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Chomsky Reassesed - When Reasoned Discussion Becomes Forbidden. Mike Albert on Chomsky - Epstein

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 11:56 am

Chomsky Reassessed:
When Reasoned Discussion Becomes Forbidden

Michael Albert
Dec 24, 2025

https://savageminds.substack.com/p/chomsky-reassessed

Excellent article. You are doing a great job Der.

Posted by RaskolnikovX <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Raskolnikov' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 12:10 pm, in reply to "Chomsky Reassesed - When Reasoned Discussion Becomes Forbidden. Mike Albert on Chomsky - Epstein"

You've definitely convinced me to rethink my feelings about it. There's a lot to digest in the two articles that you posted on the topic (the two that I've read so far, there may be more).

It is quite interesting that the only person "they" seem to want to cancel because of any contact with Epstein is Chomsky (and Clinton I suppose).

The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide.
Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.

Re: Excellent article. You are doing a great job Der.

Posted by Sleepy George <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=brengun' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 5:58 pm, in reply to "Excellent article. You are doing a great job Der."

many decades ago I sent a long abusive and stupid letter to Chomsky about his role in affair Faurisson, with whom he had a polite corresponce. I was amazed to receive a long courteous and single-spaced letter in reply from MIT. I dont understand where Chomsky found time to waste so much of it answering stray nuckleheads like me. It still seems a waste of his valuable brain power.

Chomsky was committed to defending the free speech of not only people he disagreed with but of people he despised. Free Speech is a class issue, because it concerns the peoples right to hear as well as the speakers right to speak

Not everyone shares that passion for Free Speech
Some years ago George Galloway rejoiced when an Austrian court gaoled David Irving 3 years for calling the Reconstruction gas chamber at Auschwitz I a "Fake" I could as easily said they called the fake gas chamber a "Reconstruction", because before Irving it was not clearly labelled as such.
"I hope they throw away the key" said gAlloway when I phoned in to expostulate.

However I would never de-platform Galloway, who has much to teach us. It seems that nobody is quite perfect - with the unique and obvious exception of myself

gb

"It's none of your business".

Posted by Fionn <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Fionn' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 1:47 pm, in reply to "Chomsky Reassesed - When Reasoned Discussion Becomes Forbidden. Mike Albert on Chomsky - Epstein"

Wasn't that Chomsky's reply when questioned about his connection to E?
It is our fucking business Noam. At best, he had become severly tone-deaf. At worst, he was always controlled opposition/gatekeeper.

Re: "It's none of your business".

Posted by steve <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=steve' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 3:18 pm, in reply to ""It's none of your business"."

Our business with Chomsky is his mode of analysis, which has always emphasised finding things out for oneself. He showed along with Ed Herman how mass media works and ever since we've been able critique things for ourselves in every article and every broadcast we read and watch. His private affairs should not change the quality of his scholarship, just as a restaurant critic's reputation is not ruined if he or she praises a meal in a newspaper only to privately shit it out later.

The witchfinder-general attitude displayed lately doesn't help anyone but those who want to shut down open inquiry.

Make a list of those the Wall Street Journal has never held accountable for huge fecking war crimes.

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 3:40 pm, in reply to ""It's none of your business"."

The wall Street Journal is not your buddy.

Damn right "It's none of their business". Go and interview Dershowitz or Clinton. Or, sheet, hold the Israelis accountable for their ongoing genocide in Gaza. There's no shortage of thugs that shite newspaper, friend of power, has fecking not held accountable over the years.

The actual quote, AFAIK, by Chomsky, knowing there'd be people out there who are ever willing to believe the Wall St Journal works on their behalf, said "first response is that it is none of your business, or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally, we had discussed politics and academics in the meetings with Epstein."

I wish he'd stuck with the first bit. Except for an additional "feck off" inserted appropriately.

Re: Make a list of those the Wall Street Journal has never held accountable for huge fecking war crimes.

Posted by Fionn <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Fionn' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:01 pm, in reply to "Make a list of those the Wall Street Journal has never held accountable for huge fecking war crimes."

Fuck the WSJ. That is obvious.

But the fact he praised and had a strong connection with a mossad/CIA asset/convicted p'file sex trafficking, blackmailing spawn of Satan at the centre of a large percentage of the most heinious shit occuring on this planet, shows he does indeed have some questions to answer. He failed to do that to any satisfactory level anywhere, but those who grew up hero-worshipping him still haven't grown up it seems.

"At worst, he was always controlled opposition/gatekeeper." Examples, please? Nm

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 3:43 pm, in reply to ""It's none of your business"."

