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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."”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“It's been a real success - one of the great business successes in the United States - to break down organization, to separate people too: it's part of consumerism. If you can drive people toward individual consumption, that's the highest goal in life. And furthermore, drive them into debt so they're trapped. You don't have to worry about a democracy function because people are trapped and they're alone.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“If there had been a charismatic figure in the United States who could mobilize fears, anger, racism, a sense of loss of the future that belongs to us, this country could be in real danger. We're lucky that there never has been an honest, charismatic figure. McCarthy was too much of a thug, you know? Nixon was too crooked. Trump, I think, is too much of a clown. So, we've been lucky.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Neoliberal democracy. Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless. In sum, neoliberalism is the immediate and foremost enemy of genuine participatory democracy, not just in the United States but across the planet, and will be for the foreseeable future.”

FeelsStatesIndividualCommunityUnitedResultsEnemyUnited StatesDemocracyProducePlanetsCitizensGenuineConsumersShoppingPowerlessMallsNeoliberalismDemoralizedParticipatory Democracy
Book:Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order
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“Hamas is regularly described as 'Iranian-backed Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.' One will be hard put to find something like 'democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus'—blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true, but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable.”

YearsLongTwoHardStatesLinesPartyCallingDestructionInternationalIsraelTerrorismContributionDedicatedPalestinianConsensusAccordSettlementIranianGazaBlockedHamasDispensable
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“There are few genuine conservatives within the U.S. political system, and it is a sign of the intellectual corruption of the age that the honorable term 'conservatism' can be appropriated to disguise the advocacy of a powerful, lawless, aggressive and violent state, a welfare state for the rich dedicated to a lunatic form of Keynesian economic intervention that enhances state and private power while mortgaging the country's future.”

CountryStatesAgeFormPoliticalTermPowerfulRichEconomicIntellectualCorruptionGenuineViolentWelfareAggressiveDedicatedDisguiseHonorableInterventionConservatismLunaticPolitical SystemsAdvocacyWelfare State
Book:The Culture of Terrorism
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“What is called 'capitalism'is basically a system of corporate mercantilism, with huge and largely unaccountable private tyrannies exercising vast control over the economy, political systems, and social and cultural life, operating in close cooperation with powerful states that intervene massively in the domestic economy and international society.”

StatesPoliticalSocialPowerfulEconomySocietyHugeExerciseCapitalismInternationalTyrannyCorporateAccountabilityCooperationPolitical SystemsEconomic Globalization
Book:Language and Politics
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“In the late 1990s, some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the world were what the Turkish government itself called state terror, namely massive atrocities, 80 percent of the arms coming from the United States, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, hideous repression, that's international terror, and we can go on and on.”

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“From a comparative perspective, the United States is unusual if not unique in the lack of restraints on freedom of expression. It is also unusual in the range and effectiveness of methods employed to restrain freedom of thought... Where the voice of the people is heard, elite groups must insure their voice says the right things.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“It is not that I am not a fan of American exceptionalism. That is like saying I am not a fan of the moon being made out of green cheese - it does not exist. Powerful states have quite typically considered themselves to be exceptionally magnificent, and the United States is no exception to that. The basis for it is not very substantial to put it politely.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Democracy, in the United States rhetoric refers to a system of governance in which elite elements based in the business community control the state by virtue of their dominance of the private society, while the population observes quietly. So understood, democracy is a system of elite decision and public ratification, as in the United States itself. Correspondingly, popular involvement in the formation of public policy is considered a serious threat. It is not a step towards democracy; rather it constitutes a 'crisis of democracy' that must be overcome.”

StatesCommunityDecisionUnitedMoneyStepsUnited StatesVirtueDemocracyPolicySeriousElementsUnderstoodOvercomingCrisisThreatPopulationElitesRhetoricGovernanceInvolvementFormationDominancePublic Policy
Book:On Power and Ideology
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“Surely no rational or realistic person will discount the possibility that [during wartime] the United States might suddenly resort to nuclear weapons. Those who retain the instinct for survival, not to speak of minimal concern for their fellow man, will seek ways to act before rather than after the event.”

