Russia’s war in Ukraine has rallied support for the expansion of NATO—even long-time holdouts like Finland are now joining the alliance.The Breach’s full int...
I’m hoping to generate some good discussion with this video so please feel free to comment below
yeah it’s hard to believe, it seems out of character, but I saw it few months ago (maybe even a year ago?), he wasn’t saying he disagrees with it, he was flat out saying he couldn’t make any sense of it and there’s nothing to disagree with like there’s nothing to disagree with because it doesn’t even make sense. I’m not even sure when the interview was filmed other than he’s pretty old looking so like the last 10-15 years, I’ll try to find and link it to you later.
I think it’s from an interview he gave, but the piece I’ve seen is from his book Understanding Power, page 228. Here’s the quote:
Dialectics is one that I’ve never understood, actually-I’ve just never understood what the word means. Marx doesn’t use it, incidentally, it’s used by Engels? And if anybody can tell me what it is, I’ll be happy. I mean, I’ve read all kinds of things which talk about “dialectics”-I haven’t the foggiest idea what it is. It seems to mean something about complexity, or alternative positions, or change, or something. I don’t know.
I’m no fan of Chomsky, but even still, that whole section is kinda wild. He says Marxism is basically just theology and “an irrational cult”, and then takes deep issue with the name “marxism” because we should just absorb the good ideas thinkers and scientists have and move forward from them? I don’t know, it comes off to me as an incredibly juvenile and unserious critique. Noam is obviously smart, but he just obviously doesn’t give a shit about even trying to understand marxism. Obviously he’s not one, but it comes off as intellectually lazy.
ah thanks for finding that, I’ve been looking for the interview and couldn’t find this one I was looking for, I guess I misremembered how old he was in the interview if that’s the one I saw? Or maybe he just repeated similar phrasing in an interview in the last few years…
yeah it’s hard to believe, it seems out of character, but I saw it few months ago (maybe even a year ago?), he wasn’t saying he disagrees with it, he was flat out saying he couldn’t make any sense of it and there’s nothing to disagree with like there’s nothing to disagree with because it doesn’t even make sense. I’m not even sure when the interview was filmed other than he’s pretty old looking so like the last 10-15 years, I’ll try to find and link it to you later.
I think it’s from an interview he gave, but the piece I’ve seen is from his book Understanding Power, page 228. Here’s the quote:
I’m no fan of Chomsky, but even still, that whole section is kinda wild. He says Marxism is basically just theology and “an irrational cult”, and then takes deep issue with the name “marxism” because we should just absorb the good ideas thinkers and scientists have and move forward from them? I don’t know, it comes off to me as an incredibly juvenile and unserious critique. Noam is obviously smart, but he just obviously doesn’t give a shit about even trying to understand marxism. Obviously he’s not one, but it comes off as intellectually lazy.
ah thanks for finding that, I’ve been looking for the interview and couldn’t find this one I was looking for, I guess I misremembered how old he was in the interview if that’s the one I saw? Or maybe he just repeated similar phrasing in an interview in the last few years…