"My quarrel with Chomsky goes back to the Balkan wars of the 1990s, where he more or less openly represented the "Serbian Socialist Party" (actually the national-socialist and expansionist dictatorship of Slobodan Milosevic) as the victim. Many of us are proud of having helped organize to prevent the slaughter and deportation of Europe's oldest and largest and most tolerant Muslim minority, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo. But at that time, when they were real, Chomsky wasn't apparently interested in Muslim grievances. He only became a voice for that when the Taliban and Al Qaeda needed to be represented in their turn as the victims of a "silent genocide" in Afghanistan. Let me put it like this, if a supposed scholar takes the Christian-Orthodox side when it is the aggressor, and then switches to taking the "Muslim" side when Muslims commit mass murder, I think that there is something very nasty going on. And yes, I don't think it is exaggerated to describe that nastiness as "anti-American" when the power that stops and punishes both aggressions is the United States … In some awful way, his regard for the underdog has mutated into support for mad dogs. This is not at all like watching the implosion of an obvious huckster and jerk like Michael Moore, who would have made a perfectly good Brownshirt populist. The collapse of Chomsky feels to me more like tragedy."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from EnglandAcademics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesPhilosophers from EnglandImmigrants to the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Love, Poverty and War", FrontPageMagazine.com (2004-12-29): On Noam Chomsky
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was an-English-American journalist and writer. He contributed to the New Statesman, The Nation, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, and Vanity Fair. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over 30 books, incl
302 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Christopher Hitchens →
Related Quotes
"If I was told to sacrifice something to prove my devotion to God, if I was told to do what all monotheists are told t…"
"On our integrity, our basic integrity, knowing right from wrong and being able to choose a right action over a wrong …"
"If Hitchens didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to invent him."
"The idea that God speaks to some illiterate merchant warlord in Arabia, and he’s able to write this down perfectly an…"
"All this could be part of a plan. But it’s some plan, isn’t it?; With mass destruction, pitiless extermination and an…"
"My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywh…"
"If someone tells me that I've hurt their feelings I'm still waiting to hear what your point is."
"It is said that Louis Farrakhan’s racist crackpot Nation of Islam and its sectarian gang gets young men off drugs. Fo…"
"My challenge is really to say, 'Can you name me a moral action or a statement that has been made by a believer that c…"
"There is no reason at all why there aren't enough people to guard New Orleans and to help stabilise Baghdad."