Same. After many years of high demand religion, he’s taught me how to truly critically think - this overlaps into politics also. He taught me the art think for one’s self and not being beholden to anyone or anything.
This is interesting to get a peek behind the scenes. Hitchens shows how seasoned he is in the media world by essentially “playing back” what he’d just said in a patient way and with an equally sincere, level delivery.
It’s remarkable watching him get interrupted and having to repeat the answer again. Fascinating insight into how these films are made and also really impressive the eloquence despite having to repeat
Hitchens had a way of making you want to listen to him speak no matter if you disagreed or not. Even if you were strongly against an opinion, he would make you disagree in the most appreciative way
I can relate to your post. There's so much that I disagree with what Hitchens professed, but I also don't think it's very wise for any other given person's objections to lend toward their own ignorance of his convictions and arguments, myself well included, because he can make such a compelling case of it. This may seem counter-productive from the observer's perspective of course, if I mean only by his delivery, but I may also venture to say that the objective should always remain an open end. In other words, with Hitchens especially, one would be foolish not to keep an open mind. He really challenges what you think you already knew was the (most) correct position to have--without an agenda nor anything to sell and gain from an audience willing to listen. The density of his knowledge, the wit, and the civility in such an intellectual powerhouse of a persona in Hitchrnd is (as far as I am aware of) far from matched in more recent times.
You put your finger on it with the word 'civility'. A quality increasingly rare on the net, but crucial if we're to learn from each other in a civilized debate.
Well of course, having already formulated a path to a particular thought destination, the second or third time of beating through the bush makes that path all the more clearer. I think you're assuming that the interruptions would frustrate him and thus confuse his thoughts, but the interruptions, as you've noted, only give him pause to consolidate his point, and imagine a better way of elucidating. I admit that I find most of what the man thought in his world view utterly reprehensible, but I keep going back to look at him in these videos because he was one of the most extemporaneously eloquent speakers of our age; beyond the fluidity, there seems to be a concern for elegance, symmetry and logic in his speech. I just hope his brother convinced him to recant at the end.
@@turquoise770 sibling rivalry more or less guaranteed that his brother would be everything that Hitch was not; pompous, intellectually cowardly, unoriginal, ill-informed, and in sum, a pathetic revisionist lackey of the establishment, with all the persuasive skills of a soggy meringue.
@@jameshitchins6577 Thanks James, always nice to know that someone enjoyed a comment (and that it's still there!). My favourite comment, What do the Beatles and the Hitchens brothers have in common? Dying in the wrong order.
It’s 2021 and I’m finding his point of view more illuminating and relevant than before. Looking back he got a few things wrong, but a shocking amount right. The dynamics of the last four years, like a gestalt, has also altered how I understand the subtext of his arguments, and why he hated the people he did.
I can’t say I agree to some of Hitchens’ early points about ‘consensus electoral politics’. Perhaps for 1996, when the world seemed increasingly uneventful, and you had academics like Fukuyama writing dramatically titled books like ‘The End of History’. However, after Trump (not exclusively) things seem to have become massively polarised and uncertain.
That I am quite happy to sit here and listen to this man discuss politics - something I have little interest in and even less engagement - for nearly an hour, is testament to his ability to communicate.
“It’s unclear to many people why they (third party movements) always fail - one reason they always fail is that we don’t yet have a second party” - literally gasped when he said this.
@@wade5941 Nope. Trump is definitely part of the same monoparty elite rule. Coninued almost all of the same old tired GOP policies, down to corporate tax cuts and Federalist Society judges. Even expanded the drone "war" murders beyond what Bush II and Obama were doing. Hitchens hated him then and would've hated him now.
@@kim86gurl I disagree. So, is Biden's policies (domestic and foreign) better than Trumps were? If so, how so? We know that Biden is doing everything he can to drag us into the Ukraine conflict. The "bombs and guns" corporate world sure loves Biden and the dems. Do you have a name of an individual who is not part of the same monoparty elite rule?
@@wade5941I notice you shifted the goalposts rather significantly when challenged there. Of course Biden is part of the same monoparty elite. No sane person would disagree. However, Trump was too, as was Obama.
I’d listen to this man read the dictionary. The way he speaks is something that’s really lost from British society nowadays. English often can be a blunt and harsh language but it can be beautiful if spoken by the right person! The way he can rephrase his answers on the fly but still make a fantastic point is a real skill!
