r/chomsky

The Hannibal Directive is a controversial Israeli military procedure that authorizes the use of maximum force to prevent the capture of Israeli personnel by enemy forces. It is highly debated because it allows the military to use deadly force against abductors, even if it endangers or results in the death of the captive

The distinction isn't neutral; it's a political framing.

Saying "genocide against Palestinians" is politically radioactive because it forces the world to confront the entire Zionist project from 1948 to today as a sustained territorial dispossession.

Saying "genocide in Gaza" conveniently shrinks the frame to a single war, allowing Western allies to say, "We oppose the bombs" while still funding settlement expansions in the West Bank. That is the contradiction: you cannot oppose the fire while fueling the slow-burn theft of the rest of the land.

If the crime is against the national group, the location is secondary. Gaza is not a separate planet; it is the southern strip of Palestine. The language must reflect the reality.

A new film shines light on why Noam Chomsky formed a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. In the film, 'Chomsky and Epstein: A Love Affair', Professor Chris Knight, Senior Honorary Research Associate at University College London, calls the exchange of letters between Chomsky and Epstein 'love letters'.

Knight, author of 'Decoding Chomsky', sees a connection between Chomsky’s attitude to Epstein and his long career working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with people he regarded as war criminals because of their work for the US military.

Naomi Klein outlines how Ai companies are reliant on fossil fuels to power their supercomputers and Trump, and other populist right actors are the perfect partners for them in this.

We face an anti-Democratic coalition around fossil fuels at the exact moment our planet is heating up and needs to focus on net zero. Things are bad, but they might never be this good again.

Yay Denver!