are gonna
>need if we are to live comfortably with each other for millennia.
>
>Cheers,
>
I own perhaps a dozen of his books on linguistics and generative grammer. When he began misrepresentationally titling books as if they concerned such topics and filling them instead with his monochromatic political dreck was when I blew him off as an axe-grinding crackpot. He's after the cult status dollar bill, just like baudrillard; he was smart enough to figure out what would make him money off a fanatical subpopulation, and cynical enough to do it.
>
> - Miriam
>
>
>
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