I don't have much time to read what's going on in the world outside now, and it'll take another week or two before things settle down, however I did notice that Noam Chomsky made the front page of the Taipei Times yesterday and whilst the author, Stacy Hsu, drooled praise all over him (“the conscience of America...”) the article was distinguished by its' lop-sidedness in the fact that not a single word was said against him.
The case against Noam Chomsky is manifold, and has been detailed again and again by writers with audiences of such scale that one would think it would hardly need repeating. Yet his appearance in a fawning front-page piece in the Taipei Times evinces, yet again, the stupid affection lavished upon any famous western "academic" who just happens to say things that people in the opposition movement approve of. That Chomsky's support can be considered newsworthy is surely consequent to his continuing reptutation as a serious academic, political writer and "activist", a reputation held largely by people on the far-Left.
As Benjamin Kerstein has argued, far from being the vigorous opponent of totalitarianism that he and his lackeys like to portray him as, he is in fact an advocate of systemic political violence in order to achieve the ends he believes are good. Had he ever been in power, I do not believe he would have shied away from genocide had he considered it "pragmatic". It does not augur well for the future of Taiwan if it is the likes of Chomsky that the younger generation look up to as political mentors.
Chomsky's support for the "anti-media monopolization" (which is not actually a monopoly) cause ought to have been reported with a health warning - if it was to be reported at all. This could have been easily achieved with some mention of the infamous opinions he has previously espoused (e.g. his moral equivocation of the U.S. government with the Khmer Rouge) or the "libertarian socialism" bullshit he has published over the years to make money out of confused college students.
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