Chapotraphouse

An intellectual that couldnt bother to understand dialectics and that calls Marx description of capital an abstraction? Lmao

Manufacturing Consent, by Chomsky's own admission, was mainly written by Edward S. Herman, but he ends up more associated with it because he's more famous. He was also a bastard with a malignant influence on "the left" for several decades now.

I don't think he's that different from Dawkins, where he was a serious figure in his field but parlayed that into being a reactionary pseudo-intellectual in political commentary.

Later years? The krakker was against protesting the Vietnam war, he has always been a barbarian, even congratulating the new CIA director

Yeah 'in his later years', and not always and constantly. He didn't even actually write the section about media manipulation.

I won't deny he made significant contributions to the field of linguistics, although his rationalist position on the Human language is debatable, but in regard to geopolitics and socioeconomics? My guy, Michael Parenti's works and lectures are right there. Hell, there are a plethora of Western Marxist thinkers in the last century that have far better input on how Base and Superstructure operates than Chomsky ever did. Even fucking Einstein had better takes on Socialism than he did.

Just because Chomsky is more popular and his works are cited more by liberals, doesn't mean he should be lauded by anyone on the left as an arbiter of 'socialist' thought. Especially when his views on AES have always been downright reactionary and orientalist (no, not "in his late years" but for decades), calling states like the DPRK "the most horrible regime in Human history" and China "a very brutal society, a brutal government. I don’t feel any particular interest in improving relations with it.".

As someone who descended from a family who came from that "very brutal society" I do not have any qualms denouncing someone like Chomsky who peddles bigoted views against non-western societies.

Also, I think simply calling him a "pedophile sympathizer" is minimizing his complicity don't you think? You're acting as if he just questioned age of consent laws or expressed sympathy to Epstein when what he really did was actively collaborate with and defend a Billionaire paedophile that he was VERY close with. He even received tens of thousands of dollars from Epstein to fund his linguistic academic pursuits lmao. Even if you ignore the whole pedo ring, he was still an active class collaborator with the American bourgeoisie (which honestly, explains his anti-communist views a lot). He may be an intellectual, but an ally of the socialist left he is not.

I feel like a lot of people's beliefs and core values twist/fall apart with age bc after 40, human brains gradually shrink/stiffen and become less empathetic/open-minded over the decades

Chomsky's def beyond saving, but sometimes I wonder if someone like Angela Davis would become a proper communist again if she took shrooms to reactivate youthful neuroplasticity

Oh, I don't disagree with that, I'm more peeved at all the Western leftists that continue to uphold someone who has always held a complete and utter distain towards AES in the same vein Slavoj Zizek does.

Finkelstein would rather engage with a Holocaust Denier than Epstein

Finkelstein is actually someone who would still go on about how great Chomsky is and how good of a friend he was. At least that was true as of a few years ago (podcast interviews come to mind, one of them for sure from RevLeft Radio) and I remember thinking how much better overall Finkelstein turned out as a human being compared to Chomsky, even if he never received the kind of recognition or accolades Chomsky did... which of course he didn't, because Finkelstein had integrity and honesty particularly to stand up to Zionists, all but ensuring his career would be constantly pushed towards obscurity, but nor did Finkelstein work as a sheep dog to corral wayward pinkos back towards liberalism like Chomsky. So it was hard to hear Finkelstein gush about Chomsky so much, but I wonder if he is having more thoughts now about how good of a guy Chomsky really was in light of these recent revelations, or even the ones of a few years ago.

Really should change his stagename to Young Parenti or Young Finkelstein

He should reband to Pre-Epstein Chomsky

same smugness he responded to people who asked him about his Epstein connections

An example I had on hand if anyone is morbidly curious.
youtube link in case nadeko isn't working: https://youtube.com/watch?v=166857p5R6Y

You know how they accuse us of "Whataboutism"? Well this is some real "public-intellectual"-grade whataboutism for ya.

I should add that I'm not really sure where I stand with it, but that considering the possibility of the most cynical position is a good idea. He may very well have been a completely willing and knowing participant who enjoyed the rewards of being one. It is even easier than ever to see the case for that with this shit.