William Buckley Interviews Hugh Hefner on Firing Line (1966) Part 2

[@meio4744]

All this debate, as masterful as William Buckley is, is so much blah blah. To me William Buckley wins the argument by the conduct of his life, he had only one wife and by all accounts, had a deep abiding loyal relationship with her - Hugh Hefner goes through women like a male teenager goes through tissue papers after having a wank - excuse the crudeness but I think Hefner and his ilk have reduced society to that level of crassness.

[@TheSkepticalHumanist]

"The flavor of your protracted sermon in Playboy is simply to speak about those who disagree with you as old crotchety Puritans who, unfortunately, don't share your sense of enlightenment." This has become the fashionable rhetorical tactic of the left these days -- i.e., rather than disagree and argue on the relevant points of contention, leftists and liberals assail the character of those with whom they disagree. All left-wing editorializing these days consists in calling conservatives racists, misogynists, homophobes, idiots, "fundies," and so forth. This is code language which amounts to the ancient accusation of "heretic," since conservatives dissent quite forcefully from modern left-wing orthodoxy. At this point in history, arguing about the "Playboy philosophy" and its effects on society hardly seems necessary. The left clearly prevailed in their cultural and sexual revolution, and the stinking rot that now festers at the heart of American culture is a clearer condemnation of that philosophy than any argument. This revolution and the culture it's built will collapse, but, as T.S. Eliot reminds us, "we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time, so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to rebuild and renew civilization and save the world from suicide."

[@anthonymonacelli2598]

agreed.

[@masanf9398]

It is absolutely amazing to see a talk show with with both participants smoking, on air. If you tried that now, you would be drummed out of the profession.

[@BalazarsBrain]

Damn Buckley is long-winded!

[@brushcreek42]

a bit sleep inducing too.

[@ValleyoftheRogue]

Hef got screwed up in the head upon learning his wife had cheated on him. It was downhill after that for him. He always was disgusting, but as a very old man he was even worse because his awfulness ins more obvious. I do not believe his empire will long survive him. Re Kinsey: this researcher's reputation has gone down the toilet for his ethical lapses and even criminal acts.

[@HomeAtLast501]

If you actually listen to this he doesn't advocate non-monogamy.

[@godngunclinger]

the morality they say is only an ancient attitude is the seventh commandment (ie Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery), but everyone disagrees, it is reportedly ok. SO, if everyone is doing it, since everyone is jumping off a bridge then it must be ok

[@eddiemachetti6862]

Buckley since the beginning of this interview kept using the words “You reject” to get Hef to look bad in the viewers eyes. It was wise to see Hef repeat himself and say “Reexamine”. Great interview.

[@ValleyoftheRogue]

No, Kinsey didn't masturbate kids, but his reputation deserves to go into the trash because of his total lack of ethics regarding his work on child sexuality. Probably should have gone to prison. He was also a degenerate in his personal life. This is no longer in dispute.

[@blackmore4]

The reason I came here was for a Buckley language fix(!) and, knowing little about Hefner, presumed a Buckley rout. But it wasn't the case. Hefner more than held his own - if you'll excuse the slightly dodgy metaphor ;) Being a true liberal (as opposed to the new fascist-enabling regressive apologist variety) I disagree with Buckley on virtually everything but love his use of language. Here, beautiful poetic and eloquent as it always was, it was powerless to overturn Hefner's more direct and logical defense of his position. Particularly over that of Buckley's derisive claims of the 'morality' of such demonstrably morally bankrupt ideologies as Judaism and Christianity. Buckley's mentioning of _"Mosaic Law"_ - the very same post-bronze age primitive codes which detail the 'chosen people's right to commit genocide and slavery as they saw fit (including the selling of one's own daughter as a sex slave) - as some supreme eternal wisdom, should have ended the debate right there.

[@ilikepeople1795]

really because hefner was a bumbling baffoon. buckley just let him stammer on and correctly. he had no idea what he was saying at all

[@TornadoOfSouls777]

@tbscotty68 "LIB-BA-DOE" LMAO

[@sullivanlucier-benson9020]

Now, what kind of sex are we talking about here?! I think that's the one question everybody's asking at this point.

