Noam Chomsky on CoronaVirus, Social Media and Social Harmony (MH Podcast #1) (2020-04-21) ​

0:00:00 Mollie Kuramoto laborer kettle guys make
0:00:02 sure that you try these supplements out
0:00:05 there very very good very healthy
0:00:07 natural and you can check the link in
0:00:11 the description box that is nature's
0:00:13 blend black seed oil and they have other
0:00:15 things as well oh yeah no a little boy
0:00:20 boy boy hope you enjoyed the video so so
0:00:26 have it on the show today with us
0:00:27 professor Chomsky who simply does not
0:00:29 need any introduction I wanted to ask
0:00:32 him for us a Chomsky the first question
0:00:34 is I mean the report criticized in the
0:00:36 UK in the US on how they deal with the
0:00:37 corona virus and I want to ask you the
0:00:39 first question being what advice would
0:00:41 you give to UK and US politicians on how
0:00:45 to deal with the corona virus with
0:00:47 corona virus well first of all I would
0:00:52 they're different britain at first the
0:00:56 cook the worst possible stance caused
0:01:00 the disaster but then they reversed
0:01:02 course and they're now moving towards
0:01:05 what same countries have done and
0:01:09 contained it the u.s. is a complete
0:01:12 disaster the worst in the world they
0:01:15 waited for until mid-march that to begin
0:01:20 to take the steps that everyone who was
0:01:24 necessary the US intelligence was
0:01:27 telling them hi
0:01:29 US health officials were telling them it
0:01:33 was obvious even the newspaper readers
0:01:36 but Trump was too busy looking at his TV
0:01:40 ratings and playing golf he just decided
0:01:43 to kill tens of thousands of people now
0:01:46 in a desperate effort to cover up the
0:01:50 crimes they trying to blame somebody
0:01:52 else so blame the Chinese playing the
0:01:55 World Health Organization blame the
0:01:58 governors what he's doing right now is
0:02:02 making the crisis as bad as possible in
0:02:06 order to improve his election
0:02:08 possibilities as you've seen he said
0:02:11 will the federal government can
0:02:13 do anything but first the line was from
0:02:16 the room of the world
0:02:17 I do everything just listen for me now
0:02:20 the line is we can't do anything it's up
0:02:23 to the governor's we don't get any help
0:02:25 of course but it's your problem to deal
0:02:28 with it and the things go wrong it's
0:02:31 your fault not my fault if anything
0:02:34 happens to come out right I'll take
0:02:36 credit for it he's basically informing
0:02:41 the governor's you're the ones
0:02:44 responsible not me okay that's Garrett
0:02:48 what I'm not going to help federal
0:02:50 government has all the wealth and
0:02:51 resources but we're not going to do
0:02:53 anything
0:02:53 we're too busy with other things like
0:02:56 killing people and of course it's going
0:03:02 to make it worse then he comes up with
0:03:05 these crazy pronouncements May first
0:03:08 everything then says the office of the
0:03:11 next day in fact I don't know if this is
0:03:14 conscious or not maybe it's just
0:03:16 intuitive with him but he's following a
0:03:18 very clever strategy though the liberal
0:03:22 press criticizes him for saying one
0:03:26 thing today in the office of tomorrow
0:03:28 and so on but that's a very smart
0:03:31 strategy it means that whatever happens
0:03:35 he'll be validated then you should
0:03:37 errors randomly if one of them will hit
0:03:41 the target and then you can say see I
0:03:43 knew it all along and it'll be amplified
0:03:46 by his echo chamber in Fox News so
0:03:50 something that was the most brilliant
0:03:51 thing everyone in this period it's a
0:03:55 very clever strategy and it's same with
0:03:59 leaving the role to the governors so if
0:04:02 anything goes wrong it's not my fault
0:04:03 oh we're we happen to have a sociopathic
0:04:07 make illuminating act in the White House
0:04:10 and it's causing enormous damages not
0:04:13 only to the United States but to the
0:04:16 world right now in fact if you notice
0:04:19 he's encouraging the armed militias
0:04:23 which are you know the
0:04:26 carrying out demonstrations in
0:04:28 statehouses other to say we want our
0:04:30 freedom back in other words we want to
0:04:33 be able to infect everybody no one else
0:04:37 in the world is doing this except both
0:04:39 snoring Raziel crazy the comedian's
0:04:43 so do you think that moving in the
0:04:46 direction of countries like South Korea
0:04:48 and Japan sorry dr. pan but South Korea
0:04:51 Hong Kong and other countries like that
0:04:53 would be the correct kind of course of
0:04:54 action for countries like UK in the u.s.