@@ParkerBG it can be an ugly language, most can! I come from the north of England, it’s blunt, it’s hard to explain what that means if you don’t know it! But when spoken with such a vast vocabulary it can be come a beautiful language!
I am utterly amazed by how quickly he adapts to the questions he is asked, modeling the answers like so much clay to fit their specific need. Makes me deeply wish to know what he really thought.
Hitchens is flexible and not adverse to changing his view based on new evidence. if you want to see real malleability look at the religious modeling of god in the image of the need of the moment.
It should be remarkable that this nearly 30 year old interview has so much to say about 2024. But maybe modern American politics has changed very little except that the possibility of armed conflict in respoinse to the election result seems far greater now.
Given Hitchen's comments (starting at around 38:00 or so) about (a) the beauty of politics being that anyone can have a go, and (b) how despite this the game is extremely rigged, and you don't see how rigged until you try to get into it, how he would have reacted both to Trump and to AOC, both of whom were outsiders in very different ways.
We need Christopher Hitchens right now in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It's September 2024 right now and the world needs a very sensible and intelligent man like Christopher Hitchens. There are no clever people in politics... Hitch, where are you...
Towards the beginning he talks about how elections are fruitless. This was by design: the democratic system was born in Ancient Athens. The senate at the time was composed of the Democrats and the Aristocrats. When it was being decided how it should be decided the power is shared, the idea of elections actually came from the Aristocrats. Why? Because the Aristocrats were priviledged and educed enough to know the art of oracy, rhetoric and propaganda. Not necessarily the art of leading, just the art of getting into power. The Democrats of Ancient Athens proposed a wholly different system: Appointment of Power via lottery - randomly chosen members of the public taking official status in government. So, it could be argued that elections were born at their core to be anti-democratic and ensure that the priviledged few would be able to affect no change to the status quo. If I am wrong in any of this, please someone let me know.
Considering half of the population is of “below average intelligence” if a lottery was used, then half of out politicians would be as well. That’s not the Democratic Party I know, at least 90% are below average intelligence lol I’m kidding of course. Although I understand how the ancients reached their conclusions, the founding fathers here wanted to divide power to keep any one person or branch from having too much power. They believed power corrupts and that men are inherently wicked. They wanted to avoid corruption and to ensure certain right to prevent the government from becoming tyrannical and turning on the people. At the same time, they were incredibly anti “mob rule” and early on, put restriction in place to limit who could vote. Land owners only for example. Women didn’t want the right to vote because voting meant you also had to take part in the community, fight fires, fight wars and so on. Back then this was unthinkable. They knew some people would be better participating in government than others and I think considering the constitution is the oldest constitution in use today, they did a pretty good job!
That Winston Churchill quote at 15:10 has unfortunately and frighteningly not aged well. It has turned out to be far more fragile than we had imagined. The statement about the ignorance and gullibility of the electorate immediately following it was dead on, though.
I don’t see why Americans: 1. have a low voter turnout 2. vote for a third party option especially if they are so sick of the current system. If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain. If you vote for corrupt politicians, then as George Orwell said ‘you are not a victim, you are an accomplice’, irregardless of your ideological beliefs
Watching this, I'm convinced he explains the low engagement as a deliberate outcome of the system's design and its participant's motive. If there was more engagement, the thing wouldn't "work" like we see it/us behaving now.
How things have changed. It will be a surprise to me if the next Presidential transition takes place without a shot being fired. And how much Hitchen's commentary on American politics is now missed.
We miss you Hitch but you live on …. In Iran they have a saying….. ‘ jayetoon Kheili khali ast’ meaning your place is empty …. As in , no one can fill it . 🖤
If only he could have stayed alive to comment on the last 5 years of ignorance and disappointment, not to mention a pandemic that was ignored by the government until enough poor and disadvantaged were dead before taking any action. But I'm sorry I do go on...
Not to mention it's use of lockdowns to close countless small businesses and help large corporations. Or the massive inflation that is making goods more expensive for working class Americans
I've never seen an interviewer try to keep someone from saying something as hard as this interviewer. Hitch is the best. This interview is cringeworthy by any standard.
