Drudge Headlines Chomsky

[DanDaManJC]

Not too long ago the Drudgereport ran this headline:

Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to "Nazis" and links to this story
http://www.mediaite.com/online...t-wing-media-to-nazis/

So basically... what are your thoughts?

Reading the reaction to his comments was very disconcerting. Rather than attempting to discuss the core issue, which Chomsky describes in his opening statement -- the flight of wealth from the American middle class -- people instead end of focusing on the fringe issues (look at the comments). Choosing to nitpick his choice of a poor analogy (which he does acknowledge is pushing it a bit too far). Or simply stooping down and just dismissing him as another left wing nut who's been holed up in our left-wing academic system far too long. Or taking a partisan position. Again... what about the core issue at stake? When you have a logical discussion, you attack the core of the issue. Rather than attacking Chomsky personally... why not defend Rush/Savage's answer to the question?

I know that the inability of people to think rationally is not limited to right wingers... in fact I consider myself pretty conservative... but honestly. It's disgusting. The world would be so much happier with a bit more understanding.

I guess that's my own youthful delusion.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: DanDaManJC
Not too long ago the Drudgereport ran this headline:

Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to "Nazis" and links to this story
http://www.mediaite.com/online...t-wing-media-to-nazis/

So basically... what are your thoughts?

Reading the reaction to his comments was very disconcerting. Rather than attempting to discuss the core issue, which Chomsky describes in his opening statement -- the flight of wealth from the American middle class -- people instead end of focusing on the fringe issues (look at the comments). Choosing to nitpick his choice of a poor analogy (which he does acknowledge is pushing it a bit too far). Or simply stooping down and just dismissing him as another left wing nut who's been holed up in our left-wing academic system far too long. Or taking a partisan position. Again... what about the core issue at stake? When you have a logical discussion, you attack the core of the issue. Rather than attacking Chomsky personally... why not defend Rush/Savage's answer to the question?

I know that the inability of people to think rationally is not limited to right wingers... in fact I consider myself pretty conservative... but honestly. It's disgusting. The world would be so much happier with a bit more understanding.

I guess that's my own youthful delusion.

Actually, there are several comments that hit the nail right on the head. For example, this one:

Now get ready for the Turbowhine ?Chomsky called me a nazi!!? It?s not what he said, but it?s what they want to hear. ?The memory that comes to my mind ? I don?t want to press the analogy too hard, but I think it?s worth th?inking about ? is late Weimar Germany. There were people with real grievances, and the Nazis gave them an answer. ?It?s the fault of the Jews and the Bolsheviks and we?ve got to protect ourselves from them, and that will take care of them.? And you know what happened??

It?s about the techniques employed to further the right wing agenda, i.e., the storm trooper technique exercised at town hall meetings.. If it?s over their head and they can?t comprehend that, they can always fall back on the lie ?Chomsky called me a nazi!!? Or they can just know the difference but still use the lie.

And there there was this:

I am sorry, that many people seemed to misinterpret Prof. Chomsky?s words.

He, a critic of the media for about 40+ years, makes a valid point. If you really listen to what he is saying, he is not criticizing the right wing media as opposed to the mainstream media. He is saying that people are asking legitimate questions and no one who should be giving them answers is so doing. Therefore, he says, the ones who are giving answers are those who have stepped into the vacuum filled by a lost media. The answers they are giving are riling the people up, but they are there, because no one else is.

I don?t see anything he is saying that even Limbaugh or Savage would find incorrect. They too say that the media is no longer doing its job. In that sense, he is condemning CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS more than even Limbaugh or Savage.

(Chomsky, a man who despises media owned by multinational war profiteering corporations would never stand shoulder to shoulder with GE owned NBC.)

What is troubling about his comments is that Chomsky is explaining that what was said about Jews in Germany is being said about liberals today. So he is warning against a vicious backlash that will lead us as a nation down to the same holocaust type environment where the victims will be those in power today. I think his words should not be dismissed but listened to and used a catalyst to start asking where we are going as a nation. If we don?t do that then we will end up exactly where Chomsky says we are going and that would be more than tragic.

Unfortunately, rational voices get drowned out by the mob.

 

[Steeplerot]

Originally posted by: shira

?It?s the fault of the Jews and the Bolsheviks and we?ve got to protect ourselves from them, and that will take care of them.? And you know what happened??

