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> Is he saying that Biden is demanding Italian universities ban discussion of Dostoyevsky, and the helpless Italians are unable to refuse? No, I believe he is

> Is he saying that Biden is demanding Italian universities ban discussion of Dostoyevsky, and the helpless Italians are unable to refuse? No, I believe he is talking about Putin’s mockery of western values. You can see this in Putin’s insistence that Ukraine recognize its issues with white supremacy, instead of recognizing this, the west responds with banning Russian artistic works as an example of how > Europeans are making fools of themselves > that's hardly proof that they are taking orders from Washington, or even care about what the US thinks at all. If you’ve read Chomsky’s works on the propaganda model, his main claims are around the continuation of American hegemony. This sounds like what he’s talking about. That the US interests and order are imposed on a subservient population (in this case, Europe) to meet American demands. In this case, fucking anything that is Russian. Sometimes I see Chomsky is a victim of his own definition of flak within the propaganda model. Basically by laying claim to the hypocrisy of western media making himself a target for them has made him an unperson, so thanks for expanding your views.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago
Chomsky (or your summary of Chomsky) seems to me to be interestingly parallel to Putin's view of NATO. Putin says it's the US driving NATO expansion to the east. Reality says that it's a bunch of countries that were in the Warsaw Pact desperately trying to get into NATO to protect them from Russia trying to re-add them to a new Russian Empire. In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives. Ukraine has agency. The other countries that joined NATO have agency. The Italian universities have agency. They aren't just helpless pawns of "American hegemony".
- readonthegoapp 5y ago
  > In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives. i think the pull exists, at least a little, mainly in areas in free speech, personal wealth accumulation, etc. but i think 99.99% is push, not pull. for the 'push' part, you can read this by chomsky (free, online there): https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ it's not necessarily light reading, but...well, i think our reading abilities have dropped so low that it probably does qualify as complex reading now. if you don't share chomsky's professed values -- The Golden Rule, elementary moral principles, democracy (not just formal, but actually-functional/functioning), etc. -- you'd probably pretty quickly come to hate that book and all of Chomsky's professed views.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago

Chomsky (or your summary of Chomsky) seems to me to be interestingly parallel to Putin's view of NATO. Putin says it's the US driving NATO expansion to the east. Reality says that it's a bunch of countries that were in the Warsaw Pact desperately trying to get into NATO to protect them from Russia trying to re-add them to a new Russian Empire. In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives. Ukraine has agency. The other countries that joined NATO have agency. The Italian universities have agency. They aren't just helpless pawns of "American hegemony".

readonthegoapp 5y ago
> In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives. i think the pull exists, at least a little, mainly in areas in free speech, personal wealth accumulation, etc. but i think 99.99% is push, not pull. for the 'push' part, you can read this by chomsky (free, online there): https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/ it's not necessarily light reading, but...well, i think our reading abilities have dropped so low that it probably does qualify as complex reading now. if you don't share chomsky's professed values -- The Golden Rule, elementary moral principles, democracy (not just formal, but actually-functional/functioning), etc. -- you'd probably pretty quickly come to hate that book and all of Chomsky's professed views.