It is a fact that the way it is used in the US is totally different from how the word is used throughout the rest of the world. Which is how Chomsky uses it. Which is why crashfrog and hyro both see him as a liberal.
And even by todays definition, Chomsky falls into a moderate/conservative position because he doesn't like Obama, hates NPR, and is totally against pornography and things like legalized prostitution. Plus his stance on abortion favors both sides.
I am not denying in the least that the word "liberal" has, in effect, undergone a metamorphosis much like many words. The term "classical liberalism" couldn't be further away from modern liberal thought, which, for the sake of easy identity, we'll call "Progressivism."
Chomsky may have strange bedfellows on certain instances, like prostitution and freedom of speech, but one cannot forget to remember that
statists, which Chomsky most assuredly is, come in all shapes and sizes. While ideological opposites, Stalin and Hitler were both still under the assumption that the government should provide everything.
Chomsky is a liberal by today's standard, but the word has evolved much over the last 300 or so years.
"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it" -- Thomas Paine
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