[Chomsky] has now been impeached by his own standards, since scrutiny of the evidence does not bear him out on Serbia or Afghanistan or Iraq. It didn't bear him out on Cambodia either, though he was never a 'Holocaust denier' or anything like it. And he has, I think, ceased to be of any use to young people who might pardonably doubt the official story. 2004
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Hitchens criticizes Chomsky for failing to meet his own standards of evidence.
- In plain terms
- Chomsky is unreliable because his claims lack evidence.
- What can you take from it?
- Chomsky has lost credibility due to factual errors.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How should we weigh errors in public intellectuals work?
Another view
Chomsky has also produced accurate work on other topics.
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