this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
24 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmygrad

1223 readers
33 users here now

A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hello. This is the first time I post on Lemmygrad. I've been wondering about him for a while now. Everyone seems to have a different opinion—some call him an anti-imperialist anarchist, others don't—and since I can't get this past the Reddit filters, I figured I'd ask here. I wonder what do people think when they hear his name.

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 2000watts@lemmygrad.ml 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I wonder what do people think when they hear his name.

That photo with him and Jeffrey Epstein on a plane.

[–] ComradeCircuit@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That photo with him and Jeffrey Epstein on a plane.

This comment makes me hate Chomsky now...

[–] Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml 42 points 2 weeks ago

Pedo adjacent at best. He is an anti-communist liberal, pumped up by the imperialist theory industry because his ideas present no threat to the white supremacists patriarchal capitalist ruling class.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
  1. https://redsails.org/on-chomsky/
  2. https://dashthered.medium.com/the-anti-chomsk%C3%BFng-66dcd8224729
  3. https://redsails.org/white-supremacy-and-magic-paper/
  4. https://www.greanvillepost.com/2020/06/03/the-mainstream-and-the-margins-noam-chomsky-vs-michael-parenti/

The high perch from which Chomsky tells us how free we are was likely only vacant because state agents murdered all consequential Black leaders and squashed every other left-wing movement. In the ensuing years, white guys writing books supplanted visionaries with megaphones while the prison population grew

TLDR: the most lenient reading of Chomsky was that he was able to highlight some of the symptoms of the US empire but has no understanding of the pathophysiology or treatment. This would have to then ignore all the times he went to bat for imperialism, and despite portaying himself as a generalist for knowledge was willfully obtuse about even understanding dialectial materialism from the perspective of his supposed enemy, the tyrannical marxist-leninist. Not to mention all the times he denigrated the global south struggles against imperialism. Ie typical western liberal.

[–] Ashes2ashes@lemmygrad.ml 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

When I hear his name, I think about how his influence turned my friend from an actual communist into a vaguely left anarchist (an "anarcho-syndicalist" like Chomsky, which in my opinion is a functionally meaningless term in our social context) who believes state department propaganda and opposes any successful model for socialism to the point that they just support liberalism. Intellectuals like him that support the status quo (even if Chomsky might believe he doesn't) divert potentially revolutionary energy away from effective action and teach people seeking information and hope after finding class consciousness that individual action is the best they can do.

[–] ComradeCircuit@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 weeks ago

I think about how his influence turned my friend from an actual communist into a vaguely left anarchist (an “anarcho-syndicalist” like Chomsky

Oh, poor your friend.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 28 points 2 weeks ago

He's an American student of French philosophy and like his fellow French philosophers dabbles in the grotesque art of intersecting pedophilia with liberal pseudointellectualism that pretends to be critical of capital/empire while actually offering no alternative to it and supporting everything it does.

Fifth head of socialdemocracy after Lasalle, Bernstein, Kautsky and Blair

[–] Saymaz@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 2 weeks ago

Look up what he said about the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 2 weeks ago

he should probably just kick the bucket already..why do libs live so fucking long

[–] huf@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

CHOAM Nomsky. he eats all the spice.

[–] Kuori@hexbear.net 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

honestly i'm just glad someone else has this exact brainworm because it floats through my head every time i see his name

[–] huf@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

i am an entirely lost cause, there's always a slice of my brain rearranging letters and reading words backwards and things like that. it's probably related to the extremely bad pun impulse, which i also have.

[–] Kuori@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

extremely bad pun impulse

ahh a fellow bearer of the curse

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

hexcuse me?

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He's a lib. Also a big Epstein pal. Manufacturing Consent is good.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Please consider Inventing Reality by Parenti (I would argue one gets Manufacturing Consent if one attempted to write Inventing Reality without knowing dialectical materialism, and it preceded MC it by at least a couple of years) if you haven't already. Then consider this:

  1. https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/
  2. https://redsails.org/false-witnesses/
  3. https://redsails.org/dont-work-that-way/
[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago

Heck yeah love me some parenti

Ty

[–] ComradeCircuit@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

So Parenti is better, isn't it? I just discovered him on Lemmygrad Quote.

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)
  1. Yes. Not even in the same league :)
  2. https://www.greanvillepost.com/2020/06/03/the-mainstream-and-the-margins-noam-chomsky-vs-michael-parenti/
  3. He has a bunch of lectures on youtube that are worth a watch: Eg Against Empire: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3qFA0-wo3pg
  4. His books are amazing. All examples of dialectical materialism. The most recommended around here to begin with maybe is Blackshirts and Red: https://welshundergroundnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/blackshirts-and-reds-by-michael-parenti.pdf

Against Empire: https://uploads.worldlibrary.org/uploads/pdf/20180112220352parenti_against_empire.pdf

Other recommendations to begin with include Sword and the Dollar. And the Assassination of Julius Caesar.

[–] ComradeCircuit@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

No worries, glad to help! If there was one person who turned most people in the West marxist (there isn't, Great Man Theory is not real) it would probably be Michael Parenti.

[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago

It would be nice if communists in the West stopped platforming him.

[–] OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago

He's a sheepdog propagating empire. He wasn't even the main author for the work he is most famous for.

[–] WaterBowlSlime@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

Sheila Greibach's normal form for CFGs is better. Also didn't chomsky talk to chimpanzees or something?