Jew was another right-wing catchphrase for "socialist or communist" back then, this old conspiracy is non-PC now since the holocaust and all. The Bolshevik was just another aspect (as Communism is (to them) a jew/socialist conspiracy)

Same thing for Catholics (JFK -"bleeding heart" liberal), notice how still Mexicans still scare the shit out of them.

Right wing loves using Socialist as a slur as it sums up anyone in the unwashed masses not WASP.

Chomsky is looking at it from a cultural long term pov as this is his thing.

 

[fallout man]

Matt Drudge is a self-hating, dreadfully confused homosexual riding on the coat-tails of a ten-year-old scoop made on a blog.

The fact that the right-wingnut contingent bottom-feeds on the bad html of his current "blog" is such delicious irony. The Limbaugh ditto-heads who follow his hotlinks and swamp local news website comment pages with racist, homophobic, pseudo-Christian bullshit, as well as comments on Obama which have nothing to do with the story at hand, would instantly conflagrate at the moment they found out they were religiously supporting a website made by a flaming lovely human.

Yet, here we are, in Wonderland.

Hello folks!

 

[JKing106]

Originally posted by: fallout man
Matt Drudge is a self-hating, dreadfully confused homosexual riding on the coat-tails of a ten-year-old scoop made on a blog.

The fact that the right-wingnut contingent bottom-feeds on the bad html of his current "blog" is such delicious irony. The Limbaugh ditto-heads who follow his hotlinks and swamp local news website comment pages with racist, homophobic, pseudo-Christian bullshit, as well as comments on Obama which have nothing to do with the story at hand, would instantly conflagrate at the moment they found out they were religiously supporting a website made by a flaming lovely human.

Yet, here we are, in Wonderland.

Hello folks!

+++

You can't tell me Limbaugh isn't a self-loathing homosexual, himself.

And before one of you wingnuts come out of the closet screaming we're discriminating against gays, we're not. We're commenting on the irony of a homosexual supporting a political party that treats them as second class citizens publicly, and panders to an ideology that claims gay people are evil deviants. And yes, it does say that.

 

[DanDaManJC]

Thanks Shira. You're spot on. I'm completely aware of his criticism of both sides of the political spectrum of mainstream, American media. My main point was to point out this whole mob mentality... the majority of those responses were pretty negative and uninformed. The average person wouldn't take the time to dig through the replies and try to find the other side. That's what was so disconcerting.

As far as drudge is concerned... it seemed like he wasn't so bad while Bush was in office, but since Obama was elected it seems like he has been more "right" oriented.

All this said, what do some of the "right wingers" think of this stuff? Stuff being the relevant Chomsky arguments... I think there have been some heated "pro left" responses so far, and I'm not particularly interested in reading a big flame war.

 

[SirStev0]

I really enjoyed reading some of those comments on his site. Seriously when did repugs get so thin skinned. I mean it doesn't surprise me that someone who reads Drudge's brain abortions wouldn't be able to understand what Chomsky was saying, but some of those comments sounded like they really had their feelings hurt.

 

[JKing106]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
I really enjoyed reading some of those comments on his site. Seriously when did repugs get so thin skinned. I mean it doesn't surprise me that someone who reads Drudge's brain abortions wouldn't be able to understand what Chomsky was saying, but some of those comments sounded like they really had their feelings hurt.

To tell the truth, most people in general aren't smart enough to understand Chomsky. That's a shame. The man is usually spot on in his observations.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: DanDaManJC
Not too long ago the Drudgereport ran this headline:

Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to "Nazis" and links to this story
http://www.mediaite.com/online...t-wing-media-to-nazis/

So basically... what are your thoughts?

Reading the reaction to his comments was very disconcerting. Rather than attempting to discuss the core issue, which Chomsky describes in his opening statement -- the flight of wealth from the American middle class -- people instead end of focusing on the fringe issues (look at the comments). Choosing to nitpick his choice of a poor analogy (which he does acknowledge is pushing it a bit too far). Or simply stooping down and just dismissing him as another left wing nut who's been holed up in our left-wing academic system far too long. Or taking a partisan position. Again... what about the core issue at stake? When you have a logical discussion, you attack the core of the issue. Rather than attacking Chomsky personally... why not defend Rush/Savage's answer to the question?

I know that the inability of people to think rationally is not limited to right wingers... in fact I consider myself pretty conservative... but honestly. It's disgusting. The world would be so much happier with a bit more understanding.

I guess that's my own youthful delusion.

That is the issue I have with virtually every thread in P&N. Apparently, most people don't know how to communicate anymore.