I would say this won’t blow your mind if you are aware of the subjects targeted already, beyond simply reading about them in the newspaper of course, but it covers a wide range of topics posed to the author. And because it’s fairly old, originally published in 2002 I believe, it gives a great, micro picture of leftism at that time.

The funny thing about this book is most of the things Nonsky is criticized for by self identified leftists as well as the right, are addressed here—either organically by answering certain questions, or else specific questions about the social perspective and media perspective of him—and what you find is that he doesn’t actually say or believe the the popular perception proliferates. I routinely scroll Twitter and see people saying Nomsky says X and does Y, etc etc etc. And so we can conclude he’s not leftist enough, or is pro capitalism, actually. Yet, ironically, he those things are just the spin on his views. If you actually read him, he will outright state that use of violence is justified but it will be used to undermine the cause, but there is no moral tension in using force. In fact you have to use force. Yet you often see out of context quotes where he seems to be completely against it. It feels very much like the spin on MLK in some ways.

Anyway, I digress. I think if you want to get at the actual core values and idea of Chomsky, this is a great book to consume because of the Q and A structure.