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* {{Devils Advocate}}: Literally. When the matter of raising Mother Teresa to sainthood was raised, Hitchens was brought into argue against it.
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* AwesomeEgo: An InvokedTrope, Hitchens at times admitted to consciously aiming for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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* AwesomeEgo: An InvokedTrope, InvokedTrope; Hitchens at times admitted to consciously aiming for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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* AwesomeEgo: Technically a YMMV trope, Hitchens at times admitted to consciously aiming for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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* AwesomeEgo: Technically a YMMV trope, An InvokedTrope, Hitchens at times admitted to consciously aiming for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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* BiTheWay: Identified as bisexual and had his share of homosexual encounters during his lifetime.
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* HeManWomanHater: was widely criticized for his controversial article "Why Women Aren't Funny."
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* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: His published articles include "Why Women Aren't Funny" and "North Korea: A Nation of Racist Dwarves." In addition, he has also been criticized as being quite bigoted against Muslims.
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* TheMeanBrit: He's pretty much the universal embodiment of this.
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This is untrue; he explicitly stated he regarded prayers for him suring his illness as a sincere gesture of goodwill. See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/06/christopher-hitchens-on-c_n_673144.html
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** He also hated people attempting to pray for him during his illness.
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* [[CorruptChurch Corrupt Church]]/[[ReligionOfEvil Religion Of Evil]]: Hitch saw all religion this way.
to:
* [[CorruptChurch Corrupt Church]]/[[ReligionOfEvil Religion Of Evil]]: Church]]: Hitch saw all religion sects this way.way, to varying degrees.
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* FourHorsemen: … of New Atheism, alongside Sam Harris, RichardDawkins, and Daniel Dennett.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: along with the other so-called "New Atheists" described above: Hitchens was The Cynic, Sam Harris is The Optimist, RichardDawkins is The Realist, and Daniel Dennett is The Apathetic. And, while we're at it …
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: along with the other so-called "New Atheists" described above: Hitchens was The Cynic, Sam Harris is The Optimist, RichardDawkins is The Realist, and Daniel Dennett is The Apathetic. And, while we're at it …
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* FourHorsemen: … of Of New Atheism, alongside Sam Harris, RichardDawkins, and Daniel Dennett.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble:along Along with the other so-called "New Atheists" described above: Hitchens was The Cynic, Sam Harris is The Optimist, RichardDawkins is The Realist, and Daniel Dennett is The Apathetic. And, while we're at it …
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble:
* GodIsEvil: Though he didn't believe in it, obviously, he felt that if the Christian god existed it would be like this, explicitly comparing it to the Kim family of North Korea [[NightmareFuel ruling the universe for all eternity]].
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* SiblingYinYang: With his younger brother, Peter. Christopher was a very outspoken atheist/anti-theist and held predominantly (but by no means exclusively) left-wing political views. Peter is an Anglican convert from atheism and holds similarly predominantly right-wing political views. Christopher was known for drinking and smoking a lot, whereas Peter can't drink much and doesn't smoke. Christopher supported the Iraq War, bucking the left-wing consensus, whereas Peter opposed it, bucking the right-wing one.
to:
* SiblingYinYang: With his younger brother, Peter. Christopher was a very outspoken atheist/anti-theist and held predominantly (but by no means exclusively) left-wing political views. Peter is an Anglican convert from atheism and holds similarly predominantly right-wing political views. Christopher was known for drinking and smoking a lot, whereas Peter can't drink much and doesn't smoke. Christopher supported the Iraq War, bucking the left-wing consensus, whereas Peter opposed it, bucking the right-wing one. They had a debate toward the end of his life.
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-->'''Shmuley Boteach:''' "I have debated many atheists, from Richard Dawkins to Daniel Dennett to Sam Harris to Christopher Hitchens. Of them all, Hitchens has been by far the most formidable opponent, the one I have most loved and the one that has most gotten under my skin. "
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-->'''Shmuley Boteach:''' "I I have debated many atheists, from Richard Dawkins to Daniel Dennett to Sam Harris to Christopher Hitchens. Of them all, Hitchens has been by far the most formidable opponent, the one I have most loved and the one that has most gotten under my skin. "
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'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds, Bill.\\
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'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): (''desperately''): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds, Bill.\\
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* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) The most. Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
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* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) The the most. Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
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'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
to:
'''Hitchens''': It's been tried. \n \\
'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30seconds Bill.
seconds, Bill.\\
'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.\\
'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30
'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.\\
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* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
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--->'''Donohue''': An Englishman has to be quiet when an Irishman speaks.
