Who was William F. Buckley, Jr.? | The Incomparable Mr. Buckley | American Masters | PBS

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  • Опубликовано: 24 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 141

  • @richmotroni
    @richmotroni 7 месяцев назад +27

    My favorite part about the LAugh-In appearance is when Buckley said, "I was a bit apprehensive coming here, but your producer promised the plane that would take me to Los Angeles would have two right wings."

  • @jamescrabtree9240
    @jamescrabtree9240 8 месяцев назад +26

    This is stellar. I look forward to seeing the complete documentary.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад

      Yes indeed. I wonder if you, or anyone else might know the meaning of one commentator's remark?
      ' Your dog is greater than Gore Vidal'. What form of slang is this and what does it articulate ?

  • @bisonradio5847
    @bisonradio5847 4 месяца назад +14

    I am friends with the guy who set up National Review’s website, and I MC’d two crisis-pregnancy banquets in Boston where our featured speakers were NR’s Senior Editors. I later attended WFB’s memorial service at St Patrick’s Cathedral, and saw McGovern and Hitch (who stepped outside for a smoke as a silent protest when Kissinger spoke), whose appearance tells you the respect and affection they had for Bill. Afterwards, my friend invited me to lunch with the NR Senior Editors and their wives, and my head was swimming with the joy and privilege of being with them as they continued remembering Bill. Later that evening I stood outside his apartment on the sidewalk, just standing there, honoring his memory. And I’m not even all that conservative, just a huge admirer.
    The man was seriously funny. His vocabulary and his wit were unparalleled. (Responding to critics who said he showed off his vocabulary, he said he wanted always to use the right word, and that nobody criticized a jazz musician for using obscure chords.)
    I’m looking forward to seeing this documentary a lot. I was smiling for the whole 10 minutes of this overview.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 2 месяца назад

      You indeed have had a unique and enviable experience, thank you for sharing what makes for an extraordinary comment. I enjoyed it. I can well appreciate the dignified and discreet note of censure on the part of Hitchens and McGovern whilst Kissinger spoke. It is perhaps interesting that you claim not to be a conservative as clearly you regard Buckley with admiration even though he can so easily polarise opinion with regard obviously to a host of fundamental ideas. He could become curiously petulant in the face of successful rebuttal which sometimes surprised me as was the case with Chomsky in 1967. But otherwise of course, a sincere and fascinating man. Have you read his son's memoir of loosing his parents at the end of their lives ? It is revealing and poignant. Thanks again for this full and thoughtful comment.

    • @yogibear6363
      @yogibear6363 2 месяца назад

      Crisis Pregnancy Centers?
      Are those the religious outposts manned by evangelical extremists who lie to women to trick them into limiting their health care options?

  • @kevinhealey6540
    @kevinhealey6540 4 месяца назад +8

    He ran for Mayor of NYC in 1965. A reporter asked him what would be his first official act as Mayor if he won. He said, "Demand a recount."
    I wrote him a letter and he wrote me back.

  • @CaruthersHodge
    @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +9

    Buckley can be a wonderful standup comic. I found him hypnotic as a child and marvelled at the all too clever sentence structures without end.
    Long, rarely used words, can be helpful in the obfuscation of common sense. It could be a powerful club but it didn't work on Vidal and Chomsky.
    I'm afraid there hasn't really been a conservative party in the United States since the war making Buckley the spokesman of the unrecognizable
    variant that has followed. But he's still a remarkable, curious man. I look forward to the documentary. I grew up with American Masters and feel
    a warm and almost familial bond with PBS. Bless you.

  • @ricardocantoral7672
    @ricardocantoral7672 5 месяцев назад +15

    Poor Buckley, he was actually a caricature come to life. No, I kid to an extent. He was a boiler plate neo-con but at least was civil and actually had friends on the left.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +5

      Bravo. A balanced and pithy memorial. Neo-con with a smoke and mirrors act that could very entertaining. He and Mailer did have a mutually useful doubles routine.

    • @nikkif.409
      @nikkif.409 2 месяца назад +2

      And you'll never be as clever as him.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 2 месяца назад +1

      @@nikkif.409 Oh yes, Buckley was undoubtedly clever I shouldn't have wanted to go toe to toe with him. The Houdini of ideology.

