It’s Life and Death — Intellectuals Can’t Keep Serving the Status Quo (interviewed by C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout)

Noam Chomsky · 7 Oct 2021

Noam Chomsky did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
"Speak truth to power" misdescribes the task: the powerful already know the truth

Their wordsIt is sometimes held that their responsibility is “to speak truth to power.” I’ve always found that troubling. The powerful typically know the truth quite well.
Our reading
The responsible intellectual speaks with the powerless and learns the truth with them

Their wordsThe task of a responsible person — anyone who wants to uphold intellectual and moral values — is not to speak what they regard as truth to anybody — the powerful or the powerless — but rather to speak with the powerless and to try to learn the truth.
Our reading
Organized human society is threatened with extinction by environmental destruction, mostly by the rich

Their wordsIt is now organized human society worldwide that is “threatened with extinction” under the blows of environmental destruction, overwhelmingly by the rich, concentrated in the rich countries.
Our reading
We live in a confluence of crises with no counterpart in human history

Their wordsWe are living in an era of confluence of crises that has no counterpart in human history.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.