Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for 'assault' on democracy

[SarasotaRepub]

Oops!!! Noam is bad, no he's good, bad,good...:D

The Northerner (1000+ posts) Sun Jul-03-11 03:42 PM
Original message Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for 'assault' on democracy Renowned American intellectual accuses the Venezuelan leader of concentrating too much power in his own hands

Hugo Chávez has long considered Noam Chomsky one of his best friends in the west. He has basked in the renowned scholar's praise for Venezuela's socialist revolution and echoed his denunciations of US imperialism.

Venezuela's president, who hasrevealed that he has had surgery in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumour, turned one of Chomsky's books into an overnight bestseller after brandishing it during a UN speech. He hosted Chomsky in Caracas with smiles and pomp. Earlier this year Chávez even suggested Washington make Chomsky the US ambassador to Venezuela.

The president may be about to have second thoughts about that, because his favourite intellectual has now turned his guns on Chávez.

Speaking to the Observer last week, Chomsky has accused the socialist leader of amassing too much power and of making an "assault" on Venezuela's democracy.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/03/noam-chomsk...

[Rockntractor]

Chompski is what I do to a hotdogski!

[Dan D. Doty]

The thread on DU tells me more about the DUers then anything.

They want to America into carbon copy of Venezuela.

As they always say " Scratch a Liberal, find a Fascist".

[swirling_vortex]

Here's a quote by Chomsky in 2009: http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/20090828.htm

"Hegemony or survival; we opt for survival," said Chavez in a press conference to welcome Chomsky. He compared Chomsky's thesis to that of German socialist Rosa Luxemburg in the early 1900s, "Socialism or Barbarism," and referred to Chomsky as "one of the greatest defenders of peace, one of the greatest pioneers of a better world."

Through an interpreter, Chomsky responded, "I write about peace and criticize the barriers to peace; that's easy. What's harder is to create a better world... and what's so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela is that I can see how a better world is being created."

Hence why there's no such thing as "libertarian socialists" or "communist anarchists". The funny thing is that if Noam wasn't known well and lived in Venezuela, he'd probably be imprisoned alongside the capitalists for making such a statement against Chavez.

[djones520]

Predictably, EFerrari shows up to spread her cyber love of Chavez.

EFerrari (1000+ posts) Sun Jul-03-11 06:12 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Except, he didn't and has already said this article is dishonest.
From: "Noam Chomsky" chomsky@mit.edu
Date: 3 July 2011 03:42:52 GMT+01:00
To: "'Alek Boyd'" alek.boyd@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Re Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for 'assault' on democracy | World news | The Observer
Reply-To: chomsky@mit.edu

There is no change of heart, sudden or otherwise. The Guardian/Observer version, as I anticipated, is quite deceptive. The report in the NY Times is considerably more honest. Both however omit much of relevance that I stressed throughout, including the fact that criticisms from the US government or anyone who supports its actions can hardly be taken seriously, considering Washington’s far worse record without any of the real concerns that Venezuela faces, the Manning case for one, which is much worse than Judge Afiuni’s. And much else.

Update: my exchange with Chomsky continued, in his other reply he reiterated the "extreme dishonesty" of The Guardian. For once, I find myself in agreement with the famous linguist...


http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2011/07/noam-chomsky-afiun...

But this is exactly how the Big Lie works. No one will remember or even know that.

joshcryer (1000+ posts) Sun Jul-03-11 10:29 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. What? He did "speak ill" of Chavez. He called The Guardian article dishonest, but agreed with NYT.
I've never seen a better example of double-speak.