The “Lesser-Evil” Syndrome: Noam Chomsky’s Fall Into Self-Contradiction

 

 

 

Michael K. Smith

www.legalienate.blogspot.com

 

In a recent interview Noam Chomsky declared that there “was a big difference” between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential elections, a difference “you could count in several million corpses in Indochina.” But, Chomsky added, “a lot of the young people on the left said, “I’m not going to vote for Humphrey. He’s a corporate Democrat. I can’t sully my hands on that. So I won’t vote.” In effect, said Chomsky, this meant that they “help[ed] Nixon win,” and more specifically, they “help[ed] kill a couple million people in Indochina, plus a lot of other (bad) things.”

WowFEST: Lockdown Presents Noam Chomsky “A Letter From America,” You Tube, July 14, 2020

Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian, “Propaganda and the Public Mind,” (South End, 2001) p. 136

This term is borrowed from Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report. See his debate with Michael Eric Dyson on Democracy Now, September 7, 2012

Chomksy, WowFEST, “A Letter From America.”

www.votetrumpout.org

Noam Chomsky, “Understanding Power,” (New Press, 2002) p. 194. For fuller discussion, see pps. 333-7

Matt Taibbi, “Spanking The Elephant – Dispatches From The Dumb Season,” (Three Rivers Press, 2005) p. 202

Taibbi, ibid, p. 202

Taibbi, ibid, p. 202

Taibbi, ibid, p. 202

Taibbi, ibid, p. 203

Taibbi, ibid, p. 203

Taibbi, ibid, p. 203

Taibbi, ibid, p. 203-4

Taibbi, ibid, p. 204

Taibbi, ibid, p. 204

Taibbi, ibid, p. 204

Taibbi, ibid, p. 204-5

O’Donnell video clip, Jimmy Dore Show, August, 8, 2020

Chomsky, WowFEST interview July 14, 2020

Saagar Enjeti, “Rising,” April 10, 2020

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