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Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky Quotes

Linguist

Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned linguist from the United States. His research in generative grammar and transformational grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics. Chomsky's academic achievements extend beyond linguistics, as he is also an active political commentator and philosopher, known for his unique perspective and profound insights.

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Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“The goal is to keep the bewildered herd bewildered. It's unnecessary for them to trouble themselves with what's happening in the world. In fact, it's undesirable - if they see too much of reality they may set themselves to change it.”

Ifs World May Facts Reality Goal Too Much Trouble Happenings Unnecessary Herds Bewildered Undesirable

Book:How the World Works

Source: How the World Works

“So Marxism, Freudianism: any one of these things I think is an irrational cult. They're theology, so they're whatever you think of theology; I don't think much of it. In fact, in my view that's exactly the right analogy: notions like Marxism and Freudianism belong to the history of organized religion.”

Thinking Facts Views Notion Theology Organized Irrational Cult Marxism Analogies Organized Religion

Book:Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

Source: Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky

“I doubt that national languages will disappear. In fact, to some extent they're becoming more diverse, like in Europe.”

Facts Language Doubt Becoming Europe Disappear Diverse Becoming More National Language

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The most interesting - in fact, inspiring - people I met there [Porto Alegre] are those who remain nameless: representatives of the international campesino movement, the East Timorese delegation,... - the usual heroes, who disappear, unknown, apart from the consequences of their work.”

People Facts Interesting Movement Hero Mets Consequence International East Disappear Usual Representatives Most Interesting Nameless Delegation Porto

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There are two parties, so-called, but they're really factions of the same party, the Business Party.”

Two Facts Interest Party Position Degrees Range Factions

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In the American Jewish community, there is little willingness to face the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have suffered a monstrous historical injustice . . . Until this is recognized, discussion of the Middle East crisis cannot even begin.”

Littles Facts Faces Community Middle Crisis Historical Injustice East Discussion Willingness Middle East Palestinian Monstrous Jewish Community

Book:Middle East Illusions: Including Peace in the Middle East? : Reflections on Justice and Nationhood

Source: Middle East Illusions: Including Peace in the Middle East? : Reflections on Justice and Nationhood

“If you're worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it's almost all attributable to military spending and the totally dysfunctional health program.”

Ifs Facts Pay Attention Military Program Spending Worried Pay Attention Deficit Military Spending

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it's likely to harm them.”

Doe Facts Helping Action Crime Victim Extremes Harm Rage Reactions Territory Elsewhere Palestinian Shocking Lebanon

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Surely few if any readers have come across the sentence they are now reading, and someone who had by chance heard or seen it could not possibly remember such a fact.”

Ifs Facts Remember Reading Chance Heard Reader Sentences

Book:Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures

Source: Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures

“American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a lot to answer for here. There's been a drift toward very fragmenting tendencies among left groups, toward this sort of identity politics.”

Facts Seems Political Left Answers Groups Identity Organization Tendencies League American Society Bowling Identity Politics

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, some leaders come right out and say it. Mario Draghi the president of the European Central Bank had an interview with the Wall St Journal in which he said the social contract's dead; we finally got rid of it.”

Said Facts Social President Leader Wall Interviews Contracts Journal Central Banks Social Contract Mario

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Private sector unionization is down to practically seven percent. Meanwhile the public sector unions have kind of sustained themselves [even] under attack, but in the last few years, there's been a sharp [increase in the] attack on public sector unions, which Barack Obama has participated in, in fact. When you freeze salaries of federal workers, that's equivalent to taxing public sector people.”

People Years Kind Facts Lasts Percent Increase Unions Seven Workers Barack Salary Freeze Private Sector Public Sector

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Why not stakeholder action? There's no economic principal that says that management should be responsive to shareholders, in fact you can read in texts of business economics that they could just as well have a system in which the management is responsible to stakeholders.”

Should Wells Facts Action Economic Economics Responsible Management Why Not Principal Shareholders Stakeholder

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Suppose I try to say the US carries out terror, in fact it's one of the leading terrorist states in the world. You can't say that between commercials. People rightly want to know what do you mean. They've never heard that before. Then you have to explain. You have to give background. That's exactly what's cut out.”

