Maggie's Farm

Chomsky referring to concept of free speech:

“Like all judicial decisions and legislation, this leaves plenty of gray areas, including many of great significance that are rarely discussed: advocacy of imminent war crimes, such as aggression, for example. I think we would all agree that such speech should be protected, despite the often horrific consequences, but it's worth noting that that stretches the doctrine to its limits.” Noam Chomsky

Mere sophistry, from one of the great practitioners of BS (I’ve read four of his so-called books, and they are laughable); what he means is that if someone expressed support for the war in Afghanistan or Iraq, an opinion he does not share or appreciate, they were stretching the limits of free speech. Clearly, if he believes that such an opinion “stretches the doctrine to its limits” the good doctor would not have much problem with a slight modification to the location of the line of demarcation; i.e., moving the “limits.” If that does not work, re-education programs, currently known as university workshops, could be implemented (and are!), and if they are not “effective,” most Chomskyites that I have known (and that includes a lot of people, as I have spent my entire adult life in academia, minus a 2.5 year stint in the Peace Corps), would not hesitate to support “harsher” methods to gain compliance on a wide range of topics (OK, maybe they would stop short of the rat-in-the-cage-on-the-head thingy, but...) Chomsky is a sick fool, and his worldview is a dangerous segue to absolute authoritarianism. Also, it has always fascinated me that his opinions are much loved by ignorant adolescents: as someone pointed out, if you are 40, 50, 60 years old, and your perspectives are shared primarily by developmentally disabled teenagers, maybe you should think again.

I will think about it, but given the nature of my professional life, college prof (plant biochem) with heavy teaching and research requirements, amy contributions would be sporadic at best.
But I will continue to comment and spread the word about a very good blog.
Brad

yep, that is the beauty of biochem: it is the descrption of life!