--->'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
--->'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
--->'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
--->'''Donohue''': {{Angrish}}
* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
--->'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
--->'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
--->'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
--->'''Donohue''': {{Angrish}}
* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
to:
--->'''Hitchens''':
'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
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* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions the most (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
to:
* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions the most (Christianity, Islam and Judaism).Judaism) The most. Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
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* AwesomeEgo: At times, Hitchens consciously aimed for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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* AwesomeEgo: At times, Technically a YMMV trope, Hitchens at times admitted to consciously aimed aiming for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa:
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** Sean Hannity:
-->'''Hitchens''': Religion has not been "perverted", it is innately inclined to violence, to-
-->'''Hannity''': Well, I think that's a certain intellectual snobbiness on your part, but-
-->'''Hitchens''': I think you may be right, yeah, that's probably it.
-->'''Hitchens''': Religion has not been "perverted", it is innately inclined to violence, to-
-->'''Hannity''': Well, I think that's a certain intellectual snobbiness on your part, but-
-->'''Hitchens''': I think you may be right, yeah, that's probably it.
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** People who called themselves (or him) "a dissident" without actually sacrificing or risking anything. As far as Hitchens was concerned, "dissident" was a noble title that had to be earned - people in Chinese prison camps, or Pakistani feminists who'd suffered acid attacks, or gay activists in Russia, were dissidents, not people who simply disagreed with what their government was doing but took no risks in order to change it.
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** People who called themselves (or him) "a dissident" without actually sacrificing or risking anything. As far as Hitchens was concerned, "dissident" was a noble title that had to be earned - people in Chinese prison camps, or Pakistani feminists who'd suffered acid attacks, or gay activists in Russia, were dissidents, not people who simply disagreed with what their government was doing but took no greivous risks in order to change it.it.
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** People who called themselves "dissidents" without actually sacrificing or risking anything. As far as Hitchens was concerned, "dissident" was a noble title that
to:
** People who called themselves "dissidents" (or him) "a dissident" without actually sacrificing or risking anything. As far as Hitchens was concerned, "dissident" was a noble title that had to be earned - people in Chinese prison camps, or Pakistani feminists who'd suffered acid attacks, or gay activists in Russia, were dissidents, not people who simply disagreed with what their government was doing but took no risks in order to change it.
** People calling him "Chris".
** People calling him "Chris".
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* AwesomeEgo: At times, Hitchens consciously aimed for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on MotherTeresa:
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* AwesomeEgo: At times, Hitchens consciously aimed for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on MotherTeresa:Mother Teresa:
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-->'''Bill Donohue''': This
to:
-->'''Bill Donohue''': ThisNow, all the whole world is wrong, and you with your 98-page book, five and a half by eight and a half inches, you have no citations, no evidence[[note]]Due to source bias, it should be noted this isn't true[[/note]], who is the world going to believe, me or you.
--> '''Hitchens''': I turn out to be right though, don't I? (*smiles)
--> '''Hitchens''': I turn out to be right though, don't I? (*smiles)
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* AwesomeEgo: At times, Hitchens consciously aimed for this trope. When debating Bill Donohue on MotherTeresa:
-->'''Bill Donohue''': This
-->'''Bill Donohue''': This
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** People who called themselves "dissidents" without actually sacrificing or risking anything. As far as Hitchens was concerned, "dissident" was a noble title that
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* {{Troll}}: He admitted to doing this in some of his media appearances, especially those with Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, because Donohue would always feed him. For instance, on one appearance, Donohue actually offers to fight Hitchens.
--->'''Donohue''': An Englishman has to be quiet when an Irishman speaks.
