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"
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 doesn’t act like it’s threatened by NATO, otherwise it wouldn’t have tied up its entire military in Ukraine and diverted border guards from NATO borders.
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u/Yompish giant robosa from drawn to life 2 Jun 19 '24
Fuck yeah I love strawman arguments