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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNoam Chomsky Believes Trump Is "the Worst Criminal in Human History"
Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, activist, and political writer, is one of the most famous and harshest critics of American foreign policy. His critiques of Presidential Administrations from Nixon to Obama, and the stridency of his viewscomparing 9/11 to Bill Clintons bombing of a factory in Khartoum, for examplehave made him the target of much ire, as well as a hero of the global left. Chomsky always refuses to talk about motives in politics, Larissa MacFarquhar wrote in her Profile of him for The New Yorker, in 2003. Like many theorists of universal humanness, he often seems baffled, even repelled, by the thought of actual people and their psychologies.
When I called Chomsky, who is ninety-one, last month for a long-scheduled interview, I had meant to discuss his career and life, and his latest book, Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal, written with Robert Pollin and C. J. Polychronioubut he spent most of the hour-long session railing against the Trump Administration with a vehemence that slightly surprised me. Chomsky has always been extremely pragmatic in his political analysis, diverging from some other leftists in his belief in the necessity of voting for mainstream Democrats against Republicans. But in addition to supporting Joe Biden this year, he told me that Donald Trump is the worst criminal in human history and expressed serious concerns about the future of American democracy (although he conceded that it was never much to write home about). With perhaps not equal concern, but with the same passion he seems to bring to every topic, he also railed against cancel culture and explained why he signed the recent Harpers letter on free expression. And yet, Chomsky noted that what he most loves to think about are philosophy, science, and language. To tell you the truth, he said, while Im giving interviews and talking about things, one part of my mind is working on technical problems, which are much more interesting. Our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, is below.
Over the past four years, have we been in a strange and new period of American history? Or are we seeing a continuation of American history that is pretty much in line with what it has always been?
Of course, its the same country. We havent undergone a major revolution, but the last four years are very much out of line with the history of Western democracies altogether. By now, its becoming almost outlandish. In the three hundred and fifty years of parliamentary democracy, theres been nothing like what were seeing now in Washington. I dont have to tell you. You read the same newspapers I do. A President who has said if he doesnt like the outcome of an election, hell simply not leave office, and is taken seriously enough that, for example, two high-level, highly respected, retired military officersone of them very well known, Lieutenant Colonel John Naglactually went to the extent of writing an open letter to General [Mark] Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reminding him of his constitutional duties to send in the American military to remove the President from office if he refuses to leave.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/noam-chomsky-believes-trump-is-the-worst-criminal-in-human-history
OnDoutside
(19,952 posts)whistler162
(11,155 posts)Hitler and his crew
Pol Pot and his posse
Were worse.
JI7
(89,244 posts)they would easily do the same things.
Turbineguy
(37,312 posts)if he stays in power.
triron
(21,994 posts)Shows how incredibly stupid our nation has become.