    • @MattSingh1
      @MattSingh1 2 месяца назад

      *Close- Buckley was actually a Catholic fascist for most his piddling, miserable and inconsequential life.*

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 9 дней назад

      If he is credited with mobilising the Conservative movement then how in the world could he be a neocon?

  • @EveHoward631
    @EveHoward631 5 месяцев назад +9

    I feel privileged to have become aware of Mr Buckley. It was during an interview with Jack Kerouac & 2 other guests - the exemplary way Mr Buckley conducted the interview .... Jack was playing up 🤣. I loved Jack & thoroughly enjoyed the repartee between all four of them, truly brilliant!

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +1

      I remember Buckley interviewing Kerouac around 1967 with the guest dressed like a lumberjack. Buckley was most gentle if perhaps a bit patronizing. Sometimes it
      seemed he was treating Kerouac as an idiot savant or a poet child-man asking general soft ball questions and greeting answers with reassuring smiles.

  • @EugeneONeill-pf5bj
    @EugeneONeill-pf5bj 7 месяцев назад +19

    William Frank Buckley, his red barrel Parker Jotter usually pressed to his bottom lip, was an extraordinary man with a prolific work ethic and boundless energy who left an indelible mark on the 20th century.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +1

      Nicely phrased sir. The word smith cometh.

    • @MattSingh1
      @MattSingh1 2 месяца назад

      *Babbling nonsense. Buckley was a Catholic fascist. Prof. Noam Chomsky humiliated him on his own show.*

    • @yogibear6363
      @yogibear6363 2 месяца назад

      It can also be said that Hitler left an indelible mark on the 20th century.

  • @MapleSyrupPoet
    @MapleSyrupPoet 7 месяцев назад +8

    "I'll be glad to elaborate on them" 😅

  • @BlueBaron3339
    @BlueBaron3339 8 месяцев назад +12

    I had no idea of his larger influence. I simply enjoyed his weekly television program because he was such a snob that he amused me. As I recall he became profoundly depressed toward the end of his life. But that would be nothing to how he'd feel were he alive today.

    • @kevinmadden1645
      @kevinmadden1645 7 месяцев назад +4

      Patrician, not Snob. Huge difference.

    • @BlueBaron3339
      @BlueBaron3339 7 месяцев назад +1

      @@kevinmadden1645 You might want to examine what your preferred word actually means 😉 And he freely admitted to the other word.

    • @kevinmadden1645
      @kevinmadden1645 7 месяцев назад +2

      @@BlueBaron3339 Buckley admitted to being a snob? Oh come now!

    • @BlueBaron3339
      @BlueBaron3339 7 месяцев назад

      @@kevinmadden1645 Oh, it wasn't regarded then as it is now. 😊

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 6 месяцев назад +8

      He always assumed his audience were intelligent. That’s the opposite of snobbery in my book.

  • @jeshkam
    @jeshkam 8 месяцев назад +22

    William F. Buckley Jr. > Gore Vidal

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 5 месяцев назад

      I am closer to Vidal than Buckley when it comes to politics. However, I think Vidal was too much of a whore for attention. He basically set the standard we have today.

  • @brycewilson1909
    @brycewilson1909 23 дня назад +2

    was the full version taken off youtube literally this morning? i saw it last night and saved it to my 'watch later' list, planning on watching it today after work, and now i cant find it anywhere! lowkey pretty frustrating, hopefully the full length episode will be made public once again soon.

  • @roughhabit9085
    @roughhabit9085 6 месяцев назад +6

    Full documentary withdrawn I notice. Good, because it focused on trivial incidences in his life and overlooked the enormous political influence he had on American history.

    • @ttacking_you
      @ttacking_you 4 месяца назад

      I thought it was really good. Nobody would watch it if they didn't already kinda know who Bill Buckley was and therefore has some sense of the theatrical Herculean triumphs of epistemology and conservative thought that you feel needs to be addressed?

  • @johns.8220
    @johns.8220 4 месяца назад +3

    I alternate between loving and hating the guy, but either way I always maintain a healthy respect for him. He held to his convictions, but was not incapable of changing his mind and evolving his views. He was undoubtedly a man of deep intelligence, never backed down from a debate, and more than held his own against legendary intellectuals like Chomsky and Vidal despite all the mudslinging rhetoric from the left to the contrary.

