Peter Hitchens: c/d?

https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah

^^^ Totally nailing how to use Twitter.

i'm so confused

Why? to both of you..

He's answering people who say thing about him, they may not realise that's a pseudonym.

Actually he's trawling Twitter apparently solely for the purpose of getting pissy with anyone who criticises him, while following no one in return. And the name thing is just clueless. It's pure Alan Partridge.

aha.

(as in, "I see")

his twitter is so weird

Bit like saying the Pope's so Catholic

the english dril

"here I defend myself against lies and smears:"

"Please do not contact me again, except to apologise."

"my dangerous new book "the phoney victory" is now available as an ebook"

"Oh, believe me, plenty of people still hate me, notably the ‘ADHD’ cult, defenders of sedentary policing and of comprehensive schools, Big Dope lobbyists, warmongers, Tommyists…."

I do follow him for amusement, but hadn't noticed that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gitDjwQAi8

On not wearing a mask (or a cycle helmet)

I've seen this PoliticsJoe guy a few times, good interviewer, gives whoever he's interviewing actual space and time

Not watching all that but I'm mildly disturbed that Hitchens appears to be drinking lager

he won't have anything stronger than 3.5 % abv at lunchtime and he ordered it in an extremely Hitchenslike manner if that helps!

I've seen him cycle pass my house a couple of times in the last few weeks!

tbf his brother was an abject lesson on the demon drink

he's often quite correct on the state using terrorism as a pretext to strip away our freedoms tbf on him, not on the Rona though - he's been terrible on this!

'elf and safety, innit

Yes, he's definitely bad on this but I'd rather hear it and make my own mind up, and not have the interviewer interjecting with 'but surely you must see..." shite and talking all over them.

Also appreciated the consistency that he doesn't wear a helmet when on his bike

its apples and oranges though. I'm weary of how effective masks are - I would guess they're not very effective, social distancing is the key I'd wager - but the theory is that they help prevent communicating a disease, a helmet only protects you as an individual, which surely should be up to you. I live somewhere where not wearing a bike helmet is a by-law infraction and have been hassled by the cops for not wearing one and I resent the fuck out of it.

(I now wear one because multiple people I know god head injuries while riding a bike in as short period of time and the dude who wasn't wearing a helmet - but whose accident was comparable to the others - had a really impactful traumatic brain injury)

Japan must surely be an example of face-masks being effective when you look at their extremely low C-19 death toll, and take in population density and culture of disapproval towards non-mask wearers, there plausibly could be a correlation there.

I think the consensus is still that distance is more important than masks but masks at the very least don't hurt. Since the main point of the mask is to help others there's no way to spin being anti-mask as not selfish.

I also have that odd liking for Hitchens but he's being a dick.

He's probably less right wing than half the lads I drink with

he thinks that David Cameron is a socialist

and Blair is a Marxist!

Yeah I stand by what I said

I know a lad who believes everything in the Telegraph ffs

I'd sup with him, he is much more charming than the leatherfaced gammons with dark secrets in my local pubs!

I know a lad who believes everything in the Telegraph ffs

thoughts and prayers bg

god knows i need ‘em

What I wanted to get at here isn't really Hitchens himself, but the interview. I don't think the guy agreed at all with Hitchens stance on masks but didn't rush in to counter, just let him roll.

Interviewers get flack for when they don't challenge their guests, but that challenge format is mostly theatre and without substance. I think this approach is much better (though admittedly it becomes more thorny when you have a guest that lies).

this video is much better than PH's twitter feed over the last few weeks, he is a man obsessed

Is it all masks stuff? I don't follow him, I don't mind him at all but he's not particularly interesting

my fave Hitch in lockdown moment was him going full kit wanker in his study (with blazer and bow-tie) for a Cambridge Union zoom debate! As well as the anti-lockdown nonsense he is always plugging his terrible books. i think the premise of his latest one is: wake up sheeple, britain didn't win ww2 and was actually broken by it. It might of interest to those who had previously took their history lessons from some senile tory pensioner with a churchill bust on their mantelpiece!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWb23WwWsAErkhx?format=jpg&name=900x900

FWIW JG Ballard had similar things to say about WWII in his autobiography, not that that makes it a good opinion of course

What's under that bedspread? A trolley that he's brought back from Asda's, I reckon

large adult human in a cage

he got upset

it's a bad time of year for him, the clocks go back in a couple of weeks

genuine lol

he follows two people on twitter now, his own alt account and his nephew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyMhZhwe3gc

Wow, he stormed out for a full 17 minutes.