After several of the pages with which I disagree started sharing the recent New Yorker interview in which Noam Chomsky called Trump the "The worst criminal in human history" and blindly celebrating his remarks which eventually devolved into tacit apology for Stalin and Chomsky claiming that Stalin didn't want to kill people but it was needed for his established goals, I decided to reread this exchange between Chomsky and Sam Harris.
It's long but there's insight to be had about different ethical thinking and the problem of hubris on display by one of the parties involved.
Really though, upon my revisit and my numerous conversations with people who particularly celebrate Chomsky coupled with the New Yorker interview, I do regard Chomsky as a deeply dangerous human being.
Of course, Chomsky has his upsides, some of them are rather important. I appreciate his opposition to cancel culture and his decade's long opposition to American foreign policy.
That said, as Harris said to Chomsky, it seemed that Chomsky started the conversation at the end of his patience. Basically, Chomsky came off as somebody who's been told that he's the smartest man in academia for years and entirely believes that about himself. His acolytes seem to interact with the same snarky, dismissive, condescending attitude.
What's worse is his willingness to obfuscate the role of intentions in ethical frameworks. It's hard to fathom a system of ethical values which actively downplays the role of intent. As Harris tried to impress upon Chomsky on numerous occasions, there are huge moral differences between killing somebody intentionally and accidently killing somebody with the intent of saving as many people as possible. There's a reason why we have different charges from murder down to involuntary manslaughter.
Unfortunately, this obfuscation of intent is permeating a lot of modern leftist culture, especially among younger people. In some cases, I'd dare to say that downplaying intent is the only way that some people can maintain a sense of ethical certitude.
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