A random collection of the various nefarious goings on of one Avram Noam Chomsky, listed from most recent.
no offense to anyone, but i’m curious: is there any other empirical field that spends as much time trying to understand what a 91 year old intends to say?
— Adele Goldberg (@adelegoldberg1) October 10, 2020
11. Chomsky is not our Einstein. He’s our Freud.
Groundbreaking, full of ideas, and has an enormous grip on the popular understanding. And many of his ideas will go by the wayside as they are contradicted by evidence.
— Talk the Talk (@talkpod) December 30, 2019
I have never been able to wrap my mind around the opposing positions that Noam Chomsky inhabits as a political figure and as a linguist 😬
Most Schooling Is Training for Stupidity and Conformity – Noam Chomsky https://t.co/9JGCmtYTcv
— Nelson Flores (@nelsonlflores) December 21, 2019
And today’s laugh of the day goes to the chihuahua and Italian greyhound mix named Noam Chomsky [should have waited with your adoption, @katiestockdale] https://t.co/WXJVpo6kh6
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) November 23, 2019
Last week some brilliant linguist tweeted an article about how the Chomskian focus took linguistics away from its social justice bent…could someone please share it again? I need it but can’t seem to get back to it!
— Nicole Holliday (@mixedlinguist) September 9, 2019
Glad that Chomsky’s hard work on frog language has been appropriately recognized in Pristimantis chomskyihttps://t.co/pY05Rro5WP
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) August 2, 2019
Apparently newspapers have a duty to print everything Chomsky says in interviews, no matter how wrong he might be. @OliverKamm @BobBorsley https://t.co/uo1kT3qwiW
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) July 8, 2019
According to Chomsky Corbyn is an “admirable and decent human being”, open anti-semitism in his party or not. If Chomsky says it it must be so, right? @OliverKamm @BobBorsley @bike_rails https://t.co/Vra3gcCpMG
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 2, 2019
Sad times when one has to say that the best about an article co-written by the greatest linguist of all time are … the cartoons. @OliverKamm @BobBorsley https://t.co/2SnQSYUp8L
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) April 26, 2019
It is rather ironic that Chomsky would peddle his dogma that “Virtually all of the use of language has nothing to do with communication” in a talk where he used language exclusively to COMMUNICATE his ideas to the audience @OliverKamm @BobBorsley https://t.co/R8bLGUNnhI
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) March 29, 2019
Back when Noam was a hurricane blowing across the intellectual world. It all sounds convincing. But almost every point has been shown to be wrong or highly debatable. And his characterization of others is equally wrong. https://t.co/8hCwK3hjXE
— Daniel Everett (@amazonrambler) February 16, 2019
Archaeologists believe Homo erectus had language. But they were inhibited by Chomsky. I told em not to worry. The facts will kick butt. Even his.
— Daniel Everett (@amazonrambler) November 5, 2018
My experience [based on 100s of e-mails] is that Chomsky ‘argues’ as if in a verbal debate & say things so outrageous that they silence the opponent who has no chance to check facts. Bc he made alternative facts popular decades ago we call him the @realDonaldTrump of linguistics.
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) August 3, 2018
Amusing: now that fewer and fewer linguists believe in UG Chomsky[ans] just claim alien’s languages have likely UG – ultimate escape from disconfirmation by empirical evidence @BobBorsley @OliverKamm @amazonrambler https://t.co/EIz9z1ky1k
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 27, 2018
This is why Chomsky’s attack on Skinner was the original sin of generative linguistics, and haunts it to this day on Twitter and in the meeting rooms of the LSA. Anyone who holds that up as an unalloyed victory has no sense of history. https://t.co/Szg4SZx474
— Angus B. Grieve-Smith (@grvsmth) May 19, 2018
Didn’t keep track of whole exchange – think there’s questions to be answered on both sides. Personally I’m tired of Chomsky being figurehead of the Left – good though his books may be – he has zero popular appeal.
