Christopher Hitchens interview on "Letters to a Young Contrarian" (2001)

Christopher Hitchens discusses Osama Bin Laden, the war in Afghanistan, and his new book, "Letters to a Young Contrarian."
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[@Nebulous0_o]

I worked at channel 4 in the UK from early ‘95 to early ‘08. Hitchens came to the studio, that I remember, three times during my employment in post production. He was charming, accommodating, and affable. His intellect was intimidating. Quotes and lines from books he had read were recited at a moments notice. Calculations relating to historical dates, times and their effect on current global politics were done in a flash. Seasoned journalists and producers who had been in the industry for decades (and clever people in their own right) were phased and silenced in his presence. He was, by far, the cleverest man I have ever met.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Nice to hear. He does seem charming on screen.

[@Nousmourronsseuls]

Third class degree from Oxford😂 Oh, and virulent supporter of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which, in hindsight, does not look that clever.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

@@Nousmourronsseuls Third class degree from Oxford, is better than what you have.

[@Nousmourronsseuls]

@@thesubhumancomedy You have obviously never heard of your hero’s razor: “That which can be asserted without evidence can also be DISMISSED without evidence”. Come back to me when you have a better argument.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

@@Nousmourronsseuls It wasn't an argument. 🤓

[@theodoredreiser5782]

On the cover of his book, Hitch is looking like Albert Camus.

[@michaelhenry8091]

really a brilliant man, glad his videos are around,

[@ImperatorMo]

Hitchens: "We base ourself on doubt." Rose: "Right." Hitchens: "Skepticism." Rose: "Right." Hitchens: "Free Inquiry." Rose: "Right." Hitchens: "Separation of Church and State." Rose: "Right." Hitchens: "Emancipation of Women." Rose: "..." lol. telling ...

[@theodoredreiser5782]

lol

[@fifteenbyfive]

It's because women are already emancipated. We still doubt, inquire, and keep church and state separate.

[@ImperatorMo]

We still stand for equal rights undoubtedly though.my point was towards the fact that rose was molesting women, just thought that fit. But it could be coincidence of course.

[@fifteenbyfive]

Is that a fact, or an accusation?

[@ImperatorMo]

he apologized for it so...

[@Saskobest]

Seen some of Hitch videos couple of times and yet i always find something interesting or new everytime i watch them. Miss the man

[@tahu1349]

'There is no concept of race, we are all human'... Best quote

[@Sinha010]

Worst quote. It's surprising that someone do committed to science denied the existence of race. Race is real.

[@tahu1349]

@@Sinha010 On the contrary, he was spot on. Race was originally defined on the idea that the human species is divided into distinct groups on the basis of inherited physical differences. Genetic studies in the last 100 years have debunked the existence of biogenetically distinct races. The old definition of 'races' are cultural definitions stemming from colonialism (they are Boer, they from that tribe, they are black, they are brown, white etc)......humankind is a race. The correct term they should have used is ethnicity. Ethnicity is a social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or physical trait...... therefore Christopher was 💯 correct on................

[@momoelmeligi3478]

Perhaps a stupid question, but then how would one account for phenotypic differences in people? What you said about the idea’s origins is totally true and we are all indeed humans before we’re anything else, but there’s a reason why you can identify a Korean from a Norwegian

[@tahu1349]

@@momoelmeligi3478 phenotypes manifest themselves as physical traits. Physical traits are part of part of the evolution process, partly there for survival of the human species and for it to adapt to the environment and conditions. It's why people living in cold dark environments adapt to have lighter skin and shorter but broader bodies (over time). It's why those living in high sunlight conditions develop darker skin and taller to keep the body cool. Off course there are other environment factors such as food, nutrition, activities etc . Breeding within the same group with same genes increases the chance of those genes being passed on. Pollution, lack of nutrition, stress, physical or sedentary lifestyles all have an impact. Culture, language, behaviors etc don't impact on phenotypes directly, more on attitudes and thinking ........it's why the term 'races' is incorrect. There is only once race. The human race. Like there is only one canine race. But there are different dog breeds. In human terms we call it ethnicity because it relates to physical traits. But even the term ethnicity is a coarse and crude term...its just a label used either by colonisism or far right/left groups or politicians to label people for a political or religious objective ie control them......rather than divide humanity with hate and focus bin peoples physical differences. We should focus on the fact we are one species, human. Everyone is equal and deserves to be treated with the same rights. However our actions determine when we are a good human being or not. Not belonging to a group, ideology or faith....... politicians don't like this view, the miltary complex and bankers don't like this view, religious extremists don't like this view .........

