Noam Chomsky Quotes - Page 11

• On the other hand, a lot of the internet - I don't know the percentage, but I am sure a great mass of internet use - is pretty superficial interaction amongst people. Its not necessarily a bad thing. A teenager wants to talk to her friend, that's fine, but I think it probably contributes to atomization, which is a threat to the society.

  Noam Chomsky

  Teenager, Thinking, Hands

  Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

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• It's necessary to address the concerns and beliefs of those who are taken in by the fraud, or who don't recognize the nature and significance of the issues for other reasons. If by philosophy we mean reasoned and thoughtful analysis, then it can address the moment, though not by confronting the "alternative facts" but by analyzing and clarifying what is at stake, whatever the issue is. Beyond that, what is needed is action: urgent and dedicated, in the many ways that are open to us.

  Noam Chomsky

  Philosophy, Taken, Mean

  "Noam Chomsky: On Trump and the State of the Union". Interview with George Yancy, www.nytimes.com. July 5, 2017.

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• Nicaragua dealt with the problem of terrorism in exactly the right way. It followed international law and treaty obligations. It collected evidence, brought the evidence to the highest existing tribunal, the International Court of Justice, and received a verdict - which, of course, the U.S. dismissed with contempt.

  Noam Chomsky

  Law, Justice, Nicaragua

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• There are massive efforts on the part of the internet's corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.

  Noam Chomsky

  Effort, Trying, Technique

  "Peace netter". Interview with Hamish Mackintosh, www.theguardian.com. October 16, 2002.

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• The US stole Texas from Mexico by violence, then invaded Mexico on ludicrous pretexts and conquered half of it, what is now the Southwest and Far West. That's why cities have Spanish names: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz, etc. All of this is suppressed in standard American history. But the victims remember. The conquerors typically have one history, the victims a different one - and often a more accurate one.

  Noam Chomsky

  Texas, Cities, Names

  Source: thefifthcolumnnews.com

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• I mean, what's the elections? You know, two guys, same background, wealth, political influence, went to the same elite university, joined the same secret society where you're trained to be a ruler - they both can run because they're financed by the same corporate institutions.

  Noam Chomsky

  Running, Mean, Two

  "Final Edition". Book by Wallace Shawn, 2011.

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• As long as nuclear weapons exist, the chances of survival of the human species are quite slight.

  Noam Chomsky

  Long, Survival, Nuclear

  "Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war" by Edward Wilson, www.theguardian.com. October 27, 2012.

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• Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.

  Noam Chomsky

  Ignorance, Knowing, Looks

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• State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.

  Noam Chomsky

  Class, Lesson Learned, Lessons

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”, p.13, Seven Stories Press

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• In the pre-capitalist world, everyone had a place. It might not have been a very nice place, even maybe a horrible place, but at least they had some place in the spectrum of the society and they had some kind of a right to live in the place. Now that's inconsistent with capitalism, which denies the right to live. You have only the right to remain on the labour market.

  Noam Chomsky

  Nice, World, Might

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• The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies.

  Noam Chomsky

  Government, Democracy, Corporations

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• What the [James] Monroe Doctrine stated, in effect, is that the US should dominate the hemisphere.

  Noam Chomsky

  Doctrine, Hemisphere, Should

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Actually, the phrase "national security" is barely used until the 1930s. And there's a reason. By then, the United States was beginning to become global. Before that the United States had been mostly a regional power - Britain was the biggest global power. After the Second World War, national security is everywhere, because we basically owned the world, so our security is threatened everywhere. Not just on our borders, but everywhere - so you have to have a thousand military bases around the world for "defense."

  Noam Chomsky

  Military, War, Borders

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

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• The US and Israel have demanded further that Palestinians not only recognize Israel's rights as a state in the international system, but that they also recognize Israel's abstract right to exist, a concept that has no place in international law or diplomacy, and a right claimed by no one. In effect, the US and Israel are demanding that Palestinians . . . formally accept the legitimacy of their expulsion from their own land. They cannot be expected to accept that, just as Mexico does not grant the US the right to exist on half of Mexico's territory, gained by conquest.

  Noam Chomsky

  Law, Land, Rights

  "On Israel, the US and Turkey". Interview with Sabahattin Atas, chomsky.info. September, 2003.

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• Donald Trump and Sean Spicer do one thing after another to keep the media attention focused on them. And it works. These legislative achievements are being made which are chipping away at anything the government has that's of any use to anybody. Paul Ryan, I think, is the most dangerous guy in the government. He knows what he's doing. And it's very systematic. I presume he's behind the cabinet appointments, but it's pretty amazing that every single cabinet appointment is somebody devoted to destroying that part of government.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Achievement, Guy

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• In a capitalist system, there's a principle that if you invest, especially in a long-term risky investment, if something comes out of it, you're supposed to get the profit. It doesn't happen in our system. The taxpayer paid for it and gets nothing - assumes all of the risk, gets zero. The money goes into the pockets of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who are ripping off decades of work in the public sector.

  Noam Chomsky

  Jobs, Zero, Long

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.

  Noam Chomsky

  Political, Propaganda, Profit

  "'The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System'". Interview with Gabor Steingart, www.spiegel.de. October 10, 2008.

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• There are many terrorist states in the world, but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism.

  Noam Chomsky

  Peace, War, United States

  Noam Chomsky (2002). “Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World”, p.122, South End Press

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• In the moral calculus of currently prevailing state capitalism, profits and bonuses in the next quarter greatly outweigh concern for the welfare of one’s grandchildren, and since these are institutional maladies, they will not be easy to overcome. While much remains uncertain, we can assure ourselves, with fair confidence, that future generations will not forgive us our silence and apathy.

  Noam Chomsky

  Grandchildren, Silence, Forgiving

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• There is a phrase in trade theory; it's called "kicking away the ladder." First you violate the rules - the market rules - and then by the time you succeed in developing, you kick away the ladders so others can't do it too, and you preach about "free trade."

  Noam Chomsky

  Kicking, Phrases, Ladders

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants.

  Noam Chomsky

  Teenager, Hysteria, Self

  "Noam Chomsky: Truth to power". Interview with David McNeill, chomsky.info. February 22, 2014.

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• There was a free election in Palestine, but it came out the wrong way. So instantly, the United States and Israel with Europe tagging along, moved to punish the Palestinian people, and punish them harshly, because they voted the wrong way in a free election. That's accepted here in the West as perfectly normal. That illustrates the deep hatred and contempt for democracy among western elites, so deep-seated they can't even perceive it when it's in front of their eyes. You punish people severely if they vote the wrong way in a free election.

  Noam Chomsky

  Eye, Israel, Europe

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• That's a point that Dan Ellsberg has made for years. He said it's kind of like if you and I go into a grocery store to rob it, and I have a gun. The guy may give you the money in the cash register. I'm using the gun even if I don't shoot. Well that's nuclear weapons - essential to post-war deterrence - they cast a shadow over everything.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Gun, Years

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Our health care is rationed by wealth.

  Noam Chomsky

  Care, Wealth, Health Care

  Source: theanarchistlibrary.org

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• The point of advertising is to destroy markets.

  Noam Chomsky

  Advertising

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