[leftyted]

> Which philosophers are saying this? I majored in philosophy, still read philosophy (both ancient and modern academic), and have never encountered anyone saying that classification of things is a violent act.

Foucault, Irigaray, Rorty, and Butler to name a few.

These thinkers believe that distinctions are bad, that the borders between things should be dissolved, that concepts like rational-irrational, true-false, objective-subjective, man-woman are oppressive.

Chomsky is not radical in the sense I mean. He's a liberal who believes in progress, responsibility, knowledge, and the possibility of relations between people that are not coercive. He's just pessimistic about human relations as they exist today. There's a Chomsky-Foucault debate on youtube. Chomsky sees a distinction between the responsible-irresponsible use of power and Foucault does not. You can also look up the Habermas-Rorty debates.