I know I am not going to live forever and neither are you… but until my furlough here on earth is revoked, I’d like to elbow aside the established pieties and raise my tumbler of JWB 🥃 above my head in honor of the brilliant intellect, charm, verbatim and wisdom of a man that has made a lasting positive impression in my life. Oh, Christopher you gorgeous bastard! you are sorely missed.
Quite likely the Hitch had been up late and had a few beverages the night before this but he always pays great attention to the interviewer however small and answers everything eloquently.
Our politicians should be required to take a course on American Leadership and Management because, for instance our politicians don't seem to know the difference between the concept of the Republican and Democrat Managerial Style (appropriately applied) and a Republican and Democrat political Parties.
Australia has the best electoral system in the world. Every vote counts. There is none of this first past the post nonsense. Voting is compulsory. We have a fair and balanced society. We have good, sensible, and realistic gun laws. We have a cradle to the grave medical system. Our retention rates in our schools is highest in the world and we have Aussie Rules the greatest sport in the world.
I salute you. Not bad mate. Just shows a penal colony usurps the other so-called decent folks!!! I just worry about y'all letting China own too many of your mines. Be careful.
About many voters and their ability to be manipulated is just as true today in the era of Trump as the time Christopher talked about voters in 1996. Amazing. I miss the Hitch!
Oof, this comment aged about as well as a gallon of milk over the 4 years since you commented... in the era of Biden/Fetterman sociopathic voters, you couldn’t have personified yourself as one of those manipulated people any better lmao.
I hate the "politics is division by definition" comment. Yes, the NEED for politics is driven by division. We are a diverse people and will not agree on everything, ever. So we have to have a process for resolving those disagreements. But a HEALTHY political process should not be about one "side" utterly defeating the other, on all fronts. It should be a give and take via which we arrive at a set of COMPROMISE positions that everyone can find at least acceptable. Or almost everyone - you never achieve perfection and there will always be some "bitter players" when the dust all settles. But we just try to do the best we can. I say this, but I feel that we in America have somewhat lost this art in the last few decades, and these days it DOES seem like the goal of both sides is to completely and forever defeat the other side. No one every talks "compromise" any more. Day to day politics is treated with the same sort of "we must win at all costs" mentality that I historically associated with opposing the Soviet Union and actual ENEMIES. The political camps on both sides seem to bring this mentality to their interactions, and that seems terribly unhealthy to me.
I met a few Southern Hitch snobs when I lived in England for 59 years. He says he can't abide people from Yorkshire (like me), and that stuff undermines his race/stereotyping stance... Yes gifted like the others that I know, but badly flawed ? Certainly... I forgive the others, and him. Nobody is perfect (present company excepted)... So here is to my wife's husband, and not forgetting myself...
@Zeppo Deboo You wouldn't be one to stereotype the 5 million inhabitants of Yorkshire/Humberside would you ? You have all the qualities necessary to make a great bigot whether the targets are Yorkshire people or non whites or gays etc etc etc... Bundle em all together and abuse em online from your rented safe space
Ha ha don't you understand his tongue in cheek British humour, l don't like people from Yorkshire 😂😂, it's like Borat taking the piss out of people from Kazakhstan 😅😅
@@johncarroll772 Wrong. As I was born in England and lived there for 59 years, you have some dullness to say I don't understand British humour... Hitchens is a southern snob and he means his ethnic insults.. ruclips.net/video/f6U-JFWeSsI/видео.html
"Without a shot being fired". If only we didn't have such a false sense of security, we may have expected more, set the bar a little higher. Cris is gone too soon from us.
Politics is not by definition division. For why? Indeed how could one suppose this finest of writers has it somewhat wrong? Apart from his former and evolving politics, there is compromise and those things which we share and mutually value. But that is not enough. Politics is our collective business. Looking over the government tax revenues and managed expenditure 1945-today tell me when there is a change in government, and which party is in power, for a double win! I bet you a Christopher Hitchens video and book you get it wrong even if you know the dates.
I would be equally interested in what he might have to say about the Dems knee-capping Bernie Sanders and AOC. She (AOC) recently revealed that she was almost ready to pack it in because of the incessant hostility from her own party.
I don’t think he cares for the man but I believe he would have appreciated what Trump represents with regard to politics; the confrontation of mainstream media and the corruption of US politics.
@@davidporter671 Trump is the epitome of corruption in politics. He was formerly the epitome of corruption in commercial real estate. Trump has never had a problem with the MSM until they began to cover his awful behaviour. As for Hitchens, upon encountering your comment, he might have said "I've never read such concentrated nonsense".