— paulw (@josipa74) March 29, 2018
Has Noam Chomsky had an original idea since he first published his dissertation during the 2nd Great Awakening? https://t.co/gnmi39CLrX
— Phobokleon 🏺☘ (@WMNarmer) March 5, 2018
Kees de Bot suggests that part of the general acceptance of UG may be because of dominance of Chomsky’s personality pic.twitter.com/8NKcgyzWge
— Jessica Mackay (@JessBCN) February 23, 2018
The expert on everything invoking Martians againhttps://t.co/7dW6uXPSpw
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) February 10, 2018
“Only by redefining language as something utterly abstract and ideal—completely removed from social usage or any possible practical application—could he eliminate the danger that his work might assist the military in killing people.” —Knight, Decoding Chomsky, 2nd ed. preface
— Stan Carey (@StanCarey) February 2, 2018
So Chomsky: I know nothing about her but claim she could ‘shake up the royal family”. @OliverKamm @BobBorsley @amazonrambler https://t.co/xjWcVkUsx5
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) December 2, 2017
Not sure. But he sounds more and more like @realDonaldTrump or maybe Trump like Chomsky? I am thinking about writing a paper: ‘Post-truth: from Chomsky to Trump’ 😇 https://t.co/QtFcgOfDKa
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) November 27, 2017
Oh really? And people still wonder why some linguists hate Chomsky’s legacy? https://t.co/9NCR1YvUy5
— Angus B Grieve-Smith (@grvsmth) November 6, 2017
You could always watch one of his talks on youtube. He talks about SO MANY THINGS, pic.twitter.com/7fqO5hmOt2
— Sandra Jansen (@sj2915) October 25, 2017
John Cleese on reddit AMA claims Chomsky wrote the Python fish slapping dance https://t.co/ImxvlpjmJs pic.twitter.com/YDRnJH6UsF
— Language Lab MIT (@LanguageMIT) September 16, 2017
Danmore citing Chomsky – reaction should be fun:https://t.co/kg0fBVT4qE
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) August 12, 2017
Unfair comparison “@sapinker , the famous linguist who’s not Noam Chomsky”. But worth the read BECAUSE SP isn’t NChttps://t.co/npAb1F1clr
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) August 9, 2017
sorry. i wasn’t there for that. (not hard to imagine feeling C was devaluing other forms of inquiry, since he has often explicitly done so)
— Nic Subtirelu (@linguisticpulse) July 18, 2017
Ridicule is not enough – wow we needed Chomsky to tell us THAT?! One can safely skip the NYT interview @OliverKamm https://t.co/4qSq8ZwERo
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) July 6, 2017
well plagiarism DOES cause harm, especially when done Chomskyan style: first they ridicule ideas THEN they steal and take the credit https://t.co/a2TcRK3To7
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) June 20, 2017
Chomsky’s journalism and linguistics suffer from similar problems: he is a very selective empiricist, ignoring all facts that contradict him https://t.co/ou84oUu5gw
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 25, 2017
The NS-NNS distinction is central to the Chomskyan project that distinguishes man from beast. Belated comment at https://t.co/aXslFY7rfj
— Scott Thornbury (@thornburyscott) May 20, 2017
Chomsky’s ideas aren’t misrepresented due to complexity but to his misleading way of expressing them @OliverKamm https://t.co/11n5hf0RHo
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 16, 2017
I do not agree with everything @OliverKamm writes but, unlike Chomsky, he researches carefully & provides evidence when such is called for https://t.co/xS9riOwkmi
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 11, 2017
A question you have to ask him – but C’s claim to fame isn’t being polylingual. As for his genocide apologies – they are well documented. https://t.co/0GGEx905Rh
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 11, 2017
never said he made no contributions but he’s no Newton and has obstructed real progress in linguistics for decades https://t.co/KyfLx0WFCC
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 11, 2017
That BTW is the Chomskyan method: assertion w/o documentation. @OliverKamm has provided concrete examples, many times – do some research! https://t.co/QZMryH7KaL
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 8, 2017
Galilean method at work: Using the method of a climate change-denier, C elevated one … scientist’s theories to dismiss all extant evidence https://t.co/WYckWPLdkp
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 7, 2017
Tennessee’s new law on word meaning echoes the naive view of language propagated by America’s most famous linguist #chomsky #linguistics
— Annabelle Lukin (@annabellelukin) May 6, 2017
Chomsky’s attitude to history explained in one analogy – don’t try to picture him … @OliverKamm @amazonrambler https://t.co/pfFQsZR4Zu
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) May 1, 2017
Trivializing the efforts of Nazi Germany – sadly so unsurprising from NAC:https://t.co/Ly2c2gIiPu
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) April 28, 2017
meantime Chomsky lists terrorists as ‘vulnerable people’ – attracting no outraged mobs…https://t.co/ztV5mQt6e6 https://t.co/nAredKiDQv
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) March 28, 2017
Amazing how easily one can become ‘economist’ these days. https://t.co/OEM8JxP37H
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) March 16, 2017
I’ll leave with this quote which is less Chomsky-nefarious but one to ponder on for all those Chomsky bashers themselves : ). Oh and if you spot any good ones on that no-good linguist and political commentator let me know.
wonder how many reviews Wolfe would have gotten had he NOT written about Chomsky … https://t.co/O64naN96wL
— Christina Behme (@ChristinaBehme4) October 3, 2016
EFL Notes 