  • @KevinPDunn
    @KevinPDunn 6 месяцев назад +4

    Why was full length doc taken down?

  • @DragScopeDevin
    @DragScopeDevin 5 месяцев назад +2

    Put the full one back up :(

  • @tommyl3207
    @tommyl3207 5 месяцев назад +3

    Buckley remains a unique individual and also the most Hopeful one, that we might yet save the Country and the human race, if we can produce such men as this.

  • @josephlees54
    @josephlees54 8 месяцев назад +17

    Very interesting to see that like Goldwater, Buckley's hardline views changed towards the end of his life. Even regulations he championed in the war on drugs were questionable given some of his later panels at universities, where he was willing to admit that they had overall a wasteful effect. Truly a man willing to change for his time, also someone who saw the opacity of the Civil Rights Movement and was willing to put forward difficult questions very few were willing to address. Undoubtedly a praiseworthy individual, should be reflected on by many modern-day conservatives. I so too appreciate his bipartisanship in his programs regardless of his "snobbish" remarks which hosted anything from Christian Socialists to Segregationist Governors.

    • @ttacking_you
      @ttacking_you 4 месяца назад

      "admit a Wasteful effect!?" He did more than THAT? He described how he torched up some veggies on his yacht, got stocious, and came to his damn senses amidst, no doubt a delightful fit of reverie! THAT was cool for that time. I'm fairly certain he procured it from Ginsberg who proposed that Bill try some?

  • @WintersWar
    @WintersWar 6 месяцев назад +1

    Love to see the full episodes of WFB on Merv Griffin, Carson and Frost.

  • @ByronAutry-il7jg
    @ByronAutry-il7jg 4 месяца назад +1

    I'm 63 now , Where did the time go ? William F. Buckley was such an intrical part of my life . I like him , Am a total , complete Conserative Republican , '' Hopelesly '' a part of my party . But I loved listened to this man for his education His way of speaking to his adversaries with his tongu of steel .

  • @garibaldicat100
    @garibaldicat100 7 месяцев назад +2

    BUT WHEN IS IT ON PBS LIVE ?! WILLIAM BUCKLEY?!?

  • @junkboxxxxxx
    @junkboxxxxxx 7 месяцев назад +8

    Wealth from the father
    Religion from the mother

    • @olliegarkie7958
      @olliegarkie7958 6 месяцев назад +2

      Worst combination possible

    • @jonbrandon6793
      @jonbrandon6793 5 месяцев назад +6

      Worse is no wealth from the father, no religion from the mother.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +2

      @@jonbrandon6793 No religion from the mother might have helped Buckley's otherwise thwarted development.

    • @woobiefuntime
      @woobiefuntime 3 месяца назад

      @@CaruthersHodge He did well

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад

      @@woobiefuntime In what father and mother both gave their son, I believe the Christianity imbued Buckley with a very deep if conservative piety, I suppose not surprisingly. His son Chris Buckley, in his poignant memoir of his parents, speaks to this with a wry eye.

  • @davidrobinson2776
    @davidrobinson2776 5 месяцев назад +10

    Buckley was the polar opposite from me politically but I've rarely seen a more intelligent or charismatic man. His one flaw, or some may it's a strength, was he never liked to lose an argument. Probably the reason why he despised Vidal and Chomsky. Strangely he had an amazing rapport with Hitchens who I think he admired for his intelligence and charisma even though he was even further left than the others.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +2

      Well observed and I like to see the coupling of names like Vidal and Chomsky with this remarkable, odd man. A neo-con pretending to be a conservative during that movement's long gasping demise. Your'e spot on about WFB not liking to lose, he became cringingly feline and feebly sarcastic with Chomsky when he couldn't score a point. And Vidal is a joy to watch
      in action. Buckley strikes me as being a very clever vaudeville act. All smoke, mirrors and long words playing out to the side of the real drama.

    • @davidrobinson2776
      @davidrobinson2776 3 месяца назад

      @@CaruthersHodge Brilliant analysis, sir.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад

      @@davidrobinson2776 Your'e very civil, as they used to say or, uncommonly civil of you. At any rate, thank you. I had a comment to another thought advising me to see a psychiatrist and quickly.