--->'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
--->'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
--->'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
--->'''Donohue''': {{Angrish}}
--->'''Donohue''': An Englishman has to be quiet when an Irishman speaks.
--->'''Hitchens''': It's been tried.
--->'''Chris Matthews''' (*desperately): Uh, I think Bill needs to take 30 seconds. Take 30 seconds Bill.
--->'''Hitchens''': He can hang himself whenever he likes; I've given him plenty of rope.
--->'''Donohue''': {{Angrish}}
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens was melancholic, Sam Harris is choleric, RichardDawkins is phlegmatic and Daniel Dennett is sanguine.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens was melancholic, phlegmatic, Sam Harris is choleric, melancholic, RichardDawkins is phlegmatic sanguine/phlegmatc, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine.choleric.
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** He also hated NorthKorea.
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** He also hated [[UsefulNotes/TheRulersOfNorthKorea the government of]] NorthKorea.
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** Waiters pouring his wine for him annoyed him intensely.
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* TitleJoke: An unintentional one. He disliked being called a "contrarian", because it implies that one's position is simply build around opposing things and not serious intellectual questing. This did not stop one of his publishers calling a compilation of his essays "''Letters to a Young Contrarian''". Hitchens later noted that he proved the title when he ridiculed the use of the word "contrarian" in the book's introduction.
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** He also hated people attempting to pray for him during his illness.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Combo--Hitchens was sanguine/choleric, Sam Harris is choleric/melancholic, RichardDawkins is melancholic/phlegmatic, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Combo--Hitchens Hitchens was sanguine/choleric, melancholic, Sam Harris is choleric/melancholic, choleric, RichardDawkins is melancholic/phlegmatic, phlegmatic and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.sanguine.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens was choleric, Sam Harris is melancholic, RichardDawkins is leukine, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens Combo--Hitchens was choleric, sanguine/choleric, Sam Harris is melancholic, choleric/melancholic, RichardDawkins is leukine, melancholic/phlegmatic, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.
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'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' (born 13 April 1949, died 15 December 2011) was an English-American author and journalist whose books, essays and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a columnist and literary critic at ''The Atlantic'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Slate'', ''World Affairs'', ''The Nation'' and ''Free Inquiry'', and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He was a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. In 2005, he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''[[note]]in Britain the book was published with subtitle "The Case Against Religion". Note that the title uses a lowercase "g", though this is sometimes not noticed.[[/note]].
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''[[note]]in Britain the book was published with subtitle "The Case Against Religion". Note that the title uses a lowercase "g", though this is sometimes not noticed.[[/note]].
to:
'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' (born 13 April 1949, died 15 December 2011) was an English-American author and journalist whose books, essays and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a columnist and literary critic at ''The Atlantic'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Slate'', ''World Affairs'', ''The Nation'' and ''Free Inquiry'', and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He was a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. In 2005, he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy ''Prospect''/''Foreign Policy'' poll.
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion PoisonsEverything''[[note]]in Everything''[[note]]In Britain the book was published with subtitle "The Case Against Religion". Note that the title uses a lowercase "g", though this is sometimes not noticed.[[/note]].
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons
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-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': No. It would mean that I had an eternal supervising parent, who would never die and let me get on with my life, never let me be my own person, who monitors and judges all my innermost thoughts, to whom I owed all of my success. It would be like living in NorthKorea.
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-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': Well, ask Kim Jong-il, he has a different opinion.
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* InsultToRocks: From his [[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2004/06/unfairenheit_911.single.html scathing review]] of Michael Moore's Bush-bashing documentary ''Fahrenheit 9/11'':
-->To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.
-->To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.