Aristide, impunity for La Prensa and anti-Chavez coup supporting RCTV, corrupt Venezuelan judge,

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 5:22 pm, in reply to ""At worst, he was always controlled opposition/gatekeeper." Examples, please? Nm"

Libyan no fly zone, Syria, Ukraine ...

https://joeemersberger.substack.com/p/assessing-chomsky

Doesn't show Chomsky as a gatekeeper. Shows the opposite, in fact.

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 7:40 pm, in reply to "Aristide, impunity for La Prensa and anti-Chavez coup supporting RCTV, corrupt Venezuelan judge,"

Emersberger is all in favour of gatekeepers hence he wants LA Prensa shut down. He berates Chomsky for calling for it to be left open.

Chomsky was well aware that LA Prensa was an abomination but was always consistent in calling for free speech for everybody. Hence you don't interfere with the press or anybody's right to free speech.

Joe doesn't seem to want free speech for everybody - might go someway to explaining why he's such a fan of Stalin - He who sent so many men and women and children to the Gulag, see Stephen Cohen's The Orphan's Return. Cohen, incidentally, is probably better known here as the arch nemisis of both Anne Applebaum and Gary Kasparov.

Also see Cohen's Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution. He believed Stalin destroyed the revolution and Bukharin would have saved it. Explains why Stalin exterminated Bukharin in the purges.

Incidentally, if Joe (Emersberger not Stalin) knew a little more he would have been appalled at the role of the Stalinists in the Spanish Revolution. Killing off the Revolution was far more important than stopping the fascists getting into power. This is the exact same thinking as the Non-Intervention Committee of Britain and France. Together they gave the Spanish years and years of Franco. The West quickly came to an agreement with Franco.

Pshaw, Chomsky's solution to murderous propaganda is to allow them free rein?

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 8:28 pm, in reply to "Doesn't show Chomsky as a gatekeeper. Shows the opposite, in fact. "

How about Aristide, Libya, Syria (that, beloved by the West, brave Anarchist Kurdish utopia in Rojava that collaborated with the Yanks, utterly betraying the Syria that had the grace to give them shelter from the Turks in the first place), and Ukraine.

Frank Fernández detailed how Castro murdered Anarchists and others socialists involved in the revolution who wanted something better than yet another hierarchical cult leader. Does that mean that anyone should support Yankee efforts at counter-revolutions?

Frank Fernández detailed how Castro murdered Anarchists and others socialists

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 8:58 pm, in reply to "Pshaw, Chomsky's solution to murderous propaganda is to allow them free rein?"

It would be interesting to have a historical reference as a back up your assertion. Noted that Anarchists deserve a capital letter as opposed to socialists.

Also interesting would be a reference to anarchist government that has ruled the roost anywhere in the world apart from a brief interlude such as Spanish Civil War etc. A genuine question.

It's definitely been mentioned to you before: Frank Fernández's Cuban Anarchism (nm)

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:12 pm, in reply to "Frank Fernández detailed how Castro murdered Anarchists and others socialists"

Web link:

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:13 pm, in reply to "It's definitely been mentioned to you before: Frank Fernández's Cuban Anarchism (nm)"

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/frank-fernandez-cuban-anarchism-the-history-of-a-movement

Re: Web link: Thank, I'll study it. Meanwhile, no response to my main questions

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:48 pm, in reply to "Web link:"

One can brush it away as ideologically incompatible with your worldview. Meanwhile it is crucial in coming up with honest goods. I lived in socialism. Never seen anarchism being organised in my lifetime to provide a decent life for anyone. Why is that a strange question?

Sheet nearly any book about the Spanish revolution will answer that. Specifically the Cooperatives.

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 10:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Web link: Thank, I'll study it. Meanwhile, no response to my main questions"

But there has been anarchism in Spain for over a hundred years. Long before the Revolution of 1936.

A very fine book "The Anarchists of Casas Viejas is tremendous - How a bunch of peasants lived as anarchists before the revolution.

I do realise you are passionate on this subject .. but

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 10:38 pm, in reply to "Sheet nearly any book about the Spanish revolution will answer that. Specifically the Cooperatives."

We still have got absolutely nothing from you guys apart from a brief interlude from 100 odd years ago. I need not mention it did not last nor has it got translated into anything worth talking about .. whatever. Rojava? (eyes roll).

What is wrong in sticking with socialism, I pray?

I think Tomski is looking for contemporary examples. Perhaps the Zapatista's autonomous Ricardo

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 11:15 pm, in reply to "Sheet nearly any book about the Spanish revolution will answer that. Specifically the Cooperatives."

Flores Magón municipality.

