5 min listen
Is Christopher Hitchens' Life A Cautionary Tale For The Left?
FromCurrent Affairs
ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Dec 9, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Ben Burgis is the author of the upcoming book: Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters, as well as the host of "Give Them An Argument" on YouTube. His previous book Give Them An Argument: Logic for the Left was covered in Current Affairs and he and Nathan have co-written before. In today's episode, Ben and Nathan discuss Hitchens' career, writings, and beliefs, including:
- The enduring value of Hitchens' leftist polemics against Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton
- The roots of Hitchens' repugnant and despicable views on Islam and the Iraq War
- The question of how useful his strident "anti-theism" was
- The way the 80s and 90s neoliberal consensus caused certain socialists to lose their way
- The need for the left to avoid Hitchens' worst tendencies while learning from his erudition, debating flair, and love of skewering overrated sacred figures
The Trial of Henry Kissinger can be seen on YouTube. Ben's book on Hitchens is now available for pre-order.
Edited by Tim Gray
- The enduring value of Hitchens' leftist polemics against Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton
- The roots of Hitchens' repugnant and despicable views on Islam and the Iraq War
- The question of how useful his strident "anti-theism" was
- The way the 80s and 90s neoliberal consensus caused certain socialists to lose their way
- The need for the left to avoid Hitchens' worst tendencies while learning from his erudition, debating flair, and love of skewering overrated sacred figures
The Trial of Henry Kissinger can be seen on YouTube. Ben's book on Hitchens is now available for pre-order.
Edited by Tim Gray
Released:
Dec 9, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Bonus excerpt: "The West" and Other Myths with Daniel Walden: An excerpt from today's bonus episode, available in full to our Patreon patrons, in which amusements editor Lyta Gold and senior editor Brianna Rennix discuss myths with Classics scholar Daniel Walden, who recently wrote in the magazine about how the whole concept of “Western civilization" is a myth. Tune in to learn about why the myth of dragons may be a lefty one, why Jordan Peterson is confused about myths, what an anti-pope is, what myths can teach us about national origin stories, the purpose of trickster gods, and more. by Current Affairs