You can always count on Noam Chomsky to get everything completely wrong, so his recent remarks on the outcome of the election cheered me greatly:
On Nov. 8, the most powerful country in world history, which will set its stamp on what comes next, had an election. The outcome placed total control of the government—executive, Congress, the Supreme Court—in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history.
Apart from the last phrase, all of this is uncontroversial. The last phrase may seem outlandish, even outrageous. But is it? The facts suggest otherwise. The party is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organized human life. There is no historical precedent for such a stand.
This is high praise indeed, considering the source.
Of course, Chomsky has become a has-been. I’m guessing his college speaking gigs, for which he used to command over $10,000, have fallen off. So what to do? Naturally, join the climate change bandwagon:
During the Republican primaries, every candidate denied that what is happening is happening—with the exception of the sensible moderates, like Jeb Bush, who said it’s all uncertain, but we don’t have to do anything because we’re producing more natural gas, thanks to fracking. Or John Kasich, who agreed that global warming is taking place, but added that “we are going to burn [coal] in Ohio and we are not going to apologize for it.”
The winning candidate, now the president-elect, calls for rapid increase in use of fossil fuels, including coal; dismantling of regulations; rejection of help to developing countries that are seeking to move to sustainable energy; and in general, racing to the cliff as fast as possible.
How America-centric. If you do the math, you discover that even if the United States (throw in Europe if you want) were to disappear off the face of the earth, it would make little difference to the conventional climate change projections because of the immense growth in energy use in the developing world. And if the U.S. disappeared, anyone think those countries would use less energy? You might believe that if your name is Chomsky.
Chomsky really needs to think of a new reason to hate America. This one is taken, and is already stale.
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