Rishon Rishon

Noam Chomsky wins prize

Amritas's favorite LLLiberal wins German Prize. David Frum reports:

But Europe has unfurled the red carpet for anti-American crackpots. Take a look at this story from a very useful (English-language) blog on the German media: The German city of Oldenburg has awarded its annual prize for contemporary history and politics to … Noam Chomsky! Brace yourself for the irony: Oldenburg’s prize is named for Carl von Ossietzky, a gallant opponent of the Nazis who spent five years in a concentration camp before his untimely death in 1938. Ossietzky won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935.

Chomsky of course has a longstanding interest in the German concentration camps too: He contributed a preface to a book by Robert Faurisson, a French holocaust denier. I doubt that Carl von Ossietzky would be pleased by what has been done in his name. But then again, I doubt that today’s Europeans care very much about remembering what real fascism was – who succumbed to it – and which nation saved humanity from its rule. To remember what the United States has done in the past would provoke too many uncomfortable questions about what Europe is doing in the present.