@@Alsatiagent He wasn't corrupt. He took advantage of loopholes set forth by lawmakers. Everything was done legally. You have a problem with the laws, not him.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
It's always a golden day to find an old Hitch video
My thoughts exactly. Need to hear him more these days....💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
My thoughts precisely💔💔💔💔
TRULY!
It really is
😉
Thanks, Hitch, you've supplied me with endless hours of mentoring and engagement. Often in the darkest hours. Thank you.
Same.
Ditto
Me three.
@@Samn3212 love joining those who loved him💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
Same. After many years of high demand religion, he’s taught me how to truly critically think - this overlaps into politics also. He taught me the art think for one’s self and not being beholden to anyone or anything.
This is interesting to get a peek behind the scenes. Hitchens shows how seasoned he is in the media world by essentially “playing back” what he’d just said in a patient way and with an equally sincere, level delivery.
Anyone who holds Christopher Hitchens in high esteem is my kinda person. Another superb video of the great man. Cheers for sharing this.
An unedited, high definition interview with a young Hitch - what more could you want?
Here's your 800th like
For him to still be here.
He’s 47 here. Great head of hair for his age.
@@theesotericcunt5029And a handsome man as well, but I’m just enamored with his way of thinking, oratory, accent and beautiful voice.
I crushed his arguments.
It’s remarkable watching him get interrupted and having to repeat the answer again. Fascinating insight into how these films are made and also really impressive the eloquence despite having to repeat
I don't think I've ever heard anyone so articulate being interviewed.
He was a nasty pr**k
Hitch in the 90s. Always worth my time. Great upload and thanks.
Hitchens had a way of making you want to listen to him speak no matter if you disagreed or not. Even if you were strongly against an opinion, he would make you disagree in the most appreciative way
I can relate to your post.
There's so much that I disagree with what Hitchens professed, but I also don't think it's very wise for any other given person's objections to lend toward their own ignorance of his convictions and arguments, myself well included, because he can make such a compelling case of it. This may seem counter-productive from the observer's perspective of course, if I mean only by his delivery, but I may also venture to say that the objective should always remain an open end. In other words, with Hitchens especially, one would be foolish not to keep an open mind.
He really challenges what you think you already knew was the (most) correct position to have--without an agenda nor anything to sell and gain from an audience willing to listen.
The density of his knowledge, the wit, and the civility in such an intellectual powerhouse of a persona in Hitchrnd is (as far as I am aware of) far from matched in more recent times.
You put your finger on it with the word 'civility'. A quality increasingly rare on the net, but crucial if we're to learn from each other in a civilized debate.
What a fantastic interview, and to see him interact with his children. Hitch is missed
Great upload btw, rare to see an unedited interview with Hitch.
Remarkable that every time he has to repeat himself, his answers just get better.
Well of course, having already formulated a path to a particular thought destination, the second or third time of beating through the bush makes that path all the more clearer. I think you're assuming that the interruptions would frustrate him and thus confuse his thoughts, but the interruptions, as you've noted, only give him pause to consolidate his point, and imagine a better way of elucidating. I admit that I find most of what the man thought in his world view utterly reprehensible, but I keep going back to look at him in these videos because he was one of the most extemporaneously eloquent speakers of our age; beyond the fluidity, there seems to be a concern for elegance, symmetry and logic in his speech. I just hope his brother convinced him to recant at the end.
@@turquoise770 sibling rivalry more or less guaranteed that his brother would be everything that Hitch was not; pompous, intellectually cowardly, unoriginal, ill-informed, and in sum, a pathetic revisionist lackey of the establishment, with all the persuasive skills of a soggy meringue.
@@jameshitchins6577 Thanks James, always nice to know that someone enjoyed a comment (and that it's still there!).
My favourite comment, What do the Beatles and the Hitchens brothers have in common? Dying in the wrong order.
@@turquoise770 Hitch was eloquent, but succinct.
I was thinking that myself. Was in a meeting today, struggling to bring my points to the front of my mind. His power of recall is quite something.
Thank you very much for sharing this. Thought I had seen everything out there with Hitch. I was wrong.
I'm finding it harder and harder to find unseen Hitch vids. His son, Alexander is now starting to show up. Is now a freshly minted PHD!
