I don't understand. What is it about Chomsky's work that disgusts you? Or is this a reference to his political opinions?

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cubefox 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Read the article above. There is a link at the top of this submission to an essay by Peter Norvig, arguing (correctly, in retrospect) that Chomsky's approach to language modelling is mistaken.

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andyjohnson0 19 hours ago | parent [-]

Obviously I did read the article. And I know how the hn site works.

I have a passing familiarity with the debate over Chomsky's theories of universal grammar etc. I didn't notice anything in the article that would cause disgust, and so I wondered what I was failing to understand.

	▲	cubefox 19 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If you have read many books by Chomsky, it might make you angry that you have wasted so much time on what turned out to be a fundamentally mistaken theory.

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darubedarob 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

His russian imperialism support and his broad rejection of the eastern european civilian uprising against the communist project. Like many idealists he took a utopian, idealizing view and ran with it reality and real suffering caused be damned. Like many idealists he offered basically a API for sociopaths to be hijacked and used as a useful idiot against humanity. This way predictable leads to ruin and ashes as legacy and it did so for him. The epstein connection is just the cherry on top.

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wanderlust123 17 hours ago | parent [-]

Sounds like bit of an over-reaction if I am being honest.

Some of his books are deeply insightful even if you decide to draw the opposite conclusion. I wouldn’t say anything would create disgust unless you had a conclusion you wanted supported before reading the book.

Regarding the Epstein thing, bizarre to bring that up when discussing his works, seems like you hate him on a personal level.

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kroaton 14 hours ago | parent [-]

I think it is fair to hate pedophiles.

	▲	wanderlust123 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Pretty massive stretch making that inference based on the data don’t you think? Or is this an underhand way to get back at someone you disagree with politically?