Christopher Hitchens- c/d

"Unprincipled" is generally an irrelevence: exaine and test his ideas and accusations, not why he cleaves to them.

During Monicagate, Alexander Cockburn (ex-bud and godfather to CH's child) called CH "a man of the right who thinks he's a man of the left" – tho AH has stood shoulder-to- shoulder with non-left populists like Pat Buchanan on anti-war rallies, so who's counting? (apart from me, apparently)

The Christopher Hitchens Web

Me too - it's no shock. I'm just thinking about how much my frequent defense of the man's political mobility (which basically = that his apparent "rightward drift" is at least the sign of a mind engaged in actual thought rather than the voicing of some entrenched unbending position disconnected from time and space, etc) - if not his more blatant shortcomings - has been pathetically tied to the idea that his criticism was validated by coming "from within" the left itself.

now that The Nation will be that much closer to what he accuses it of being, some kneejerk instinct in me is suddenly calling his motivations into question - as if some symbolic cutting-of-ties on his part somehow negates his criticism. It's reactionary and awful, particularily given my supposed grounds for defending him in the first place. (I guess a lot of people have been through this w.him already, over the testimony thing or Afghanistan or any number of previous bridge-burnings but it really bothers me)

I like his going after Kissinger, but the attacks on Chomsky annoy me. (Predictable.)

I agree with a lot of his criticisms of the American 'left,' the Democrats and the rational anti-Clinton stuff. I disagree with his conclusions (that you apparently need to jump in bed with the right when you start criticizing the left, yuck) and his methods, and his attempts at being a personality (the awful "lookie-lookie I'm breaking Bloomberg's laws!" piece in Vanity Fair), but if he ever came back to sanity, it would be nice.

His love for Bush is particularly ridiculous, given (1) how Bush carries the things Hitchens hates about Clinton to a huge new extreme, and (2) Hitchens's big anti-fundamentalist bent.

the mel gibson thing is more what i look to him for and it was great.

it's a slippery slope that will lead hitchens down the path of rationalization toward moral irresponsibility; i wonder how long before his rhetoric resembles that of kissinger's?

His brother Peter. The most ludicrously rightwing man in the world...

And he's an enormous vinegar-and-dud douche. Not only because he's vile, but because it turns out he has nothing to say. AND he's the cheapest sort of ad-hominem debater. The man is actually MAKING FACES and COUGHING LOUDLY because he doesnn't like what George Galloway is saying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,785574,00.html

http://redstateson.blogspot.com/2006/08/occupation-foole.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3UFqpylaM8

All that's particularly ridiculous is this statement.

(Maher is a circus ringmaster with an occasional good joke, nothing more weighty)

special sweaters that protect his throat and esophagus.

:/

special sweaters that protect his throat and esophagus.

― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 15, 2011 10:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

too soon.

there was an excerpt from it in saturday guardian

Christopher Hitchens is ill with pneumonia but is expected to recover, apparently.

This early appearance by a Hitchens on William F. Buckley's Firing Line show from 1984 is very entertaining, if often cringe-making (I know there's millions of Hitchens videos on YouTube, but this one is something worth pointing out because it's only recently been added and is a rare glimpse of Hitch in his youthful Leftist prime)

He's ostensibly on the show to provide the opposition to R. Emmett Tyrrell's promotion of his book the Liberal Crack-up, but the guy's a sub-sub-sub P.J. O'Rourke clown whom Hitchens quietly trounces, often with subtle little put-downs that Tyrrell doesn't seem to fully register. It's one of the most blatant intellectual mismatches I've seen, and when he's floundering Tyrrell attempts to compensate with conversational bravado that only falls even flatter.

Buckley then, instead of moderating, starts debating Hitchens himself, and it's apparent that WFB quickly starts to regard Hitchens as an intellectual equal. The two get into an involved discussion, ignoring Tyrrell who's no longer even in camera shot. But then he pipes up again with more failed bluster, as Hitchens passes a weary smirk in the direction of WFB, who now seems irritated at one too many noisy interruptions of the adults' conversation, who . One imagines after the show Hitchens and WFB continuing their debate over drinks alone.

part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeaT6s4ubBo

part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3fB3xPyHV8

part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8_lf53L8PQ

part 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpRGf4br_aQ

Who is this Tyrell? What a dung beetle.

According to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Tyrrell

Founder/editor in chief of The American Spectator, which tells me all I need to know. Even the NRO has flashes of self-aware humor at points in comparison.

Tyrrell was one of those behind the Arkansas Project, financed by Richard Mellon Scaife, to improve the Spectator's investigative journalism. He has explained the Project's purposes and accomplishments in his 2007 book, "The Clinton Crack-Up".[1][2] Other books by Tyrrell include Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House (2003).

One of his descendants went on to invent replicants.

