Noam Chomsky: Lover of linguistics, the USA... not so much

Decoding the Gurus

Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne

Science, Leisure, Social Sciences, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 203 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

OK, so we're finally getting around to taking a chunk out of the prodigious, prolific, and venerable Noam Chomsky. Linguist, cognitive scientist, media theorist, political activist and cultural commentator, Chomsky is a doyen of the Real Left™. By which we mean, of course, those who formulated their political opinions in their undergraduate years and have seen no reason to move on since then. Yes, he looks a bit like Treebeard these days but he's still putting most of us to shame with his productivity. And given the sheer quantity of his output, across his 90 decades, it might be fair to say this is more of a nibble of his material.

A bit of a left-wing ideologue perhaps, but seriously - what a guy. This is someone who made Richard Nixon's List of Enemies, debated Michel Foucault, had a huge impact on several academic disciplines, and campaigned against the war in Vietnam & the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. Blithe stereotypes of Chomsky will sometimes crash against uncomfortable facts, including that he has been a staunch defender of free speech, even for Holocaust deniers...

A full decoding of his output would likely require a dedicated podcast series, so that's not what you're gonna get here. Rather we apply our lazer-like focus and blatantly ignore most of his output to examine four interviews on linguistics, politics, and the war in Ukraine. There is some enthusiastic nodding but also a fair amount of exasperated head shaking and sighs. But what did you expect from two milquetoast liberals?

Also featuring: a discussion of the depraved sycophancy of the guru-sphere and the immunity to cringe superpower as embodied by Brian Keating, Peter Boghossian, and Bret Weinstein mega-fans.

Enjoy!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hello and
0:25.0	welcome to Dakota the Guru's a podcast where an anthropologist and a psychologist
0:28.0	to listen to the greatest minds the world has to offer
0:31.0	and we try to understand what they're talking about.
0:33.2	I'm Matt Brown with me is Chris Kavanaugh and I don't know what do I say something
0:39.1	after that was at the end of my spiel. Is that it? It's hard to tell. Is it consistent? It's
0:45.8	vaguely consistent. You reach into the possibility space of introductions you've got a grammar there and you construct
0:56.6	your introductions from different parts that are pre-existing in your cognitive capacities.
1:02.4	That's what you're up to. I think what you're saying
1:04.8	is that there's a deep structure to my introductions even though the
1:08.6	superficial grammar might vary from episode to episode. Yeah there's an endless tapestry but
1:16.3	underlying it is an introductory grammar that we can all agree is universal.
1:22.1	Topical eh? Topical, topical, topical, topical. that we can all agree is universal.
1:22.6	Topical, eh?
1:23.6	Topical, topical, topical.
1:25.2	Well, how are you, Chris?
1:26.2	How is your day?
1:26.9	How are you since the last time I spoke to you
1:28.5	since you're asking me for statistical advice?
1:31.3	I'm frustrated because I'm looking at spreadsheets and data and writing things and
1:40.0	it's that's an infuriating experience always,
1:43.6	especially when you're towards the end
	...

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