And despite saying this, Chumpsky spend decades as safety valve protecting it.
But at least he was right on Ukraine and Palestine. Western leftism is far from perfect.
But at least he was right on Ukraine and Palestine.
Even Vaush is propalestinian, nobody is always wrong or right. And his take about Ukraine would be maybe better if he didn’t cheered for decades for what ultimately caused it, the destruction of USSR.
Also dude writes for 70 years, he was bound to get one or two things right just by throwing the darts.
Western leftism is far from perfect.
That’s understatement and noticeable chunk of blame for that lies with him.
I think the major problems of left in America is not because of chomsky Or so. It’s because they didn’t have a problem living with capitalism and bombing the 3rd world . It’s during the post Regan years and 2008 crisis the Yanks have shown tilts towards anti capitalist ideologies still many are involved with anarchists and hell lot of redundant trends which cannot be found in the 3rd world. Still I think Chomsky has some values more than illogical trends in America like Infrared and MAGA thots. Still I don’t think US with EU will able to do any revolution for a long long time.
Idealist rubbish. Culture, all superstructure, follows the basis. The USian culture is “psychotic” because the basis is capitalist. Would you say Chinese culture before the revolution was “psychotic”, what with the foot binding and the treatment of peasants? No, you would not. Would you say Russian culture is “psychotic”, given everything the Russian Empire had done? Then why would you slap a label on 300 million people?
the basis is capitalist
And also settler-colonial, which is a very important factor when it comes to culture in this sense.
Imperial Russia was also “settler”. Everything east of Gorky was conquered from the natives and settled. In fact, conquest of Ural and siberia coincided with the European colonisation of Americas.
Yet from this basis the USSR came to be.
I’m not sure what point you’re making here. Russian colonialism doesn’t change the importance of settler-colonialism in general and specifically in the US. The USSR was built on a basis of national liberation, and not on the “Great Russian” identity which would be analogous to the US identity here.
Another difference is that the US is entirely settler colonial, a whole country founded solely by settlers, while the Russian empire’s colonies were all still tied to the metropolitan core in western Russia. The US was created through a revolt of the most reactionary settlers that wanted autonomy from Britain. The path forward for North America is strictly decolonial.
I think there is room for both processes if we’re to give Chomsky some leeway no? The capitalist basis, and the power relations which follow, is of course the “driver” of this but there are still differences between the US, which has essentially destroyed the world many times over, and capitalist countries like modern day Germany or Norway. Can it be explained solely, and deterministically, by the power expansion of the capitalist base? Or are there other processes, call them culture, or ideation, which exhacerbate the psycotic nature of the base? I believe so, but I don’t know if the word culture is best to describe and lump such processes together, but does that matter?
It is of course an idealist interpretation but I believe these can help in materialist investigation, or in the construction of a critical theory.
Nah, I feel general American leaders and intellectuals to be psychotic. Full of Jesus is coming on the next war Armageddon , so let’s bomb Russia crazy 😌 , Russian empire was just benign when compares to US imperialism in 20 to 21st century or it’s genocidal campaign against the native Americans and land grab of Mexico. Uff… Just beyond fucked up… People are not allowed to dig up the past there I feel.
Just to nitpick, someone who is “psychotic” is just someone with psychosis, a mental illness, and they aren’t dangerous for that. The common use of the word to mean “sick, twisted and dangerous” isn’t really fair to people who are suffering and not dangerous at all. It’s like the word “schizo” or similar, using mental illness and “craziness” as a synonym for “dangerous and violent.”
Then why doesn’t every other culture in capitalist states exhibit even remotely the same degree of social psychosis?
The school shootings, the murder rate, the mass imprisonments, the death count around the world is around 5 million people in the past two decades.
You need to explain why the US is quantitatively off the charts compared to other capitalist states.
Aside, I’m noticing a lot of knee jerk defensiveness lately on this comm when the US is criticised. It’s really weird.
Because it was the center of the capitalist class. That’s about it. Every other capitalist state has issues you’ve described. I’m in Russia, and we get school shootings, stabbings and more nowadays. Despite having significantly more strict gun control laws.
Think dialectically. USSR began to have issues with gang violence in its later days, as the society was entering a crisis and the leadership was slowly, but surely abandoning socialist principles.
Aside, I’m noticing a lot of knee jerk defensiveness lately on this comm when the US is criticised
Point an instance of my comment “defending the USA”.
19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN):
United States — 288
Mexico — 8
South Africa — 6
Nigeria & Pakistan — 4
Afghanistan — 3
Brazil, Canada, France — 2
Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1
(https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/school-shootings-by-country)
One country seems a bit higher than the others 🤔
the center of the capitalist class.
What does this even mean? It’s different because it’s the centre but it’s the same anyway?
The claim was that the “psychosis” of the US was because it was capitalist and that everywhere else was therefore the same. I’ve pointed out that there is nowhere quantitatively similar in a variety of areas. To that you say, well it’s because it’s the centre.
It seems to be that I’m the only one thinking dialectically here. It we want to think dialectically, we need to know what things like “the centre of the capitalist class” is. If England for example was once it, then why didn’t it exhibit the same behaviour?
USSR began to have issues with gang violence in its later days
And therefore…?
Denying the unique “psychosis” (not my word) of the US and equivalising it with every other capitalist states can be seen as defending it.
