What can y'all tell me about Christopher Hitchens?

[rockymountaindem]

I know this is probably a question I should already know the answer to, but I'm not as well read on pundits as I am on politicians. If you had a chance to say on thing about Christopher Hitchens, what would it be? Because now's your chance :)

[QC]

1. Former Stalinist, now a fascist.

Witty and smart, but inhinged.

[snot]

2. too smart for his own good, and not as smart as he thinks he is. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. "Gin-soaked popinjay" comes to mind.

[wtmusic]

don't forget the "Trotskyist" part nt

[rockymountaindem]

13. Well, that's concise

:)

I thought there was a reason he struck me as a jerk.

[Punkingal]

4. My impression is.....

He is a drunken, egotistical, loud-mouth media whore who kissed up to Republicans, and seemed to delight in attacking Bill Clinton. He had some kind of pathological hatred of the Big Dog.

[ThomCat]

5. He used to be a regular writer for The Nation

He's got a well-known alcohol problem. He is a bitter writer who has swung pretty far to the right, though he was never all that much to the left to begin with. He strongly favors the war and the use of military force.

And it's clear that nobody at The Nation was sorry to see him leave. They've trashed his recent activies and statements in various articles.

[NEDem]

6. Isn't he that british

asshole that shows up on Maher once a year. LAst time he was on he was giving the audience the bird at one point.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Brilliant, but has in recent years become a nasty war-hawk and an incorrigible drunk.

Concise enough? :D

[rockymountaindem]

14. See above

:D

[Lex]

8. Drunk, usually in dire need of hygiene (shower, shave, haircut) and

would probably have a good point every now and then if he wasn't sotted.

Likes to think he's an intellectual but hovers dangerously close to being a British version of Dick Morris.

[WinkyDink]

9. I used to worship his every erudite word. But since 9/11/01, I cannot

abide him.
So now I view him as a brilliant mind that went round the bend.

[Fenris]

10. Formerly a thinking individual, who apparently got hit in the head with a blunt object.

Currently an apologist for the neoconservatives with a legendary drinking problem and a tendency to produce gallons of gin-infused flop-sweat in a single interview.

[Up2Late]

11. Drunk British writer who says a lot of stupid crap when he drinks...

...and he drinks a LOT.

[MADem]

12. George Galloway termed him "a drink-soaked former Trotskyite popinjay"

and he nailed it. The guy LOVES the sound of his own droning, boring voice.

[QuestionAll...]

15. seems he interviews or reports while being drunk....

some here of note do that as well.... and call themselves a journalist. whatever that means nowadays.

heh.

[babylonsister]

16. Here's an article from '05 in Vanity Fair he wrote about election fraud:

http://www.makethemaccountable.com/articles/Ohio_s_Odd_Numbers.htm

He's written some good articles, but I concur with the rest of the opinions here. He is a hawk who has supported all that's been going on, couching his remarks on history and what could be, but not so realistic to me.

[countmyvote4real]

17. "drunk" was the first word that came to mind n/t

[BlooInBloo]

19. yup.

[Bryan]

18. A very unpleasant man

A talented freelance pundit/journalist who's dedicated to a philosophy he calls "contrarianism", which amounts to being truculently abusive to whatever he sees as orthodox opinion. Notable are his books The Missionary Position, which questions the popular opinion of Mother Teresa, and No One Left to Lie To, which views the Clintons through a very demanding leftist prism (which is okay), and dredges up just about every half-truth and outright lie ever breathed about them (which isn't). He's spent the past several years cozying up to Team Bush out of cynicism and or/a pants-shitting September 12 worldview.

He's generally regarded as a dissolute alcoholic, which might normally be character assassination, except for the fact that he's been visibly inebriated in many live and televised appearances (I once saw him come on HBO's Dennis Miller Live with a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other, like something out of Wodehouse).

In short, he's a prick. As a starting point, imagine an English Hunter S. Thompson, but with no sense of humor or fairness or proportion. I highly recommend the Hitchens Watch weblog at http://christopherhitchenswatch.blogspot.com/, which documents his many ridiculous statements.

[Dr.Phool]

20. You mean Snitchens?

Turned Sidney Blumenthal in to Ken Starr.

[mitchum]

21. He's a gin-soaked opportunist who thinks he's living in a Graham Greene novel

[JohnLocke]

22. Read what Alexander Cockburn (whom I also dislike) wrote about him:

"What a truly disgusting sack of shit Hitchens is. A guy who called Sid Blumenthal one of his best friends and then tried to have him thrown into prison for perjury; a guy who waited his friend Edward Said was on his death bed before attacking him in the Atlantic Monthly; a guy who knows perfectly well the role Israel plays in US policy but who does not scruple to flail Cindy Sheehan as a LaRouchie and anti-Semite because, maybe, she dared mention the word Israel".

[Doll Parts]

23. a pseudo-Trotskyist

Yeah, Hitchens was a Trotskyist not a Stalinist. I think he still considers himself one even though, really, he's just one in name only. He pretty much betrayed the working class movement for imperialism.

I remember seeing a cover of the American Prospect last year with a cartoon image of Hitchens saying, "Trotsky would love this war!" It was so hilarious.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi Doll Parts!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[aaronbees]

24. At this moment he's likely

piss drunk in a Washington, D.C. gutter.

[Swamp Rat]

25. Christopher Hitchens who?

:D

[lies and propaganda]

26. batshit insane.

though i agree with one of seven things he says which almost makes me doubt my own sanity.

[UTUSN]

28. A scribbler who thinks he will be studied by posterity & compared to ORWELL n/t