Chomsky — The Putin Apologist?
I have long struggled with the fact that Noam Chomsky, the famed linguist and political commentator, continuously makes news headlines because of his controversial statements on Russia in recent months and years.
I used to (and still do, to some extent) enjoy Chomsky’s political commentary when it comes to US foreign policy in the Middle East especially.
But recent years have made him less forgiving toward those who disagree with him. He’s quite adamant about his views. And some of them are just obviously false.
At 94 years old, you’d think it should be time to just retire. But, for Chomsky, this is a prime time to provide political commentary that in ways justifies Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Let me explain.
Chomsky has often gone public with views that I fundamentally disagree with. And there’s no problem with that. We should disagree with each other. In fact, in democracies, disagreement should be the norm.
There are two themes in particular that Chomsky made recently that I disagree with:
- Free speech in Russia and the US,
- and Putin’s violence in Ukraine.
I’ll address both in turn.
