“Only then do I get to be rational.”

You’ve done one of those things (along the lines of an assumption) that Chomsky referred to. You’ve forgotten that communication isn’t always just between two people – there can be observers, like us readers, or some other audience, who, by dint of not being as egoistically invested in the process, can often be more objective and open minded toward “rational discussion”. So it’s not “nonsense”, at least not entirely, and you (and we) have other opportunities to be rational.

From my seat here on the couch I’d say that your case for the Political Chomsky and the LInguistic Chomsky being at odds with one another is a little weaker than you imagined when you wrote it.

There’s a lot of good evidence that indicates the signal to noise ratio for language is actually pretty good, if nothing else because it’s unbelievably informationally redundant. Point being that if people are able to think clearly about what they want to say, they can usually say it and have it be understood by another native speaker.

So, it’s not a transmission problem. It is, I think, closer to the issue of cognitive dissonance you describe. The reason Chomsky argues that language and politics are separate is because he’s saying, “look, the fact that you need to have the courage to absorb what I’m saying is not because you won’t be able to because of inherent problems with linguistic transmission. It may, however, be a heavy problem for you to deal with existentially”.

And then, as a corollary, as all visionaries do, he says, “are you up for the challenge?”. Some folks do come around to his worldview, you know. I certainly have changed my thinking on some stuff because of him.

I love that you created a context where we can have this discussion. Lots to think about.

He pioneered the field of psycholinguistics and has taught at MIT since 1955.

He worked on a kibbutz in Israel and later became a top scholar on the issue of Israel/Palestine relations. He visited Gaza just before the commencement of the November 2012 armed conflict with Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.