[@ariedlin]

Back then the normal kindof

[@supahsekzy]

libudooooooooozzzz

[@Speegs23]

@MrTruthAddict it isn't higher, it's just statistically greater in number because more people get married in red states than so called blue ones, the only thing the information reveals is people are screwed up and unforgiving universally.Whether or not someone fails at marriage or not is not indicative of marriage so much as it is of the culture's value of it, divorce no longer has a stigma and we condone it for frivolous reasons beyond abuse and infidelity in modern times. We forsook fidelity.

[@Speegs23]

@MrTruthAddict I'm not sure what reality you claim to live in because that is patently false, abortion numbers have declined steadily since the 1980s, they're still pathetically high but there was no spike in 2001 to 2008 that deviated above the statistics of the 1990s. I think the bias you speak of is a personal one.

[@figthersdreams]

@leroyinc I agree with you. Why push for sexual liberation and encourage monogamy at the same time? It's like being against war and investing money in the military.

[@joetursi4089]

Notice Hefner's body language,the arms tucked, he avoids looks directley at Buckley.

[@TornadoOfSouls777]

@deltapunk21 Yeah he used sex workers and child rapists to do much of his "research"

[@thriler30]

Which means all moral people are safe. Isn't that what you want? Certainly you'll agree that if you are by your definition moral than you have nothing to worry about. Unless you are worried that your wife isn't or wasn't moral. But not to worry I'm sure she loves you and she's moral ;)

[@hydrolito]

@JadeTomZ Mulitple partners is not moral if they are carrying a disease. Monogamie doesn't spread diseases from one group to the next.

[@greatbookie]

BTW: i've heard that Kinsey got much of his data on sexual habits from incarcerated prisoners, rather than from the general populace.

[@joshorshansky]

That's because you, like most teenagers(adults too), just browsed (or studied) the pictures!

[@MrJohnog]

now THAT is a question of cosmic importance! :)

[@marcuscrassus2095]

Buckley's intelligence is so far superior to hefner's it is astounding. hefner continually attempts to speak at Buckley's level and fails miserably; it is hilarious really to watch hef try to up his mind to Buckley's level for this show...nice try hef but you are woefully lacking in the cerebral category...this plainly shows he'fs lower intelligence so clearly. Must have been very embarrassing for him at the time.

[@bleebloe]

be that as it "might", Hefner is clearly right. Thats the thing about using logic over man made "morals". I much rather "sound" inferior with my explanations and articulations ... and be right, then any conceivable alternative. I'm sure I'll hear back from you. And might I add, the sound and skill of being so transparently pretentious should hold no impact on making headway.

[@blackmore4]

+Marcus Crassus I totally disagree. The reason I came here was for a Buckley language fix(!) and, knowing little about Hefner, presumed the outcome you describe would be the case. But it wasn't. Hefner more than held his own - if you'll excuse the slightly dodgy metaphor ;) Being a true liberal (as opposed to the new fascist-enabling regressive apologist variety) I disagree with Buckley on virtually everything but love his use of language. Here, beautiful poetic and eloquent as it always was, it was powerless to overturn Hefner's more direct and logical defense of his position. Particularly over that of Buckley's derisive claims of the 'morality' of such demonstrably morally bankrupt ideologies as Judaism and Christianity. Buckley's mentioning of _"Mosaic Law"_ - the very same post-bronze age primitive codes which detail the 'chosen people's right to commit genocide and slavery as they saw fit (including the selling of one's own daughter as a sex slave) - as some supreme eternal wisdom, should have ended the debate right there.

[@actorscrib5932]

Marcus Crassus Hefner more than held his own . Hefner is whippet sharp . Highly intelligent

[@ilikepeople1795]

this is correct

[@HomeAtLast501]

We know from Buckley's brother that his accent didn't come from his family --- so it wasn't a family accent, like the Kennedy accent was. And we know Buckley's accent wasn't absorbed from any geographic region. It was a fraudulent, affected, phony accent. It must have been a burden for him to have had to modulate his natural manner of speaking all his life --- a real waste of energy. He would certainly have been relieved if he could have just been himself.