But are there indications that Chomsky "partied" with Epstein the way Trump "partied" with Epstein? One has to marvel how this narrative is being shifted by emphasizing the wide network of correspondence as the main scandal, while brushing over the much "deeper" associations.
clanky•2mo ago
The issue is that Epstein was involved in much more than just sex trafficking. He was a kind of Zelig ruling class fixer with his hands in eugenics, cryptocurrency, AI, geopolitics, money laundering, etc. Clearly his relationships were all of a highly transactional nature. So what did he get out of his connections to the most well-known figure of the (compatible) left?
Some positions of Chomsky's that I believe should be considered (even more) sus in hindsight:
- There is no useful parapolitical analysis to be done of the JFK assassination or 9/11
- People who refused to take undertested COVID vaccines in 2021 should be evicted from society, including grocery stores
- Israel is a vassal state controlled by the U.S. (IMO the reality is much more of a coequal relationship among transnational elites)
- Anarcho-syndicalism and anti-communism more broadly
mindslight•2mo ago
I'd say ideas need to be judged on their merits, rather than ever trusting who they're coming from. Serial contrarians are interesting because they help us consider alternative analyses, not because they've found some hidden secret that makes them fountains of truths. So in general, I'd say the better assumption is that everyone is spewing motivated bullshit.
Which applies to the focus of which bullshit we choose to call out, as well. Maybe if I were 20 years younger I'd eagerly go down your list and pick apart Chomsky's positions and your framings of them to analyze for myself. But at this point I'd only care if he had actual serious power, otherwise he just doesn't seem all that relevant.
Which is why this focus on him makes it feel like a prong of the next stage of Trump's (boosters') flooding the zone with shit, putting everyone but Trump in the news to distract from the fact we have a rapist-in-chief.
And as far as the larger meta-analysis: of course the foreign agents, moneyed elites, etc play "both sides". Thinking otherwise is utterly naive. This however doesn't mean there aren't real principles and values at stake as well.
clanky•2mo ago
> But at this point I'd only care if he had actual serious power, otherwise he just doesn't seem all that relevant.
I strongly disagree that this applies to essentially the top name anyone in the U.S. with a strong interest in left-wing views could be expected to encounter. Even my Republican voting high school English teacher introduced us to Chomsky. That intelligence circles would be interested in choosing or ideally controlling such a figurehead seems obvious.
Certainly there are overlapping elements to the Epstein files psyop, and on some level we're only being shown what we are meant to see. But the best disinfo is always a good 95% truth.
NaomiLehman•2mo ago
wait Chomsky said there is no valid analysis of 9/11? I have 2 books on the topic by him saying that 'America deserved 9/11' in short.
clanky•2mo ago
He says there is no useful parapolitical analysis of 9/11 as either a "let it happen on purpose" or "made it happen on purpose" event. "America deserved it" and "blowback" theories actually serve to obscure the military-intel imperatives at work.
On JFK he actually says "it doesn't matter whether he was murdered by a conspiracy or not" which is completely and bizarrely wrong.
mindslight•2mo ago
clanky•2mo ago
Some positions of Chomsky's that I believe should be considered (even more) sus in hindsight:
- There is no useful parapolitical analysis to be done of the JFK assassination or 9/11
- People who refused to take undertested COVID vaccines in 2021 should be evicted from society, including grocery stores
- Israel is a vassal state controlled by the U.S. (IMO the reality is much more of a coequal relationship among transnational elites)
- Anarcho-syndicalism and anti-communism more broadly
mindslight•2mo ago
Which applies to the focus of which bullshit we choose to call out, as well. Maybe if I were 20 years younger I'd eagerly go down your list and pick apart Chomsky's positions and your framings of them to analyze for myself. But at this point I'd only care if he had actual serious power, otherwise he just doesn't seem all that relevant.
Which is why this focus on him makes it feel like a prong of the next stage of Trump's (boosters') flooding the zone with shit, putting everyone but Trump in the news to distract from the fact we have a rapist-in-chief.
And as far as the larger meta-analysis: of course the foreign agents, moneyed elites, etc play "both sides". Thinking otherwise is utterly naive. This however doesn't mean there aren't real principles and values at stake as well.
clanky•2mo ago
I strongly disagree that this applies to essentially the top name anyone in the U.S. with a strong interest in left-wing views could be expected to encounter. Even my Republican voting high school English teacher introduced us to Chomsky. That intelligence circles would be interested in choosing or ideally controlling such a figurehead seems obvious.
Certainly there are overlapping elements to the Epstein files psyop, and on some level we're only being shown what we are meant to see. But the best disinfo is always a good 95% truth.
NaomiLehman•2mo ago
clanky•2mo ago
On JFK he actually says "it doesn't matter whether he was murdered by a conspiracy or not" which is completely and bizarrely wrong.