My new favorite person: Christopher Hitchens - Page 7

lapoker17 · #61 05-17-2007, 10:57 PM

he's a stud.

MacGuyV · #62 05-17-2007, 11:32 PM

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Christopher Hitchens, promoting his new book "God Is Not Great (How Religion Poisons Everything)", has done a bunch of talk shows this week.

Until this morning, I had only seen/heard him on Bill Maher's show. But with the death of Jerry Falwell, he got a five-minute spot on Anderson Cooper's show, where he blasted Falwell while the rest of the world was praising him.

He made quite a splash, and the next day, appeared on Hannity and Colmes' show.

With these two clips, plus his aforementioned appearance on Maher's show this week (before Falwell's death), he knocks David Milch out of the #1 spot on my list of Favorite People in the World. Of course, Milch could win it back next month, when "John from Cincinnati" premieres on HBO.

EDIT: Please, please, please, let's find a way to keep this thread from getting moved to the politics and religion forum that I never go to.

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Awesome Maher clip. He has to have the most retarded audience ever.

aeest400 · #63 05-17-2007, 11:33 PM

Here's a recent article by Hitchens I just came across. It's just a book review, but it helps to demonstrate how far he is from Michael Moore and other TV blowhards. Hitchens is, first and foremost, a man of letters. He's just not afraid to mix it up with the rabble that populate more accessible forms of media.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_...jefferson.html

sledghammer · #64 05-17-2007, 11:59 PM

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Yeah, Dids is pretty right on. Hitchens is smart, and his book on Kissinger was good, and he's generally entertaining, HOWEVER, to me he just seems like the smart guy who wants to say whatever challenges popular belief at the time. He likes to play devil's advocate and take a contrary position and doesn't really have a coherent morality or world-view of his own.

For example, he's basically a supporter of the Iraq war, which IMHO is his position only to be contrarian and not fit in with liberals, and his logic is very weak and generally contradicts the viewpoints that he himself took re: Kissinger.

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Exactly. From what I've read of his, he's a pretentious, articulate contrarian. (he even wrote a book called 'letters to a young contrarian.') He oozes arrogance. Edit: He reminds me of Dennis Miller in his desire to be the unconventional intellectual.

maryfield48 · #65 05-18-2007, 12:08 AM

Is contrarianism a bad thing?

Michael Kinsley reviews "God is not Great" in the NYT here.

Blarg · #66 05-18-2007, 12:18 AM

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Yeah, Dids is pretty right on. Hitchens is smart, and his book on Kissinger was good, and he's generally entertaining, HOWEVER, to me he just seems like the smart guy who wants to say whatever challenges popular belief at the time. He likes to play devil's advocate and take a contrary position and doesn't really have a coherent morality or world-view of his own.

For example, he's basically a supporter of the Iraq war, which IMHO is his position only to be contrarian and not fit in with liberals, and his logic is very weak and generally contradicts the viewpoints that he himself took re: Kissinger.

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Exactly. From what I've read of his, he's a pretentious, articulate contrarian. (he even wrote a book called 'letters to a young contrarian.') He oozes arrogance. Edit: He reminds me of Dennis Miller in his desire to be the unconventional intellectual.

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Wow, that's unfairly harsh. Miller's mentality, balance, and intelligence aren't worth speaking of. Reading anything Miller wrote would be near unthinkable, and listening to him talk is a total waste of time. Hitchens is actually quite intelligent and learned, regardless of whether one agrees with him or likes him.

aeest400 · #67 05-18-2007, 12:32 AM

Yes, there a difference between arrogant people who act "smart" and maybe are a bit above avg and arrogant people who are really frickin smart and know it. Miller, and most other talking heads are the former, Hitchens is the latter.

SNOWBALL · #68 05-18-2007, 12:38 AM

For anyone that's wondering, yes he is extremely liquored up during these clips. I know this because he is always drinking, like always. He brought a waterbottle filled with vodka to a public debate on the Iraq war, and this was confirmed by people that know him. I also talked to him in the lobby after the debate and he reeked of the booze.

I know a few people that know him and they say it's extremely well known that he's an utter lush. That said, he's very entertaining, and a fantastic polemicist.

Actual God · #69 05-18-2007, 02:07 AM

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("JFC" makes me think "Jesus [censored] Christ". I don't know anything about this show except for the pre-Sopranos trailers, but those initials are no coincidence, are they?)

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you may be on to something

adsman · #70 05-18-2007, 06:08 AM

This is what I love about the world - you can discover something astounding at any time. This guy may come off as a slush in his interviews, (I just watched four, he looked like he was barely stopping himself from falling off the chair in each one), but he writes so well I want to cry. Put me in the new fanclub and thank you amazon for exisitng.