Most or all of these ideas appear in other works, but many of them may still be original in the sense that he generated them largely from his own observations. A lot of it what someone with his intellect and personality would pick up on from personal experiences and by synthesizing wide reading. Few ideas haven’t been independently reached by other people, whether or not they’ve been popularized or applied the same way. To pick one, “And if you don’t say those things, well we know you’re not the person to get tenure,” is pretty much Chomsky’s point about how journalists end up replicating the narratives of the system: “I don’t say you’re self-censoring. I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believed something different you wouldn’t been sitting where you’re sitting.” And many others have said the same thing in other contexts.
Most or all of these ideas appear in other works, but many of them may still be original in the sense that he generated them largely from his own observations. A lot of it what someone with his intellect and personality would pick up on from personal experiences and by synthesizing wide reading. Few ideas haven’t been independently reached by other people, whether or not they’ve been popularized or applied the same way. To pick one, “And if you don’t say those things, well we know you’re not the person to get tenure,” is pretty much Chomsky’s point about how journalists end up replicating the narratives of the system: “I don’t say you’re self-censoring. I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believed something different you wouldn’t been sitting where you’re sitting.” And many others have said the same thing in other contexts.