Mainstreaming the Chomskyites

FrontPageMag has posted the introduction to the new, book-length Chomsky takedown, The Anti-Chomsky Reader (which I should be recieving a copy of sometime soon). Its nothing most of us don't know already, but its still a good general overview of Chomsky's various malfeasences. Without question, the most disturbing paragraph is as follows:

In the post 9/11 political ferment, Chomsky’s reputation, which had suffered because of his support of Pol Pot and his dalliance with figures like Faurisson, is on the upswing again. His following has grown, particularly in Europe and Asia, where his views have helped inform an inchoate anti-Americanism, and on the university campus, where divesting from Israel (a cause he has led) and attacks against the War on Terror are de rigueur. The New York Times and Washington Post, which had for the most part ignored the dozens of Chomsky books that had appeared clone-like over the past few years, both treated Hegemony or Survival as a significant work, with Pulitzer prize winner Samantha Power writing in the Times that Chomsky’s work was "sobering and instructive."

The embrace of Chomsky by the mainstream liberal elite in America and the political consensus in Europe -- both Left and Right -- has to be regarded as one of the most unsettling developments in the intellectual world since 9/11; if only because, for the first time since Vietnam, the idea that America is, on a fundamental level, not merely misguided or mistaken but also evil is becoming a part of acceptable discourse. As I pointed out in my first post, its why I started this blog. I must say, its nice to see some mainstream conservative figures taking the issue seriously, instead of dismissing Chomsky as an irrelevant crank; the latter description is true, the former, unfortunately, is not.