Zompist Bboard Again

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:55 am Now Dmitry Medvedev, who was officially President of Russia during the time when Putin was officially Prime Minister, has directly threatened attacks on NATO member countries. I remember when there were members of the Western establishment who seriously thought that he was more reasonable than Putin.

Man in Space wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:37 pm …what? Even my dad, whose head is far down the Fox News rabbit hole, doesn’t believe this.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:57 am It was only a matter of time that the war in Ukraine would become "Biden's War," with all the usual political consequences. We went through the same dance over Kosovo. Clinton's two biggest sets of detractors were, simultaneously, right wingers who just wanted to push back against a Democrat, and leftists like Chompsky who are happy to treat eastern European fascists as the successors to eastern European communism. Josh Hawley, in particular, is just playing the political game according to the rules. Does he have any interest in reducing train derailments? Don't ask stupid questions. It's just about maneuering the right way for media control and voter turnout. You can't even get mad at the man; he's just doing what works.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:57 am It was only a matter of time that the war in Ukraine would become "Biden's War," with all the usual political consequences. We went through the same dance over Kosovo. Clinton's two biggest sets of detractors were, simultaneously, right wingers who just wanted to push back against a Democrat, and leftists like Chompsky who are happy to treat eastern European fascists as the successors to eastern European communism. Josh Hawley, in particular, is just playing the political game according to the rules. Does he have any interest in reducing train derailments? Don't ask stupid questions. It's just about maneuering the right way for media control and voter turnout. You can't even get mad at the man; he's just doing what works.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:19 am

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:57 am It was only a matter of time that the war in Ukraine would become "Biden's War," with all the usual political consequences. We went through the same dance over Kosovo. Clinton's two biggest sets of detractors were, simultaneously, right wingers who just wanted to push back against a Democrat, and leftists like Chompsky who are happy to treat eastern European fascists as the successors to eastern European communism. Josh Hawley, in particular, is just playing the political game according to the rules. Does he have any interest in reducing train derailments? Don't ask stupid questions. It's just about maneuering the right way for media control and voter turnout. You can't even get mad at the man; he's just doing what works.

I would put Chomsky et al more in the category of "the West must be bad, and thus anyone opposed to the West, or anyone the West opposes, must be good". It is less about supporting eastern European Communism - after all, Chomsky himself is an anarchist, and anarchists have long and bitter memories about not just Stalinism but the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War before that.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:37 pm This does not match his behavior.

Here is a video recounting his denial of genocide in Kosovo. If he's an anarchist, it doesn't stop him from insiting that certain dictators aren't so bad as long as they identify as leftist.

For balance, here is a video rebutting the claims in the first video, but mostly accusing the first video of lazy and inaccurate conclusions, while aknowledging that the underlying problem exists.

You can say "Oh, it's just anti-Americanism, not pro-Communism," but a) this seems like a weird distinction to be invested in, and frankly who gives a shit, and b) thanks to the Cold War there is very little daylight between these two things anyway. Either way, I don't buy it. I don't see Chomsky out here praising anti-American movements like ISIS. He only seems to be comfortable supporting anti-American regimes that talk like Marxists.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:04 am As for Chomsky not supporting Marxist Russia because Russia today is the opposite of Marxist: Yes, that's the point. You know that, and I know that. That's why we like Russia a lot less these days. But Noam Chomsky doesn't know that, because he is a moron.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:04 am What?

Communism ended in the Yugoslav successor states when they allowed elections and the Communist Party was voted out, which happened as early as 1990 in some places. This didn’t happen in Serbia, because the previous Communist leader was Slobodan Milosevic, who stayed in power. It’s true that he scrubbed the word “Socialist” from the name of the country in ‘92, but full economic reform didn’t come until after Milosevic, who I must stress again, was the previous Communist leader of Serbia, was forced out. As for what he “pretended to be,” that certainly wasn’t a nationalist, because being a nationalist is exactly what he was pretending not to be! From a 1995 interview: “You can see that there was no nationalism in those speeches. We were explaining why we think it is good to preserve Yugoslavia for all Serbs, all Croats, all Muslims and all Slovenians as our joint country. Nothing else.” We could say he was lying about that, and we'd be right, but then we'd have to consider the possibility that the half hearted gestures toward Capitalism were also not genuine.

This is starting to feel like a “no true Scotsman” fallacy. Chomsky related to Milosevic, because he was a Communist, the sole head of government left in the Balkans from before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

As for Chomsky not supporting Marxist Russia because Russia today is the opposite of Marxist: Yes, that's the point. You know that, and I know that. That's why we like Russia a lot less these days. But Noam Chomsky doesn't know that, because he is a moron.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:05 am Also, "He's not a Communist; he's an Anarchist" is totally the left wing version of "I'm not Republican; I'm Libertarian."