
Chomsky: The U.S. behaves nothing like a democracy (2013) - arjun27
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/chomsky_the_u_s_behaves_nothing_like_a_democracy/
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kutkloon7
I have to say I agree very much with Chomsky's view on the US foreign
policies. They are absolutely appalling, and very egoistic (see for example
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#American_grant_of_immunity). No other country
think it has the right to drone other countries citizens; America even thinks
it does the right thing when they do it. This is very well demonstrated by
Clinton's quote "Can't we just drone this guy [Assange]?", which was not meant
as a joke at all (if you're having a problem with this, imagine that some
country would drone a US citizen; this would be absolutely unheard of). This
is probably a result of massive propaganda. In every US series or movie, arab
countries are portrayed as hateful terrorist nest, in a subtle or less subtle
way. The US has a tradition of glorifying war and US soldiers, while ignoring
the politics of the conflict.

"Returning to the United States, where the situation is not quite that bad,
there’s the same disparity between public opinion and policy on a very wide
range of issues. Take for example the issue of minimum wage. The one view is
that the minimum wage ought to be indexed to the cost of living and high
enough to prevent falling below the poverty line. Eighty percent of the public
support that and forty percent of the wealthy. What’s the minimum wage? Going
down, way below these levels."

I would say the situation is much better in Western Europe, so I don't
understand why he states that the US does better on this respect. The two-
party political system just doesn't work.

In the last elections, the Democratic officials favoured Clinton, which might
have worked against them in the long run. This is btw exactly what Nixon
stimulated, and what he has resigned for. As a result, the US voters were
forced to choose between two candidates between two candidates, which both
have proven to have no troubles with dirty policies.

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jgalt212
Noam loves to criticize American policy. In fact, it's been his raison d'etre
for the last forty years. That being said, in most every example of US "bad"
behavior all other nations seem to be behaving worse. And yet this person who
doesn't believe in American exceptionalism, seems to hold us to a higher
standard.

His father, however, did believe in American exceptionalism when he fled the
Ukraine (like many other Jews and others of all religions) for a better life
in America.

He's an ingrate.

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maxharris
The title (and quite probably the article) confuses a democratic process used
in elections, which is sensible and fair, with pure unlimited democracy
(wherein a majority can order up _anything_ , ranging from murder to "free"
teddy bears, so long as 50% + some epsilon decide to vote for it.)