Cherán, Mexico where the community kicked out the drug cartels, police and local government:

Exarchia in Greece:

Mapuche, Mohawk, Gitxsan anarchists, aboriginal Australians, Igbo people.

Countless examples of social centres, Food not Bombs.

Re: It's definitely been mentioned to you before: Frank Fernández's Cuban Anarchism ..

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 10:58 pm, in reply to "It's definitely been mentioned to you before: Frank Fernández's Cuban Anarchism (nm)"

Never heard of it.

Why do you say it has been mentioned to me specifically?

I read most of the stuff on the board. Not everything ..

B/c I distinctly recall the conversation with you. It was when Rhisiart was still around (nm)

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 11:17 pm, in reply to "Re: It's definitely been mentioned to you before: Frank Fernández's Cuban Anarchism .."

Similarly to today, you asked me to back up my criticism of Castro subverting the revolution and

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 11:40 pm, in reply to "B/c I distinctly recall the conversation with you. It was when Rhisiart was still around (nm)"

killing comrades who wouldn't bend the knee.

.. killing comrades who wouldn't bend the knee: OK .. I recall 'a' conversation ish

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 11:58 pm, in reply to "Similarly to today, you asked me to back up my criticism of Castro subverting the revolution and"

Recall being horrified that it may have been true regarding execution. Not quite in the same context as you portray now. From memory, I thought it was due to a betrayal of the movement. Can't remember now, was it Castro or Che?

Again from memory, I was still horrified that someone could be executed in such a manner and don't remember anarchists coming into the conversation.

Just giving you my honest recollection.

Well, an anarchist government would be an oxymoron but

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:23 pm, in reply to "Frank Fernández detailed how Castro murdered Anarchists and others socialists"

while I'm here, some anarchists during the Spanish Civil War joined the Republican Government as Ministers. Most anarchists saw it as an outrage. After the war the feckers accepted they had made a mistake, went off and wrote treatises about it. But there was nobody left to hold them accountable. People are still arguing about it even today.

A good book on the subject by Vernon Richards is The Lessons of the Spanish Revolution. He doesn't mince his words.

Also interesting would be a reference to anarchist rule that has organised the lives of plebs

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 10:33 pm, in reply to "Well, an anarchist government would be an oxymoron but"

There .. I took out the government bit. It hasn't happened anywhere to date, bar primitive societies.

To date, anarchists have shown me nothing. I want free and fair society. You guys have given me nothing except some high-falutin ideology that is meaningless to me. I like socialism .. is that bad?

You pointed out that Emersberger (n now yourself) were the real gatekeepers.

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:02 pm, in reply to "Pshaw, Chomsky's solution to murderous propaganda is to allow them free rein?"

In case you've lost track of where we are, Fionn suggested that Chomsky was a gatekeeper. You referred me to Joe Emersberger, a real gatekeeper. Thank you. The comparison was quite revealing.

You continue to avoid addressing Chomsky's gatekeeping over Aristide, Libya, Syria, Ukraine etc (nm)

Posted by sashimi <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=sashimi' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:10 pm, in reply to "You pointed out that Emersberger (n now yourself) were the real gatekeepers."

Hold yer horses. Aristide is coming up. But now I got to read Fernandez first. Nm

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:37 pm, in reply to "You continue to avoid addressing Chomsky's gatekeeping over Aristide, Libya, Syria, Ukraine etc (nm)"

Farewell comrade Frank Fernandez - died last Sunday!

Posted by Der <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Der' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 9:49 pm, in reply to "You continue to avoid addressing Chomsky's gatekeeping over Aristide, Libya, Syria, Ukraine etc (nm)"

https://anarchistnews.org/content/farewell-comrade-frank-fernandez

Emersburger

Posted by Shyaku <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Shyaku' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 7, 2026, 6:03 pm, in reply to "Doesn't show Chomsky as a gatekeeper. Shows the opposite, in fact. "

Emersburger is the only person ever to try to get me banned from the board - for nothing personal, or outrageous, other than taking a slightly different viewpoint as far as I recall.

Re: "At worst, he was always controlled opposition/gatekeeper." Examples, please? Nm

Posted by Fionn <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Fionn' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on February 3, 2026, 8:52 pm, in reply to ""At worst, he was always controlled opposition/gatekeeper." Examples, please? Nm"

A few that come to mind:
-Accepting the official narrative of 9/11 and not asking basic questions about it/downplaying its importance.
-Accepting the official narrative of the pandemic and not asking basic questoins about that, calling for the unvaxxed to be put in concentration camps.
-Lifetime funding from MIT, his reactionary linguistics theory.

His useful critiques of state-corporate control are were within carefully demarcated limits.

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