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What would Christopher Hitchens and/or George Carlin have to say about this?

Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:34 pm
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:34 pm
I would love for these two to be alive at this moment. Both of them are heroes of mine even if I hated them while they were alive. But listening to them in retrospect, I just have to wonder what they would say at this moment. Like what Carlin and Hitchens have to say to their disciple Bill Maher over this, who is right on most of this but let’s his TDS get in the way of what actually advocating for. I wonder what Hitchens would say to Sam Harris who has gone out of his way defending Hitchens legacy.

I was extremely curious about this in 2016 and used their arguments not to vote for Hillary, and even more curious now what they’d have to say about 2020. No question both of them would despise Trump, but wondering how far down that rabbit hole they would go before they started reluctantly advocating for voting him in this current environment. Thoughts?
This post was edited on 6/19/20 at 9:35 pm
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:39 pm to
Also add Bill Hicks to this, another person I despised until probably 2013. I’d love to know his thoughts on this as well, although if he was still the same guy he was in the early 90s, he I suspect might be on the side of the rioters.
Posted by Masked Debator
Member since May 2020
104 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:40 pm to
I don't think George Carlin would be blinded by TDS, he would absolutely despise Trump as a person and what he represents but I believe he would be just as disgusted with liberals and how they use tech/media to frame their narrative.
Posted by Langland
Trumplandia
Member since Apr 2014
15382 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:41 pm to
Probably steal a line from the bible and say "nothing new under the sun"
Posted by LSUFreek
Greater New Orleans
Member since Jan 2007
14792 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:42 pm to
They'd sound like moderate anti-PC liberals, much like when Maher, Chapelle, John Cleese, & Stephen Fry occasionally make common sense points.
Posted by Kafka
I am the moral conscience of TD
Member since Jul 2007
142434 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:46 pm to
you hated george carlin? why?





bill hicks is one of the most overrated comics in history
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:54 pm to
quote:

you hated george carlin? why?


Because I was blindly conservative and I hated atheists who shite on Christians. I developed a more nuanced view on the world. But he was more just an eye roll, and I really hated Hitchens and Hicks in my youth.
Posted by timdonaghyswhistle
Member since Jul 2018
16322 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 9:55 pm to
A little off the OP's list, but has anyone else noticed the conspicuous absence of the Reverend Jackson?
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:07 pm to
Like Hitchens shitting on Falwell back in the day made me wish for his death. Now I find it hilarious and righteous knowing who Jerry Falwell is now.

Hitchens on Anderson Cooper
And Hitchens follow-up about this with Hannity
Posted by joshnorris14
Florida
Member since Jan 2009
45255 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:15 pm to
Christopher Hitchens, being an admirer and fan of Ché Guevara, would probably love the Leninism we're seeing
Posted by AgentUtah
Member since Jul 2011
1798 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:17 pm to
You lying cuck! Clean your coding up or continue to look like a fricking fool.
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:18 pm to
quote:

Christopher Hitchens, being an admirer and fan of Ché Guevara, would probably love the Leninism we're seeing


You’re full of shite on this. I don’t care what an 80s Hitchens has to say about this, but what an 00s Hitchens has to say about this.
Posted by ThuperThumpin
Member since Dec 2013
7364 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:26 pm to
quote:

don't think George Carlin would be blinded by TDS, he would absolutely despise Trump as a person and what he represents but I believe he would be just as disgusted with liberals and how they use tech/media to frame their narrative.


I agree. He would probably rip on Trump but comment that he is a product of our age.
Like he said years ago....
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks
This post was edited on 6/19/20 at 10:28 pm
Posted by REG861
Ocelot, Iowa
Member since Oct 2011
36440 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 10:28 pm to
quote:

christopher Hitchens, being an admirer and fan of Ché Guevara, would probably love the Leninism we're seeing



Yea, you don’t know shite

He was Almost a full blooded conservative by the time he died. He vocally despised the PC crowd and expressly defensed Columbus Day .
This post was edited on 6/19/20 at 10:31 pm
Posted by joshnorris14
Florida
Member since Jan 2009
45255 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 11:50 pm to
quote:

Yea, you don’t know shite

He was Almost a full blooded conservative by the time he died. He vocally despised the PC crowd and expressly defensed Columbus Day .


Yea, I don't know shite. This is just before he died: LINK

This was a quote from him in 2004

quote:

"[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time. He was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do – fought and died for his beliefs."[


So yes, tell me what I don't know about his completely unjustifiable admiration for this sociopathic monster
Posted by joshnorris14
Florida
Member since Jan 2009
45255 posts
Posted on 6/19/20 at 11:51 pm to
quote:

You’re full of shite on this. I don’t care what an 80s Hitchens has to say about this, but what an 00s Hitchens has to say about this.


quote:

"[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time. He was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do – fought and died for his beliefs."[


2004
Posted by REG861
Ocelot, Iowa
Member since Oct 2011
36440 posts
Posted on 6/20/20 at 10:50 am to
quote:

quote:
Yea, you don’t know shite

He was Almost a full blooded conservative by the time he died. He vocally despised the PC crowd and expressly defensed Columbus Day .


