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We’re going to need a reference for this one.

• notahacker 6y ago
  https://chomsky.info/19770625/ https://chomsky.info/19770625/ Perhaps the worst bit is where he dismisses the testimony of thousands of Cambodian refugees as 'refugees questioned by Westerners or Thais have a vested interest in reporting atrocities on the part of Cambodian revolutionaries', arguing one should put more weight to the testimony of an anonymous European in Phnom Penh who apparently did enough cycling around to know that the only people being executed were 'prominent politicans' and 'hated bomber pilots'. Meta: Chomsky certainly wasn't the loudest or most committed defender of the Khmer Rouge on the Western left and obviously the left didn't make US policy and probably wouldn't have influenced it much if they'd been united on the evils of the Khmer Rouge from the very beginning. But this article and his continued insistence it was reasonable at the time [whilst others have admitted to being blinded by their biases] doesn't reflect well on him.
  • Gibbon1 6y ago
    Yeah doesn't reflect well on him. His ire is always pointed in one direction. That's what you get with Chomsky. Flipside the Khmer Rouge avoided deserved annihilation because of direct support from China and the United States. Chomsky has no responsibility for that. As you said his influence on policy is nil.