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Hitchens vs. Binswanger and Ridpath on Socialism Debate

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While reading an old topic here today I ran across a comment mentioning a debate between Christopher Hitches and Harry Binswanger partnered with John Ridpath on the issue of Socialism. I googled around and checked the ARB website. Here's all I came up with.

There was a mention of the debate in an '05 issue of TIA Daily which seems to date the debate to the late 1980's.

On the other side, former leftist Christopher Hitchens makes a terrific argument, presented in a more disciplined and hence more eloquent style than normal. His reference to Ayn Rand in this article is amusing, since I first became aware of Hitchens in the late 1980s--before his September 11 conversion to the right--when he defended socialism in a debate against Objectivists Harry Binswanger and John Ridpath. (TIADaily.com, 05/05/05.)

And then this google groups discussion mentioned the debate. And someone mentions being interested in finding out more about it, but that ARB wasn't aware of it and didn't have it.

I e-mailed both the ARB and Dr. Binswanger about it, but I'll have to wait for their response.

ARB does offer two debates on the subject of Socialism featuring Binswanger or John Ridpath. And so I'm left wondering was this a real event or was it just someone's mistaken misremembering? Does anyone happen to have any info about this debate? It seems like it would be extremely interesting and as relevant as ever.

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You should private message the user 'Gags.' He was the president of the Objectivist club that hosted the debate. Actually, I'm pretty sure we have a copy of it on video at home (I'm his son), but it's from C-SPAN so I don't know about the legality of releasing it/giving it away. Plus my dad had a John Stossel-esque mustache when he was in college which makes the debate so much more fun to watch.

Edited by eficazpensador
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You should private message the user 'Gags.' He was the president of the Objectivist club that hosted the debate. Actually, I'm pretty sure we have a copy of it on video at home (I'm his son), but it's from C-SPAN so I don't know about the legality of releasing it/giving it away. Plus my dad had a John Stossel-esque mustache when he was in college which makes the debate so much more fun to watch.

Ah, cool :rolleyes: Done and done. If the rights belong to C-SPAN maybe that explains why ARB doesn't have it and it's not posted anywhere else. I'd hope there would be some way to open it up for purchase or viewing. Or at least a transcript.

Btw Stossel staches are coming back into vogue, I can feel it.

Edited by IchorFigure
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Ah, cool :) Done and done. If the rights belong to C-SPAN maybe that explains why ARB doesn't have it and it's not posted anywhere else. I'd hope there would be some way to open it up for purchase or viewing. Or at least a transcript.

Btw Stossel staches are coming back into vogue, I can feel it.

:lol: It's kind of a 70s look. Burt Reynolds used to have one.

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A fairly recent upload.  The one I heard about had Hitchens flying solo on the socialist side.  Here he has a (weak) colleague, so this is probably not the debate in question.  Hitchens is worth listening to, as always.  He commits the fallacy of composition (family unit to national).  In later years he was later able to speak knowledgeably about Rand, here no.  I suspect he studied and upped his game for a later debate. 

There's a part where a questioner insults Binswanger, leading him to refuse to answer any question from that person (as Rand did in one of her Donahue appearances).  For some reason that was the most memorable moment for me.  

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