Comments on: I’ll Mark You Down As Unimpressed

By: miriam

miriam — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:10:35 +0000

A crooked politician is defined as someone who would sell his own grandmother and deliver someone else’s.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:17:27 +0000

Fargus, I call Hitchens “The Great” because, to me, he is so. However, I don’t expect you to agree. I also call Sinatra “The Greater” – and that he is – again, to me. Some people say, I don’t like him. For me, his singing is like oxygen. I can’t imagine life without it. That’s the beautiful thing about taste – it’s our differences that make us human…

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:14:28 +0000

And Obama DID, in fact, throw his grandmother under the train – he used her occasional private use of racial slurs to excuse the quite public rantings of his nutjob pastor…I defended Obama from the charge of moral equivalence elsewhere, and I stick by that defense, on the whole – but he did resort to it in places…

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:12:44 +0000

Well, Peter, I find common ground with you re: Hitchens and religion. He is far too cruel and dismissive (and worse) to believers. However, to say there is nothing positive in his writing, I must stress again, is to show a shallow understanding of his career. Hitchens is far more than a polemicist – he is also a journalist and a critic. And his journalism and critical writings are not only, for the most part, positive, but they show an essential humanity and love of the underdog (and, dare I say, morality) that will be quite unapparent to those who only judge him by his punditry…

By: too many steves

too many steves — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:23:51 +0000

I’d have to spend some time thinking on the best metaphor to use to illustrate this point: the shock angle, whether hyperbole or abusive language or simple condescension, serves to bring attention to the core message in the writings of these intellectuals. Were Hitchens not to employ these techniques he runs the risk of his writings landing on that pile of dry, intellectual stuff that you and I put in the corner to read when we have more time.

The issue I have with Hitchens (and Coulter) is the base mean-spiritedness in the writing.

By: peter

peter — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:04:57 +0000

Geez, I had no idea that there are this many Hitchens lovers in the room. Sorry to be the skunk at the garden party.

If I protest too much, it is because I find a nastiness and sanctimony in his writings which not only are pervasive, but which obscure any kernels of truth which may be there. So Obama’s choice of a church is “revolting” (to whom? Obama’s black – it’s a big black church in his home town – wtf?); by not announcing to the world last year that he has a wacky priest, he “coldly decided to double-cross that bridge when he got to it”; in doing so, he “sold out his own grandmother” (he did? how? did he renounce his friendship with Wright? how was it a sell-out?); etc. It’s all bombast without substance.

Hitchens’s lurch from being a Trotskyite is curious, but others have had similar changes in thinking. Hitchens is far from the only one who was wrong on Iraq, but tries to insist that he was right all along. Hey, Churchill had a drinking problem too. The reason I find reading Hitchens to be like hearing fingernails on a blackboard stems from his writings and debates on religion.

I am not a religious person. I think religious dogma is inherently wrong, as dogma is the enemy of free thought. I do not believe in God. (Why did these lightning bolts just strike my monitor? Hmmm.) So I’m comfortable with where Hitchens is coming from. However, I found in his remarks an absolutism and a disdain for all who feel differently which would make the Taliban envious.

If people want to worship Jesus or Mohammed or Bruce Springsteen, that’s their business. (Actually, Clapton is God.) I say: live and let live. However, Hitchens seems to demonstrate a contempt for religion and the religious which is illustrative of his binary view of the world, where he is the only one with access to the Truth and all others are clueless morons. For a former Trotskyite who was consistently and reliably wrong about Iraq, one would expect a little humility from him.

There is nothing positive in his writing that I have seen – it’s all stink bombs thrown at those he dislikes. What is “shocking” is not Obama’s choice of a church; it is that he made a thoughtful speech on an explosive topic, which is so unusual for a Presidential candidate as to shock even Peggy Noonan (who wrote in last Saturday’s Journal: “Go, America, go!” This from a Reagan speech writer!). One might have expected Hitchens to at least acknowledge this contribution, but one would be wrong.

You could say that there are plenty of people on the left who exhibit the same traits. I don’t like them either. Perhaps comparing him to Ann Coulter was going too far, but at least Coulter has the redeeming virtue of having nice legs. I find them equally shrill and equally annoying.

By: Bob from Ohio

Bob from Ohio — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:33:19 +0000

When Hillary Clinton does become John McCain’s running-mate, I expect groveling apologies.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:18:18 +0000

What I find most remarkable, after looking at the list, is how sensible it is despite the fact that it was the result of a vote. Where are Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard?

By: mikebdot

mikebdot — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:49:09 +0000

Aaron: Regarding Obama ordering a big mac, the same could be said about Hitchens ability to sound profound.

Mark: I wonder how Hitchens feels about being behind Chomsky on a list that votes him #1 intellectual…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:29:23 +0000

I also want to “reject and denounce” Peter’s more baseless criticisms of Hitchens, but I would at least like to associate myself with the general thrust. Someone should write a book called “Hitchens is Not Great” detailing all the ways this guy has been consistently wrong for at least the last five years.

If I were you, Mark, I wouldn’t feel sheepish just because a bully knows how to write intemperate things.