this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
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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.

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[–] awrf@hexbear.net 2 points 13 hours ago

I worded my response poorly because my point wasn't about excusing anyone but that Marx didn't do a fraction of the horrible shit that Chomsky did constantly.

Fair I guess, maybe Marx wasn't the greatest example of the most evil person to ever exist, but to be fair it is really hard to even come close to running the largest international child sex trafficking ring like Epstein did!

And I don't think Mein Kampf is that helpful an example since there's a difference between viewing a work as being credible versus analyzing it due to its historical importance.

I mean, people read a lot of things that they know aren't credible, I can't comment on any of Chomsky's works personally because I never read them, but I don't think it'd be any different than reading liberal economic "solutions" to housing (lol) or something of that nature. It's obviously not credible, but I personally find it interesting to see how people think and what conclusions they come to with that thought process even though I disagree with them and maybe have some fun dunking on them in the process if I'm bored.