Noam Chomsky is one of those people that some people will defend reflexively without even thinking.

@artemis Every single person in the Epstein email archive who wasn't just sending something legally/clerically/whatever necessary to send, any kind of personal correspondence of any form, belongs under a guillotine. No question about it.

You don't owe your loyalty to someone just because they happened to be useful in the evolution of your thinking. You can be glad you found something of use & move the fuck on.

As previously stated, plenty of marginalized folks (Black, indigenous, queer, disabled, etc.) have more to offer to you, especially if you bring it all together.

Even there though, don't fucking idolize people. There is no amount of "good" someone can do that should shield them from accountability for their own actions.

"Noam Chomsky didn't abuse any girls".

Um, my friend, how can you possibly confidently state that like you know that for sure? Especially when Chomsky has now been exposed as having a lot of correspondence with Epstein, mentioned how excited he was for "the Caribbean island", & told Epstein he was sorry that he was having "Me Too" problems & commiserated about how terrible it is to have women speaking up about abuse. To name a couple things.

You don't owe your loyalty to someone just because they happened to be useful in the evolution of your thinking. You can be glad you found something of use & move the fuck on.

As previously stated, plenty of marginalized folks (Black, indigenous, queer, disabled, etc.) have more to offer to you, especially if you bring it all together.

Even there though, don't fucking idolize people. There is no amount of "good" someone can do that should shield them from accountability for their own actions.

I know that it's actually hard for a lot of us to process what the Epstein files really expose about the wealthy elite & the people they keep around them because it's just so cartoonishly villainous.

It feels absurd.

I get it. I do. As much as I knew the whole system has got to go, as much as I knew that billionaires are mass murderers & their lackeys are participants & accomplices, somehow the world these people created for themselves feels unreal.

But y'all, these are the people fighting to protect & preserve rape culture & their cronies & accomplices. These are the people who think there are too many people in the world & some need to die off. THESE are the people when we say "they" are trying to control everyone & everything.

I refuse to use the word "cabal" because of its antisemitic connotations (seriously, let's not), but this is indeed the real global conspiracy among the rich & powerful & those who participate in their mission.

But y'all, these are the people fighting to protect & preserve rape culture & their cronies & accomplices. These are the people who think there are too many people in the world & some need to die off. THESE are the people when we say "they" are trying to control everyone & everything.

I refuse to use the word "cabal" because of its antisemitic connotations (seriously, let's not), but this is indeed the real global conspiracy among the rich & powerful & those who participate in their mission.

People actually familiar with Chomsky's history could tell you a thousand different reasons why no one should have still been trusting him before this (I don't blame you if this is your first time hearing this...his scam has been supported by the media for a long time), but even without that, it is not possible for this man to both be sincere about his public opinions AND be a member of this crowd. That's not how it fucking works.

@artemis Michael Parenti, his Inventing Reality is great.

You don't owe your loyalty to someone just because they happened to be useful in the evolution of your thinking. You can be glad you found something of use & move the fuck on.

As previously stated, plenty of marginalized folks (Black, indigenous, queer, disabled, etc.) have more to offer to you, especially if you bring it all together.

Even there though, don't fucking idolize people. There is no amount of "good" someone can do that should shield them from accountability for their own actions.

Noam Chomsky is one of those people that some people will defend reflexively without even thinking.

Try not to have powerful people that you defend reflexively without even thinking.

That's abuse culture.

Noam Chomsky is one of those people that some people will defend reflexively without even thinking.

Try not to have powerful people that you defend reflexively without even thinking.

That's abuse culture.

You don't owe your loyalty to someone just because they happened to be useful in the evolution of your thinking. You can be glad you found something of use & move the fuck on.

As previously stated, plenty of marginalized folks (Black, indigenous, queer, disabled, etc.) have more to offer to you, especially if you bring it all together.

Even there though, don't fucking idolize people. There is no amount of "good" someone can do that should shield them from accountability for their own actions.

Some people are absolutely refusing to understand the abuse culture that the Epstein files are pulling back the curtain on.

Epstein's "friends" were all accomplices. Stop making excuses. I don't need to establish whether Chomsky physically harmed a child himself to state with confidence that he was complicit as fuck.

If Chomsky is 1/3 as smart as some people think he is, then he understood just fine what was going on.

@artemis if we hold these defenders of rape culture to account then we will also need to hold those who goon out to rape porn to account as well. Many men, sorry to call em out refuse to engage with this conspiracy because on some level, even through they are not rich and powerful, are also implicated in the culture that allowed this to happen.

@artemis @shadowfals Yeah, this is right.

I find I'm often needing to point out that, until the early 2000s, popular discourse in the US was severely constricted and dominated by commercial media, which systematically censored any mention of leftist groups or ideas.

Chomsky was about at the limit of what they'd tolerate, in detailing US atrocities and malign foreign policy, based on public records and mainstream journalistic accounts. Significantly, Chomsky would always deflect any questions about what alternatives he'd support, rarely going further than supporting abstract resistance.

@artemis @shadowfals Yep. To expand, he was famous for two academic fields: Initially as a linguist, famous for his work on the relationship between syntax and grammar for conveying meaning ("Colorful green ideas sleep furiously" is grammatically correct with no meaning — that's his — as is the claim that "cellar door" is the most beautiful phrase in English). And later for his far-left politics, specifically as a vocal proponent of anarchism and for calling out US imperialism before it was common to hear such things. He famously called out the US government for maintaining the dictatorship in East Timor over the will of its people. Which was my first awareness that the US did such things.

I wasn't a huge fan but I found his work thought-provoking. But I've gotten used to dumping figures if they're outed as abusers. There are so many people I've loved so much more that I've dumped over far less. He had his place in history, and that moment has moved on.

Noam Chomsky is one of those people that some people will defend reflexively without even thinking.

Try not to have powerful people that you defend reflexively without even thinking.

That's abuse culture.