Noam Chomsky correctly observes, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” (Thanks to Phil Champagne.)
That’s what I mean when I say that being called an “extremist” means you disagree with Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.
Incidentally, I am not a supporter of Chomsky, who does write something of value once in a great while. But when I saw this, and how conventional and simplistic his views were, I concluded he was someone I couldn’t respect.
