Noam Chomsky has spoken of how watching the results come in on the night of Donald Trump's US election victory dredged up memories of his feelings after listening to Hitler's Nuremberg rallies as a boy.
The linguist was speaking during the 20th anniversary party for online news channel Democracy Now. He told audience members that spending November 8 in Barcelona had a "special personal resonance" because his first published article was about the city's fall to dictator Francisco Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War.
He had written about "the apparently inexorable spread of fascism over Europe and maybe the whole world", he said.
He added: "I’m old enough to have been able to listen to Hitler’s speeches, the Nuremberg rallies, not understanding the words, but the tone and the reaction of the crowd was enough to leave indelible memories.
"And watching those results come in did arouse some pretty unpleasant memories, along with what is happening in Europe now, which, in many ways, is pretty frightening, as well."
Mr Chomsky also said he believed Donald Trump supporters could be enticed to vote Democrat again if the Bernie Sanders movement offered a real program for “hope and change”.
On the same evening Vice President Joe Biden said he might run for president in 2020, Mr Chomsky told the audience that reigniting a “militant labour movement” could swing the next election.
He said American workers have been beaten down for decades with weakened labour unions and stagnant wage growth since neo-liberal policies were instituted in 1979. President Obama’s supporters in 2008 and 2012 were voting for his slogan of “hope and change”, but were disappointed.