[@HIMYMTR]

empty feel-goodism

[@nordini3516]

Watching the Taliban take over Kabul and the power on Afghanistan 17.08.2021

[@janetdouglas1272]

It is so interesting listening to Hitchens today August 17, 2021 in his deep analysis. What a mess 'Murica has made with it's political choices to "re-make" Central Asia. So many upcoming consequences and blowback are now inevitable.

[@christianmuller292]

How many died or were maimed for life for nothing.

[@christianmuller292]

In fact Bin Laden has won financially speaking. Tens of trillions spent bankrupting the US and other countries in the process. Hate Bin Laden and his followers but the ugly truth is there whether you like it or not.

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

@@christianmuller292 Countless human lives......over æons. Since humans were first humans, in fact.

[@unitedpawnbrokers1180]

you revisit these interviews and wonder if he'd change his tune?.

[@adarshraghuram6858]

He would definitely have doubled down, seeing how Pakistan has continued state sponsored terrorism against India, and US continues to back them as a proxy. Yup, great win for global democracy

[@luvisacigarette8]

Where does the quote Hitchens says @26:18 come from? Closest I got was William Morris but I couldn't trace any work of Morris with "no one is good enough to be someone else’s master"

[@quins06]

Wasn’t that Lincoln?

[@SmallC2023]

Killed for his intellect and willingness to openly speak his mind.

[@AlicedeTocqueville]

@SmallC2023* Who do you say was "killed for his intellect and willingness to openly speak his mind"?

[@mariogolker96]

They had no idea...

[@myfriendisaac]

7:15 YIKES 😳

[@leog7673]

19:00

[@joaobrandao9482]

I wonder what the Hitch would think of this disastrous departure of the US of Afghanistan, after making the deal.

[@horizons2358]

Fazed!!🙄

[@tylerfults989]

He would have fucking shit.

[@Dannutts]

lol. i'd like to think had he lived, he'd have eventually realized the err of his ways & seen our war there for what it was: a ruthless money grab. and accordingly, wouldve understood that there would never be a "good" time to exit & the sooner we got out, the better. but he was stubborn, wasnt he? probably wouldve wholly overlooked the enrichment of the oligarchical MIC, human & drug trafficking, not to mention murder of innocent civilians bc 'islam bad.'

[@thedoctor.a.s1401]

He would be turning in his grave

[@RolandDerUnverbesserliche]

conservation laws will always prove true you may not be aware of the players and entities involved, but it will always prove true

[@tyleranyways]

9:00

[@rezam5981]

What is the name of the interviewer?

[@jayl2331]

Charlie Rose

[@honestabe6359]

All due respect to Hitchens, I disagree with his stance on Hindu "nationalism", specially when it comes to Kashmir. A land which was home to Hindus and Buddhists, and later attacked and taken over by foreign powers. So many Kashmiri Hindus were murdered, raped and killed en masse, most recently in 1990. The world remained quiet then and it remains quiet to this day. No outrage, no anger, no justice.

[@neilghosh3821]

Agree. I am always astonished as to how general discourse with respect to Kashmir always leave out to the brutal atrocities committed to the Hindu populations in the mid to late 80s as well as the early 90s. The exodus that occured is always dismissed as trivial by left leaning intellectuals (Chomsky, arundhati and Roy and Christopher Hitchens) Of course their obsession with fighting fascism and demeaning everything that is remotely nationalist when it comes to calling out terrorism as the Hindu nationalists do will be shut down as fascism.

[@AdamMGTF]

@6:20 hear hear. If only bin Laden etal were tried as the Nazis were at Nuremberg

[@richcampus]

@16:17: "AL QAEDA...." @16:58: FREE RIDE REGIMES ~ @17:08: &THE HINDU NATIONALISTS ~ @18:56: MESSIANIC/SUPERSTITIOUS IDEAS ~ @19:20: & IT'S A WASTE OF JUDAISM ~

[@milesbetrov]

I have finally found something on which I can agree with with Hitch on. Two things infact. Zionism is a crazy idea and Hindu nationalism is not palatable. I really cannot believe I have something which I think he is right about

[@SubwayJack919]

JeWs RuN eVeRyThInG No. The left does stupid fuck.

[@ddd-ly3rv]

Freedom to express yourself is liberty, expressing yourself appropriately is subjective, guidance is conservatism. Maybe Muslims would have had their views on Bin Laden and taking aeroplanes.