Priceless conversation here...thank you so much!
It’s 2021 and I’m finding his point of view more illuminating and relevant than before. Looking back he got a few things wrong, but a shocking amount right. The dynamics of the last four years, like a gestalt, has also altered how I understand the subtext of his arguments, and why he hated the people he did.
I can’t say I agree to some of Hitchens’ early points about ‘consensus electoral politics’. Perhaps for 1996, when the world seemed increasingly uneventful, and you had academics like Fukuyama writing dramatically titled books like ‘The End of History’. However, after Trump (not exclusively) things seem to have become massively polarised and uncertain.
@@joshuawaring4180I think Hitch is arguing that or even warning us that the polarization is superficial or manufactured.
That I am quite happy to sit here and listen to this man discuss politics - something I have little interest in and even less engagement - for nearly an hour, is testament to his ability to communicate.
"Politics is division by definition"
This is insightful and lucid
yes, the politics of consensus. How terribly important to understand this observation.
“It’s unclear to many people why they (third party movements) always fail - one reason they always fail is that we don’t yet have a second party” - literally gasped when he said this.
Until Trump came along. I realized he was/is the third party when both side tried to take him out.
@@wade5941 Nope. Trump is definitely part of the same monoparty elite rule. Coninued almost all of the same old tired GOP policies, down to corporate tax cuts and Federalist Society judges. Even expanded the drone "war" murders beyond what Bush II and Obama were doing. Hitchens hated him then and would've hated him now.
@@kim86gurl I disagree. So, is Biden's policies (domestic and foreign) better than Trumps were? If so, how so? We know that Biden is doing everything he can to drag us into the Ukraine conflict. The "bombs and guns" corporate world sure loves Biden and the dems. Do you have a name of an individual who is not part of the same monoparty elite rule?
@@wade5941I notice you shifted the goalposts rather significantly when challenged there. Of course Biden is part of the same monoparty elite. No sane person would disagree. However, Trump was too, as was Obama.
@@wade5941Still just a vulgar Republican
Impeccable memory.
...while half-cut!
@P H exactly, unbelievable how he could function while being constantly pissed 😳
I’d listen to this man read the dictionary. The way he speaks is something that’s really lost from British society nowadays. English often can be a blunt and harsh language but it can be beautiful if spoken by the right person!
The way he can rephrase his answers on the fly but still make a fantastic point is a real skill!
Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by English being a “blunt and harsh language”?
@@ParkerBG it can be an ugly language, most can! I come from the north of England, it’s blunt, it’s hard to explain what that means if you don’t know it! But when spoken with such a vast vocabulary it can be come a beautiful language!
I wonder if his daughter watches this now laughing her ass off knowing it was her that made this take twice as long as it should have
So much gold in here. Phenomenal!!
Seeing him interact with his daughter is really fun
When did he interact with his daughter?
Dawn Broker 33:55
Thanks for the video.
Miss the Hitch.
I am utterly amazed by how quickly he adapts to the questions he is asked, modeling the answers like so much clay to fit their specific need. Makes me deeply wish to know what he really thought.
Hitchens is flexible and not adverse to changing his view based on new evidence. if you want to see real malleability look at the religious modeling of god in the image of the need of the moment.
Miss this man😢
It should be remarkable that this nearly 30 year old interview has so much to say about 2024. But maybe modern American politics has changed very little except that the possibility of armed conflict in respoinse to the election result seems far greater now.
I will always love Hitchens ❤
He didn't smoke or drink once. I wish he'd kept to it. We need him more than ever. :(
He'd still be around if would've "been quiet".... Thank you Christopher, for teaching us So Much.
It's great to see the process of getting what's in there out there.
10 years today, a sad day
Given Hitchen's comments (starting at around 38:00 or so) about (a) the beauty of politics being that anyone can have a go, and (b) how despite this the game is extremely rigged, and you don't see how rigged until you try to get into it, how he would have reacted both to Trump and to AOC, both of whom were outsiders in very different ways.
Trump still way more of an insider, and way more connected to powerful politicans over his lifetime, than AOC ever was or will be.
Trump is more outside than AOC, Hitch made his comments about a Trump like character getting involved in politics, the whiff of Fascism, so correct.
We need Christopher Hitchens right now in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It's September 2024 right now and the world needs a very sensible and intelligent man like Christopher Hitchens.