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-->'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40TRJl5vvI Hitch:]]''' Now I prefer to argue that it would be horrible if it were true. I'm not an atheist in other words, I'm an anti-theist. I don't, in myself, have any desire to live under a permanent, unalterable dictatorship… When I was in Christian prep school I used to wonder what Heaven would be like if it actually did consist of everlasting praise. Sounded like Hell to me, but I couldn't picture it; nobody can of course, but I've seen the nearest approximation to it, which is North Korea, where it is the only duty and job and right of a citizen to eternally praise the Divine Leader and his Divine Father… And it's a life of constant grovelling misery and fear and praise and thanks for the tiny hand-outs that you get, and it's impossible to describe, the nothingness of the life of a North Korean, but at least you can ''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking die]]'' and leave North Korea.
to:
-->'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40TRJl5vvI Hitch:]]''' Now I prefer to argue that it would be horrible if it were true. I'm not an atheist in other words, I'm an anti-theist. I don't, in myself, have any desire to live under a permanent, unalterable dictatorship… When I was in Christian prep school I used to wonder what Heaven would be like if it actually did consist of everlasting praise. Sounded like Hell to me, but I couldn't picture it; nobody can of course, but I've seen the nearest approximation to it, which is North Korea, where it is the only duty and job and right of a citizen to eternally praise the Divine Leader and his Divine Father… And it's a life of constant grovelling misery and fear and praise and thanks for the tiny hand-outs handouts that you get, and it's impossible to describe, the nothingness of the life of a North Korean, but at least you can ''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking die]]'' and leave North Korea.
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*** Same goes for the above Deadpan Snark quote about Jerry Falwell, delivered after Sean Hannity spent an entire segment of his TV show trying to get Hitch to say something positive about him.
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* OddFriendship: He was friends with Andrew Sullivan, a conservative and and devout (if dissenting) Catholic. Their shared background (both British expatriates in America) helped.
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* OddFriendship: He was friends with Andrew Sullivan, a conservative and and a devout (if dissenting) Catholic. Their shared background (both British expatriates in America) helped.
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* OddFriendship: He was friends with Andrew Sullivan, a conservative and and devout (if dissenting) Catholic. Their shared background (both British expatriates in America) helped.
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Moved from main
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/christopher-hitchens_789.jpg]]
-->''The mark of an independent mind is not what it thinks, but how.''
'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' (born 13 April 1949, died 15 December 2011) was an English-American author and journalist whose books, essays and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a columnist and literary critic at ''The Atlantic'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Slate'', ''World Affairs'', ''The Nation'' and ''Free Inquiry'', and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He was a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. In 2005, he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''[[note]]in Britain the book was published with subtitle "The Case Against Religion". Note that the title uses a lowercase "g", though this is sometimes not noticed.[[/note]].
He died in a UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} hospital on December 15, 2011 from complications relating to oesophageal cancer.
----
!!'''This author provides examples of:'''
* AloofBigBrother: To Peter Hitchens.
* AmicableExes: Hitchens had an amicable relationship with his ex-wife.
* BadassBoast: ''"I am not fighting cancer. Cancer is fighting ME!"''
* BerserkButton: Jokes that make light of circumcision.
** He also hated NorthKorea.
* [[CorruptChurch Corrupt Church]]/[[ReligionOfEvil Religion Of Evil]]: Hitch saw all religion this way.
* CreepyMonotone: Sometimes slipped into this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Oh boy …
** "Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem ''worse?'' Not likely."
** (On Jerry Falwell): "If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox. "
** (On Creator/MichaelMoore): "But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities."
** "One has to marvel at God's thinking here: Let's not appear to the Chinese, where people can read and write, and study evidence, and have a civilization, or to the Greeks, or the Egyptians, or the Babylonians, or the Persians, no, let's find one of the most backward, primitive tribes, in one of the less literate parts of the Middle East, and tell them to journey across miles of inhospitable desert, to take as their homeland one of the only bits of the Middle East where there is no oil. Good job!"
** This exchange:
-->'''Christian Broadcaster''': If God exists, would he not have been good to you?
-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': No. It would mean that I had an eternal supervising parent, who would never die and let me get on with my life, never let me be my own person, who monitors and judges all my innermost thoughts, to whom I owed all of my success. It would be like living in NorthKorea.
-->'''Christian Broadcaster''': Well, I'm not sure God is Kim Jong-il.
-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': Well, ask Kim Jong-il, he has a different opinion.
* {{Determinator}}: Hitchens didn't let little things like being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer (the disease which ultimately took his life) stop him from giving public speeches and participating in debates. While somewhat quieter in his later days, he had just as much fire in him.
