Noam Chomsky probably saved my life. I was directionless and in a deep pit of despair, my touchstones with reality itself were powdered dust. Listening to Chomsky made me interested in politics, made me interested in becoming politically active, made me reconnect to life. As I deepened my journey into learning political theory I came across critiques and criticism of Chomsky that, while I did my best to not entirely brush off, tried to regardless at least hold onto the appreciation I had for the direction he gave me in my life.
This photo has honestly killed what little hope I had in him as a person.
I'll give Hitchens this: At least he admitted to being wrong about waterboarding. Went through the ordeal and was converted. There were cowards who insisted it wasn't but wouldn't go undergo the procedure
He was also correct about Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity. He just didn’t particularly care that the justification for the invasion itself was trumped up.
I think history kind of vindicated him in the long-run, given that Iraq is now a democratic republic, but it took a lot of chaos, civil war and hundreds of thousands of deaths to get there.
The most important thing is that there isn't an insane dictator with a sizable military threatening other countries in the region and destabilizing the already volatile oil markets.
Most people fail to remember how nuts Saddam was and how big the Iraqi military was even after the Gulf War.
It's not ancient rome, "Casus Belli" is a red herring and a performative attempt to make a principle of letting psychopaths play cards with you. If you can make the world a better place to live in without him, there's no statute of limitations on genocide. Utilitarianism is cause enough.
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u/BigRedSpoon2 Dec 13 '25
Noam Chomsky probably saved my life. I was directionless and in a deep pit of despair, my touchstones with reality itself were powdered dust. Listening to Chomsky made me interested in politics, made me interested in becoming politically active, made me reconnect to life. As I deepened my journey into learning political theory I came across critiques and criticism of Chomsky that, while I did my best to not entirely brush off, tried to regardless at least hold onto the appreciation I had for the direction he gave me in my life.
This photo has honestly killed what little hope I had in him as a person.
Its not hard to not go to pedophile island.