There are no clever people in politics... Hitch, where are you...
Great interview thanks
lol - Cook county Illinois mentioned at 19:00
Of late, I have been binge-watching Mr. Hitchens, and to a lesser degree, Mr. Buckly, and am undoubtedly smarter for it.
"We've given you an election, the least you can do is vote in it."
It pains me to watch him take such long drags off of the thing which he so lovingly termed "the little glowing friend that never lets you down."
Serves him right. You want to live a life of hedonism and bad health, fine. Don't be surprised by the early expiration date.
What a strange and petty comment.
How is it petty?
I was talking to David. His remark was tediously obvious and spiteful.
Hitchens' father had esophageal cancer, it was genetic. Cigarettes perhaps just precipitated its onset.
Towards the beginning he talks about how elections are fruitless. This was by design: the democratic system was born in Ancient Athens. The senate at the time was composed of the Democrats and the Aristocrats. When it was being decided how it should be decided the power is shared, the idea of elections actually came from the Aristocrats.
Why? Because the Aristocrats were priviledged and educed enough to know the art of oracy, rhetoric and propaganda. Not necessarily the art of leading, just the art of getting into power. The Democrats of Ancient Athens proposed a wholly different system: Appointment of Power via lottery - randomly chosen members of the public taking official status in government.
So, it could be argued that elections were born at their core to be anti-democratic and ensure that the priviledged few would be able to affect no change to the status quo.
If I am wrong in any of this, please someone let me know.
Mango ok buddy.
Considering half of the population is of “below average intelligence” if a lottery was used, then half of out politicians would be as well. That’s not the Democratic Party I know, at least 90% are below average intelligence lol I’m kidding of course.
Although I understand how the ancients reached their conclusions, the founding fathers here wanted to divide power to keep any one person or branch from having too much power. They believed power corrupts and that men are inherently wicked. They wanted to avoid corruption and to ensure certain right to prevent the government from becoming tyrannical and turning on the people.
At the same time, they were incredibly anti “mob rule” and early on, put restriction in place to limit who could vote. Land owners only for example. Women didn’t want the right to vote because voting meant you also had to take part in the community, fight fires, fight wars and so on. Back then this was unthinkable. They knew some people would be better participating in government than others and I think considering the constitution
is the oldest constitution in use today, they did a pretty good job!
The British electorate rejected Churchill after the 2nd World War, so elections do matter.
That Winston Churchill quote at 15:10 has unfortunately and frighteningly not aged well. It has turned out to be far more fragile than we had imagined. The statement about the ignorance and gullibility of the electorate immediately following it was dead on, though.
I don’t see why Americans:
1. have a low voter turnout
2. vote for a third party option
especially if they are so sick of the current system. If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain. If you vote for corrupt politicians, then as George Orwell said ‘you are not a victim, you are an accomplice’, irregardless of your ideological beliefs
Watching this, I'm convinced he explains the low engagement as a deliberate outcome of the system's design and its participant's motive. If there was more engagement, the thing wouldn't "work" like we see it/us behaving now.
How things have changed. It will be a surprise to me if the next Presidential transition takes place without a shot being fired. And how much Hitchen's commentary on American politics is now missed.
In the mid-90s Hitch was saying the House and the Senate are about trying to find consensus. It certainly isn't like that 25 years later.
So hurtful to have him taken away from us. This man should have had his brain removed and be made to live on like in Red Dwarf.
Excellent. Thank you.
53:53 Why Hitch never opened his mouth when he smiled.
It’s all the cigarettes.
His early days his teeth were bad, he got new teeth in America
2:20 When Hitchens echoed Chomsky's political theory.
Paraphrase of a standout quote: A third party? It hardly could be said there are two....
What did Chomsky say? "two factions of the same business elite".
Hitch love this man ❤😊
26:45 excellent
In the first minute and a half he says the purpose of political theater is to create consensus. Sounds just like 2020
thank you!
my god he's good looking !
But not TOO good looking - god, that mind AND great looking?! That would have been insufferable. :P
Don't forget about the voice
Lol, long night!!
Better looking than his brother
My God I miss Christopher Hitchens. (Irony intended.)
Sorely missed in this era
I yearn for the days when san Francisco had a "pleasant" local politics.
