Noam Chomsky in Hospital After Suffering Stroke

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Facts

  • Noam Chomsky's wife has confirmed to the media this week that her 95-year-old husband, one of the world's most renowned social critics and public intellectuals, is currently hospitalized in Brazil while recovering from a stroke suffered in June 2023.1
  • Born in 1928, Chomsky became a full professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1961, having earned a PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1955 while also sitting as a Junior Fellow at Harvard University. Chomsky has been a public critic of Israel since 1969.2
  • Chomsky's absence from public life was first brought to light by UK-based outlet Media Lens who, in a Facebook post last week, stated that they were 'surprised and profoundly concerned' that the professor had not commented on current affairs, including ongoing events in Gaza.3
  • The post went on to share details from Reddit posts by Bev Stohl, Chomsky's long-time assistant at MIT, who said the academic suffered a 'medical event' last June and that he currently had problems with speech and walking.4
  • Those details were this week confirmed by Chomsky's wife, Valeria Chomsky, in a report by the Brazilian outlet Folha de S.Paulo. She said Chomsky was transported to a hospital in Sao Paolo, once he was stable enough to travel, after the stroke.1
  • Valeria Chomsky also added that her husband was visited daily by a neurologist, speech therapist, and lung specialist. The couple married in 2014, and have had a residence in Brazil – Valeria's native country – since 2015.5

Sources: 1Associated Press, 2Archivesspace, 3Time, 4Facebook and 5Independent.

Narratives

  • Progressive narrative, as provided by Trtworld. Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest intellectuals and social critics the world has ever seen. Both the father of modern linguistics and a staunch critic of American foreign policy, even in ill health Chomsky continues to be a beacon of hope and resistance for those in Gaza and beyond.
  • Conservative narrative, as provided by Jerusalem Post. Chomsky's highbrow reputation is merely a veil for anti-Israeli hatred. Like many other infamous left-wing critics, the academic has for decades incorrectly used conflict in the Middle East as a template for an overly-simplified perception of a good versus evil — an oppressor versus oppressed world that simply does not match reality.