Hitchens' opinion on Chomsky

If only Chomsky was able to defend himself.

[ttrons]

Hitchens was in favor of the war with Iraq. A real negative in my mind.

[BSland]

I love how he speaks, but he was for war.
He loved the "we bring you democracy" policy

[zachgates]

I remember Chomsky asking why NATO was attacking Serbia for ethnic cleansing while NATO member Turkey was cleansing the Kurds out of eastern Turkey. A good question. NATO was probably sending a message to Russia over Serbia and never really considered Turkey as a potential member of the EU.

[robsmithadventures]

I could never understand how someone has bright and intelligent as Hitchens supported the Iraq war.

[mikearchibald]

The facts about what was HAPPENING in Yugoslavia are quite different than WHY the US was involved. Those are two different issues. There are Milosovic's ALL over the world and similar atrocities, and yet the US is not involved, and often famously NOT involved. Hardly a word out of the US about Burma, despite that turning into and out and out military dictatorship. Oh wait, the US applauded and restored military aide to Egypt once the military took over and jailed the Muslim Brotherhood that had won the election. Not that I LIKED them, but they did win the election.

The US also gave most of the arms, AND the OK for Saudi Arabia to bomb hell out of Yemen. So you see, what is going on anyway in a region and WHY the US may get involved are two very different things. For the record, I don't recall what chomsky said, but I usually find his condemnation of US foreign policy is not so 'extreme' as people like Hitchens try to make them out to be.

I remember a lecture he gave on the issue, and do remember that at the time the US was BOMBING, while organizatins were saying "your bombing the wrong targets and your bombing isn't helping". Thats USUALLY the case in any armed conflict.

[arcaneentity]

If only Hitch could see how much of a villain Chomsky became in his final years.

[stephenwallace]

Simply put, I don't think this about Chomsky so much as it's about Hitchens and his pride, not being able to admit he was wrong about the Iraq War.

[freedomfury]

Both are smart, but Chomsky is way above Hitchins

[JasonGafar]

Both Hitchens and Chomsky are so freaking smart. Lol. These two are like walking encyclopedias of history and politics.

[joaobrandao]

Chomsky: the only guy I've seen who can scare the Hitch.

[fourhorsemenmechanix]

He had some good ideas regarding his critique of organized religion. But his view regarding geo-politics were rather poor and in many cases full of ignorance.

At the end of the day, he was a flawed man. Just as we all are.

[zachmorgan]

Even simple answers to simple questions like what's your opinion of gnome chompsky are delivered in a crafted and artful way. As if he writing a book and telling stories to make his point...

A true wordsmith extraordinary which is a talent that should never go unnoticed and

[JohnPaul-lepf]

"American policy mistakes"?
The late Hitch was carrying a massive toxic load.

[JohnKing-wzcb]

He knew America's record in the Middle East but he still refused to accept any guilt for America. Hitch just took a huge dive in my estimation.

[jhjhjhjhjhjhify]

Hitchen's flaw was the same one that made him brilliant - that he was fundamentally anti-totalitarian. Paradoxically this led him to support foreign intervention if he thought it could justifiably defeat an existential 'evil', whatever he viewed this being (and often it was religion).

Chomsky's anti-totalitarian too, but I don't think he has the same 'the ends justifies the means' mentality as Hitchens did, and is more critical of authority in this regard (he's a self described Anarchist, or at least a form of one, after all. Hitchens never subscribed to such an ideology).

[yaserthe]

The difference is that Chomsky was always on the side of the underdog, but at some point Hitch decided to take the side of the aggressor, at least from 2000 onwards anyway.

[jchrist]

I love both, but Chomsky could’ve said exactly the same thing about Hitchens when it comes to perspective. “Because religion” is a ludicrously simplistic way of explaining convoluted issues and far too often during his peak of mainstream popularity did Hitchens do just that.

[tettazwo]

The subtitles make it impossible to focus on the interview.

[patriciapalmer]

Eventually, people outgrow both of them.

[thedolphin]

Such a tiny clip on such a great man's (Chomsky) massive body of work. The (stupid) question was framed GENERALLY and was not answered as intended but would have taken Hitch hours to answer on a case by case basis. Just a clickbaity diversion from the imperfect philoosphical perspectives of TWO GREAT MEN.