Considering all the recent attention surrounding Noam Chomsky and his connections to Jeffery Epstein, I thought I might ask this question.

I personally think Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a good book and makes a lot of good points regarding the bourgeois media which few other left-wing authors have made, at least not in such a concise and easily-explained way. When I shared this book with new leftists, they seem to appreciate and comprehend its contents rather quickly. The only part which I found myself majorly disagreeing with was the conclusion in which Chomsky suggests that “American democracy” is “under threat,” as opposed to being non-existent in the first place.

With that being said, I consider Chomsky’s work to be a pearl in an ocean of bad takes. I think that Chomsky, particularly recently, is an anti-communist propagandist and apologist for the bourgeois system, basically a left-liberal.

Is my take incorrect?

Edit: I failed to mention how this book was co-authored by someone else who is not on the Epstein files. Thank you to all those who mentioned that.

  • Wisconcom [she/her]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    8·
    14 days ago

    I mean, he is a good linguist, just never really particularly good as a political activist.

    A lot of Maoists are snake-bitten (for lack of a better term) with Parenti because he seems to have supported the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact after de-Stalinization. I think that Parenti had some good things to say and his works do hold value if read critically, which is why I occasionally do read him. I have never read that work, but I really should considering how often it is recommended by communists.