[@iMaDeMoN2012]

Hitchens is right that 9/11 represented a new threat, but the solution he proposed (war with Iraq and unilateral regime change) was doom to failure. It isn't that democracy and secularism are not the right answer, it is that the neo-con and right-wing war path to said goals is the reason ISIS was created. Following a similarly narrative Al-Qaeda (the only real threat to Americans) was created by American imperialism, to which the solution is to stop engaging in imperialism, not because it would eliminate the threat, but because it is the right thing to do. The real solution is to support liberal movement (in the Jeffersonian sense) or better yet left wing movements (in socialist sense) the muslim world and to stop directly financing and arming their dictators.

[@slappyhappy6192]

Wrong. Al-Qaida and Bin Laden weren't radical because of the US or imperialism. Fallacy number one that leads to wrong thinking. They are radical because Mohammed says to be and to bring everyone under islamic rule. It's in the book. Written in 650 A.D. much before U.S. was even a thought.

[@iMaDeMoN2012]

+slappy happy You are confusing their religious justification for their actions with the motivations for their actions. Considering that no where in the Qu'ran does it say strike America and that there are no Islamist attacks in Brazil another similarly sized infidel country, we can conclude that religion alone is not the motivation for the attacks. Based on their own words we are a target for their strikes because we have military bases in their "holy lands" and because we financially and militarily support what Al Qaeda considers to be corrupt regimes. Their motivations are political and their justifications are religious, but that a tautology. Every America solider justifies his actions according to his religious beliefs. Additionally most people that join Al Qaeda or ISIS don't do it out a deep religious conviction. They do out of a deep sense of injustice, i.e. politics. All you have to do is read their manifestos to know. When the system fails us, people look to alternatives. The alternative for Al Qaeda is religious fascism. That's not new idea in the least. Religious fascism has been popular in Europe and America since the beginning. The only difference is that progressives have already fought many wars to beat the fascists back over that last few decades. It seem to me that the progressives in the middle east have a similar battle to fight, and I think they can win if we can stop interfering on the side of the fascist. It is the job of progressives in America need to push back against our fascists that would like to declare the entire Islamic culture fascist and bomb them all.

[@slappyhappy6192]

iMaDeMoN2012 Too much to read in a twitter world

[@ChrisJohnson-hp8gz]

Do more research. al Qaeda is not just against the US but also has attacked countries like India and the Philippines and a lot more. Hitchens talks about this in this video where he explains all the different fucked up things al Qaeda wants to do around the world. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6mrg2t3hN2rocU

[@iMaDeMoN2012]

+Chistopher Johnson There are political motivations for the attacks in India and the Philippines. In fact the story about the Philippines is far more interesting than you make it out to be. Watch the Vice documentary on the Philippines. The place is rife with political violence "on many sides, on many sides". Yes, Hitchens pointed out that many of Al Qaeda' grievances if appeased would work against the struggle for universal human rights. That's because Al Qaeda's politics are regressive and fascist. This is nothing new. I personally know plenty of white christians fascist on Facebook that would like to hang women that have abortions. These white christians fascists have plenty of bullshit grievances. However, I don't say that their fascist politics springs from a set of religious beliefs since those beliefs are shared with vast numbers of people with a different set of political ideologies. These religious fascist certainly can justify some of their actions based on their religious text. However, they can't justify all their actions based on the religious text. For those unjustified actions they rationalize away their religious beliefs in favor of their politics. This is nothing new. This is business as usual. We have to be able to differentiate between religiously motivated action and politically motivated actions.

[@beerus101]

"i signed a petition against the Taliban" is so laughably impotent, but I suppose he knew that as well.

[@revolutie89omorareasecurit77]

I am The chıeld and The brıde Make torture presure over me??? To gaıne same securıty answers???

[@thefakenewsnetwork8072]

Im god

[@growlansing5121]

"us civilized seculars believe in skepticism, doubt, and free inquiry. we dont believe in any concept of us race, we are all human." 2020-2022 proves the exact opposite of this statement.

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

How, exactly? Civilized Seculars who believe in doubt, skepticism, free inquiry and emancipation of women..... you think those values and the people who hold them.... are to blame for the social state we find ourselves in?

[@growlansing5121]

@@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879 where were you all at during 2020 and 2021? blindly obeying the TV. I wouldnt expect some dope heads to remember that along ago though. carry on.

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

@@growlansing5121 "I always think it's a sign of victory when they move on to the ad hominem." - Hitchens Funny, how fast you went for the logical fallacies. You are excused from the discussion, seeing as how you can't participate without being cunty about it.

