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Works of Radical Imagination

Noam Chomsky on Trump, Bernie, Cautious Optimism, and the Threat of Nuclear Disaster

July 05

by Seven Stories Press

"Is Russian hacking really more significant than . . . the Republican campaign to destroy the conditions for organized social existence, in defiance of the entire world? Or to enhance the already dire threat of terminal nuclear war? Or even such real but lesser crimes such as the Republican initiative to deprive tens of millions of health care and to drive helpless people out of nursing homes in order to enrich their actual constituency of corporate power and wealth even further? Or to dismantle the limited regulatory system set up to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis that their favorites are likely to bring about once again? And on, and on.

It’s easy to condemn those we place on the other side of some divide, but more important, commonly, to explore what we take to be nearby."

It will be no surprise to those who have followed his career that the above words were spoken by Noam Chomsky. What may be a bit of a shock is that they’re printed in the opinion section of the New York Times. Slipping in through the back door, as it were, Chomsky was interviewed today by George Yancy, in the Times’s philosophy forum, “The Stone,” edited by Simon Critchley.

Nestled among the terrifying storm clouds that the Trump presidency has swept across the globe, there may be a silver lining that: broad critiques of American hegemony and the power of global capital no longer seem quite so “fringe.” The issues Chomsky has been carefully discussing for half a century now are entering the mainstream. And for that, at least, we can feel grateful.

Read the full article in the Times here

 

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