>Christopher remains my friend despite our political
>differences. He was one of my mentors, considerate,
>supportive, trustworthy, and I remain in debt to
>him for many lessons learned.
Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>He's very likeable, and I thought he was very
>talented too. So it's sad to see him acting so
>shittily now if you used to think very highly of him.
So, why is Hitchens so incredibly vituperative (and I would say, intellectually dishonest) about people with whom he used to agree about most things? He would be a lot easier to take if his current arguments were less personal and more rigorous. Does it have something to do with him coming from the culture of English journalism?
I know this doesn't really have much political significance. But I think Hitchens' behavior is interesting as an illustration of how hard it is for people to deal with the fact that there are more than two sides to things. So if he doesn't agree with Noam Chomsky, all of a sudden now he has to embrace George Bush and see in him qualities and commitments ("George Bush wants democracy for the Kurds! George Bush is boldly leading us in a life or death struggle with theocracies of all kinds!") that obviously aren't there.
It's like people who opposed US racism and capitalism in the 30s, and so had to believe that the Soviet Union was paradise. Or, once they figured out that wasn't true, all of a sudden became gung ho for US racism and capitalism. It's hard to oppose everything existing, I guess.
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