People Knows World Want Giving Trying Mean States Facts Cutting Heard Terror Terrorist Backgrounds Carrie Giving Back

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, when drugs are legalized, use sometimes goes down, it's been claimed. Part of the reason is that teenage kids use illicit drugs because they are illicit. They are thumbing their noses at society. If they were legal, they might not.”

Ifs Sometimes Reason Facts Use Might Kids Drug Noses Teenage

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The United States has done some very good things in the world, and that does not change the fact that the World Court was quite correct in condemning the United States as an international terrorist state.”

World Doe States Done Facts United United States Court Good Things Very Good International Terrorist Condemning

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, the capitalist class in the '50s was sort of part of a social contract. It was part of the tenor of the times.”

Facts Social Class Contracts Capitalist Tenors Social Contract

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Somehow the fact of enormous privilege and freedom carries with it a sense of impotence, which is a strange, but striking, phenomenon. The fact is, we can do just about anything. There is no difficulty, wherever you are, in finding groups that are working hard on things that concern you.”

Hard Facts Can Do Groups Strange Findings Concern Difficulty Privilege Enormous Carrie Phenomenon Impotence Wherever You Are

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Iran has been calling for it for years, and the Arab countries support it. Everyone except the United States and Israel support it. The U.S. won't allow it because it means inspecting Israel's nuclear weapons. The U.S. has continued to block it, and in fact blocked it again just a couple of days ago; it just wasn't widely reported. Iran's nuclear program, as U.S. intelligence points out, is deterrent, and the bottom line is that the U.S. and Israel don't want Iran to have a deterrent.”

Want Years Mean Has Beens Country States Facts Lines United United States Support Couple Calling Weapons Program Bottom Israel Nuclear Block Iran Nuclear Weapons Bottom Line Blocked Deterrent

Author:Noam Chomsky

“France has not been able to come to terms with the fact that it's not a major power anymore. I mean even before the Second World War Paris was one of the main centers of intellectual and cultural life. But now Paris is a kind of subsidiary of Germany, their traditional enemy and they can't come to terms with it.”

World Kind Mean War Facts Able Term Enemy Majors Intellectual Traditional France Paris War Of The Worlds Germany Second World War

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact if you look at Reagan's global war on terrorism it very quickly turned into a massive terrorist war: [by us] Central America, South Africa, the Middle East, all U.S.-backed terrorism. That's one of the reasons why it disappeared from history and why the standard line is that Bush 43 declared the war on terror. Actually he just repeated what Reagan had said 20 years earlier.”

“Well, in fact if you look at the Trump voters, you take a look at their attitudes it's not all that different. In some respects they're similar. They're an older version of the Sanders people. So a lot of it is racist and you have that sort of thing, but if you look at their views on say health, education, and so on, it's kind of the same as Sanders.”

People Ifs Wells Looks Kind Different Facts Views Attitude Trump Versions Racist Voters Health Education

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Silicon Valley wouldn't exist without massive government spending and in fact initiative.”

Facts Government Spending Massive Valleys Initiative Silicon Silicon Valley Government Spending

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Long before the technology revolution there was declassification of documents and I've spent quite a lot of time studying declassified internal documents and written a lot about them. In fact, anybody who's worked through the declassified record can see very clearly that the reason for classification is very rarely to protect the state or the society from enemies. Most of the time it is to protect the state from its citizens, so they don't know what the government is doing.”

Knows Long States Reason Facts Government Enemy Technology Study Records Written Revolution Citizens Protect Internals Documents Classification

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Its minority rule and majority limited rights. In fact it's set up that way. If you read the framers of the constitution, including James Madison, he was pretty clear about it.”

Ifs Way Facts Clear Rights Constitution Majority Including Minorities Madison Framers

Author:Noam Chomsky

“It is an astonishing fact about the current era that in the most powerful country in world history, with a high level of education and privilege, one of the two political parties virtually denies the well-established facts about anthropogenic climate change.”

“Blacks have no rights - in fact they were three - fifths human according to the constitution to give slave owners more voting rights. So that's African Americans.”

Giving Humans Facts Three Rights Constitution Slave African American Voting Owners Right To Vote Slave Owners

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The Fourteenth Amendment, after the civil war, in principle brought former slaves into the category of persons, theoretically. But if you actually look, almost all the cases brought up for personal rights under the Fourteenth Amendment were by corporations. Freed slaves couldn't do it. In fact they were pretty much driven back into something like slavery by a north - south compact, that allowed former slave states to criminalize black life, which made a criminal force that was basically used as a forced labor force, up until the 1930s.”

