There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense.
Noam ChomskyRead
When a politician uses the word 'folks,' we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.
Interpretation
Politicians often use friendly language to mask dishonesty or manipulation.
Noam Chomsky highlights the danger of trusting politicians who employ colloquial language such as 'folks,' suggesting that this friendliness is often a façade for deceitful intentions or actions. The warning serves as a reminder to be skeptical and aware of the motivations behind political rhetoric.
In practice
In a political debate, you can quote Chomsky to underscore the importance of critical listening.
There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense.
The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
If you're teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.
There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, 'That person I see is a savage monster;' instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.
The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it's hardly a traditional political party anymore.
There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information - the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.
If you want to preserve - I'm very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started.
I was surprised by the response of young people because there is a perception that those younger than the 1988 generation are not interested in politics.
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.
Men who sincerely abhorred the word Communism in the pursuit of common ends found that they were unable to distinguish Communists from themselves…. For men who could not see that what they firmly believed was liberalism added up to socialism could scarcely be expected to see what added up to Communism. Any charge of Communism enraged them precisely because they could not grasp the differences between themselves and those against whom it was made.
Syria should not belong to one family, to one coterie, or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally, in all their religious and ethnic diversity.
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