Did you just say Noam Chomsky is just a really good troll? He does seem fond of meeting his critics as having "virtually no comprehension of the work they are discussing", being "technically correct, but completely irrelevant", etc.
chomsky adulation within the academic community is a huge pet peeve of mine. the man is a hypocrite. he makes wide ranging commentary on fields he has no background in.
Ditto regarding the pet peeve, but I just don't like his attitude - I've repeatedly seen him be combative in completely unnecessary ways. Also, he uses complicated words when simple ones would do.