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 9 дней назад +1

      Hitchens was a personable man with a sharp sense of humour, plus Buckley’s son was one of his best friends.

  • @colinmontgomery1956
    @colinmontgomery1956 6 месяцев назад +1

    It's about time.

  • @stephenmandes5797
    @stephenmandes5797 5 месяцев назад +1

    We are at the same point in time from 60s as they were from WW I. After Groucho this clip went downhill rapidly. Hard to believe those kooks were part of our national conversation. Mailer, Chomsky, Ginsberg?

  • @ebillcoyne
    @ebillcoyne 6 месяцев назад

    I remember watching public tv for free over the airwaves. Much of it is not free anymore. A sobering reminder about my low economic status. I have no gripes about being poor. I just need to be put in my place to remember who I am - a shriveled remnant of a once vibrant hard core conservative who still worships at a towering idol. I don't need the pretty pictures, so I'm going to scour the landscape for a pdf or epub transcript.

  • @illinoisan
    @illinoisan 4 месяца назад +1

    One of the few if not the only conservative who was honest about what conservatism is. Nowadays everyone wants to self-identify as conservative but either have no idea what it means or don’t want to admit to themselves or others what it means. The conservation of traditional power is the ideology that dares not explain itself.

  • @theravagedgrapefruit8190
    @theravagedgrapefruit8190 2 месяца назад

    Where’s the rest of it?

  • @kevinmadden1645
    @kevinmadden1645 7 месяцев назад +10

    Your dog is greater than Gore Vidal.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад +1

      Of any living creatures, few were greater than Vidal and certainly not your dog.

    • @kevinmadden1645
      @kevinmadden1645 3 месяца назад

      @@CaruthersHodge Get thee to a psychiatrist. And quick! Run! Don't walk!

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад

      @@kevinmadden1645 Thank you for caring. I shall soon have dinner and may feel better. It's nice to see that we all might, dare I say, learn to get along.

  • @noodlehat3250
    @noodlehat3250 5 месяцев назад +5

    Back in the day when conservatives were allowed to exist.

  • @Narrowsplice
    @Narrowsplice 7 месяцев назад +1

    Is this available to watch in UK?

    • @Sam_Ardern_II
      @Sam_Ardern_II 7 месяцев назад

      His show the Firing Line is available on RUclips

    • @georgialerangis2123
      @georgialerangis2123 7 месяцев назад +1

      Check PBS American Masters, William F Buckley, just recently uploaded to YOU TUBE in USA ... Hopefully also in U.K.

  • @JoG-c7e
    @JoG-c7e Месяц назад

    What would Buckley say about Trump?

  • @TheDavidlloydjones
    @TheDavidlloydjones 8 месяцев назад +38

    Imagine the good that Buckley could have done, starting while still in college, if he had put his intelligence at the service of the civil rights movement...

    • @ryanscottlogan8459
      @ryanscottlogan8459 7 месяцев назад +2

      😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

    • @drm9979
      @drm9979 5 месяцев назад +1

      Dick Gregory about WFB: “I love that cat.”

    • @ttacking_you
      @ttacking_you 4 месяца назад

      They honestly felt that the govt shouldn't tell you who you can allow in your own establishment. That to them was illiberal and government over reach. And it's that over reach that scared Buckley the heir to Rockefeller's second hand man, so one can imagine?

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 4 месяца назад

      “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority “
      ~ Mencken

    • @ryanscottlogan8459
      @ryanscottlogan8459 3 месяца назад +1

      Spare me!😂😂😂😂

  • @theprecipiceofreason
    @theprecipiceofreason 2 месяца назад +2

    Buckley was made a cartoon villain, repeatedly, by his betters.

  • @lordmanatee439
    @lordmanatee439 4 месяца назад +3

    "Listen here you queer, stop calling me a crypto-nazi"

    • @musicmanfelipe
      @musicmanfelipe 2 месяца назад

      “I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered!”

  • @williamf.buckleyjr3227
    @williamf.buckleyjr3227 4 месяца назад

    I resemble these comments!!

  • @MatthewODonohoe-of8qk
    @MatthewODonohoe-of8qk Месяц назад

    Cancel your own God dam subscription!

