Thread: You probably aren't surprised by Noam Chomsky's comments on Ukraine, blaming Ukrainians for the bloodshed by refusing to accept "the way the world works." Chomsky's intellectual blindspots are also the blindspots of most "anti-imperialists", so a few thoughts.

The main problem with this worldview is that, as Chomsky and his comrade Tariq Ali said, they believe that Russia can't be imperialist. They think imperialism is what the US does—ergo, anti-imperialism is anti-Americanism. See, for example.

Because the concept of "imperialism" has been divorced from a set of practices and reconceptualized as the innate condition of a particular state, when others carry out actions that meet the definition of imperialism, they are instead approached with realist solutions.

So where "imperialism" (as understood by them) is seen as an inherently evil category worthy of moral condemnation, imperialism in practice is treated as a political problem calling for a "realist" solution, without the distorting influence of morality.

This leads people like Chomsky into a kind of moral bifocalism. They rightly condemn human rights abuses committed by the US or its allies like Israel & Saudi Arabia using moral categories; but they always use political categories to rationalise the crimes of others.