Chomsky's criticism of Postmodernism

Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist, does not have nice things to say about Postmodernism. We try to lay down his main points in a coherent way, and in doing so, we see that much of his critique follows some themes cherished by Postmodernists themselves. In particular, Chomsky argues that much of postmodernism was an instrument of power wielded to obtain material rewards.
Chomsky goes particularly hard on the Postmodern tradition and we try to put into video form the essence of his scathing critique.

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[IgorNV]

"Postmodernism is cringe" -Noam Chomsky

[SerbAtheist]

Postmodernism: The idea that truth is always subjective, but I'm always right.

[buddinganarchist]

He is not saying power difference does not exist. There is evidence, there is truth, morality. Ethics. Not everything is some game.

[MA-goee]

In a way the post modernists won. It's remarkable how much cultural commentary is now just basically an analysis of power relationships.

[perhenriksson]

Great description, modern day sophistry.

[ryangarritty]

Elements of postmodernism were already alive and thriving in the early 20th century. In his 1907 essay 'The Study of Mathematics', Bertrand Russell wrote : 'Too often it is said that there is no absolute truth, but only opinion and private judgment ; that each of us is conditioned, in his view of the world, by his own peculiarities, his own taste and bias ; and that there is no external kingdom of truth to which, by patience and discipline, we may at last obtain admittance, but only truth for me, for you, for every separate person. By this habit of mind one of the chief ends of human effort is denied, and the supreme virtue of candour, of fearless acknowledgment of what is, disappears from our moral vision.'

[rabidcentrist]

"Creating the impression of profundity"
Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

[kehana]

there seem to be a lot of people here that vehemently i would encourage you guys to read at least a bit of baudrillard and foucault to, at least, get an idea of what they're saying. chomsky, like a lot of american/analytic philosophers, has a dislike of continental philosophy. that being said, there are a lot of clever ideas in that area of philosophy, so it's at least worth reading some to get to know what you disagree with a bit more.

[nsbdnow]

Is he criticizing "postmodernism" or a certain group or type of academic? It sounds more like that than as you are portraying it. He doesn't talk about "postmodernism" in terms of textual criticism, but more about academic egos and those who absent themselves from social activism. This was not even remotely a "complete denunciation of the movement" as you conclude.

[vincenthe]

But everything in this video is simply a critique of postmodernists rather than postmodernism as an idea? I don’t understand how this constitutes criticism on postmodernism at all.

[crisoliveira]

I don't know whether or not my personal experience is representative of the general state of South America, but I don't see it around here that Postmodernism has been insulating professors from popular struggle. Many professors are away from it, sure, but of those who are active in social and political movements, most can't shut their mouths about Foucault and Deleuze. I'd like to see examples of what Chomsky says, because I see many examples of the opposite every day.

[ElSantoLuchador]

So Chomsky deconstructed postmodernism in terms of power relationships. What a postmodern thing to do. Derrida would be proud.

[dannyarcher]

Well, blow me down. I agree with Chomsky on something.

[LendallPitts]

I do not wish to be the naysayer here but Chomsky is lumping together thinkers with quite different points of view: Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard and Lyotard. By doing so he does his own argument a disservice. One good thing about the French and about Continental philosophy is general is that they are out there doing philosophy (Alain Badiou is an excellent example) whereas elsewhere thinkers who call themselves philosophers are publishing books about long-dead philosophers or, as is the case with the analytic school, are engaging in mental activity which has very little to do with the people's lived experience.

[PM]

Chomsky, not unlike the majority, assumes he knows what 'science' is, but he is mistaken. That is aside from the fact that 'linguistics' itself sits awkwardly even inside that assumption.

[df]

This clip does next to nothing to describe what post modermism is and how it functions, or how a bunch of people no one can understand gained the power suggested here...
WHAT authority do these academics have in "3rd world countries" that at all impacts the daily lives of the people that live there? How is that authority used? I mean....just a snippet perhaps for those who don't already know (or believe) what this clip is talking about....

[BardovBacchus]

This may be a misreading of Chomsky by taking what he said too far. It could be that his critique was more limited to certain actors within the post modern movement that have had a negative effect, in his opinion, in shaping the movement overall. My analogy would be to certain teams acting in such a way as to change an entire sports league in some fundamental way. It would be taking that example too far to say the entire sport should be invalidated in some way or another. I'm not sure Noam was saying we should not analyze power structures and their real world applications, just the these twats have mucked it up by acting like lawyers instead of educators

[BlackWASP]

This is not a critique Postmodernism as much as it is a critique of Posmodermist scholars and intellectuals (which is a different critique and could be applied across various ideological positions).

[jonathanbailey]

Hang on, this video sounds like a low-rent undergraduate essay. The characterisation of 'postmodernism' here is a strawman, and not one universally recognised. It doesn't correspond to any of the contentions of any of the purported theorists, or the various iterations of the term in architectural or artistic movements. Postmodernity if it anything like you describe, was a counter-movement in the arts. Many detractors point to French academics like Jean Francois Lyotard as proponents of a misplaced epistemological view like the one forwarded in this video. However, what they were actually up to was describing the direction of travel in society, not making a set of epistemological claims. Be that Foucault, Baudrillard, DeBord, Bachelard, Derrida, et al. I think the 'post-truth' social-media politics and 'cultures wars' of today vindicates much of what some of them wrote. Critiques like Habermas' and Chomsky's are the weakest part of their work, and did not issue from any serious engagement with the work of those claimed to 'represent' a movement in 20th century European academic (particularly French) circles, which did not in fact exist.

[jefersonlemos]

I am from Brasil and I very much identify with what Chomsky says about the disconnection among the intelligensia and popular movements. I often even find latin professors deffending positions so simmilar to the US department line and reproductions of imperial myths, really terrible