Ow, my head hurts. What day is it?

I love Doctorow posting.

It’s rewarding to see a humanist approach vindicated, even if it is accidentally. I’ve seen articles that celebrate snipers in African states who are hired to shoot and kill poachers to preserve local wildlife. With an alternative method of autonomy and support, I think Africa’s problem also could be resolved without ending human life.

Removed by mod

If your goal is to construct a tree of anarchist thought that is pruned of all problematic thinkers, I have terrible news for you about Prodhoun, Kropotkin, and Bakunin. A tenet of anarchism is that that are no people virtuous enough to rule over others. Most anarchists I know aren’t obsessed with purity of character the same way hierarchical ideologies deify and airbrush their founders. Anarchism acknowledges that all people are flawed, and is consistent when there is a focus on the strength of ideas rather than abusing history to generate virtuous founders to hang its ideology on.

While I think you have an exaggerated impression of Chomsky’s role in the scandal, 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.

Manufacturing Consent is a pretty big original idea that soundly blunted liberal democracy’s primary attack on anarchist thought and allowed the current landscape of anarchist thinkers to find more fertile ground. It’s kind of comical to demand, “Okay, what else?” – some people only have one great idea in their life, and that’s enough. And that’s beside coming up with original ideas that fundamentally shaped the completely unrelated field of Linguistics. I don’t know how many of his other ideas are original to him, but it was important enough for people to hear them from him, because no one else with his platform was willing to share them. His willingness to speak publicly and his elevated profile gave anarchism room to breath while it was being suffocated under the combined pressure of western capitalism and soviet communism.

In many ways, Noam Chomsky was the Carl Sagan of anarchism communication. He’s not perfect, but he was the bridge that supported many people’s transition from liberal to anarchist. Many people who you dismiss as ‘shitlibs’ are somewhere on that path. We set a good example by holding Noam accountable for his words and deeds, but wishing him death and struggling to efface him from anarchism entirely despite his limited culpability for Epstein’s actions does not paint a picture of people driven by an ideology founded on fairness and justice.

that by itself is problematic

I agree. I think he was a victim, but I don’t think Chomsky smells like roses from this. If problematic was a dis-qualifier for all political thought, the world would have no politics. I think anarchists (rightly) have higher standards for the people who speak for them. I’m speaking up because I worry this can go too far. This is a stain on Chomsky’s legacy, but I don’t think it invalidates his observations on the Palestinian genocide.

If anything, Epstein was a supporter of Netanyahu’s politics. Signal boosting his ‘friend’ in contradiction is an attack on Epstein’s legacy.

Yes, that’s my bad. I saw it in a recent RSS feed and thought it was current. The article is from 2024 before there were more details about Chomsky’s relationship with Epstein.

Yes, that’s my bad. I saw it in a recent RSS feed and thought it was current.

you must have missed the advice he gave to epstein abt ignoring the “hysteria” women were causing

No, I haven’t. If you’re familiar with Noam Chomsky’s history of his free-speech activism, anti-violence stance, and criticism of Israel, you’ll also be familiar with how those positions have been characterized as support for holocaust denial, nazis, and antisemitism.

It’s pretty clear where Noam is coming from in his advice to Epstein, and is an understandable misstep for an ageing man who was not aware of the extent of Epstein’s depravity.

“Epstein had claimed to Noam that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted, and Noam spoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media. Epstein created a manipulative narrative about his case, which Noam, in good faith, believed in.”

I appreciate the BBC for reproducing Valéria Chomsky’s assessment, which matches my own. I am disappointed by Noam’s relationship with Epstein, but not enough to throw away decades of lucid insight into media, politics, and society.

“Epstein had claimed to Noam that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted, and Noam spoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media. Epstein created a manipulative narrative about his case, which Noam, in good faith, believed in.”

I believe Valéria Chomsky, I think Epstein took advantage of Noam.

Chomsky was in the Epstein files.

So were many other of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.

If you’ve ever heard Chomsky talk about feminism or womens rights, you would find his inclusion in a list of pedophiles curious. He was explicitly against pornography, even while much of the anarchist scene held a more nuanced pro-sex worker stance. He’s lived a life indicative of a strong moral compass, and while his principles are counter-intuitive to some, they never included the abuse, degradation, or sexual exploitation of women.

Epstein brought several types of people to his island - people who served as attractions, and people who he used those attractions to leverage for money. Jeffrey was a major donor to MIT which employs Chomsky. Chomsky has rarely turned down a speaking opportunity, and his correspondence with Epstein consists of political discussion, on which they rarely agree.

Chomsky’s role as a Jewish voice against Palestinian genocide continues to be valuable, and permitting such a simple smear to dismiss his decades of work should be beneath us. No one has come forward to accuse Chomsky of sexual abuse. The reputational hit is much less serious than the suffering and trauma of the women who were trafficked. Still, Chomsky should be numbered among Epstein’s victims, not his clients and collaborators.

It is very rewarding to still be up while the rest of the internet is down during a CF outage.

That sounds like a great idea!

• 0:01 Rich Girl - Gwen Stefani
• 3:56 When I Grow Up Digital Dog Remix - The Pussycat Dolls
• 7:46 This Is What You Came For - Rihanna
• 11:24 The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
• 15:00 American Boy - Estelle ft. Kanye
• 18:53 Birthday - Katy Perry
• 22:24 Blow - Kesha
• 25:28 I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry
• 28:27 Run Away with Me - Carly Rae Jepsen
• 32:34 Burn - Ellie Goulding
• 36:23 Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
• 39:19 Telephone - Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé
• 42:45 Cooler Than Me - Mike Posner
• 46:15 Boom Clap - Charli xcx
• 49:02 Super Bass - Nicki Minaj
• 52:21 Single Ladies - Beyoncé
• 55:52 Can’t Get You Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue
• 59:20 Crazy In Love - Beyoncé ft. JayZ

This is some funny ‘long tail’ shit.

Yes, California and Texas were part of Mexico.

“it is easy to call land stolen, but what about the innocent purchasers who acquired in good faith in the interim? Are they thieves?”

This is the kind of shit that makes me think capitalists don’t actually believe in property. They only have an issue with theft when the loot isn’t laundered properly. ‘Civilization’ is just a word that means ‘fence’ to them.

Thanks for the catch, fixed!

National Shutdown, this Friday.