0:04:58 there's no question of Taiwan Singapore
0:05:05 South Korea New Zealand have it pretty
0:05:10 much under control like China to live in
0:05:14 following the sensible measures proposed
0:05:18 by just about specialization furthermore
0:05:24 they started right away the China had
0:05:26 despite all the screaming about China
0:05:29 they had given out all the relevant
0:05:32 information by January 9th as soon as
0:05:36 they discovered the Chinese scientists
0:05:39 had identified by then that it was a
0:05:42 corona virus that sequence the genome
0:05:45 given the information that in the entire
0:05:47 world that point was a lot of details
0:05:51 were unknown but it was basically
0:05:53 understood and the countries that have
0:05:56 governments that are concerned for their
0:05:59 own populations badly right away Europe
0:06:03 sort of waited awhile and can't believe
0:06:05 these were finally started acting as I
0:06:10 said the UK started off with Boris
0:06:14 Johnson's craziness but then went back
0:06:16 to something like what other countries
0:06:19 are doing the United States alone it's
0:06:22 the only country that's so far off the
0:06:27 spectrum that the United States is the
0:06:29 one country that cannot even provide
0:06:33 data about how many cases there are and
0:06:37 how many deaths
0:06:39 the country roosters day and on a
0:06:43 personal level how are you coping with
0:06:45 them with the look down you personally
0:06:50 look privileged live in a place where we
0:06:55 can stay along nobody nearby other
0:07:01 people don't know we live in you know if
0:07:06 we were still living in an apartment in
0:07:08 chambers would be much worried even
0:07:11 though that would still be privileged
0:07:13 plenty of people don't even have that
0:07:15 and of course the worst of all or the
0:07:19 really poor and underprivileged people
0:07:23 and homeless people people in the slums
0:07:26 even prisons for them it's a total
0:07:31 disaster and the United States is
0:07:34 uniquely savage in this respect so if
0:07:38 you're unemployed and if I should lose
0:07:40 your job you know you've been well that
0:07:45 means you lose your health insurance we
0:07:48 don't have a guaranteed health worker so
0:07:52 that means she get symptoms of the virus
0:07:55 or take the done this is we proceed
0:08:00 struck with food comes from being the
0:08:04 business from society bound by the
0:08:08 strict delivery rules so totally
0:08:11 dysfunctional yeah well I mean I want to
0:08:17 ask you another question you'll note for
0:08:18 your support kind of for minorities to
0:08:21 bolster the voice of the otherwise like
0:08:23 voiceless people so I wanted to ask a
0:08:25 question cuz obviously you've written
0:08:26 manufacturing consent which is very well
0:08:29 known I'm first of all I'm as a member
0:08:32 of the Muslim community very indebted to
0:08:34 you and very much appreciative of what
0:08:35 you've done for my convenience I'm sure
0:08:38 many Muslims feel the same way but I
0:08:40 want us to ask him to be your advice on
0:08:41 something
0:08:42 taking the example of was this YouTube
0:08:45 channel that I'm gonna be putting this
0:08:46 on as well as many other kind of Muslim
0:08:48 YouTube channels that try and educate
0:08:49 people by Islam
0:08:51 to what extent do you think the
0:08:53 utilization of social media is important
0:08:56 for bolstering the voice of an otherwise
0:08:58 voiceless people minorities in the West
0:09:00 for example well social media offer the
0:09:05 opportunity but somebody has to grasp
0:09:08 the opportunity and there have been you
0:09:13 know that others are gonna be grasping
0:09:15 it the ones who want to so hate and
0:09:18 anger and racism and conformity they're
0:09:23 gonna be using question is whether
0:09:25 others with this goes way back
0:09:28 incidentally look back at the year when
0:09:33 cable television was introduced there
0:09:36 was a legislation in Congress the this
0:09:42 spectrum electronic spectrum of course
0:09:44 is publicly owned and it was given as a
0:09:48 gift to a couple of major private
0:09:51 enterprises we decide to give you that
0:09:54 gift you can have cable television but
0:09:56 there was a provision in the original
0:10:00 Act that required the big cable
0:10:03 companies to set up small community
0:10:07 based cables installations there in
0:10:11 communities all over the country they're
0:10:14 not you know Fox News but they have
0:10:18 reasonable facilities I'm sure better
0:10:21 facilities in us have they been used by
0:10:25 the left they're gonna take it over
0:10:28 almost by the right-wing crazies a
0:10:30 couple of them are used and are very
0:10:33 effective but it's rare let's talk about
0:10:36 them well this is has been I've been
