Noam Chomsky: Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history

'Has there ever been an organisation in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organised human life on Earth?' says distinguished academic

Maya Oppenheim
Thursday 27 April 2017 15:42 BST
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Noam Chomsky: Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history

Noam Chomsky has argued the Republican Party is the most “dangerous organisation in human history” and the world has never seen an organisation more profoundly committed to destroying planet earth.

The eminent intellectual, who is famed for his radical views, said the Trump administration had shown total and utter disregard for the future of the planet and appeared dedicated to dismantling previous legacies to tackle climate change.

Chomsky, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argued the administration was prioritising “profits and power” and “systematically” destroying governmental institutions, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, which are in place to address global warming.

“Has there ever been an organisation in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organised human life on Earth?” he asked the audience at a Democracy Now! event.

“Not that I’m aware of. Is the Republican organisation - I hesitate to call it a party - committed to that? Overwhelmingly. There isn’t even any question about it.”

Chomsky argued that America was isolating itself as one of the only countries not to be engaging in efforts to tackle climate change.

“So there’s the whole world on one side, literally, at least trying to do something or other, not enough maybe, although some places are going pretty far, like Denmark, couple of others; and on the other side, in splendid isolation, is the country led by the most dangerous organisation in human history, which is saying, ‘We’re not part of this. In fact, we’re going to try to undermine it.’

"We’re going to maximise the use of fossil fuels - could carry us past the tipping point. We’re not going to provide funding for - as committed in Paris, to developing countries that are trying to do something about the climate problems. We’re going to dismantle regulations that retard the impact, the devastating impact, of production of carbon dioxide and, in fact, other dangerous gases - methane, others."

Last month, Mr Trump, who has previously called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese, signed an executive order overhauling Obama-era rules directed at tackling climate change. The controversial order seeks to suspend, rescind or review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.

This is not the first time Chomsky, who is often described as “the father of modern linguistics”, has warned of the danger the Republican Party poses. In January, he warned the party has become so extreme in the policies it has proposed and the rhetoric it has espoused that it poses a “serious danger to human survival.”

The academic also weighed in on Mr Trump last month, saying the administration could stage a false-flag terrorist attack to hold on to the support of Trump voters after they become aware his “promises are built on sand”.

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