Christopher Hitchens - On Q and A

walid was pretty good

True!

@@insight827 he played the role of apologist and was pandering to Hitchens so he didn't get intellectually destroyed. A middle ground on such topics isn't terribly sophisticated or admirable, in my opinion...

Ha ha

“Lex Fridman is dangerous” 18 min inspirational video on KZhead ends w the poem “if” by R Kipling Which is best, Law abiding citizen, Forest gump, Green mile 51st dates Hancock Click or stepbrothers

well no one else was worth watching here, Hitch was a genius

Ðj John I heard he destroys Waleed Aly, that's why I'm here!

Waleed actually generally comes off sounding more or less reasonable here. It's that idiotic woman in red sitting beside him that fails to make any reasonable point whatsoever.

I wish everyone had a mindset like him

ain't gonna go ell for poor old Wally

Thank God for Hitch! A bit of sarcasm there :-)

Yeah.........I really miss him too...........😢

every comment on the video is saying how great he was...and they are not wrong

Need him desperately in this day and age

I couldn't agree more. Nothing like a good "Hitchslap" 😊

Headscarf today.... drag queen story time to your kids tomorrow.

Scumbags.@@amatyaucran2214

​@@amatyaucran2214 Funny part is that UN didn't strongly condemn that murder and lets Iran sit in Human right council Something is wrong in UN

@@Endrin911the UN is corrupt like all international organisations.

@Endrin911 Please don't put any confidence in the UN. It is the same as any other governmental body that is riddled like Swiss cheese for corruption. They do Not care about these women. There could be Literally Millions of them dying on television from their religious oppressive leaders in Iran. Still, Nothing will be done by the UN.

Peter Bell Ironically, you said "god". Ha! I don't believe in God, so I tend to say: "Oh my Universe!"

Hi I'm Goku I use the term ironically.

Peter Bell Just dont use the word God and Christopher Hitchens name in the same sentence to often..... But i understand you and i have the same feeling you are relating too ;-)

Spongebob0911 There's nothing wrong with using the word "god" lol it's just a word after all, Hitchens himself would use "god" terms often and it never bothered him. It's a little too dogmatic for me if someones sooo "atheist" they can't even use certain words.

Peter Bell You are 100% correct. When I stub my toe I will yell god dammit. That is the English language. Am I supposed to remove words from my vocabulary because I don't believe in it? P.S. When I do yell 'god', it always with a lower case 'g'. :]

+Heath Kitchen VERY cool.

+Heath Kitchen He is always my One Punch Man!! ;D

+Heath Kitchen proof alcohol doesn't kill brain cells OR he has a few extra

he was a brilliant man and an inspiration to me. listening to his debates and reading his books helped me shake the guilt I had for asking questions and allowed me to embrace an atheistic lifestyle without a fear of eternal torture in hell.

Just a joke my friend

To be fair, she was saying the quoran(not sure how to spell it) does not limit women's right but the politicians in the arab countries do. And Hitchens made a point of saying she couldn't do something in the country, which didn't rebut what she said, it really just agreed but came off as rebuttal.

​@@stefon815you're right the quran doesn't. But the hadith do. The afghani taliban and Iranian clerics haven't just made it up.

And thats how you shut up a apologist.@@FlyingSpaghettiMonster2000

@@FlyingSpaghettiMonster2000 Afghani is a currency. Afghan are people.

@@DoctorChained noted. My point remains true.

Oh ffs.

Not national. Christopher's charm and wit transcends national barriers.

He was highly intelligent. But he was also an arrogant buffoon that liked to drink and smoke.

​@@zapkvrare you ok😆😆

@@zapkvrDid you stub your toe?

Hitchens chastised the priest by saying something like ''look at the priest acting as if the church didn't persecute gays for centuries'', so Hitchens disregarded linear time blurring the past with the present. But if someone said ''look at this white prerson, acting as if whites didn't enslave and persecute blacks for hundreds of years'' - the same crowd that clapped for him would be calling him a regressive. A rare moment of weakness from Christopher Hitchens.

ItsameAlex he didn't say the church "persecuted gays for centuries" He said that frank brennan "spoke about it as if the Catholic Church hadn't taught it to be a mortal sin" The difference between your example and Hitch's..... is that white people dont enslave other human beings anymore. There are still priests appealing to Leviticus on the subject of homosexuality to this day, and reserve the right to do so. No regressivism required.

