Difference between revisions of "Christopher Hitchens"

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'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' is what every self-respecting gentleman aspires to be, viz. a drunken, chain-smoking, atheistic, foul-mouthed, British twat. He is the brother of [[Peter Hitchens]] and, until recently, the two have been estranged for many years.
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'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' is what every self-respecting gentleman aspires to be, viz. a drunken, chain-smoking, atheistic, foul-mouthed, British genius. He is the brother of [[Peter Hitchens]] and, until recently, the two have been estranged for many years.
  
 
He is like 60 something years old too...seriously.  However, this age has been called into question due to missing transitional forms.   
 
He is like 60 something years old too...seriously.  However, this age has been called into question due to missing transitional forms.   

Revision as of 15:52, 12 August 2010

Christopher Eric Hitchens is what every self-respecting gentleman aspires to be, viz. a drunken, chain-smoking, atheistic, foul-mouthed, British genius. He is the brother of Peter Hitchens and, until recently, the two have been estranged for many years.

He is like 60 something years old too...seriously. However, this age has been called into question due to missing transitional forms.

Hitchens in 2007.

On atheism

He is known for his views on atheism and other social issues on which he can hold forth eruditely and at length. He is also known for taking unusually provocative positions on his subjects -- he was, at least initially, a supporter of the Iraq War (something that hurt his standing on the political Left), and has notoriously attacked Mother Teresa [1] and Hanukkah [2] for representing a triumph of religious orthodoxy over scientific and humanitarian advancement. He has also condemned former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a war criminal. Hitchens is unusual among pundits for simultaneously being pro-life (albeit not rabidly so),[3] while also being rabidly atheist and a strong supporter of civil rights.[4]

Formerly a Trotskyist he is now also known for his criticisms of "fascism with an Islamic face." He participated in a classic debate with George Galloway on the subject in which their styles contrasted to wonderful effect. Galloway reprising the classic tinpot dictator style common to many of the socialists of yesteryear, while Hitchens exercised his particular dry, witty manner.

His 2007 best-selling book god is not Great proved to be a major work of what would become known as "New Atheism", seen as a more militant approach to dealing with religious matters. In it, he argued that religion, being the root of much tribalism and isolationist thinking, is irrational and dangerous to societies that aspire to freedom.

Fighting Islamofascism

Hitchens was yet another mental meltdown case who due to 9/11 turned overnight into a cheerleader for war in the Middle East.[citation needed] This has reduced interest in his writings among some who might otherwise be interested in his books on atheism.[citation needed]

He believes that "Islamofascism" must be fought in every possible way including restricting the right to wear what one wants by banning the burqa. He argues that this is for security and the desire to protect women from overbearing men, and is not any way an attempt to take away peoples' freedom. [5]

Broadcasts

In 1988 Hitchens contributed to a collection of published essays entitled 'Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship And The Palestinian Question'. His essay, Broadcasts, explores the assertion of the Israeli establishment that 750,000 Palestinian Arabs evacuated Palestine in compliance with orders issued by their own religious and administrative leaders. Hitchens argues that this assertion lacks evidence of any such broadcast and that the Palestinian Arabs were, in fact, forced to flee from a number of their major population centres by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). Hitchens concluded his essay in a pessimistic tone by speculating that 'Even though nobody has ever testified to having heard them, and even though no record of their transmission has ever been found, we shall hear of these orders and broadcasts again and again.'

Cancer

Unfortunately, smoking frequently does not come for free, and Hitchens is undergoing treatment for cancer of the oesophagus. If you pray for him, he'll kick your ass.[6]

See also

Footnotes

  1. In his book The Missionary Position, he painted a picture of Mother Teresa as less a devoted worker for the poor than a monomaniacal, penny-pinching missionary with a perverse love of suffering and public attention.
  2. http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/
  3. February 2003: Christopher Hitchens on abortion, Vanity Fair.
  4. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/11908
  5. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/07/01/2009-07-01_learn_from_france__and_consider_banning_the_burka.html
  6. Not really. He's happy for people to pray for him if they want, and accepts it as a sincere expression of good wishes. But if you really want to make him feel better, buy a copy of Hitch 22.