Right, it’s corrupt af and the pay-to-play aspect of it is terrible.
We miss you Hitch but you live on …. In Iran they have a saying….. ‘ jayetoon Kheili khali ast’ meaning your place is empty …. As in , no one can fill it . 🖤
If only he could have stayed alive to comment on the last 5 years of ignorance and disappointment, not to mention a pandemic that was ignored by the government until enough poor and disadvantaged were dead before taking any action. But I'm sorry I do go on...
Not to mention it's use of lockdowns to close countless small businesses and help large corporations.
Or the massive inflation that is making goods more expensive for working class Americans
@@Intelwinsbigly yeah money is more important than human lives , God bless America
@@johncarroll772 yes, it genuinely is, cry harder.
@@Intelwinsbigly 😭😭😭😭
looks hungover as shit. no problem though. legend.
he was a pretty heavy drinker most of his life
He had a glass of filled Johnny walker on his table
The interviewer is a lightweight. Hitch recognizes immediately. Still fun to get him talking. I miss him.
I've never seen an interviewer try to keep someone from saying something as hard as this interviewer. Hitch is the best. This interview is cringeworthy by any standard.
38:50 Question: Should they stay home or should they go out and foment a revolution? Hitchens: The later, obviously.
I know I am not going to live forever and neither are you… but until my furlough here on earth is revoked, I’d like to elbow aside the established pieties and raise my tumbler of JWB 🥃 above my head in honor of the brilliant intellect, charm, verbatim and wisdom of a man that has made a lasting positive impression in my life.
Oh, Christopher you gorgeous bastard! you are sorely missed.
A shame that Chris couldn't ignore background noises only he could hear.
Christopher*
@@stonehouseguitars3869 Only because it's his name. :)
He hated being referred as Chris
Hitch looks like he is just coming off a bender; yet still he can clearly elucidate the phenomenon of American politics in crispy tight sentences
Sound is too low!!
the point of political junkies is of course prescient
Thank you so much for this interview. Where did you acquire this?
Quite likely the Hitch had been up late and had a few beverages the night before this but he always pays great attention to the interviewer however small and answers everything eloquently.
I just stated listening to his biography Hitch 22 . He didn’t like any sport . It shocked me.
Cricket?
He preferred to spend his time reading books on many different subjects. And his little free time with his wife Carol Blue and his kids.
He didn't like sport because he was useless at it
Our politicians should be required to take a course on
American Leadership and Management because, for instance our politicians don't seem to know the difference between the concept of the Republican and Democrat Managerial Style (appropriately applied) and a Republican and Democrat political Parties.
it's nice to think.....
I'd never seen this and I found it endearing how upset he got at the background noise
The early remarks about consensus aren't true anymore are they?
Certainly not, and it’s hard to argue we’re better off
Australia has the best electoral system in the world. Every vote counts. There is none of this first past the post nonsense. Voting is compulsory. We have a fair and balanced society. We have good, sensible, and realistic gun laws. We have a cradle to the grave medical system. Our retention rates in our schools is highest in the world and we have Aussie Rules the greatest sport in the world.
I salute you. Not bad mate. Just shows a penal colony usurps the other so-called decent folks!!! I just worry about y'all letting China own too many of your mines. Be careful.
The greatest sport in the world is football, and God bless Ange Postecogluo, Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona
We are pretty good. Regardless, the country is ignorant towards politics.
If he was still alive he would definitely moved back to England seeing the state of government in America
Absolutely correct 👍 especially in the last two and a half years.
Boris Johnson Tory government 😢
Hitch looks ready for a glass of scotch
When does Christopher not look ready for a glass of scotch?
His filled glass of Johnny is on his table
About many voters and their ability to be manipulated is just as true today in the era of Trump as the time Christopher talked about voters in 1996. Amazing. I miss the Hitch!
In the era of *radical left tyrants* is the typo you made.
@@yosuh3895 Hitchens was a radical leftist you twit.
@Kwantum Kristofferson My point exactly... but that went mach speed over your head apparently. Very angry twit aren’t ya?
Oof, this comment aged about as well as a gallon of milk over the 4 years since you commented... in the era of Biden/Fetterman sociopathic voters, you couldn’t have personified yourself as one of those manipulated people any better lmao.
@@yosuh3895 💯 x a million in agreement with that sentiment.