“Somebody puts up some weird thing and somebody else thinks yeah maybe that's the way things work and pretty soon you have some cult going. Its not the fault of the internet, it's the fault of a social and culture system that doesn't educate people properly and in fact on purpose. They don't want to educate people properly.”

People Thinking Way Want Facts Purpose Culture Social Internet Yeah Faults Educate Cult Weird Things

Author:Noam Chomsky

“On intervention under the UN framework, I think that sometimes that's legitimate, in fact even helpful.”

Thinking Sometimes Facts Helpful Intervention Framework

Author:Noam Chomsky

“We have to recognize that there is a range of interests, like there isn't a single corporate interest and a single state interest, so there's a range. In addition to that, there is the fact of professional integrity.”

States Facts Interest Integrity Corporate Range

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, I was in a lab that was a hundred percent funded by the Pentagon, and it was one of the centers of the organized antiwar resistance movement.”

Facts Movement Percent Hundred Resistance Organized Antiwar Labs Pentagon

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I think the press, by and large, is what we call "liberal". But of course what we call "liberal" means well to the right. "Liberal" means the "guardians of the gates". So the New York Times is "liberal" by, what's called, the standards of political discourse, New York Times is liberal, CBS is liberal. I don't disagree. I think they're moderately critical at the fringes. They're not totally subordinate to power, but they are very strict in how far you can go. And in fact, their liberalism serves an extremely important function in supporting power.”

“If you listen to the talk shows, which are rabid right-wing, and very interesting, an important fact about the United States, they reach a huge audience. And they're very uniform. So right wing, I don't think you can even find an analog in your, but they reach a mass audience, and their view is that the corporations are liberal. Their appeal to the population is, "the country is run by liberals, they own the corporations, they run the government, they own the media, and they don't care about us ordinary people."”

“In fact, for the majority of the population, wages and incomes have stagnated and conditions have gotten worse. So they are asking, "what did I do wrong?" And the answer that the talk show host is giving them is convincing, in it's internal logic. It's saying, "what's wrong is the rich liberals own everything, run everything, they don't care about you; therefore, distrust them" and so on.”

Giving Facts Shows Care Running Answers Rich Conditions Logic Asking Majority Population Don't Care Income Internals Host Wages Distrust Convincing Talk Shows What Did I Do Wrong

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, there is a very close correlation between human rights violations and US aid, particularly in Latin America.”

Humans Facts America Rights Human Rights Aids Latin Violation Latin America Correlation

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, Clinton-era publications of the US Space Command describe control over space as a parallel to control over the oceans a century ago. Then, countries built navies to protect and enhance their power in commercial and strategic interests. Today, the militarization of space is intended to protect US investments and commercial interest and US hegemony around the world.”

World Country Facts Today Interest Space Century Protect Ocean Built Clinton Investment Command Around The World Eras Navy Parallels Strategic Publication Hegemony

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In fact, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 bans militarization. Potential adversaries of the US, and even its allies, are so far behind that these countries are very interested in maintaining the treaty. Europe and the rest of the world want a strong reaffirmation of the Treaty and the US is unilaterally trying to derail it. Termination of the treaty would mean that the US could develop satellite weapons, put offensive weapons in space. It would probably mean using nuclear power in space. All of this leads to some very dangerous scenarios, including destruction of the species.”

“In Turkey also, for a long time, the military was the decisive force but in the past 10 years they have backed off somewhat and the civilian government has gained more independence and autonomy even to shake up the military command. In fact, it even arrested several high-ranking officers [for interfering in governmental affairs]. Maybe Pakistan can move in a similar direction.”

Years Long Facts Government Past Moving Force Military Long Time Independence Affair Command Shakes Officers Interfere Pakistan Autonomy Turkeys Civilians Arrested Ranking Military Command

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I can understand the idea that there is a conspiracy. In fact, in much of the world there is a sense of an ultra-powerful CIA manipulating everything that happens, such as running the Arab Spring, running the Pakistani Taliban, etc. That is just nonsense. They [CIA] created a monster and now they are appalled by it.”

