Quotes from Noam Chomsky

Meteorologists are pretty faces reading scripts telling you whether it's going to rain tomorrow.

One of the most interesting reactions to come out of 1968 was in the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which believed there was a 'crisis of democracy' from too much participation of the masses.

As a research tool, the internet is invaluable.

If humans were totally unstructured creatures, they would be... a tool which can properly be shaped by outside forces.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

In the United States, one of the main topics of academic political science is the study of attitudes and policy and their correlation. The study of attitudes is reasonably easy in the United States: heavily-polled society, pretty serious and accurate polls, and policy you can see, and you can compare them.

Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without charge, under torture, which is what solitary confinement is.

There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information - the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

Rendition is just sending people abroad to be tortured.

The murder of Lumumba, in which the U.S. was involved, in the Congo destroyed Africa's major hope for development. Congo is now total horror story, for years.

American decline is real, though the apocalyptic vision reflects the familiar ruling class perception that anything short of total control amounts to total disaster.

Anti-Americanism is a pure totalitarian concept. The very notion is idiotic.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Human nature is not totally fixed, but on any realistic scale, evolutionary processes are much too slow to affect it.

By that time [1966], we did begin to get some protests [against Vietnam War]. But not from liberal intellectuals; they never opposed the war.

Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

As elite attitudes towards public education over time illustrate, simple formulas are far from adequate. There are conflicting tendencies.

I just don't care about popular culture. It looks to me pointless and superficial. If I had free time I'd rather read a 19th century novel.

In a really business-run society like the United States, the business elites are deeply committed to class struggle and are engaged in it all the time. They're instinctive Marxists.

The number of illegal firings tripled during the [Ronald] Reagan years. It was at that time that you started getting these companies that specialized in how to destroy unions.

The majority of the population thinks that if the government runs healthcare, they're going to take away your freedom. At the same time, the public favors a national healthcare program.

My grandchildren are on social media all the time, and they think they have friends. But it's not what I would've called a friend, ever.

Today, we have private airline companies, but if you take a look at a Boeing plane next time you travel, you'll see that you are basically taking a ride on a modified bomber.

In November 2004, U.S. occupation forces launched their second major attack on the city of Falluja. The press reported major war crimes instantly, with approval.