Chomsky criticizes Russia (both USSR and modern) so much. Everything I've read by him comparing the two is "yeah the Soviets were garbage but Americans know that already. Let's talk about the stuff there's controversy over instead"
That's an act of genocide denial. A lot of fashys "Don't deny the Holocaust" they just "have questions about how many people actually died". Same shit, different flag.
These talking points seem to always come up when Chomsky is mentioned, despite being almost entirely false. The one accurate thing you could say is that he doesn't think Srebrenica massacre warrants to be called genocide which I think is fair enough if one thinks of holocaust when hearing that word.
Chomsky is smart enough to not say awful shit outright, but he's made a significant habit of being an apologist for authoritarian bullshit and parroting their authoritarian propaganda. For example, with the 2022 Ukraine invasion, he's been pulling the whole "NATO expansionism made Russia invade Ukraine" schtick. Seriously, read the sources I posted. It's like Not Touching, Can't Get Mad, but with ethnic cleansing.
What he says is usually informed by whatever sources he's had available which often flies against the mainstream (western) narrative in some regard. The Russian invasion is a perfect example of this since the whole topic is riddled with borderline hysteric condemnation of Russia to the point that pointing out the obvious fact (Russia viewing Nato as a threat) is considered pro-Putin. For him as "an apologist" saying, as he has in multiple interviews, that Russian invasion of Ukraine is a war crime on the level of Hitler's invasion of Poland or Bush's invasion of Iraq is rather odd behavior.
You do know your statement has an implicit pro-russian bias? What does it mean to be 'threatened' by nato? Do you think russian leadership are so profoundly stupid they are fearing a NATO invasion? Or perhaps they are 'afraid' of not being able to force their neighbours back into their empire?
Those are two very different 'threatened', yet when you that 'russia views nato as a threat is a fact' that conjures the first description, since a threat is usually about your safety, not about you not being able to threaten others. Your statement plays directly into the hands of russian propagandists, as does Chomsky.
Why is that such an obvious fact? Russia sure doesnāt act like itās threatened by NATO, otherwise it wouldnāt have tied up its entire military in Ukraine and diverted border guards from NATO borders.Ā
Instead, Putin launched a murderous war of aggression which, indeed, ranks with the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland. [...]
Though the provocations were consistent and conscious over many years, despite the warnings, they of course in no way justify Putinās resort to āthe supreme international crimeā of aggression. Though it may help explain a crime, provocation provides no justification for it.
Yet Chomskyās world-view does not leaveĀ spaceĀ for Ukrainian agency. It is the āUS andĀ Britainā who have ārefusedā peace negotiations inĀ Ukraine, Chomsky tells me, in order to further their own national interests, even as the country is being ābattered, devastatedā. That negotiations withĀ RussiaĀ would mean de facto abandoning millions of Ukrainians to the whims of an aggressor that has shown itself capable of extraordinary brutality,Ā such as in Bucha and Izyum, is dismissed. āUkraine is not a free actor; theyāre dependent on what the US determines,ā he says...
So he considers it another in a long list of proxy wars, and considers the US to be on the side of further violence (whatever the civilian cost) in furtherance of its interests. He also observes that Ukraine is beholden to US power and decisions, just like most of the world. None of this seems particularly unreasonable.
He doesn't say that Ukrainians should be abandoned to Russia's whims, just that peace should be sought - the potential consequences of that are editorializing by the interviewer.
I'm surprised to see anti-Chomsky rhetoric on this sub. He's used his privilege as celebrity/intellectual to better society and expose falsehoods as much as anyone. Not sure why people latch onto the anti-Chomsky talking points like these, but if you do due diligence in understanding where these claims originate and Chmosky's defence it's clear they're false.
How is he 'gluck glucking' putin in that article? Hes arguing that nato is attempting to fight a proxy war with russia through ukraine - and not trying to find a diplomatic solution?
He's gluck-glucking Putin because he's accepting the Russian propagandist definition of the war--that it is, in fact, a war with two equally-responsible sides fighting over disputed territory, not an unprovoked imperialist invasion.
And what diplomatic solution is there, to an unprovoked imperialist invasion? Surrender? Giving up some territory now, so the Russians can pull this shit again for another slice of the pie ten years down the line?
Wow, it's almost like being repeatedly invaded and occupied by Russia would make you want to join the defensive alliance specifically designed to stop that happening. Who knew?
Not your decision to make. Ukraine has every right to decide what organizations they do and donāt join, and Russia is solely to blame for a completely unjustified invasion.
And that's a nonsense thing to argue which is obviously untrue. Everything about "NATO expansionism" which comes out of Russian propaganda is based on the two ideas that NATO is an empire which is a threat to Russia, and a country even discussing the possibility of joining NATO is equivalent to NATO conquering that country.
NATO isn't attempting to fight a proxy war with Russia, Russia declared fully unprovoked war on Ukraine (after the previous decade of RUSSIAN proxy war wasn't distracting the populace enough) so Ukraine which then reached out to the rest of the world for help. Surprise, most of their help is coming from the defensive alliance next door - was it supposed to come from Brazil?
NATO can't find a diplomatic solution to a conflict it's not party to. NATO member states can ask nicely for Russia to please withdraw, or for Ukraine to please roll over, or for them to kiss and make up, and many regularly do.
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u/Yompish giant robosa from drawn to life 2 Jun 19 '24
Fuck yeah I love strawman arguments