The problem is Finkelsteins comments are a self consistent application of his free speech purism. If he lived in a vacuum i wouldn’t care. But none of the people endorsing it are free speech purists—indeed they all regularly mock it in other contexts.

He pretends it is neutral free speech and talks in a vacuum, and is proven to be false in an object lesson by the people—who, Again, normally mock free speech purism—gleefully delight in them, & their weaponization.

I think Finkelstein is an asshole—I mean he’s said Jewish stereotypes are based on a “kernel of truth” since at least 2000, & has repeated in every book since—but mostly I think he’s just being a willfully obtuse rube

Humorously his comments are meant as a critique of *the left* who he sees as having compromised the value of free speech—again compounding the irony, given who is boosting him—& also notably as an advertisement to sell his new book

He is being boosted by people he is on the record as literally *hating*—leftists, people against free speech, etc—Which is funny, but nonetheless compounds the point

Chomsky plays the same game of making comments & then disavowing who consider themselves his ally after the fact as not his responsibility, given the nature of political speech etc. he & Finkelstein are both old farts, so I get their position, in a sense

As in I don’t resent old farts being assholes & self promoters—there’s a level of self consistency to them that’s get—& I have assurances in both their cases, that I know, at the end of the day, where their heart lies (more so in the case of Chomsky than Finkelstein but alas)

Now, you sociopaths on the other hand—I have no such assurances and you *aren’t* self consistent, & do not have the excuse of old age, senility, resentment, misplaced good will, or even sheer self interested self promotion

You have also not done anything for the cause of solidarity besides posting about nuking Tel Aviv & refusing to buy Whole Foods Hummus. Chomsky &Finkelstein additionally have the imprimatur of actual material activism for other people—however shoddy, misguided, liberal & idealist

In sum, I find his comments offensive but there’s almost a dynamic of “he’s an asshole but he’s *our* asshole”, but everyone else delighting in his comments is just an *asshole*, with no qualifying descriptors nicer than the noun they modify, so I will refrain from saying them.