origin stories

Noam Chomsky said the social conditions that are driving voters to Donald Trump also explain 
the rise of fascist leaders such as Adolf Hitler. 

The famed linguist and political scientist discussed the presidential election in a recent 
interview with Alternet, where he was asked to explain Trump’s growing popularity with 
Republican voters. 

Photo Credit: Tony Webster/Flickr CC

Superficial social media news feeds as well as a growing trend to skim read could well be 
culprits to Trump's misleading misinformation campaigns. 

I tend to agree with the man that social media, although useful for organizing, but as 
information sources do not begin to compare with print media, TV, or radio. 

Chomsky adds that economic uncertainty and a loss of social cohesion that fueled the rise 
of fascism in the last century are even worse nowadays in some current conditions. 

It is no wonder then that “[p]eople feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces that they 
do not understand and cannot influence.”

This atmosphere duplicates the fear and breakdown of society prevalent during the neo-liberal 
period of Hitler. 

Sins of the father. Spins of the son.

This brings up all too similar parallels with Martial Law years in the Philippines and the
Marcoses - past and current. 

“Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater. But even among poor working people 
and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of 
the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations 
outside the mainstream.” ~ Noam Chomsky