MenWayPersonsStatesMightSpeakChurchUnitedUnited StatesEventsPossibilityWeaponsSurvivalConcernFellowsInstinctCorruptionNuclearRationalRealisticNuclear WeaponsResortsFellow ManDiscountsWartime
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“The media want to maintain their intimate relation to state power. They want to get leaks, they want to get invited to the press conferences. They want to rub shoulders with the Secretary of State, all that kind of business. To do that, you've got to play the game, and playing the game means telling their lies, serving as their disinformation apparatus.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business… the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products.”

WellsImportantStatesGovernmentForceLosesEnemyMilitaryProductsWeaponsMassLogicAffairIgnorantIdeologyConsumersDevicesInterfereObserversStraightforwardParticipantsPublic AffairsIgnorant Masses
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Globalization is the result of powerful governments, especially that of the United States, pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies of nations around the world without having obligations to the peoples of those nations.”

PeopleWorldStatesGovernmentNationsUnitedResultsDealsPowerfulUnited StatesEconomyEasierTradeObligationAround The WorldCorporationsPushingWealthyThroatGlobalizationAccordPowerful Government
Book:Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order
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“... an essential feature of a decent society, and an almost defining feature of a democratic society, is relative equality of outcome - not opportunity, but outcome. Without that you can't seriously talk about a democratic state... These concepts of the common good have a long life. They lie right at the core of classical liberalism, of Enlightenment thinking... Like Aristotle, [Adam] Smith understood that the common good will require substantial intervention to assure lasting prosperity of the poor by distribution of public revenues.”

ThinkingLongStatesLyingOpportunityPoorCommonEssentialsEnlightenmentUnderstoodConceptsDemocraticProsperityLibertarianCoreFeaturesOutcomesDecentLiberalismLastingRelativeAdamDistributionRevenueInterventionDefiningLong LifeGood WillCommon GoodDemocratic SocietyClassical Liberalism
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“The great soul of power extends far beyond states, to every domain of life, from families to international affairs. And throughout, every form of authority and domination bears a severe burden of proof. It is not self-legitimizing. And when it cannot bear the burden, as is commonly the case, it should be dismantled.”

ShouldSoulSelfStatesFormCasesBearsAuthorityAffairInternationalBurdenProofSevereDominationDomainNihilismGreat SoulsInternational AffairsBurden Of Proof
Author:Noam Chomsky
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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.”

StatesNextEasySilenceMoralGenerationsCapitalismConcernFairsOvercomingRemainsForgivingProfitWelfareQuartersApathyUncertainGrandchildrenFuture GenerationPrevailingBonusCalculusMalady
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Our current prison state has the dual effect of getting rid of a superfluous population of basically unskilled workers (with a close race-class correlation), and also demonizing them... The drug war is basically for this - It has nothing to do with drugs, but it has plenty to do with criminalizing an unwanted population and scaring everybody else.”

WarStatesPoliticalRaceClassEffectsDrugPrisonWorkersPopulationCurrentsPlentyProhibitionWar On DrugsSuperfluousUnwantedCorrelation
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“So, at one extreme you have indigenous, tribal societies trying to stem the race to disaster. At the other extreme, the richest, most powerful societies in world history, like the United States and Canada, are racing full-speed ahead to destroy the environment as quickly as possible.”

WorldTryingStatesUnitedPowerfulRaceUnited StatesEnvironmentExtremesSpeedDisasterCanadaMost PowerfulRacingStemWorld HistoryIndigenous
Book:Who Rules the World?
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“The people of the Third World need our sympathetic understanding and, much more than that, they need our help. We can provide them with a margin of survival by internal disruption in the United States. Whether they can succeed against the kind of brutality we impose on them depends in large part on what happens here.”

PeopleWorldNeedsKindStatesHelpingHappensUnderstandingUnitedUnited StatesCollegeDependsSucceedSurvivalThirdsInternalsMarginsSympatheticBrutalityThird WorldDisruptionObnoxious
Book:How the World Works
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“Our yearning for democracy is accompanied by a no less profound yearning for peace. And the media also faced the task of historical engineering to establish this required truth. We therefore have phenomena called 'peace missions' and the 'peace process'. These are terms that apply to whatever the United States happens to be doing or advocating at some moment... in short, 'War is Peace'.”

WarStatesMomentsHappensPoliticalLanguageProcessTermUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyMediaTasksHistoricalProfoundMissionsYearningEngineeringAdvocating
Author:Noam Chomsky
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