0:10:38 trying for years to get left-wing groups
0:10:41 that complained rightly about being cut
0:10:44 off from the media to use these
0:10:46 facilities I mean you reach all the
0:10:50 community that way and if you have good
0:10:53 stuff people tune in my major effect
0:10:58 same with social media yes they can be
0:11:01 is going to use them yeah I mean we
0:11:06 found that I'm obviously there's lots of
0:11:08 studies like pew research which shows
0:11:09 that more interaction you have with
0:11:10 minority groups the less likely there is
0:11:13 to be discrimination the more likely
0:11:14 those through tolerance and acceptance
0:11:15 we found that just educating people on
0:11:18 the basics of Islamic belief things like
0:11:21 we believe in one God meant for very
0:11:23 ignorant or the fact we believe that
0:11:25 Jesus is the Messiah and you know from
0:11:28 the Christian community and that we
0:11:29 believe that you know from Muhammad was
0:11:31 the final messenger that we have very
0:11:32 similar beliefs to Christians and Jews
0:11:34 in the sense that you know believe that
0:11:35 there's one God worthy of worship just
0:11:37 very basic things like that I think from
0:11:40 my experience just educating people on
0:11:42 the basics of Islam as simple as it may
0:11:44 be has actually had a profound effect on
0:11:47 social cohesion and harmony on you know
0:11:50 tolerance you know and so on and so
0:11:52 forth so what will its ask you us you
0:11:54 know do you think that the coronavirus
0:11:57 now is is putting people into kind of
0:12:00 like an existential angst do you think
0:12:03 that this is actually prompting people
0:12:04 to ask about the ultimate questions in
0:12:06 life some things like why why am I here
0:12:09 what's the purpose of life do you think
0:12:11 it will have that effect depends on
0:12:14 people like you it could have that
0:12:17 effect if people use the opportunity
0:12:20 otherwise it won't right we know that
0:12:23 there are some who are going to use the
0:12:25 opportunity exactly the people who are
0:12:28 sowing hatred bitterness fear of others
0:12:34 racism and so on they'll be using it
0:12:37 question is whether anybody else yes yes
0:12:54 with with that I mean do you think you
0:12:57 think and they educate the oils
0:13:15 yes wait wait how to try and try and
0:14:15 harmony in this time so what kind of
0:14:19 advice to do in order and harmony I do
0:14:30 everything from talking to your
0:14:32 neighbors yes up to mining organized
0:14:36 groups that are pressing for changing
0:14:40 nationalism you can be educating people
0:14:43 about some very elementary facts in
0:14:47 Europe so there's something in Europe
0:14:50 now excluding Britain that's called the
0:14:54 European Union yes okay how are they
0:14:57 reacting Germany's richest most powerful
0:15:01 country these pretty much handled it for
0:15:05 themselves disagree a couple of miles
0:15:09 across the border is one of the real
0:15:12 that's a lot of people
0:15:18 the people the elderly population in
0:15:21 German they need help and assistance are
0:15:25 they getting it from Germany that's the
0:15:29 European Union are they getting any yeah
0:15:32 from the superpower across the Atlantic
0:15:35 to be the one country which is showing
0:15:40 how to be genuinely internationalist as
0:15:44 they've been doing for decades okay
0:15:48 that's a country that's not exactly in
0:15:51 the optimal conditions it's been crushed
0:15:55 white us violence and terror an economic
0:15:59 warfare ever since it declared
0:16:01 independent became independent it's not
0:16:04 in great tree but nevertheless they've
0:16:07 been teaching the world a lesson not the
0:16:13 repressor and they're doing it once
0:16:15 again with Chinese assistance okay are
0:16:20 there some lessons they're genuine
0:16:23 internationalism are there some lessons
0:16:25 we can bring to people I think so
0:16:29 this goes all the way up to genuinely
0:16:33 creating the progressive intervention
0:16:36 thank you that's happening you can take
0:16:39 part in their first international
0:16:42 conference is coming up in November this
0:16:46 was called by Bernie Sanders in the
0:16:49 United States
0:16:51 Yanis varoufakis in your sounders m25
0:16:56 which is working on this of course it's
0:17:01 possible to become a participant on a
0:17:03 supporter the idea is to create a
0:17:06 progressive International which will
0:17:09 bring in the rest of the world global
0:17:13 South others which will counter the
0:17:17 reactionary international that's being
0:17:20 constructed in the White House you're
0:17:23 supposed to run with
0:17:58 [Music]
0:18:44 yes appreciation that's very small
0:19:25 around the world thank you very much and
0:19:29 hopefully