Christopher Hitchens

I'll never tire of watching Hitchens put people in their place with maximum wit and eloquence.

RIP? nah. Just "We'll miss you" will suffice.

loved to listen to him

Awe that's sad. RIP

NO. NO. FUCK NO

of course he lived longer than I plan to.

feared i would be reading that at some point this year, guess this was it. a great man is lost to us.

A terrible shame.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

That will be one fucking sweet wake!

Awesome human

Do you think he went to heaven?

Too soon?

I'm gutted, what a fine human we have lost, no one can ever replace.

If only he'd prayed more.

On the one hand, yes he was a fine thinker. On the other, his cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq is sickening.

He was a sharp and witty man, but was not spared from some dumb opinions. Where are the next wave of public intellectuals who can and will criticize the establishments?

  On 12/16/2011 at 1:08 PM, chenGOD said:

On the one hand, yes he was a fine thinker. On the other, his cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq is sickening.

  On 12/16/2011 at 1:39 PM, azatoth said:

He was a sharp and witty man, but was not spared from some dumb opinions. Where are the next wave of public intellectuals who can and will criticize the establishments?

True, and I was particularly annoyed when his editorial term "Islamofascism" became ammunition for the religious far-right, the same crowd who will mostly discredit him as foul-mouthed pissy atheist in the coming days. Still, he was a left-winger who became a fierce contrarian on that issue, not a pundit nor politician who jumped on a bandwagon and tried downplaying it later. His opinions were of his own intellectual judgement and considerations, he was never to be easily swayed by peers or public opinion.

As Hitchens would of said:

"My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass."

  On 12/16/2011 at 10:19 AM, rixxx said:

I'm gutted, what a fine human we have lost, no one can ever replace.

in honor of this entertaining and always thought-provoking public speaker, I present to you....the Hitchslap!

[youtubehd]mQorzOS-F6w[/youtubehd]

  On 12/16/2011 at 1:39 PM, azatoth said:

He was a sharp and witty man, but was not spared from some dumb opinions. Where are the next wave of public intellectuals who can and will criticize the establishments?

I'm not sure how cheerleading for intervention is criticism. Didn't he spend most of his time criticizing dead people like Mother Teresa and Gandhi? However he certainly was sharp and witty, which is why I said "on the one hand he was a fine thinker. On the other..." He never recanted his support for the invasion of Iraq.

To answer your question - you want Lawrence Lessig, Michael Geist, as well as the old hands such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein.

  On 12/16/2011 at 1:08 PM, chenGOD said:

On the one hand, yes he was a fine thinker. On the other, his cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq is sickening.

He was known for other things other than cheerleading wars? i guess he must be if so many people are sad about his death, thats the only context i have for him.

  On 12/16/2011 at 3:50 PM, joshuatxuk said:

True, and I was particularly annoyed when his editorial term "Islamofascism"

  On 12/16/2011 at 3:50 PM, joshuatxuk said:

His opinions were of his own intellectual judgement and considerations, he was never to be easily swayed by peers or public opinion.

i find this personally hard to believe based on his islam writings, but i'll leave this thread to not beat a dead horse (or more specifically dead man)

He was just a Rushdie fan who got a little too excited in 1989.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/adios-christopher-hitchens.php

lololol

looks like he was a hardline anti-israel, doesn't that even things out for his legacy?

no because even if he was on the right side of history for certain issues, his legacy of supporting the Iraq war will last forever

but then the war in iraq is almost over, israel on the other hand will continue oppressing brownish people for no reason for decades to come...so there is still hope for him.

it's officially over as far as the US is concerned but hitchen's position on israel didn't stop him from being a racist sexist twathole who, with the help of richard dawkins, poisoned the idea of new atheism for anyone who isn't a straight white teenage male assclown.

christ he didnt even talk about it that much, he was too busy defacing posters in lebanon and saying women aren't funny and just generally being a horrid clown