• zebidiah@lemmy.ca
    15·
    10 hours ago

    I firmly believe the only reason we still (at least kinda) respect Hitch was because he’s fucking dead, and we didn’t see him show his whole ass like the rest of the “new atheism” movement…

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
      10·
      9 hours ago

      Christopher “Fuck it man, waterboarding is nothing, do it to me brah, oh no, it actually does feel like I’m drowning, oh well, I guess the propaganda damage I did is irreversible, I guess I shouldn’t have been such a cocksure arsehole” Hitchens?

      That one ?

      • GelatinGeorge@lemmy.world
        16·
        9 hours ago

        At least he put his damp cloth where his mouth was. And then conceded he was categorically incorrect and it was absolutely torture. I disagree with a lot of his takes (Iraq war was justified?) but that one I actually respect him for

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
          10·
          9 hours ago

          yeah, it’s more that he put in shitloads of effort into doing damage, and then not doing much to reverse it; but you’re completely right that at least he fucking went through with it

    • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      82·
      10 hours ago

      Hitchens is considered as one of the “Four Horsemen” of New Atheism. He laid the ground work for shit heads like jordan peterson. I have no respect for him either, I believe you are right he just died before everyone figured out he was an asshole too.

      • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
        7·
        9 hours ago

        I mean, his support of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was pretty controversial towards the end of his life. I think many gave him a “pass” on that due to his illness at the time. But I do recall some starting to question even then, his inconsistency of “religious wars bad, unless it’s against religions I don’t like” (at least that’s how it came across).

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 hours ago

          I mean, “theocracy bad” is a fairly normal secular POV to have; it’s just that some of these things go out of hand and turn into quagmires. The problem is that invading a foreign country hardly leads to establishment of long term stability and the desire of the invadees.