Yea, I don't know shite. This is just before he died: LINK

This was a quote from him in 2004

quote:
"[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time. He was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do – fought and died for his beliefs."[


So yes, tell me what I don't know about his completely unjustifiable admiration for this sociopathic monster


I'm happy to discuss this at length. I'm not disputing that he said that. I'm disputing your assessment of how Hitchens would view current events, which is 100 % incorrect. Those quotes are a reflection of how he reacted to Guevara's death at the time. I despise Guevara and Hitchens was completely wrong to have ever seen him in a positive light. But he was describing how he felt as a (misguided) university student at the time. While he never completely shed his boyhood admiration for figures like that, he was never a "real" Marxist. He wasn't a leninist but a Luxemburg Marxist, a sect most people are unaware of. Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish marxist/socialist who opposed both Leninism and Nazism, much like Orwell, Hitch's obvious hero. She was eventually killed by nazis.

If you know anything about Hitchens, you'd know he renounced socialism - he in fact said he was no longer a socialist - and actually said Marx underestimated the regenerative powers of capitalism. His views were idiosyncratic, but he was never a "true believer" in Marxism. I think it was a lot of posturing in his university years. I've read a lot of Hitchens, and I don't think he ever actually knew or cared much for economics and I certainly have never seen any contemporary writing of his advocating nationalization let alone actual communism. His interest in Marxist figures was sociopolitical, not economic and his admiration for figures like Trotsky was rooted in them being grand, tragic figures of history rather than actual devotion to their dogmas. There are several youtube links of him talking about Trotsky where his admiration, while still mistaken, is very qualified and couched in broad historical terms rather than endorsement. THe thing about Hitchens is that even when he was wrong- say about Trotsky or Iraq, he still provided insight and made compelling arguments.

He broke away from the left in the 80's after liberals turned on his friend Salman Rushdie when the Ayatollah issued a fatwa for the Satanic Verses, a book that was allegedly critical of Muhammad. The other nail in the coffin was after 9/11 when the Western left viewed 9/11 as some blowback for imperialism rather than an assault on western civilization. He championed the term "islamofascism" and unapologetically said Islam was the most dangerous religion in the world, which would certainly piss off the insane liberal crowd today. I don't think people appreciate how "conservative" he actually was in the last 20 years of his life. He was a chauvinist for western civilization in the best possible way and despised how the left felt the need to apologize for American successes. While he had contempt for the Evangelical community, he knew the greatest threat to intellectual and expressive freedoms came from the left, particularly the PC crowd. As early as 1992, he was writing unapologetic defenses of Columbus Day. Here's a link to an article called Londonistan where he bemoans how London has turned into a terrorist breeding ground because the left decided it had to accomodate jihadists in the name of political correctness. Also a link to his essay on Columbus where he actually uses Marx to argue that the world is better off for Columbus's discovery. Does this seem like th work of someone who would endorse tearing down statues and renaming everything in sight?

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/06/hitchens200706

https://brianjohnspencer.tumblr.com/post/138574010898/the-christopher-hitchens-essay-on-the

Hitchens loved America and loved the idea of america. There's a reason he fell out with the Chomskys and Vidals of the world who wanted to continually apologize for America. He would be appalled by what's happening today, and honestly, would be on the cancel culture firing squad for his comments on Islam.
This post was edited on 6/20/20 at 11:08 am
Posted by Bulldogblitz
In my house
Member since Dec 2018
26792 posts
Posted on 6/20/20 at 10:52 am to
quote:

bill hicks is one of the most overrated comics in history





Right behind carlin
Posted by OMLandshark
Member since Apr 2009
109069 posts
Posted on 6/20/20 at 10:54 am to
quote:

This was a quote from him in 2004

quote:
"[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time. He was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do – fought and died for his beliefs."[


So yes, tell me what I don't know about his completely unjustifiable admiration for this sociopathic monster



Dude, he's walking you through his mindset when he was younger. That was not what a 2004 Hitchens thought about Che. Really taking him out of context there.
This post was edited on 6/20/20 at 10:56 am
Posted by Zach
Gizmonic Institute
Member since May 2005
112601 posts
Posted on 6/20/20 at 10:58 am to
It would be interesting to have their opinions, but I'd rather hear what Milton Friedman would have to say about 2020.

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