Donald Trump

My January 2024 Election Forecast – too accurate

~ tomonhitch ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m thinking of reactivating this blog and or doing a podcast. As a reminder, this blog isn’t just about Christopher Hitchens the man, but about the issues he cared about. The most important being anti-totalitarianism, whether it come as religion or state oppression. He wrote frequently about freedom and the threats of authoritarianism in notable works including “Why Orwell Matters”, “Jefferson: Author of America”, and “Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man”.

On this blog I wrote a piece in August of 2019, called “Taking on ‘What Would Hitchens Have Thought‘” where I make the case that he would be outraged with Donald Trump and the Republicans and the media and that we can say this with a high degree of certainty. Now things are much worse regarding the threats to our democracy and the semi-authoritarianism under which we are already living. Here is my note, 10 months before the election for friends and family, to convince them not to vote for Trump. I missed some things including the support of the bros and high Latino support, but I think I got the broad strokes right, which is unfortunate for our country.

Having some formatting problems so I’m providing screenshots.

Sam Harris: Hitchens wouldn’t vote for Trump

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Sam Harris makes a good argument – that Hitch may have been willing to overlook Hilary’s shortcomings as a Presidential candidate, providing she planned to take action on the issue that was most important to him at the time: stopping Al Queda and its surrogates (which would have included Isis). This was back in 2007. I think if Hitch were here today, he would also be very concerned about Trump’s attacks on the free press. Let’s remember that Hitch was a First Amendment absolutist. He would not like Trump’s stated goal of making it easier to sue the press.

Whadda Ya Got to Lose?

~ tomonhitch ~ 1 Comment

I’m sure Hitch would have had something to say about the language Donald Trump used in his recent, ineloquent outreach to the  African American community. After saying its schools were horrible and its communities dangerous, he said “Give me a try – Whadda you got to lose ?”

It’s the same language Hitchens used when he mocked the god of Pascal’s Wager. The offer, he said, goes something like  this: “Why not believe in God?  Whadda you got to lose ?”

Here are videos of Hitch explaining the “Whadda ya got to lose” proposition (1:04 mark) (and as an added bonus he does an impression of  Bertrand Russell), followed by Mr. Trump using, just about the same phrase, with his ‘offer’ (at the :55 mark).

 

 

Hello UK: Is Donald Trump worse than Choudary?

~ tomonhitch ~ Leave a comment

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I’m an Anglophile. Let me start with that. I love the U.K, but members of the Parliament should not be debating banning someone from entering the country because they disagree with his speech.  How dare they?  I don’t at all like the way Donald Trump talks about Muslims and I think a ban is a horrible idea, and not American, but a free society should not ban someone because they don’t like what he says.

Why not ban Anjem Choudary?, who lives in the U.K. His speech  doesn’t bother the members?  Here’s an article talking about his support for ISIS, and it’s well know that he would like to see Sharia law implemented in the UK, and that he praised the 911 attackers. Hitchens wrote about this man in an essay for Vanity Fair: Londistan Calling.

Hitchens has gone out of his way to protect unpopular speech. I have to believe he would be against banning any speech, including that of Donald Trump.