/lit/ - Literature

you shouldn't he had quite a remarkable life, at least I'd say.

he got in bed with the neocons
fuck him

He gets undeserved love/hate for his militant advocacy of anti-theism and a showman. Though he was a fantastic orator and debater with masterful erudition, the publicity should have focussed on his skills as a writer and essayist.

His writing could hold your attention and the way he cultivated words with a white hot energy and dynamism is, as far as I'm concerned, unprecedented. He's one of those bastions of public opinion that I immediately sought after when something broke the news.

>>4747091
>muh party line

hitchens embodied the very essence of the alpha patrician

>>4747116
>white hot energy and dynamism

Yeah that's a pretty solid descrip of the hitch, I never get bored reading or listening to him- I see a man that hardly cared what you thought of him, was outspoken and had the knowledge and sharp wit to back it up.

I've never wanted to be another man but if there was one I'd emulate it's him

I don't.

You still have the better one

>>4747143
Peter Hitchens is a stammering mediocrity.

>>4747146
indeed, he's very safe and lukewarm

Me too anon ;_;

>>4747083
To whom will I salute my fedora now?

You know what they say, the brightest stars burn the fastest

>>4747209
it's funny that in his life he wrote multiple best sellers, went into places where he could've well been killed just by being himself and here you are "le tip fedora xD"

I'd say if the price of being a free-thinker is some retard will make a reference to a hat, I'll take it al lday.

jimbo?

>>4747223

>caring what some contrarianer-than-thou idiot has to say

What I like about him, is that he touched so many issues that you are bound to disagree strongly with him on some points.

>>4747229
well anyone can do that, I think he knew he wouldn't really convert anyone but hoped through his..well, not mockery so much as total domination of his opponents that the viewers would be more inclined to take his stance if not review their own

and he did it with much fervor, unlike dawkins who I get bored listening to

>>4747240
I should have been more clear.

Not only did he have an opinion about pretty much everything, but his arguments are so good it will make you think all the more.

You can't dismiss him without a huge amount of cognitive dissonance.

>>4747116
This

Am I wrong for thinking that Hitchens' essay on why women aren't funny is one of his most brilliant works?

I mean, I don't want to come off as a misogynist, that's not why I like it. It's just so wonderfully written.

>Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age' was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed OUT of the Stone Age

Alpha as fuck

>>4747678
>bombed OUT of the Stone Age

and the actual practice works just as well as this linguistic figure suggests!

For a man who was a committed marxist whose last words were literally "Capitalism...downfall..." why is it that ive not heard of any books on marxist thought from him? Just his assault on Henry K and his anti-religion polemicism.

I've seen his Marx article in Arguably but i think thats it so far

>>4747083

>military industrialist apologist

>shameless contrarian showman

Miss him?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQorzOS-F6w

I never cared much about circumcision until I heard Hitchens argue against it. Watching those rabbis get blown the fuck out is pretty entertaining.

>>4747761
>For a man who was a committed marxist whose last words were literally "Capitalism...downfall..."
Source?

>>4747866
https://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Capitalism...downfall...%22+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

apparently he was a Trot
i guess a former marxist... or maybe he became agnostic (lol) on that front

>>4747761
>"Leftist"
>apologist for empire

Well, something certainly changed.

His arguments for dismissing religion are wide historical narratives that are full of holes.

>>4748433
Your mom's full of holes.

>>4748442

a good writer who wrote a lot of excellent stuff but unfortunately his legacy will be overshadowed by his indefensible advocacy for the iraq war.

he wanted to have it both ways. his last words were "capitalism. downfall" but i can't think of anyone else supposedly on "the left" who did more to advance the neo-imperialist aims of the hypercapitalist bush administration.

he wanted so bad to be orwell. he wanted his "orwell moment" where he took a valiant stance against the ignorant left of his time. when orwell had the stalinist and fascist apologists, hitchens simplistically thought the exact same dynamic could be applied to islamism and his advocacy for the venturism of the bush administration the same as orwell's advocacy for combating the nazis and the soviet union.

unfortunately it wasn't to be, and he just ended up arguing for the greatest western foreign policy blunder of the post-war era. i like a lot of his stuff, but he has blood on his hands.

>>4748563
>iraqis now have democracy and kurds aren't getting genocided anymore

the horror! the horror!

>>4748600

hundreds of thousands of people have died, much of iraq is still in turmoil, it's one of the most corrupt nations in the world and is becoming increasingly totalitarian.

read a fucking book before you post.

>>4748600
I believe everything the media tells me: The Post

I bet you're the kind of chump who stands up when the national anthem plays

>>4747116

Me too. He is also great because he wasn't just a stuffy intellectual either, he had a flair, sense of humour etc.

>>4747780

Confirmed for illiterate.

>>4748563

>indefensible
You're an idiot.

>>4748609

YOU need to read a book.

>>4748647

Confirmed for Wall st. Occupier.

>>4748563
>neo-imperialist aims of the hypercapitalist bush administration.

Do you know how ridiculous you sound?
You're not even fit to clean Hitchens' toilet with your tongue.