* DrunkenMaster: He was well known for his love of the bottle, particularly Johnnie Walker Black Label, and claimed drinking made him a better writer. He frequently appeared in interviews with a glass of whiskey in hand.
** And his editor has claimed that most of his ''VanityFair'' pieces were written shortly after very boozy business lunches.
* EnemyMine: One thing that makes him so controversial in the atheist community is that he had this attitude towards the [[GeorgeWBush Bush Administration]].
* FakeUltimateHero: How Hitch saw many revered figures, most notably Mother Teresa, widely viewed to be a FriendToAllLivingThings.
--> "[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."
* FanNickname: When Hitchens made a particularly good point or refutation, it was often referred to as a "Hitchslap". Hitchens himself is sometimes referred to as 'Hitch', including in the title of his memoir, ''Hitch-22''.
* FourHorsemen: … of New Atheism, alongside Sam Harris, RichardDawkins, and Daniel Dennett.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: along with the other so-called "New Atheists" described above: Hitchens was The Cynic, Sam Harris is The Optimist, RichardDawkins is The Realist, and Daniel Dennett is The Apathetic. And, while we're at it …
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens was choleric, Sam Harris is melancholic, RichardDawkins is leukine, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.
* FriendlyEnemy: Even by his most ardent intellectual foes, he was widely admired and respected.
* GallowsHumour:
** In an interview when he was asked what he thought of people who said his politics moved to the right as his waist line expanded. He stated that he'd just lost thirty pounds, and not in a pleasant way (due to his cancer treatment).
** He also, unlike many, had no fear of criticizing the recently departed. Most people give a few weeks or days of respectful lip-service. Not Hitch. When Princess Diana and Mother Theresa died in the same week, he ran ''rampant''.
* TheGrinch: See [[http://www.slate.com/id/2132806/ this]] essay, or [[http://www.slate.com/id/2206713/ this]] one. He wasn't too wild about [[http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/ Hanukkah]], either.
* HollywoodNerd: Type 2.
* InsultBackfire: During one of Hitchens' public appearances, an audience member at the microphone attempted to embarrass him by mocking his divorce. Rather than attack the man, Hitchens simply expressed his [[AmicableExes continuing respect for his ex-wife]] and his love for their shared children. The show of class and emotional maturity completely undermined whatever point the man was trying to make.
* {{Jerkass}}: He comes off as this, according to his religious debate opponents. He really is a…
* {{Jerk With a Heart of Gold}}: Hitchens may have been uncompromising in his criticisms, but a very large portion of his criticisms regarded morality. Even when other criticisms could be made against a person, that person's immorality was his primary concern, and it was extremely difficult to get him to focus on anything else.
* JewishAndNerdy: Ethnically, at least.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: He claimed that religion in general is ultimately a dangerous and destructive organization, and that a religion-free world would be much better.
-->"All religious belief is sinister and infantile."
* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions the most (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
-->'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40TRJl5vvI Hitch:]]''' Now I prefer to argue that it would be horrible if it were true. I'm not an atheist in other words, I'm an anti-theist. I don't, in myself, have any desire to live under a permanent, unalterable dictatorship… When I was in Christian prep school I used to wonder what Heaven would be like if it actually did consist of everlasting praise. Sounded like Hell to me, but I couldn't picture it; nobody can of course, but I've seen the nearest approximation to it, which is North Korea, where it is the only duty and job and right of a citizen to eternally praise the Divine Leader and his Divine Father… And it's a life of constant grovelling misery and fear and praise and thanks for the tiny hand-outs that you get, and it's impossible to describe, the nothingness of the life of a North Korean, but at least you can ''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking die]]'' and leave North Korea.
* SiblingYinYang: With his younger brother, Peter. Christopher was a very outspoken atheist/anti-theist and held predominantly (but by no means exclusively) left-wing political views. Peter is an Anglican convert from atheism and holds similarly predominantly right-wing political views. Christopher was known for drinking and smoking a lot, whereas Peter can't drink much and doesn't smoke. Christopher supported the Iraq War, bucking the left-wing consensus, whereas Peter opposed it, bucking the right-wing one.
