While still an undergraduate, Ear began writing extensively about scholars in the Western world who had minimized or denied the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during their rule (1975-1979) in Cambodia.
Ear called the apologists and pro-Khmer Rouge academics the "Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia" (STAV).
 The STAV, which he said included among its adherents almost all Cambodian scholars in the Western world, "hoped for, more than anything, a socialist success story with all the romantic ingredients of peasants, fighting imperialism, and revolution."

In particular, Ear criticized Noam Chomsky's support for the Khmer Rouge. “
While my family worked and died in rice fields,” Ear said, “Chomsky sharpened his theories and amended his arguments while seated in his armchair in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I believe that he would probably have me blame the Americans and their bombs for causing everything around the Khmer Rouge to go wrong.”
Ear has said that “perhaps someday Chomsky will acknowledge his ‘honest errors’ in his memoirs, speaking of the burdens of academia and the tragic irony of history.
His victims, the peasants of Indochina, will write no memoirs and will be forgotten.
They will be joined by his North Korean and Bosnian victims…For decades, Chomsky has vilified his critics as only a world class linguist can.
However, for me and the surviving members of my family, questions about life under the Khmer Rouge are not intellectual parlour games.”
While still an undergraduate, Ear began writing extensively about scholars in the Western world who had minimized or denied the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during their rule (1975-1979) in Cambodia. Ear called the apologists and pro-Khmer Rouge academics the "Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia" (STAV).  The STAV, which he said included among its adherents almost all Cambodian scholars in the Western world, "hoped for, more than anything, a socialist success story with all the romantic ingredients of peasants, fighting imperialism, and revolution." 
In particular, Ear criticized Noam Chomsky's support for the Khmer Rouge. “While my family worked and died in rice fields,” Ear said, “Chomsky sharpened his theories and amended his arguments while seated in his armchair in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I believe that he would probably have me blame the Americans and their bombs for causing everything around the Khmer Rouge to go wrong.” Ear has said that “perhaps someday Chomsky will acknowledge his ‘honest errors’ in his memoirs, speaking of the burdens of academia and the tragic irony of history. His victims, the peasants of Indochina, will write no memoirs and will be forgotten. They will be joined by his North Korean and Bosnian victims…For decades, Chomsky has vilified his critics as only a world class linguist can. However, for me and the surviving members of my family, questions about life under the Khmer Rouge are not intellectual parlour games.”
Sophal Ear