Thread by @anyaparampil

Sadly Chomsky has always been decidedly anti-communist, that's why he is presented in mainstream as the preeminent lefty US intellectual & treated like a prophet. Michael Parenti pointed out many of his awful views on the Soviet Union & Leninism years ago: reddit.com/r/communism/co…

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1153680226439892992

In light of Chomsky's shameful Venezuela piece, it is worth remembering Parenti's critique of Chomsky.

"Like Orwell & most bourgeois opinion makers & academics, Chomsky treats Communism and fascism as totalitarian twins, offering no class analysis of either..."

In 1999 Parenti skewered Chomsky for his childish analysis of Leninism. If people paid more honest attention to Chomsky's words, as Parenti did, they would not be surprised regarding his views on Venezuela, Syria, or Nicaragua. He's never been as "left" as he is presented to be.

Parenti correctly characterized Chomsky as Reaganesque, noting the fact he described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "an occasion for rejoicing for anyone who values freedom & human dignity".

Shouldn't that raise *serious* red flags regarding his "left" credentials? 🚫❌⁉️

Parenti: Chomsky avoids "hard qs about organized struggle, the search for a revolutionary path, the need to develop & sustain a mass resistance, the necessity of developing armed socialist state power that can defend itself against capitalist counterrevolutionary onslaught..."

Parenti: "What we used to say about Trotskyites can apply to Chomskyites: they support every revolution except those that succeed... No thought is given to the enormously distorting impact of capitalist counterrevolutionary power... nor the evils" those gov's "hold back".

I've always thought we need to be more honest about Chomsky, but his Venezuela piece crossed a new line. "But Manufacturing Consent was so good!" you say?

IMO he stole much of Michael Parenti's "Inventing Reality" analysis, published 3 years before. 😒
amazon.com/Inventing-Real…

Parenti’s book "Inventing Reality was the first to provide an in-depth analysis of the corporate nature of the media using Marx’s dictum as a thesis. Despite Herman & Chomsky’s book coming two years later, the two don’t mention Parenti at all..." 🤔

lorenzoae.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/cho…

Highly recommend this essay which analyzes Chomsky & Parenti at length.
Their contrast offers "a useful case study in what ideas genuinely make one a candidate for marginalization, vs what ideas are actually quite acceptable despite transgressive veneers.'
lorenzoae.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/cho…