Lol this guy has written 3 books called "The _________ crack-up"

and he's not a Fitzgerald.

i watched that whole thing campari thanks!

tyrrell boasts of being able "to tell the difference between agreeable and disagreeable women"

oh this is great.

I miss the days when three white guys could discuss what women deserve and what children need.

Buckley's good here; you can watch him visibly deflate as he realizes the dung beetle is an idiot.

wfb's voice is one of life's great pleasures.

like if he ever cut himself shaving you'd expect there to actually be little blue droplets staining his torn pieces of tissue.

he taught me how to say taxAWNOMIIZE

also this other dude totally looks and sounds like norm macdonald and it's killing me.

they might call me, for example, a chauvinist pig. this sort of thing went on all the time!

Wow, I always imagined Tyrrell to be 80 years old when all the Clinton bullshit was happening.

reminds me less of norm macdonald and more of like a some sean penn characture.

Buckley's posture and cadence is misleading.

now on youtube in pristine-quality, uncut version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeGKcX-JHNE

TYRELL: If you would like to read, perhaps we'll have organ music. Bill, did you play your harpsichord?

BUCKLEY: Harpsichords make very poo-ah organ music.

"I'm quite willing to grant you that a woman would have to be happy-go-lucky to associate with you"

christopher hitchens mixed his whiskey with sparkling water, which is also what i do when i am inclined to drink whiskey (rarely)

evolutionary psychology/anthropology truly sounds idiotic in this guy's version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7izJggqCoA

matt yglesias decided to troll anyone who has ever read hitchens (which apparently doesn't include himself) w/ this exceptionally stupid take:

My guess is that if Hitch were alive today he’d be the leading pro-Trump columnist in America, following the siren song of faux contrarianism to its ultimate end. https://t.co/Gq3Nj4HyML

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 7, 2018

i don't feel like responding to it there bcz twitter arguments feel so soul-suckingly pointless but i do wonder how anyone could think hitch would've found a single kind word for a guy who not only brags (admittedly falsely) about opposing the iraq war but actually praised saddam fuckin' hussein for being good at killing people

I've seen a couple of hot takes on Twitter in the last couple days besides this one. If he were still alive, #metoo would destroy him, deservedly.

Christopher Hitchens was pro-Bush in spite of his openly stated religious motivations for his foreign policy. He hung out with Paul Wolfowitz. He despised the Clintons. He would have loved the Muslim ban. There is no question he would have endorsed Trump.

— Shuja Haider (@shujaxhaider) April 7, 2018

No question he despised the Clintons, no question he would've despised Trump too. Trump was the easy target Hitchens had waited his whole life for.

that's still a ridiculous take, xyzzzz. hitch was terrible on foreign policy issues and i almost never agreed w/ him in the last decade of his life but he would have been horrified by trump's attacks on NATO, praise of dictators, etc. and he loathed putin. he also despised right-wing populists like pat buchanan. hell, he would have been grossed out enough by trump's use of "america first." it's really really not enough to just say "hitchens was bad so he would have liked trump because he is also bad."

I could actually imagine dead Hitchens aligning with his bro on Trump, who considers him a coarse and immoral grotesque that the liberal elites have brought onto themselves etc, but hasn't got any time for him at all.

I was just posting one of the few takes on Hitchens I saw (not sure exactly why he is popping up rn). Obviously his legacy has no use for the left, whatever he would've thought - its plausible he would've hated Trump and yet endorsed policies like the Muslim ban, while holding a copy of Swann's Way ofc!

I bet dead Hitchens wouldn't have stuck up for Corbyn, like his dowdy small c con brother has done on numerous occasions recently!

Totally agree.

I kinda bet Hitchens would be so embroiled in sexual harassment allegations post #metoo he wouldn't have time for much else

allegations filed by men

Yes like Spacey, I dunno maybe not but just a vibe that his past would have some behavior that wouldn't look great in the current climate

No question that were be alive today he wouldn't have rated that new Daphne & Celeste album.

^true test of scum

anyway, all of our public contrarians are dullards now

That Hitchens is posthumously celebrated by the likes of David Brooks pretty much cements his shitty legacy. https://t.co/yvnE3LKc4t

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) July 24, 2020

still appreciate the essays on literature, impervious to Brooks (if he can even read lit).

Looks interesting, might actually listen to a fucking podcast.

An epitaph to Christopher Hitchens that’s also an epitaph to a whole era of discourse where people like Hitchens, Dawkins, Norm Geras (and small fry like Cohen and Kamm) went loudly and completely insane. Some of this is genuinely vile. https://t.co/qstcXoNDF2?

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) January 5, 2022

warning: just in terms of tidy non-annoying delivery of what he intends to say jeet is a p terrible podcaster

erm... erm

it's not as jarring as when people laugh at their own jokes every 30 seconds but still very disconcerting