This was 30 years ago. And Chomsky is far left. I’m not. I like to read far and wide, as long as it’s not propaganda. Older works tend to be better.

Have you read enough to realize that Maoism is incompatible with postmodernism?

This is a completely reasonable and realistic premise. Within the Left community there are plenty of Marxist-Leninist academics and there was a significant overlap with postmodernists, perhaps owing to its roots in the Parisian intellectual scene. Chomsky is a Libertarian Socialist.

Marxist-Leninst academics are quite ferociously opposed to Postmodernists - postmodernism is completely incompatible with Marxist intellectual frameworks which are thoroughly modernist.

It's not a reasonable and realistic premise - it's word salad trying to scare.

> It's not a reasonable and realistic premise - it's word salad trying to scare.

Thank you for that, sir :) True and funny at the same time.

Many of those self proclaimed Postmodernists have Che Guevara t-shirts and portraits of Mao, unironically. What they say does not match what they actually support and do.

Can you find a single marxist-leninist who is also a postmodernist??

Postmodernism rejects any theories of the world that have any kind of absolute structure, while marxism is explicitly about defining such absolutes. In marxism, all people are either workers or capitalists (or outside the system); any good has an intrinsic value, and any work has an intrinsic plus-value; and on and on.

You can also see this in the art favored by countries which liked to claim to be marxist-leninist (though they weren't). Far from being post-modern, it was in fact traditionalist and realist.

Sure, Kristeva, famously.[1]

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/was-the-philosopher-...

As far as I can tell, she is a postmodernist who started out as a Marxist, but has later abandoned it. At the very least, it doesn't seem to have had any prominence in her works, which are focused on personal psychology and feminist theory.

I do admit that I may be completely off base, I know very little of her beyond what I could find on Wikipedia (which does list her as Marxist, but provides no further insight on why) and a handful of scholarly articles.

Note: a much better example you could have given was Slavoj Žižek, to which I have no answer..

Chomsky identifies himself as an anarchist not a "libertarian socialist".

Here is Chomsky describing what Libertarian Socialism is, how such a highly organized society would be constructed, and that it is “traditional anarchism” while noting that “anarchism” is a broad term.[1]

[1] https://youtu.be/b3m4aRQ9QvQ

This is correct. On paper he identifies as anarcho-sindicalist. But in mainstream terms "libertarian socialist" would be easier to understand.

On the other hand, Chomsky supported many socialist and even marxist leaders. Like Chavez nationalizing every profitable sector of the economy. Note this is very not anarchist as it concentrates power in the state and a rulin elite. Perhaps he was blinded by his anti-war and anti Western establishment feelings. Who knows.

Of course he "supported many socialist and even marxist leaders". That's often been the direction to go to support actual, suffering, real people practically. It doesn't mean he thinks that's the ideal. Yes, compromises are made constantly.