RIP, gin-soaked ex-Trotskyite popinjay

[sabotabby]

You know, I am truly and genuinely sad about Christopher Hitchens' death.

I've spilled a good number of pixels here bashing the man, and he entirely deserved it, but he was a complicated villain, and thus generally more interesting than the people I typically mock on his blog. He switched from the right side of history to the wrong one, but I can't forget that he wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger or that he subjected himself to the same torture techniques that he endorsed, and having done so, changed his mind about them.

So yes, he was racist, misogynistic, and warmongering, but as far as racist, misogynistic warmongers go, I had a strange and twisted affection for the bastard. I'm sorry we don't have him to kick around anymore.

Comments

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Hitchens, whatever else he was, does not strike me as stupid enough to be bamboozled by the likes of Bush

On Real Time with BM, Hitch ranted on about how intelligent Bush was
and how ignorant his critics were. He then flipped off the booers.




Richard Dawkins linked to this imperialist impulse as well?

Well, he was against the Iraq invasion and "always votes left".

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

As I wrote sabotabby elsewhere:

I was surprised by that Dawkins map of Africa because when I saw his documentary Root of All Evil he says, "Clearly, historic injustice towards the Palestinians breeds hatred and anger." (Line at 43:00) In the U.S., that passing line would get him branded a "terrorist sympathizer." It would become a Fox News talking point.

The impression I got from the movie was that he was equally hostile to all religions and that he put suicide bombers in the same category with Christians who shoot abortion providers. By contrast, the map implies that he thinks one religion is a lesser evil. I would point out to him that the genocide in Rwanda happened on the Christian side of the map. It is even helpfully labeled for him.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Richard is from South Africa, yes? Anyway, it may be hard for Americans and British not to be literally blind to it.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

His post Hurricane Katrina article was extremely harsh on Bush as an elitist douchebag who has no understanding of the problems of the 99%.