I hate the "politics is division by definition" comment. Yes, the NEED for politics is driven by division. We are a diverse people and will not agree on everything, ever. So we have to have a process for resolving those disagreements. But a HEALTHY political process should not be about one "side" utterly defeating the other, on all fronts. It should be a give and take via which we arrive at a set of COMPROMISE positions that everyone can find at least acceptable. Or almost everyone - you never achieve perfection and there will always be some "bitter players" when the dust all settles. But we just try to do the best we can.
I say this, but I feel that we in America have somewhat lost this art in the last few decades, and these days it DOES seem like the goal of both sides is to completely and forever defeat the other side. No one every talks "compromise" any more. Day to day politics is treated with the same sort of "we must win at all costs" mentality that I historically associated with opposing the Soviet Union and actual ENEMIES. The political camps on both sides seem to bring this mentality to their interactions, and that seems terribly unhealthy to me.
36:01 "ah fuck" lmao
“ah fuck!….darling!
I met a few Southern Hitch snobs when I lived in England for 59 years. He says he can't abide people from Yorkshire (like me), and that stuff undermines his race/stereotyping stance... Yes gifted like the others that I know, but badly flawed ? Certainly... I forgive the others, and him. Nobody is perfect (present company excepted)... So here is to my wife's husband, and not forgetting myself...
Wtf are you trying to say dude?
@Zeppo Deboo You wouldn't be one to stereotype the 5 million inhabitants of Yorkshire/Humberside would you ? You have all the qualities necessary to make a great bigot whether the targets are Yorkshire people or non whites or gays etc etc etc... Bundle em all together and abuse em online from your rented safe space
Ha ha don't you understand his tongue in cheek British humour, l don't like people from Yorkshire 😂😂, it's like Borat taking the piss out of people from Kazakhstan 😅😅
@@johncarroll772 Wrong. As I was born in England and lived there for 59 years, you have some dullness to say I don't understand British humour... Hitchens is a southern snob and he means his ethnic insults.. ruclips.net/video/f6U-JFWeSsI/видео.html
Wife's husband? What are you?
15:40 22:45 25:58
"Oh fuck... darling?"
The censorship is abysmal.
"Without a shot being fired". If only we didn't have such a false sense of security, we may have expected more, set the bar a little higher. Cris is gone too soon from us.
I miss the Hitch of
I'm glad he got his teeth fixed later in life.
Why the fuck would they tell him to start over a whole sentence after coughing. That is just absolutely fucking insufferable
I wholeheartedly agree, the interviewer is an amateur, perhaps half of the things Hitch said went over his head as well.
The word Sisyphean comes to mind. Still very interesting.
looks like Hitch had a late night!
36:00 lol
That first part about division is no longer true
Hitch looks like he had a hellava night
Your a great worker, whyd they fire ya?
For earning a vacation.
Politics is not by definition division. For why? Indeed how could one suppose this finest of writers has it somewhat wrong? Apart from his former and evolving politics, there is compromise and those things which we share and mutually value. But that is not enough. Politics is our collective business. Looking over the government tax revenues and managed expenditure 1945-today tell me when there is a change in government, and which party is in power, for a double win! I bet you a Christopher Hitchens video and book you get it wrong even if you know the dates.
what would he say about Donald Trump? Probably would of immigrated back to the UK. RIP CH
I would be equally interested in what he might have to say about the Dems knee-capping Bernie Sanders and AOC. She (AOC) recently revealed that she was almost ready to pack it in because of the incessant hostility from her own party.
I don’t think he cares for the man but I believe he would have appreciated what Trump represents with regard to politics; the confrontation of mainstream media and the corruption of US politics.
@@davidporter671 Trump is the epitome of corruption in politics. He was formerly the epitome of corruption in commercial real estate. Trump has never had a problem with the MSM until they began to cover his awful behaviour. As for Hitchens, upon encountering your comment, he might have said "I've never read such concentrated nonsense".
@@Alsatiagent He wasn't corrupt. He took advantage of loopholes set forth by lawmakers. Everything was done legally. You have a problem with the laws, not him.
@Greg Brown thats exactly true of trump
I hope those guys hate cigarette smoke!
Brilliant man. Shame he's long gone. Couldve really used his unique insights & turn of phrase to counteract last 12yrs of wokism
We could use him today. What would he say? Trump, Jan 6th, Covid, Brexit.