[@growlansing5121]

@@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879 man be quiet. you want to pretend like you libs didnt worship the the tv for two years. you were not skeptics AT ALL. instead of acknowledging those facts you wanna come in here and talk about womens rights or some dumb shit. you jumped right off the subject and debate before it even got started. go get some pfizers boy

[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

@@growlansing5121 I'm not a liberal, you incel loser. You can't even follow the conversation 🙄 I directly quoted Hitchens from the video....yet, you think that's off topic? Jesus Christ, you're so pathetic that it's hilarious! debating you..... its akin to kicking a toddler in the throat: so easy destroy that it's cruel.

[@farcenter]

"People can't see something new when it comes" So true. This is what's going on now with people treating the current identity politics of sex, gender, and race as an extension of civil rights, woman's and gay rights movements. It's not, as those movements were founded in liberalism, the current "critical" movements are openly anti-liberal

[@NickBollingerMusic]

Explain?

[@radfordsmith2773]

Look at the bibles take on history...then...look at Chris's take. Now he's gone his insight is born-out.

[@nicknewman7848]

This is a horrible conversation. Hitchen's remarkable intellect does not hide a serious flaw in his understanding of subtlety (when it suits his argument of course). I agree with a lot of his ideas on many topics and find them convincing and interesting but he fails to notice the religious and historical nature of the issue here. The U.S is culturally Christian whether he likes it or not. I don't think Bin Laden really believed he was attacking a secular country. It must be understood that from some people's view point this was about Imperialism (cultural and military), Fundamentalism (religious and cutural), Israel and the complexities of the Middle East. It wasn't good guys against bad guys.

[@joshm2690]

Depends on what team you are on . Never go into battle without a plan to win . Bin Ladan failed to realize that his contribution was nothing . He killed thousands of his people by killing thousands of ours . If you think people are going to let that happen because of a discussion , That is where you both fail . Know your enemy , If bin ladan thought he knew his enemy then he willing killed all his countrymen by starting an individual fight . PItty , So many innocent dead . Lets hope people stop ignoring assured destruction in the eyes of their god ,as if there is a god and he wants them to kill ,and maybe move to peace . NOt there yet .

[@nicknewman7848]

@@joshm2690 Depends if you're on a team at all. Or whether you are partizan and objective. I don't condone terrorism, just as I don't condone the US invading sovereign states based on false information and murdering innocent civilians. Are you talking about Saudi's or Fundamentalist Muslims when you say "his people"? I didn't see many Saudi's take the brunt of US might. I saw The Taliban (backwards but not terrorists) and Iraq as the one's affected post 9/11.

[@joshm2690]

@@nicknewman7848 Im talking about who he considers his people . His family , His friends , His country of birth , his people in his religion ...all suffered due to his choice . He did not make any progress for himself or anyone else . If anything he set back "his people ." Thats all i mean. I cant debate the whole war in a chat so this is specific that that question only . His people , Anyone he loves or supports .

[@PlayNiceFolks]

Bin Laden apologist.

[@PlayNiceFolks]

You should be dismissed as Christopher did. He has addressed all of this and more, up until his death in 2011.

[@Bangkok-ik1fp]

Afghanistan has mineral reserves exceeding one TRILLION dollars. Now do you see why we were/are there?

[@yingyang1008]

Two shills shilling for $$$$

[@TommyGlint]

Why don’t you have a go at an intelligent argument, or don’t you have any? Your comment just proves Hitchens’ point about the Chomsky-like antiwar movement. Press a button and the usual anti-American babble comes out. Btw, I’m not American.

[@yingyang1008]

@@TommyGlint Chomsky thinks crazed Muslims, directed by a man on a dialysis machine in a cave, made three skyscrapers collapse perfectly into their own footprints using two planes The man is a total imbecile at best, controlled opposition at worst The idea that Hitchens thought the invasion of Iraq was a just war, not based on lies and fake intelligence, is totally insane He was a gun for a hire - albeit a very eloquent and entertaining one

[@TommyGlint]

Hitchens thought it was a just war because it deposed of a murderous, fascist dictator, that we should have dealt with in 1991. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t critical of Bush, Blair and the intelligence bureaus. He could just seperate the two issues. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but the rest of your comment smacks a bit of “9/11 was an inside job” which I frankly can’t be bothered responding to, it is like talking to a flat-earthers.

[@sliemavonpawz938]

@@TommyGlint and Hitchens was wrong he put idealism over pragmatism like a typical former commie couldn't shake the communist idiocy of putting idealism and emotions above cold hard pragmatism as im typing this kabul about to fall soon and iraq is a failed state

[@sliemavonpawz938]

@Tom Lafrentz my point is Hitchens was dumb idealist and its not surprising because he was as I said a former communist he never gave up his feelings more important than facts and reality world view