[Peace-discuss] Chomsky: We shouldn't ridicule Tea Party Protesters

[C. G. Estabrook]

I can't understand this concern with whether political leaders are sincere.  Is 
that any way to judge their policies?  Was Hitler sincere? Probably. Was 
Kennedy? Probably not. Would their crimes have lessened if they were, or weren't?

You seem much more certain about the Teapartiers' positions (and their 
sincerity) than Chomsky is; he talks about their grievances, not their program.

Also, he doesn't quite say that "the antiwar movement today is far ahead of what 
it was in the days of Vietnam..."  He's talking about the period between 
Kennedy's invasion of South Vietnam and the mid-1960s, when it was actually 
dangerous to have an anti-war demo on the Boston Common. But in a few years - by 
1969 - 70% of Americans according to the polls of the Chicago Council of Foreign 
Relations saw the Vietnam war as immoral - a crime, not a mistake.

We obviously haven't reached that level yet. But it suggests how quickly 
opinions might change.  --CGE


On 4/17/10 11:30 PM, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> So now, Chomsky is defending Palin and Limbaugh as being sincere (if
> misinformed?)!
>
> Someone should have asked him such questions as to why the tea partyers seem
> to have adored Reagan, why they hate any government run health reform, taxes
> of any kind, why in general they haven't taken up cudgels against our wars
> (Ron Paul and a few others excepted), but love the military. Not a word about
> military spending have I heard. How about the Patriot Act and terrorists? Is
> it simply because they haven't been addressed by the "left", as Chomsky says?
> Pretty disappointing. Will he next show up on their podium?
>
> His present notions are consistent with his oft repeated claims that the
> antiwar movement(?) today is far ahead of what it was in the days of Vietnam
> at a similar juncture (even if there really isn't a similar juncture). Is
> this blind optimism? This was pretty lousy Chomsky, which makes me fear the
> conference to take place in Paris for him, and to which I've bought tickets.
> Maybe he'll praise the Le Pen folks there, the equivalent of our tea
> partyers.  If only the left would explain stuff to them…  --mkb
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2010, at 9:55 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWs6g3L3fkU&feature=player_embedded
>>
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