Cover: The former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, part of which has been turned into an anti-American museum. (Vahid Salemi / Associated Press), via https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-08-26/a-cia-backed-1953-coup-in-iran-haunts-the-country-with-people-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-it Omid Memarian || If talks in Vienna fail to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of, in violation of the agreement,
I have terrible news for you about Prodhoun, Kropotkin, and Bakunin.
Yeah I’m aware 😞. Hence why we should read these texts critically and skeptically (every text in every field of endeavor forever, actually) with a historical understanding of the author’s flaws and biases. In my view, these thinkers actually made original contributions to anarchist thought, unlike Chomsky with the exception of Manufacturing Consent. Frankly, I actually do think that, unless you are doing historical research into how anarchists used to think, we really need to recommend and consult contemporary works as much as possible. I.e., anarchism absolutely has a problem with the ghosts of problematic white men infecting our thoughts.
Most anarchists I know aren’t obsessed with purity of character the same way hierarchical ideologies deify and airbrush their founders.
Neither am I…but Chomsky is absolutely beyond the pale. Like okay you don’t have to be perfect or even that good, but come on… Chomsky’s cooked.
it is possible for someone to roast and eat babies and still be able to say true and insightful things about politics. Moral failings do not make one politically impotent, and moral virtue is not a replacement for intellectual insight.
Yeah, some moral failings absolutely do, at least without some attempt at rehabilitation and fixing what was broken, for the simple reason that it demonstrates that the intellectual doesn’t seriously believe in what they are arguing against. Again, we can absolutely disagree on the parameters of what moral failings makes someone politically impotent, but they certainly exist, e.g. roasting and eating babies… and I’m certain based on my perusals of the Epstein Files that Chomsky has provided one of the best practical examples in recent memory!
Yeah I’m aware 😞. Hence why we should read these texts critically and skeptically (every text in every field of endeavor forever, actually) with a historical understanding of the author’s flaws and biases. In my view, these thinkers actually made original contributions to anarchist thought, unlike Chomsky with the exception of Manufacturing Consent. Frankly, I actually do think that, unless you are doing historical research into how anarchists used to think, we really need to recommend and consult contemporary works as much as possible. I.e., anarchism absolutely has a problem with the ghosts of problematic white men infecting our thoughts.
Neither am I…but Chomsky is absolutely beyond the pale. Like okay you don’t have to be perfect or even that good, but come on… Chomsky’s cooked.
Yeah, some moral failings absolutely do, at least without some attempt at rehabilitation and fixing what was broken, for the simple reason that it demonstrates that the intellectual doesn’t seriously believe in what they are arguing against. Again, we can absolutely disagree on the parameters of what moral failings makes someone politically impotent, but they certainly exist, e.g. roasting and eating babies… and I’m certain based on my perusals of the Epstein Files that Chomsky has provided one of the best practical examples in recent memory!