* TheSnarkKnight
* SophisticatedAsHell: As a master of polemic, it's hardly surprising.
* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
* WorthyOpponent: Whether you agreed with him or not, Hitchens was undeniably intelligent, well spoken and persuasive.
-->'''Shmuley Boteach:''' "I have debated many atheists, from Richard Dawkins to Daniel Dennett to Sam Harris to Christopher Hitchens. Of them all, Hitchens has been by far the most formidable opponent, the one I have most loved and the one that has most gotten under my skin. "
----
-->''The mark of an independent mind is not what it thinks, but how.''
'''Christopher Eric Hitchens''' (born 13 April 1949, died 15 December 2011) was an English-American author and journalist whose books, essays and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a columnist and literary critic at ''The Atlantic'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Slate'', ''World Affairs'', ''The Nation'' and ''Free Inquiry'', and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He was a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. In 2005, he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.
He was best known in recent times for his strong and vocal opposition to religion, demonstrated among other places in his 2007 book ''god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''[[note]]in Britain the book was published with subtitle "The Case Against Religion". Note that the title uses a lowercase "g", though this is sometimes not noticed.[[/note]].
He died in a UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} hospital on December 15, 2011 from complications relating to oesophageal cancer.
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!!'''This author provides examples of:'''
* AloofBigBrother: To Peter Hitchens.
* AmicableExes: Hitchens had an amicable relationship with his ex-wife.
* BadassBoast: ''"I am not fighting cancer. Cancer is fighting ME!"''
* BerserkButton: Jokes that make light of circumcision.
** He also hated NorthKorea.
* [[CorruptChurch Corrupt Church]]/[[ReligionOfEvil Religion Of Evil]]: Hitch saw all religion this way.
* CreepyMonotone: Sometimes slipped into this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Oh boy …
** "Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem ''worse?'' Not likely."
** (On Jerry Falwell): "If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox. "
** (On Creator/MichaelMoore): "But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities."
** "One has to marvel at God's thinking here: Let's not appear to the Chinese, where people can read and write, and study evidence, and have a civilization, or to the Greeks, or the Egyptians, or the Babylonians, or the Persians, no, let's find one of the most backward, primitive tribes, in one of the less literate parts of the Middle East, and tell them to journey across miles of inhospitable desert, to take as their homeland one of the only bits of the Middle East where there is no oil. Good job!"
** This exchange:
-->'''Christian Broadcaster''': If God exists, would he not have been good to you?
-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': No. It would mean that I had an eternal supervising parent, who would never die and let me get on with my life, never let me be my own person, who monitors and judges all my innermost thoughts, to whom I owed all of my success. It would be like living in NorthKorea.
-->'''Christian Broadcaster''': Well, I'm not sure God is Kim Jong-il.
-->'''ChristopherHitchens''': Well, ask Kim Jong-il, he has a different opinion.
* {{Determinator}}: Hitchens didn't let little things like being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer (the disease which ultimately took his life) stop him from giving public speeches and participating in debates. While somewhat quieter in his later days, he had just as much fire in him.
* DrunkenMaster: He was well known for his love of the bottle, particularly Johnnie Walker Black Label, and claimed drinking made him a better writer. He frequently appeared in interviews with a glass of whiskey in hand.
** And his editor has claimed that most of his ''VanityFair'' pieces were written shortly after very boozy business lunches.
* EnemyMine: One thing that makes him so controversial in the atheist community is that he had this attitude towards the [[GeorgeWBush Bush Administration]].
* FakeUltimateHero: How Hitch saw many revered figures, most notably Mother Teresa, widely viewed to be a FriendToAllLivingThings.
--> "[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."
* FanNickname: When Hitchens made a particularly good point or refutation, it was often referred to as a "Hitchslap". Hitchens himself is sometimes referred to as 'Hitch', including in the title of his memoir, ''Hitch-22''.
* FourHorsemen: … of New Atheism, alongside Sam Harris, RichardDawkins, and Daniel Dennett.
* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: along with the other so-called "New Atheists" described above: Hitchens was The Cynic, Sam Harris is The Optimist, RichardDawkins is The Realist, and Daniel Dennett is The Apathetic. And, while we're at it …
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Hitchens was choleric, Sam Harris is melancholic, RichardDawkins is leukine, and Daniel Dennett is sanguine/phlegmatic.
* FriendlyEnemy: Even by his most ardent intellectual foes, he was widely admired and respected.
* GallowsHumour:
** In an interview when he was asked what he thought of people who said his politics moved to the right as his waist line expanded. He stated that he'd just lost thirty pounds, and not in a pleasant way (due to his cancer treatment).
** He also, unlike many, had no fear of criticizing the recently departed. Most people give a few weeks or days of respectful lip-service. Not Hitch. When Princess Diana and Mother Theresa died in the same week, he ran ''rampant''.
* TheGrinch: See [[http://www.slate.com/id/2132806/ this]] essay, or [[http://www.slate.com/id/2206713/ this]] one. He wasn't too wild about [[http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/ Hanukkah]], either.
* HollywoodNerd: Type 2.
* InsultBackfire: During one of Hitchens' public appearances, an audience member at the microphone attempted to embarrass him by mocking his divorce. Rather than attack the man, Hitchens simply expressed his [[AmicableExes continuing respect for his ex-wife]] and his love for their shared children. The show of class and emotional maturity completely undermined whatever point the man was trying to make.
* {{Jerkass}}: He comes off as this, according to his religious debate opponents. He really is a…
* {{Jerk With a Heart of Gold}}: Hitchens may have been uncompromising in his criticisms, but a very large portion of his criticisms regarded morality. Even when other criticisms could be made against a person, that person's immorality was his primary concern, and it was extremely difficult to get him to focus on anything else.
* JewishAndNerdy: Ethnically, at least.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: He claimed that religion in general is ultimately a dangerous and destructive organization, and that a religion-free world would be much better.
-->"All religious belief is sinister and infantile."
* ReligionOfEvil: He believed they were all this, to varying degrees, as in the subtitle of his book ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything''. However, he opposed the Abrahamaic, monotheist religions the most (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). Islam was possibly the worst of these in his view.
-->'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40TRJl5vvI Hitch:]]''' Now I prefer to argue that it would be horrible if it were true. I'm not an atheist in other words, I'm an anti-theist. I don't, in myself, have any desire to live under a permanent, unalterable dictatorship… When I was in Christian prep school I used to wonder what Heaven would be like if it actually did consist of everlasting praise. Sounded like Hell to me, but I couldn't picture it; nobody can of course, but I've seen the nearest approximation to it, which is North Korea, where it is the only duty and job and right of a citizen to eternally praise the Divine Leader and his Divine Father… And it's a life of constant grovelling misery and fear and praise and thanks for the tiny hand-outs that you get, and it's impossible to describe, the nothingness of the life of a North Korean, but at least you can ''[[PrecisionFStrike fucking die]]'' and leave North Korea.
* SiblingYinYang: With his younger brother, Peter. Christopher was a very outspoken atheist/anti-theist and held predominantly (but by no means exclusively) left-wing political views. Peter is an Anglican convert from atheism and holds similarly predominantly right-wing political views. Christopher was known for drinking and smoking a lot, whereas Peter can't drink much and doesn't smoke. Christopher supported the Iraq War, bucking the left-wing consensus, whereas Peter opposed it, bucking the right-wing one.
* TheSnarkKnight
* SophisticatedAsHell: As a master of polemic, it's hardly surprising.
* TheAntiNihilist: Was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence.
* ThePowerOfHate: This is what kept him going, apparently [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/25/richard-seymour-s-tawdry-christopher-hitchens-bio.html 1]].
* WorthyOpponent: Whether you agreed with him or not, Hitchens was undeniably intelligent, well spoken and persuasive.
-->'''Shmuley Boteach:''' "I have debated many atheists, from Richard Dawkins to Daniel Dennett to Sam Harris to Christopher Hitchens. Of them all, Hitchens has been by far the most formidable opponent, the one I have most loved and the one that has most gotten under my skin. "
----
