Americans are fed the narrative that despite some setbacks, everything in the country is “fundamentally wonderful,” said noted U.S. linguist and historian Noam Chomsky, accusing the country’s “neoliberal elites” of failing to acknowledge serious problems plaguing the nation.
The U.S. likes to portray itself as an inherently good force that always seeks to correct its mistakes, and that approach was evident in how the Jan. 6 deadly violence at the Capitol was reported, Chomsky said Saturday during an interview with RT.
“This attack on the Capitol shows the power of American democracy because we did not collapse into a fascist state. In this way, we were able to show that American democracy has triumphed in its glory,” the respected scholar further stressed while describing the prevailing situation.
He noted that a similar self-deluding triumphalism gripped the United States after the Watergate scandal.
Chomsky emphasized, however, that there are “really serious evils” that neither of the two dominant U.S. political parties wants to discuss, making it impossible to think about the causes of the Capitol riots.
“What is being discussed is ‘a crazed mob,’ as if they came out of nowhere. They didn’t come out of nowhere,” added Chomsky, who is co-author of the influential book “Manufacturing Consent” about the media’s role in shaming tragic U.S. politics.
The remarks came amid a new poll showing that Americans today increasingly view “other people in America and domestic enemies” as the biggest threat to their way of life, pointing to the depth of existing political and cultural differences in the United States.
According to a new CBS News/YouGov poll, most Americans – 54 percent – now believe Americans pose the greatest threat to their way of life, as opposed to foreign enemies and economic forces. Fifty-three percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents call others in America the greatest risk.
On Jan. 6, Trump supporters launched a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, briefly disrupting the certification of November election results. Five people were killed in the siege.
Trump was indicted for a second time last week on charges of inciting a riot. The Senate is scheduled to begin impeachment proceedings next month.
by Jeremy Abbott – American Correspondent – WPN