  • @carloscintoramartinez1883
    @carloscintoramartinez1883 3 месяца назад

    Utter nonsense. Proof: Noam Chomsky

  • @1330m
    @1330m 2 месяца назад

    1950년 한국에 jesus 재림했다
    1955년 national review 창간 --- sign of time

  • @majoroldladyakamom6948
    @majoroldladyakamom6948 7 месяцев назад +1

    😢 Just another commercial...

  • @futon2345
    @futon2345 2 месяца назад +1

    Total closet case

  • @apathyonastick
    @apathyonastick 5 месяцев назад

    @2:50 @TuckerCarlson anyone?

    • @apathyonastick
      @apathyonastick 5 месяцев назад

      It has to be one of his relatives.

  • @protamine4
    @protamine4 2 месяца назад +1

    It's interesting how WFB's U.S. Senator brother had an unremarkable American accent but WFB had this semi-English "Mid-Atlantic" accent. I always thought it was fake as Elizabeth Holmes' deep voice.

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 Месяц назад

      Buckley's voice was not just MA. He also had a Southern Drawl.

    • @protamine4
      @protamine4 Месяц назад

      @@ricardocantoral7672 Fake as hell, in other words.

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 Месяц назад

      ​@@protamine4 Why on Earth would he take it?

    • @protamine4
      @protamine4 Месяц назад

      @@ricardocantoral7672 I think it made him sound "intellectual," sort of a upper class British kind of accent mixed with an American one.

  • @peterrollinson-lorimer
    @peterrollinson-lorimer 8 месяцев назад +6

    Incomparable - or insufferable?

  • @PirateRadioPodcasts
    @PirateRadioPodcasts 7 месяцев назад +2

    LONG time "SKULL & BONES" puppet.

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 6 месяцев назад +2

      Puppet? He was probably President.

  • @hhhsss6076
    @hhhsss6076 3 месяца назад +1

    William f. Buckley was a fucking monster.

  • @unclehousy-leotardo
    @unclehousy-leotardo 5 месяцев назад

    The Birchers were right

  • @Castorp-wn7dh
    @Castorp-wn7dh 7 месяцев назад +3

    He lost most of his charisma and authority after firing line with Chomsky in 1969. At least, IMHO.

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 5 месяцев назад +1

      I don't think so. I saw the debate and Buckley lost but I think he still had his charm afterwords.

  • @Itubedude11
    @Itubedude11 7 месяцев назад +3

    Buckley was always seated because he had some of the worst posture of anyone born in the twentieth century. Also there's a direct ideological and political line from Buckley to Trump, as much as the "intellectual" or even "marginally literate" (an overlapping Venn diagram) line of Conservatives would like you to forget.

    • @CChampion-wc9vj
      @CChampion-wc9vj 7 месяцев назад

      That's tendentious nonsense ("...from Buckley to Trump") but it is surely the line we expect PBS to take; there is always an agenda in the programming insensible to liberals because they take for granted it's the unvarnished truth. Nevertheless we shall watch patiently if not painlessly.

    • @roughhabit9085
      @roughhabit9085 6 месяцев назад

      How can you have some posture?

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 5 месяцев назад +1

      That's funny because Buckley trashed Trump in an article he wrote in 2000. I also see more qualities of Vidal in Trump than Buckley.

  • @madshadows7083
    @madshadows7083 2 месяца назад

    William F. Buckley was a very talented and skilled bullshit artist.

  • @personalrep
    @personalrep 7 месяцев назад +1

    Not at all interested in this drivel.

    • @craigyirush3492
      @craigyirush3492 6 месяцев назад +6

      Why are you commenting then?

    • @ricardocantoral7672
      @ricardocantoral7672 5 месяцев назад

      Nobody cares.

    • @CaruthersHodge
      @CaruthersHodge 3 месяца назад

      @@ricardocantoral7672 I admit, Buckley himself can be drivel. But the haircuts alone may prove a possible diversion for you.
      But seriously, education can be fun.

  • @realworldhuman
    @realworldhuman 3 месяца назад

    Terrible human being

  • @JeffDoerr
    @JeffDoerr 2 месяца назад +1

    An idea of what the country should be like and then the country gets there? 😢So...we should thank him for helping to create the oligarchy corporatocracy that we now live in? Although extremely intelligent and entertaining, he was a cheerleader and spokesman for the wealthy elites and his antiprogressive policies were repugnant.