Noam Chomsky

There are all sorts of filtering devices to get rid of people who are a pain in the neck and think independently. Those of you who have been through college know that the educational system is very highly geared to rewarding conformity and obedience.

Much research, including a widely quoted Rand Corporation study of 1994, has shown that prevention and treatment are considerably more cost-effective than the coercive [drug war] measures that receive the bulk of funding. Such nonpunitive measures are also of course far more humane.

A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that costs and risks are socialized to the extent possible, while profit is privatized.

Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own because that is what you’re going to do during your life, not just absorb materials given to you by the outside, and repeat it.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

…the Pentagon has been the primary Keynesian mechanism whereby the government intervenes to maintain what is ludicrously called the health of the economy by inducing production, that means production of waste and destruction

Already under Obama, the nuclear modernization programs had reached the level where they were posing a literal first-strike threat to Russia. Trump is escalating it, even more modernization of extremely dangerous forces, also significantly lowering the threshold for nuclear war.

While capital is now highly mobile, labor is increasingly immobile – and that has immediate consequences. It means that it is easy to shift production to low-wage, high-repression areas of the world with low environmental standards.

In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

The growing economic potential of India and Russia is mutually complementary in many respects.

[on Trump] We can objectively see quite serious achievements even during his short time in office.

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it’s an irresponsible government that fails to choose.

Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.

I feel as a culture we are ready to look at the truth and address it head on. I think it’s the power of how connected we all are with the digital revolution – there’s no where you can go without seeing the truth. Although it’s upsetting because we can’t believe at this day and age at this time it’s still that blatantly injustice in the world. I think it’s very empowering to do something about it and that’s the reason why I create the We Are Here movement out of my frustration about the apathy in society.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional.

Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’. The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.

Well, I do think there’s blame — yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at — you look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either.

I don’t mind a good fight. For reasons known only to God, I’ve had quite a few tough ones in my life. But I learned an important lesson along the way: In the end, it matters less that you can fight. What you fight for is the real test.