I took @mattyglesias tweet to be trolling but, yes, it's true that it's very hard to imagine Christopher Hitchens becoming pro-Trump. More likely he'd be where Andrew Sullivan is right now (anti-Trump & anti-contemporary left).https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/982703079018647552 …
-
-
But, as a people have pointed out, Hitchens really hated the Clintons beyond reason. So, again, the safe spot for CH would've been somewhere between Sullivan & the Never Trump people who are still also very anti-left.
Show this thread -
Hitchens late life worldview also defined by militant atheism, which made him oppose GOP in 2008 election and would've made him hostile to man that made Mike Pence vice-president: https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/982705861775777792 …
This Tweet is unavailable.Show this thread -
It's true that Hitchens supported Bush. But the errors that led him to that position (a misapplied internationalism & fantasy about transformative power of military adventures) aren't the errors that are typical of Trump supporters.
Show this thread -
To put it another way, there is a well-trod pathway from Trotskyism to neo-conservatism (or, in Hitchens case, being a neo-con fellow traveller): you replace Moscow with Washington as military lodestar of world revolutionary potential
Show this thread -
But if there is a path between Trots & neo-cons, there's no real path from Trots to Trump or even (witness Never Trump movement) much of a path from neo-cons to Trump.
Show this thread -
Anyways, the whole exercise is kind of silly (for reasons Hitchens pointed out in an essay on Podhoretz's "if Orwell were alive today he'd be a neo-con" essay:https://harpers.org/archive/1983/02/an-exchange-on-orwell/ …
Show this thread -
So instead of asking "what would Hitchens be saying today" more valuable to go back & read what he did write, particularly in his best period (which was before 1998 or so).
Show this thread -
Speaking of Hitchens -- his last sad decade often had me thinking of Browning's great poem of disappointment in Wordsworth, "The Lost Leader." (Although Hithens wasn't, unlike Wordworth, a sell-out).pic.twitter.com/EyA4eYeRhS
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
You really are ridiculous sometimes.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Too easy a target. I almost wager he'd be bored by now.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.