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Christopher Hitchens diagnosed with cancer

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This may be old news, but I don't see a thread going around here.

AC360: Christopher Hitchens Talks Cancer and God

Hitchens discussed his diagnosis with Anderson Cooper on CNN. He told Cooper that the long-term prognosis is far from positive and that when you use cigarettes and alcohol, which he has used heavily, you "make yourself a candidate" for the disease. He also says not to credit any reports that he repented with God. Speaking with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, Hitchens stated that he would be a "very lucky person" to live another five years.

I was really shocked to see him looking like this. If he actually dies of cancer, which unfortunately seems very likely, it's going to be a very sad day, to me at least.

Edited by 0096 2251 2110 8105
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This is older news. Hitchens may be a leftist but he seems to be a decent guy and he has done a lot qua atheism. I hope he beats this thing and come out stronger and healthier than he ever has been.

I wouldn't describe Hitchens as a leftist. Rather he's a strange mix of neoconservatism, Trotskyism, and libertarianism. His views definitely span the left-right spectrum.

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I hope Chris can beat this. I like the guy. The world would be a sadder place without him. :(

If any religious idiot says this is punishment from God, I swear I'll punch them.

No, rather tell them that their God 'called him early', just so He could have someone intelligent to talk to, for a change.

(Then punch them.)

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HItchens at first appears to defy political classification. But from what I've seen he is indistinguishable from a leftist except for one key issue and its consequents--unlike most lefties he understands and insists on confronting the danger posed by radical (i.e., most) Islam. This in turn leads to critiquing the sort of mindless multiculturalist "tolerance" shown by the left, and also (unfortunately) led him to support the Iraq war, fought for neoconservative reasons and by neoconservative strategy. Since the Iraq war was the issue for many years for the lefties, and multiculturalism still is a huge issue, it tends to make him look like he might not be anything in particular, if one looks at a laundry list of issues and asks "which side does Hitchens fall on?"

I'd argue that in reality Hitchens' position on this is more in line with old-school leftism than the current "mainstream" left is. The left used to believe its ideology was the natural culmination of Western tradition and a logical consequence of the rejection of theocracy that was part of the Enlightenment; they believed in fact that they were the heirs to the Enlightenment. (Before you start arguing with me--I am describing what they think, not what I think.) As such the old left would vehemently reject the Islamists as allies for the Islamists would impose another intolerant theocracy as bad if not worse than what Europe had before the Enlightenment--and this is utterly consistent with Hitchens today. The newer left simply suffers from an almost reflexive anti-Americanism or more broadly an anti-Western-Civilizationism to the point where they lose sight of the fact that what the Islamists offer is everything they claim to see in and hate about America (except the capitalism)--the bigotry against gays and women, the racism, the intolerance of atheism, etc., etc., etc. only far, far worse. (The new left is preoccupied with these sorts of things, more so than over the whole socialism vs. capitalism thing. They shrilly condemn the Tea Party not for capitalism but for (alleged) racism, homophobia, etc. The worst thing you can be to a new leftist is "intolerant", the worst to the older school would be "capitalist".) So although Hitchens agrees with the new left on the evils of "intolerance," it does not (to him) translate into simple hatred of western civilization, to the point where he would ally with truly "intolerant" non-Westerners against the West. Or to put it another way, to Hitchens the value-neutrality (subjectivism) of leftism doesn't extend to tolerating the intolerant, and he is consistent about this. The rest of the left will give a pass to intolerant people who are anti-Western.

So to sum it up, I consider Hitchens a leftist, through and through--but one who hasn't gone completely off the rails, following the locomotive of subjectivist multiculturalism. As such I've referred to him as my "favorite" leftist (not that that is saying much).

It might seem to some that he is a natural candidate to become an Objectivist but I understand (haven't seen for myself) that he has explicitly rejected O-ism, and this is in fact consistent with his core (old school) leftism.

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I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember his general response to a question about why Sean Penn and other celebrities seem so enamored of Hugo Chavez. His response was something to the effect of "Some people just can't accept that there really is no viable alternative to free market capitalism." Unless I've grossly misremembered something, I'd say that rules out placing him firmly on the left.

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I hope that he gets over the illness as well. If I remember right, in "god is not Great," he establishes himself firmly on the left. Additionally, he identifies his prior extreme socialist ideas as being akin to the religious ideas he spent most of the book attacking.

Edited by RussK
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I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember his general response to a question about why Sean Penn and other celebrities seem so enamored of Hugo Chavez. His response was something to the effect of "Some people just can't accept that there really is no viable alternative to free market capitalism." Unless I've grossly misremembered something, I'd say that rules out placing him firmly on the left.

Here is a pointer to the quote. (I refuse to register with the New York Times (that paragon of objective journalism) in order to read the original.) It certainly looks suggestive that he may have rejected socialism, but I'd want to read it in context to be certain.

http://gayandright.blogspot.com/2009/01/hitchens-on-sean-penn.html

Certainly surprises the hell out of me. I have to consider the possibility that he is an ex-leftist (he was certainly a leftist at some time in the past).

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He was definitely a leftist. His memoir, Hitch 22, is his way of taking you along his intellectual journey. I had trouble following parts of it, because my own knowledge of 20th century history is pretty lacking, but the man has traveled everywhere on earth and personally met with dictators from Libya to Argentina. He describes his gradual disenchantment with the left, culminating in the left's response to 9/11.

I think he is still generally left-leaning on economic issues. He endorsed Obama and seems to support a "regulated capitalism," much like our own Democrats...and, let's face it, America's Democrats are really just center-left, and not true leftists. Whatever bank regulations and "safety net" programs (like social security) he supports, he doesn't seem to be a fan of nationalizing private enterprise or introducing formal wealth redistribution programs.

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  • 1 month later...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeuLDRwfOhs

Hitchens gives an interview, explaining his cancer has worsened and it's in stage 4, which Christopher remarks "The worst thing about stage 4 is that there is no stage 5.".

It's pretty painful to watch. Hitchens is one of my personal heroes, despite our many disagreements. THis was very hard to watch.

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