Is Chomsky even worth reading or listening to?

I'm pretty sure his main problems with Marxism is it's dialectics. It's not as if he dismisses the critique of the commodity form (to my knowledge). Dismissing dialectics as unscientific is a completely reasonable stance

Manufacturing Consent is important.

Also, his views on zionism have apparently led to him being fucking banned from Israel, so you know his criticism hurts.

The problem is that he's pretty dismissive of anything not completely rooted in empirical fact, possibly because he's jaded about academia. He talks about this in an interview somewhere, about his own observations from back in the day. For a while, academics were still wild about Marxism but when they finally heard about gulags in the late 70's or something, they all jumped ship to post-structuralism.

As a result of his clinging to empirical facts, Chomsky is spot on in every observation but he can't tell you how to fix it. He can't advise you on how to save the world, other than "please don't fucking vote Republican anything but that."

His justification there is that voting should be the least important and impactful part of your politics. It's not actually a means of self-expression, especially not in the US, it's a way to make an incredibly slight nudge towards something more preferable.

Anti-intellectual moron. Good for reports, I guess.

now that's the hottest of hot takes

He's pretty good at digging into US foreign policy but I find his theory in general to be really bad.
Havn't read any of his books though, just listened to a bunch of lectures, debates etc.

I totally get that. But neither option of the past election was preferable. Both had their equal amounts of negatives, that's why everyone hated them. Or at least a reason, we all know US election politics is a bit of a shit show.

But it's undeniable that Clinton would have brought us problems that perhaps Trump wouldn't have, and Trump is bringing us problems that Trump wouldn't have. And it's all in favor of Capitalism. At the end of the day you have to ask, what would bring actual change for the people in a positive way?

Do you delay global warming at the risk of war in another way? Is making global warming faster a worse option, if someone as power hungry as Clinton just keeps the status quo going and weakens the left?

The left has an actual enemy now, it's becoming undeniable that Capitalism isn't saving us, and that the future can only be guaranteed under the wing of worker's rights and enviornmental protections. These things would be weak as hell under Clinton, and liberals would defend it like its their saving grace, and how dare you question how effective it might be at combatting these problems. Clinton would have thrown you a quarter of a bone and called it change and liberals would continue devolving under an Obama era left where the alternative is *gasp*, actually standing up for yourself!

We can't know what would happen under a Clinton presidency, but to say that it was in the self interest of the left to just let liberal reforms be touted as something as grand as the new deal like under Obama would only strengthen capitalism. Obviously capitalism is strengthening now, but it's in such an in your face way that it's making people actually violent against people who want to make it worse.

There's all sorts of nuance to this, but I disagree with Chomsky's "vote for the lesser evil" philosophy because it just delays the inevitable, and I'd rather see these strong sweeping reforms happen in my lifetime at the demand of the public then just a divided public romanticizing the position of the president and making excuses for it.

We need a catastrophe that shows exactly what Capitalism is today, and nobody does that better than Trump. He is the end result of US politics and US entertainment and US media, and everyone hates him. It's a real chance for the US to question itself. And that may be naive, but look at his approval. It's hilariously low. And what better person to remember showing off all these negative aspects then someone as fucking goofy as a reality TV star and obnoxious real estate douche bag from the 80's. He's going to be remembered for not only the consequences for his actions on the US public, but for the man he really is.

People won't forget what they suddenly realized, because they're going to associate it with this well known figure who became president.

Trump is a figure you can point at easily. He will be after his term is over as well.

The problem with this type of analysis is that the focus on politicians - specific people - as targets always ends in disappointment. Both parties can cancel each other out. You can just as easily say that leftists now see an Obama-like as the solution to the problems Trump caused. Just look at whose ratings are drastically up post-presidency. I think the left doesn't need new enemies in the form of actual people. People will be replaced by others who appear to be different initially, but ultimately reveal themselves to be more of the same. It is more useful to vilify the specific economic conditions of our time. Agitate for better working conditions, higher wages, healthcare, etc. It is both rooted in reality and as concrete an enemy as a politician.

It's more how the mind works. I know this may sound silly, but people remember the actions of a popular figure in the government more than they remember the actions of a regular run of the mill politician. California remembers when they elected Arnold Schwarzenegger far more than they can recall whoever the fuck Jerry Brown was. People in Minnesota remember Governor Jesse Ventura then anyone else. This is the positive effect of the spectacle running head first into the government to implement an increasing capitalist agenda. People remember Trump throughout their life because of his media presence far more then they remember some rando fuck.

It's going to be hard to forget just who Trump exactly is because people have grown with his presence, his actions therefore become more memorable. And the way he's just shilling for capitalism isn't popular. It's uniting the left far more than it would have under Clinton. That much is undeniable. I understand what you're saying and it is just as important, but never forget the power of association.

Instead of Obama 2.0 we get a wall street tycoon who denies climate change and puts industry heads in his cabinet. Literally the worst possible outcome. FULL ACCELERATION I guess…

Good quote from the comments on Discord Twitter's shutting down its freedom of speech.