YouTub: Christopher Hitchens - Atheism's Brash, Alcoholic Uncle

If you've taken one lesson from Lauren's post this week, let it be that the best way to raise your child an atheist is to send him or her to a Catholic school. They would be disappointed to learn, however, that atheists have developed a rather nasty reputation, at least in this country, for being arrogant, contentious jerks with no respect for their theistic peers. This, I would submit, is undeserved; it is in fact a load of hypersensitive reactionaries and simplistic persecution complexes that tend to fixate on a tiny minority of bitter, asshole teenagers that shout down the proselytizers at your local mall.

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That being said, there is at least one high-profile figure that embodies this unfortunate atheist stereotype: a neoconservative, profane, alcoholic asshole named Christopher Hitchens. It baffles me that the brilliant zoologist Richard Dawkins bears the brunt of misplaced theistic rage towards their non-believing counterparts, since Hitchens is such a crude, outspoken, and malevolent individual. And lord help me, I love the man. It may be that he is most likely drunk for every interview, or that he exhibits an obvious contempt for the majority of those interviewing him (and those watching), but every collision he has with American television media is priceless and hilarious. Particularly when such collisions occur with weak-minded talking heads like Joe Scarborough or Sean Hannity. Take, for example, his recent interview on Hannity & Colmes, in which he manages to infuriate Hannity (no great accomplishment), call out fundamentalist apologist Ralph Reed for his associations with Jack Abramoff, and deliver one of the best closing lines of any interview I've ever heard (seriously, if you watch one part of this video, make it the very end):

On Anderson Cooper 360, he delivers an even funnier vitriolic tirade about Falwell, and, while I'm beset with jealousy at Caitlar's tireless obsession with the man, will give him credit for actually letting Hitchens ramble on rather than interrupt him:

And now on to insufferable blowhard Joe Scarborough, as Hitchens is asked on to talk with Joe and some clergyman about the "War on Christmas," which is basically a catchy euphemism parroted by some whiny far right Christians who are pissed off that some ugly looking menorah gets placed next to the Christmas tree at Wal-Mart. Oh, and the use of "Happy Holidays" positively incenses them. Hitchens, of course, doesn't address any of this, talking over the other two until Scarborough gets red in the face, promises not to have him on the show again, and, without any hint of irony, gripes about how people on his show can't have adult conversations.

A few days before the Falwell interview, Sean Hannity had Hitchens on his own show to discuss his most recent book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Hannity can't string together a coherent sentence (but again, not unusual), rattling off some tired talking points and something nonsensical about energy, and Hitchens who was apparently tipped off prior to his appearance not to actually engage Hannity in debate, compares an afterlife in heaven to living in North Korea. Please ignore the annoying text at the beginning; every idiot in the blogosphere seems to like to put their proprietary Times New Roman brand on videos they didn't create:

Finally, in a more condensed representation of Hitchens's interviews, Chris Matthews asks him to address conservative anti-intellectualism, and in less than a minute he devolves into a list of slurs past and present, none of which you're really allowed to say on MSNBC (language alert for those at work):

I really, really love that prick.

YouTub runs on Thursdays at noon.

Comments

[Tori]

Ah yes, Christopher Hitchens! The dude who thinks women aren't funny. So glad his wisdom is making more appearances on our blog.

http://www.thebathtub.net/the_bathtub/2007/03/men_in_cages_i_.html

[Phylan]

Yes, he's generally wrong about most things. 9/11 "broke" him to the extent that he now goes on lunatic rants about "Islamofascism" and what not.

[laurenmc18]

I think you get get away with being a lot more of a dick to people without sounding (as) obnoxious if you have a British accent. (Hugh Grant has basically made a career off of that.)

[KELLYq]

omg I love when he is like "you invited me on your show to hear my opinion, not so I can listen to yours"

Love him