The renowned US academic spoke to Al Jazeera about his career and positions he regrets not taking in the past.

I know this is old news but this question really struck me:

“And yet we see Netanyahu publicly embarrassing the Democratic Party with his speech before Congress in 2015, along with his public support for the re-election of Donald Trump in 2018. And this past week’s war of words with President Biden. Does Netanyahu know something we don’t about the decline of American global power? Or is he taking a gamble on continued bipartisan US support in spite of his behaviour?”

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    chomsky’s response is telling about how disconnected he’s become:

    Well, I think all of these things could lead to big changes in the future … It is based to a large extent on substantial shifts in public opinion…

    The point at which it changed is easily identifiable: Operation Cast Lead. That was so brutal, violent, young people just weren’t going to take it any more. I think that was a real tipping point. You could see it very clearly in things like talks on campuses, even strongly pro-Israel campuses like Brandeis University …changed very sharply. These are attitudes of younger people that are going to have a big effect on all of us in the future. So there are conflicts brewing. You don’t see it yet in policy, but I think you can see the beginnings of it.

    those “younger people” are middle aged now and make up a majority of american voters; isreali’s and palestinians, yet american voters were still only given the choice between 2 candidates that both wanted to perpetuate isreal’s genocide of the palestinians and the isreali people’s wishes were likewise sidelined by the ones who also wanted to perpetuate the same genocide.

    i know from his work that chomsky’s well aware of how our political system is captured by our ruling classes, but continuing to espouse a belief in 2023 that things will change once the “younger people” take over makes it seem like he’s not paying attention anymore; it doesn’t matter what the younger generations want, profit is the only thing that matters and that’s been a fact since will before chomsky’s time.