>>4748699

>implying those aren't both terms hitch would have used

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8X-mU4yMA

>>4747083

>speak against God
>gets throat cancer

Sorry, but I had to chuckle.

>>4748746

>Contact
>with my scalp

>>4748727
I have never rolled my eyes so hard in my life

>>4748683

>living in 2014 and still thinking there are any credible arguments for the iraq war

>>4748875

>2014 still feeling guilty about being on the wrong side of history

>>4748890

hahahaha

>actually still thinks history will vindicate the iraq war

this is an opinion for plebs who think the mere presence of voting booth negates everything else

>>4748898

U mad, obviously a nerve has been struck here.
Must be Canadian.

>>4748925

>nerve has been struck

as if it's somehow irrational or stupid to get angry over a war in which hundreds of thousands died.

>>4748954

It is indeed.

The sole thing anyone in your dismal position clings to is "mmmmbut all those Iraqi's are ghost"

Grow up.

>>4749046

are you a fucking autist or something? the only reason war is even a moral question in the first place is because it kills people, so of course the body count is what the anti-war consensus relies on. christ you're a fucking idiot even by pro-iraq war standards

>>4749046
You're the one who needs to grow up and take some responsibility. Real people actually died here. Not caring is the childish narcissist response.

>>4747083
Same here, anon.

>>4748563
>>4748563
I know you were gunning for the contrary but in your attempt to ridicule Hitchens, that comparison of Islamofascism and Stalinist apologists is actually spot on.

>>4748746
>Christians who smoke and drink for 40 years don't get throat cancer

Okay.

>>4749064
You are now aware that Christians and conservatives who call everyone edgy are the true edge-meisters.

>>4747761
>>4747761
Hitchens was a particular type of Marxist that hated another particular type of Marxist. You know, THOSE types.

>>4750244
you mean a marxist literate enough to notice ideological divides?

>>4747083

>>4750277
>>4747223

>>4750287

He was a zealous buffoon that will manage to get other buffoons to crowd around his defense and ideas in the same fashion and aptitude as any other overtly militant demagogue.

>>4750180

#rekt

>>4748755
Why?

>>4749059

The irony is the anti-war consensus will always be against war due to civilian casualties, even if civilians are being dumped in mass graves anyway. They're the worst kind of complacent people, they'd rather turn the cheek that get involved.

>>4750319
Big words for "stop liking what I don't like."

>>4750390
Are you an idiot?

>>4750393
I never thought I'd say this but I cannot be sarcastic enough to pretend to take this seriously.

>>4747083
Never liked him. He was an amazing orator and his arguments sounded convincing, but they really didn't hold up well. The only reason he won religious debates is that his arguments required long and complex responses that 1. his opponents didn't have time to give during short debates and 2. required philosophical and theological background that neither Hitchens nor debate audiences had. Pisses me off when I, as a Catholic, could respond honestly to any argument he made, and I could tell that his opponents could to, yet neither I nor his opponents had time or opportunity to refute him or any of his fans screaming "yeah, Hitchens won, ain't no answer to his devastating attacks! Theists have to do mental gymnastics to confront his pure logic and keep believing!"

All I knew him as was an antitheist though. Maybe I would have liked him as a journalist or speaker regarding other matters. I do love a powerful speaker or a writer with a way with words.

>>4750390
I was going to say something to you for literally falling into the stereotype I previously placed you into, but
>>4750393
did it for me. Ty, anon.

>>4748563
Spot on. He wanted to be Orwell and he wanted to be Paine.

Although I do believe he turned into a genuine conservative in his later years, and his obsession with Islam and the middle east was due to the fact he had a good excuse to get out of the liberal consensus on those points, with 9/11 and whatever.

>>4750452

Who wouldn't want to get out of the left after hearing their ridiculous positions on 9/11, Islam, ad the middle east?

>>4750319

lol u retard

>>4750495
Just because the Left DID roll over and fall into step with Bush doesn't mean it had to. When his Justice Department came up with the PATRIOT Act, someone could have had the balls to spit in his face and call him a fascist. It's just that nobody did, probably because they were afraid of public sentiment.

>>4750529

Timothy McVeigh, how are you?

>>4750505
>typicalHitchensfag.jpg

>>4747223
*tips fedora*

>>4750999
That should be an autoban phrase at this point for breaking global 2.

>>4751006
*fips tedora*

> liking a neocon zionist
> british "philosophy"

Christopher "Ad Hominem" Hitchens

>>4752167
I dont think you know what an ad hominem is, faggot

>>4752167
Insults aren't ad hom, dummy.

>>4750433
>pretension signifying nothing
>got you bro!!1

>>4748746
Christohper Hitchens' reply: "My throat wasn't the only organ I sinned against god with."

>>4752167
>Mother Teresa opposed contraception, didn't believe in God, and thought religion was more important than medicine. Therefore, she was a vile woman

AD HOMINENENENASFIHNAISASK!!!

you sound this fucking retarded.

Also, you can't ad hominem God

A man who wrote tracts hammering a woman devoting her life to helping the poor of Calcutta alongside his complaints about waiters not waiting until he had finished talking before serving him more wine.

