Hitchens hatin' Jesus' Day

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He's not always wrong.

http://www.slate.com/id/2132806/

"...compulsory worship and compulsory adoration can indeed become a touch wearying to the spirit. Our Christian enthusiasts are evidently too stupid, as well as too insecure, to appreciate this. A revealing mark of their insecurity is their rage when public places are not annually given over to religious symbolism, and now, their fresh rage when palaces of private consumption do not follow suit...

If these dolts knew anything about the real Protestant tradition, they would know that it was exactly this paganism and corruption that led Oliver Cromwell—my own favorite Protestant fundamentalist—to ban the celebration of Christmas altogether."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

C&L had vid of him last week going off against some religious rightwinger on one of the shouty shows. Joe Scaraborough's, i think. Joe was SHOCKED that a guest wasn't treated with the utmost respect, and had to have an apology afterwards.

So Hitch is good for something, once in a while.

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Hitchens' as a Cromwell supporter is somehow, comically, not very surprising.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

He details his app on Shouty Joe in there.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

kristoff had a really good piece in the nyt yesterday (i think) about the bogus war on xmas.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

insufferable curmudgeon in hating religion and happiness shocker

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

gotta be great to hang around at the office holiday party

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

Hitchens' as a Cromwell supporter is somehow, comically, not very surprising.
-- Shakey Mo Collier (audiobo...), December 21st, 2005.

hahhaha otm!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

I was confronted by the leering and antlered visage of what to my disordered senses appeared to be a bloody great moose.

"Ohhh Smithers, it was all so distasteful! How dare they try to brighten up my day!" etc

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

my disordered senses

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

"If this is not sufficient, then god damn them. God damn them everyone."

ROFFLE

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

"Happiness," me ass. Enforced jollity has always been my #1 gripe with the season.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Christ almighty, hitch. Have another egg nog and fucking relax.

Enforced jollity has always been my #1 gripe with the season.

You can always rebel. This is also a big month for suicide!

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Enforced jollity has always been my #1 gripe with the season.

then it should pain you that this moron caricatures your legitimate critique

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

Hitchens' as a Cromwell supporter is somehow, comically, not very surprising.

I think he may have been winking a little when he said "my favorite." Even Hitchens surely knows that Cromwell is largely indefensible.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

"lenin was a great man." - CH to martin amis

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/6646/hitchmas9sd.jpg

A bloody poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December! (*uuurpp!*)

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

"lenin was a great man." - CH to martin amis

wow. ok.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

cmon clearly this bothers him very little

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Be merry or kill yourself? Catholic, Paunchy?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

I do know Hitch comes up with all sorts of bullshit, but is that Stalin quote from a specific interview? Cos Martin Amis ain't all that trustworthy, either.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

it would be so fun to yank this guy's chain. and easy.

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm not so sure about Hitchens love for Lenin although his unwavering love for Trotsky is no secret.

― TRG (TRG), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

I am really hating Christmas this year, possibly for the first time. Christians can't have it both way: "It's all about Jesus," "It's just a cultural thing."

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Christians are not monolithic in their view of Christmas, Jesus, or anything else.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

Yeah believe me, I know, I have ministers and missionaries and so forth in my family. But the same individual Christians will take annoyingly contradictory stances over Christmas.

I just don't want people harassing me for not doing anything for Christmas.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

I shit in my pants reading the Hitch piece yesterday. It was his best in a while, and right on.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

the lenin (not stalin!!! i don't think even hitch is that insane) quote is from amis's "koba the dread" book, where he recounts a phone conversation he had with CH. CH wrote a long response to the book but i don't remember him saying the quote was false.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 22 December 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

boring old man.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Thursday, 22 December 2005 11:04 (twenty years ago)

Even Hitchens surely knows that Cromwell is largely indefensible

Trevor Royle has a good effort in ' The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660'. Trying to portray Cromwell as a pragmatist holding apart the presbyterians, episcopalians and radicals.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 22 December 2005 13:10 (twenty years ago)

Christians are not monolithic in their view of Christmas, Jesus, or anything else.

With all due respect, horseshit. This is a tactic people use to offset wholly valid criticism of Christianity. It'd be a fair tactic for any ideology - communism isn't/wasn't monolithic, either, there're many permutations of it, neither is national fucking socialism for that matter. But you know what? it's pretty fair to generalize about the nature of communist regimes, the nature of national socialism, and the nature of Christianity: and, yes, to substitute "communists," "nazis" and "Christians" without being reminded that every Christian's gonna have his own variation on the theme, and that there're some Christians who don't care if Jesus was actually incarnate, etc.

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 22 December 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

Hitchens is a total prat, but the piece made me laugh, I must admit.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 22 December 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

Antonia Fraser's Cromwell biog is called Our Chief of Men; I read it, enjoyed it, can't remember a thing.

― ledge (ledge), Thursday, 22 December 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

cromwell was a dick. the levellers were religious crazies. the brit-left seriously needs to get over their search for a lineage.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Thursday, 22 December 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

Banana's point is a good one; anti-essentialists tend to hide the baby behind the bathwater and the wood behind the trees.

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 22 December 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Christianity USED to be far less monolithic than it is now, but today can safely be called monolithic when compared to its past.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 16:25 (twenty years ago)

I'm a Church of One, so, horseshit.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 22 December 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

HORSESHIT!

http://www.getfreshpix.com/Photos/0LMNZ21/PN93NW3f33205T.jpg

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 22 December 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

There's worse shit than horseshit.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 22 December 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

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