Chomsky for President

[Peak_Oil]

That is all.

Hoorah!

You can have Chomsky when you pry him from my cold, dead fingers. "Relfexive principle of morality!"

[alittlelark]

1. Sounds wonderful, but only 10% of us know him

due to that DAMN ' LIBERAL MEDIA".

[proudbluestater]

2. So true! Until I traded in cable for a satellite dish, I'd never heard

of Noam Chomsky. Now I love him!

[Peak_Oil]

3. Could you imagine Chomsky for President?

WTF would he DO? I gotta wonder. It's an interesting idea, you know? What would he do?

[alittlelark]

4. I've had Pacifica for years - so I knew him.

The Neo-Cons don't just hate him, they hate ALL History professors.... gee, wonder why?

[DieboldMustDie]

5. I believe he's a linguist.

:shrug:

[pocket]

6. he is indeed a linguist

And he is on the B-side of an old Bad Religion single that I have. It was released to protest the first gulf war.

[Swamp Rat]

8. He's a "cunning linguist!"

:D

[porkrind]

15. Bad SwampRat!

:spank:

I think Chomsky is a national treasure, and I think he would be great as president. However, I think he's not a politician, and those scumbags on the Hill would tear him down first thing. Also, he's way too intelligent to ever want or accept the job.

[carnie_sf]

7. Isn't he a Massachusetts liberal nt

[Radical Activist]

9. He would run as a Green since he's too liberal for Dems

Then everyone on DU would bash him endlessly and call him an evil two-bit whore tool of satan and blame him for costing Democrats the election. Or so I would expect.

[theresistance]

10. He's certainly a great mind

He's written a load of books that really explain American imperialism over the decades. They are really worth reading.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Read his 'Understanding Power'...It is like understanding gravity.

It cuts through the bs about ideologies and explains how power protects itself in an amoral fashion like any living organism.

This connected all the dots for me. Explained why the high financiers of the US and England like Prescott Bush paid for the rise of Hitler and his war machine.

Chomsky recounts a formative experience from his childhood:

As a small child in the 1930s he went to town with his mother. They saw a bunch of women workers picketing in front of the factory they worked at. A bunch of cops waded into the crowd of women and smashed their heads in with clubs.

Now that is understanding Power.

[theresistance]

12. Ouch, but doesn't surprise me.

[Tace]

13. Hail Chomsky!

I'd vote for him, and campaign for him, though I doubt he'd consider running.

BTW, he usually answers his e-mails at [e-mail]

Cheers

[Peak_Oil]

19. He does, but...

I just found out that he spends seven hours a day replying to email. I have sent a few, and gotten responses, but unless I have something really important to ask him I think I'll try to look up the answer first.

[laylah]

14. Add

Sy Hersch to the ticket and we would have a REAL "dream team".

Jenn

[Crankie Avalon]

16. It's nice to dream, but ordinary Americans would never relate to Chomsky..

...and therefore, never vote for him.

Chomsky is an intellectual, and when regular people look at someone like him they feel (and I do mean "feel") alienated and even distrustful. He would be easy to caricature as their idea of an Ivory Tower "elitist." You know, "He's darn too smart...and, psst: he's a Northeast Jew."

I own a DVD copy of Manufacturing Consent, and while I get a lot out of viewing it, the man profiled in that documentary doesn't seem like the sort who can boil things down into the plain, easy-to-get-their-minds around style that most Americans need to hear things to take something in.

A person influenced by lofty minds like Chomsky's but who can still retain the common touch would be the real "dream candidate."

[Aries]

17. Chomsky being an anarchist

the idea of his being President is kind of an oxymoron.

Noam Chomsky on Anarchism

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9612-anarchism.html

[blindpig]

18. Why do you hate America?

Don't you know that too much truth is toxic? Jeez, talk about cognitive dissidence on a national scale.

Until America can accept that our Empire is hardly different than any other historical empire and that the rich and powerful will do whatever it takes to preserve their position we'll not have much real progress. I'm not holding my breath.

[Rapcw]

20. I'd vote for him n/t