Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Fifth Freedom
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
126
enemy and its actual crimes. This standard device is sometimes used
consciously as a technique to preserve the crucial Right to Lie in the
Service of the State; or, for the more deeeply indoctrinated, it may
simply be impossible to conceive of criticism of the Holy State as
anything but support for its official enemies, principled criticism of the
divine institution being unimaginable. In either case, the discussion
shifts to the evil deeds of the official enemy and the critic can be
dismissed as an apologist for these crimes, as having a “double
standard,” etc.: the Holy State and the Right to Lie in its service are
secure. The device was, and still is, used with tiresome regularity with
reference to the Indochina wars: a critic of the US attack against South
Vietnam must be a “supporter of Hanoi,” so one can respond to the
criticism by producing true or false charges against Hanoi, and if the
critic refutes false charges, that just proves that he or she is an apologist
for Hanoi as originally claimed and there is no need to consider the
original criticism of the state one serves. The same device is now
constantly used in the case of Central America. 88
One would think that the transparent silliness of the procedure would
embarrass its practitioners, but evidently this is not the case.
These are among the reactions which anyone who undertakes the
task of principled criticism of state actions or domestic institutions
should expect, if the critic is not simply ignored, a relatively simple
matter in a deeply indoctrinated society in which private power can
ensure fairly effective control over the means of expression.
We return to some of the further charges against the Sandinistas. The
crucial point is that they have a cumulative effect, whatever their
veracity. It is well-understood by Reagan’s advisers, the ADL and others
practiced in the skills of defamation, lies and brainwashing that repeated
charges that receive wide publicity create a lasting image, even if they
are disproven point by point in critical analysis that may subsequently