BARSAMIAN: ....You're very patient with people,
particularly people who ask the most inane kinds of
questions. Is this something you've cultivated?
CHOMSKY: First of all, I'm usually fuming inside, so
what you see on the outside isn't necessarily what's
inside. But as far as questions, the only thing I ever
get irritated about is elite intellectuals, the stuff
they do I do find irritating. I shouldn't. I should
expect it. But I do find it irritating. But on the
other hand, what you're describing as inane questions
usually strike me as perfectly honest questions. People
have no reason to believe anything other than what
they're saying. If you think about where the
questioner is coming from, what the person has been
exposed to, that's a very rational and intelligent
question. It may sound inane from some other point of
view, but it's not at all inane from within the
framework in which it's being raised. It's usually
quite reasonable. So there's nothing to be irritated
about.
I basically read that as:
Interviewer: Do you get angry when people ask you inane
questions?
Chomsky: Only when the person asking it should know
better.
Whether or not Chomsky and the interviewer's idea of what constitutes an inane question is the same as mine or yours may be grounds for criticism. But just quoting the bit that you did out of context is dishonest, and definitely fits with my idea of what constitutes an inane comment.
I disagree with your interpretation: according to his reply, the inane questions come from the non-elites, people with "intellectual confinement", and so on.
