Chomsky nails it

[Joseph Tracy]

A headline from Democracy Now

President Obama is scheduled to deliver an address today billed by aides as his most important on the Middle East since his speech in Cairo in June 2009. Obama is expected to announce billions of dollars in aid for Egypt and Tunisia following criticism of U.S. support for both countries’ former long-term heads of state. A U.S. official said Obama will announce "a single standard," including the renunciation of violence for groups including Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and others seeking engagement with the United States. In response, the MIT linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky said: "It follows that the U.S. will no longer engage with Israel, which has long relied on violence to impose its will and has highly discriminatory laws and practices targeting [Palestinians]. And the U.S. will not engage with itself, given its longstanding commitment to violence to impose the domestic arrangements of its choice, including political change. Since Obama doesn’t mean that, the 'single standard' is just more of the familiar deceptive rhetoric."

This is the essence of the Chomsky critique; simply reverse the stated standard of behavior and apply it to those in power. Not sophisticated, not reliant on obscure philosophical premises- just good old fashioned do what you say. 

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