World I Can Ideas Facts Happens Running Powerful Spring Monsters Etc Nonsense Conspiracy Cia Taliban Ultras Arab Spring

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If you take a look at places like Harvard, it's striking. In the early ,50s, I think there were a handful of Jewish professors, three or four. But by the 1960s, there were Jewish deans and administrators. In fact, one of the reasons why MIT became a great university was because they admitted Jews whereas Harvard did not.”

Ifs Thinking Looks Reason Facts Three Four University Jew Reason Why Professors Handful 1960s Harvard Dean Administrators Mit

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There was a really monstrous and almost literal genocide in the Mayan area, specifically under Ríos Montt. By now it has been recognized somewhat by Guatemalan society. In fact, Montt was under trial for some crimes. But the U.S. prohibits people from fleeing here.”

People Has Beens Facts Crime Areas Trials Genocide Monstrous Literal Fleeing

Author:Noam Chomsky

“You can read it in history books now, but they often suppress the fact that the U.S. government tolerated [Nazi]. It's really remarkable because they claim that [Franklin] Roosevelt was impeded by the Neutrality Act. On the other hand, he bitterly condemned a Mexican businessman for sending several guns to the Republic. If you look back, oil was the one commodity that [Francisco] Franco could not receive from the Germans and the Italians, so that was quite significant.”

Ifs Looks Book Facts Hands Government Gun Claims Oil Significant Remarkable Republic Commodity Nazi Businessman Mexican Franklin Neutrality History Books Franco Francisco Franco

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The neoliberal programs of the last generation have in fact been, and were intended to be, a pretty serious attack on democracy, but also they've led to stagnation or decline for large parts of the population - the working class, the lower middle class, these people have essentially been cast aside.”

People Facts Lasts Class Democracy Generations Middle Serious Program Casts Population Middle Class Decline Working Class Stagnation

Author:Noam Chomsky

“That's unfortunately common - to blame immigrants, to blame the African-Americans who are being helped by federal programs, to blame anyone available, to direct attention away from the roots of the distress which you're suffering. This combines with xenophobia, white supremacy, racism, misogyny, and other quite unpleasant phenomena which are far from being eradicated. All of this makes for a pretty dangerous brew. But economic issues are right in the center of it. And you can see this in the fact that so many former Obama voters now voted for Trump, or just didn't bother voting.”

“There are real possibilities of reaching many of the Trump voters: many of them in fact voted for Obama, believing his rhetoric about "change," and upon realizing that they were deluded, have turned to Trump. And will find that they are again deluded. That's an opportunity that can be grasped, by organizing, education, activism right now.”

Believe Real Facts Opportunity Realizing Possibility Trump Right Now Activism Reaching Voters Rhetoric Deluded

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Suppose that I see a hungry child in the street, and I am able to offer the child some food. Am I morally culpable if I refuse to do so? Am I morally culpable if I choose not to do what I easily can about the fact that 1000 children die every hour from easily preventable disease, according to UNICEF? Or the fact that the government of my own "free and open society" is engaged in monstrous crimes that can easily be mitigated or terminated? Is it even possible to debate these questions?”

Ifs Children Facts Government Able Dies Hours My Own Streets Crime Offers Disease Refuse Debate Hungry Engaged Monstrous Unicef

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The book [Manufacturing Consent] itself is then devoted to a series of case studies, selected, we hope [with Edward Herman], to offer a fair and in fact rather severe test of those conclusions.”

Book Facts Cases Study Offers Fairs Tests Series Conclusion Devoted Severe Consent Manufacturing Selected Case Studies

Author:Noam Chomsky

“An unstated but crucial premise is that the "responsible men" achieve that exalted status by their service to authentic power, a fact of life that they will discover soon enough if they try to pursue an independent path.”

Ifs Men Trying Enough Facts Path Achieve Responsible Independent Pursue Crucial Premises Facts Of Life Exalted Soon Enough

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Dissidents are not imprisoned as in the domains of the Kremlin, in the old days. They do not have their brains blown out by elite forces armed and trained by the reigning superpower, as happens in Washington's domains - with no particular concern at home - an important fact, one of many that help us learn about ourselves, if we choose.”

Ifs Important Facts Helping Home Happens Force Brain Particular Concern Elites Domain Old Days Superpower Dissidents Kremlin

Author:Noam Chomsky

About the Author

Born: December 7, 1928
Known for: Linguist
Quotes: 1825

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