An unctuous blowhard who painted himself as brave whilst jumping on the neo-con bandwagon, instantly throwing away anything of worth he may have written before.

His writing on religion is an absolute joke, his use of terms like 'islamofacist' to describe people opposing the overthrow of a secular Ba'athist is embarrassing. Even chumps like Galloway matched him in debate.

>>4752331
>A man who wrote tracts hammering a woman devoting her life to helping the poor of Calcutta

She dedicated her life to blocking contraception (contraception for women is 100% correlated with the health of a nation, tard) and claimed multiple times that Calcutta needed MORE GOD AND PRAYER, not MORE SUPPLIES. Also, Teresa never really did shit in Calcutta, she was mostly a spokesperson

catholic shitpost/10 into the trash you go

>>4752348
>LOL le epic Hitchslap XD!

Apart from the fact that the availability or non-availabilty of contraception in Africa has no effect on the problem of AIDS in Africa, the Catholic church is the biggest global mover of wealth from the rich to poor and Mother Teresa looked after the dying, she didm''t seek to cure the living.

Naturally calling all people who don't subscribe to Dawkins style atheism deluded idiots achieves far more, I tip my fedora to you good sir

>>4752391
> the biggest global mover of wealth from the rich to poor

Secularists think this shouldn't be necessary in the first place. THis is what you charitytards never fucking understand

>>4752396

And until that moment (which we all know will never arrive) just be a belligerent arsehole. Ok got it.

>>4747083
I do too: agree or disagree with the man, you couldn't help but respect.

>>4752391
>the availability or non-availabilty of contraception in Africa has no effect on the problem of AIDS in Africa

>>4752158
>zionist
since when? he was vehemently anti-zionist

>>4752391
>Apart from the fact that the availability or non-availabilty of contraception in Africa has no effect on the problem of AIDS in Africa

Dude. Do you even realise what you just wrote? Did you think before you wrote this? I mean, what the fuck.

>>4752391
>Apart from the fact that the availability or non-availabilty of contraception in Africa has no effect on the problem of AIDS in Africa
What the fuck is going on in here?

>>4752647
>>4752663
It's not so clear cut
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/10/aids-and-contraception-bad-choices-in-africa.html

>>4752500
>>4752647
>>4752663

>Samefagging this hard

>>4752718
Yeah, you sure came out the winner there bud.

>>4747220
but he was kinda old when he died.

>>4748752
Poor Carl Sagan. :(

>>4752663
Wait, who is that guy in pic? I've seen him before...

>>4755632
Steve Brule

>>4747083

Hitchens died on my 21st birthday and I feel guilty for not having read any of his stuff.

Where would you recommend I start? I thought about getting Morality.

>>4755705
Letters to a Young Contrarian

He was an inarticulate cretinous know-nothing and I'm disgusted with all of you.

>>4756613
>inarticulate
C'mon. He was one of the most erudite speakers of his time.

>know-nothing
He could expound on Homer, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Jefferson, and George Orwell with equal loquacity. He was well educated at the very least.

>>4752167
>Calling a person's character "ad hominem" without relating it to any specific argument
Wow

I used to idolize Christopher, but as I've gotten older the less I like him. Some of his stuff is really stupid, some great (as is the case for most people). However, his stupid defense for the Iraq war and in general his disgusting quotes when it came to that conflict (like saying we might as well bomb all of it and it wouldn't be a big loss) are things I can't really just gloss over.

Also, as someone very interested in science, I found that very often when he discussed cosmological matters he could really, really tumble and cracks would appear in his "polymath"-ish facade.

He's an amazing writer, though, and he was extremely well-read, and a (mostly) extremely articulate speaker. I still idolize these sides of him, but as I said, as I get older I realise he wasn't as brilliant as I used to think.

>>4747761
>Capitalism, downfall
Pretty haunting. That last essay would have been his greatest.

>>4748563
Do you think Hitchens would have gotten his Orwell moment had he survived to see Russia this year

Great orator? Sure.
His positions? not so Great.

>>4755623
Vegetarian diet might have got to him.

>>4756613

gr8 b8 bert

>>4757339
>However, his stupid defense for the Iraq war...

You're the stupid one.

>>4747761
>For a man who was a committed marxist
He was never a Marxist. He may have been center-left but 9/11 made him full neo-con.

>>4748685
>NO U

Wow, you sure showed him.

>>4747083

y'all idiots

>>4759082

>neo-con

When people use this word it is the quickest way to know to stop talking to said person.

>>4759101
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=neo-conservatism

>>4759101

I agree, neo is almost exclusively used with incoherent entities.

>>4748746

troll

>>4759076
Yes. I am.

Brainwashed ameriturd.

>>4761910

Thank you for further proving your stupidity.

top laf on that meaningless diagram.

>>4761910
>using pie charts
>ever

>>4761910
i didn't know that many afghan citizens died in the invasion of iraq

>>4762353
>lol i have no idea how to read lol why am I here? LMAOOOOOO

>>4762353
There's no army bro. Whoever chucks a rock is or whatever is civilian.

Hating on the Iraq war is so 2007