Jumping To Conclusions

It's the opinion page and Chomsky has one. Yawn.

He's written a lot of books on foreign policy and international politics in the last quarter century, and the ones I've seen suggest he's read a great deal in the area and holds reasonably coherent views.

I know a respected scholar in the UK who argues that specialists in my field should take him seriously. We don't, but there's a least a reasonable case to be made that we should.

In short, his opinion may be wrong, but that doesn't mean he's unqualified to express it.

The New York Times publishes numerous opinion pieces by people who don't really know all that much about the issues they take on. Lot's of bloggers would be better informed and more thoughtful.

Linguistics is a very different kind of specialization than is politics. In our society, we expect people to think about politics. If nothing else, Chomsky has certainly spent a lot of time thinking about politics.

Rodger--

I agree -- I'd say the fact that he's a linguist is not a particularly good reason to say he's unqualified to write a politics op-ed.

However, the fact that every political opinion he's ever held is totally and completely wrong is a great reason to say he's unqualified. So I'm going with that.