@@AlexGordonMusic Not to mention black people are still enslaved in other parts of the world.

Phoenix Chastaine a lot of races are I’m not sure that’s relevant to the point..... however true it is.

I have regularly been referred to as the second coming of Hitch (if you'll pardon the expression) on behalf of my friends, family and colleagues. I'm rather partial to a Johnny Walker black label (breakfast of champions) and engage in public discourse regularly.

You must be fun at parties

George Barnard I loled when i read your comment

+David Parks Touché

:D

+George Barnard its always easier to shrug off correction and continue to be illiterate, than it is to acknowledge a mistake has been made and correct it. its nature to people with poor education and an inability to take responsibility.

Hope things are better there

@@JohnM-sw4sc we're safe from terrorists, but not safe from our government. A bunch of corrupt assholes

@@JohnM-sw4sc thank you

He was a great man, especially since he had love for the Kurdish people and his commitment to the cause

@@evunsoo indeed

Exactly!

me too!

Me too, he was the reason for a great turning point in my life regarding religion.

yea i miss him too too bad we are left with his lame brother...

flick thomas

Bang on. His intellect was just on another level.

this panel is somewhat unsophisticated; including Waleed who attempts to come across as intellectual, but fails to make a cogent point on pretty much anything. Lots of words but no real message.

No. I don't agree. I think this video is Hitchens at his best. He doesn't focus on immaturely "destroying" the other side -- as entertaining as that might be. He shows the same level of maturity in his debate, near the end of his life, with Mr Larry Taunton. And, I think that the Muslim man -- I'm typing this on my phone and have forgotten his name -- was very very good, though perhaps not as witty or pugnacious as Hitchens. I like Hitchens. He was witty, funny, clever and sincere. But I think he saw things too dogmatically. The woman in the audience asks a fair and relevant question -- which Hitchens awkwardly (and unconvincing) avoids. Take care -V

Oh course he didn’t struggle with these feather weights, I’d only be interested in a conversation between Christopher and Waleed.

@Rene R. why would he? And why would you suggest such a thing? They are simply debating, talking passing the point one to another, there's nothing malicious in this video, whats wrong with people. You cannot expect every human mind to be a prodigy better than the one before him, no it doesn't work that way, one may be smarter than the other, and if he is thats fine nothing wrong, he should lead and teach the others not attack or obliterate. But that does not mean others have no voice and have no right to speak their mind. Not to say he's a guest too, part of the group in which everyone gets to talk.. Thats a sign of a weak mind guys just to know.. what you did there.

So true

Yes, together with Carl Sagan, perhaps.

Yeah, it's called "common sense and reasoning." No need for mystical bullshit

Good point

A voice of reason in a world of madness.

And absolutely in 2024 .......

@@tonnekevankan7512 And 2025 *gasp*

מה אומר אחי

מ־52:14 מתחילה לדבר בחורה מלאה מצטדקת למען איסלאם ואיראן. טוענת שהיא קראה את הקוראן ואיסלאם נותן זכויות לנשים וכך גם באיראן היצ'נס בתגובה דחה טענותיה שאכן כך המצב, באומרו שהוא רואה את פניה, את שערותיה יושבת בקהל עם גברים צעירים ושלא תגיד לו שהיא מסוגלת לעשות זאת באיראן היא משיבה שקצוות שערותיה יהיו בחוץ, כי הצעיף יהיה קטן נו הרי כל הנקודה שהיצ'נס הייתה מגבלות החופש צעיף זה לא מספיק אינדיקציה שהוא צדק? אז היא תקפה אותו על עניין טכני פעוט בנוגע שיער שאותו רואים במעט שטופת מח איסלאמית

Big fatty thinks she'd be just fine living in an Islamic state. Oh the irony is just sublime.

היצ'נס מדהים

I almost missed that. If anybody took her seriously earlier, they must have struggled to after that.

+M' Lady i'm 10 minutes in and i think you're right

only gets more blatant

Hitch may have tapped that ass later.

She was dancing with me. Cheek to cheek.

This is why people like her should not be allowed to speak , she just chats shit and comes across as a Hitch hater with no back up who maybe loved grandmas cough medicine too much.

Yes,it would have been to have competent theists on the panel, too.

That's what religious apologists do best!

Something that had always set Hitch above most in any form of debate or Q&A was that he never needed to equivocate.

Owners of dogs will notice that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they think you are god.

My children at least recognise when they have an opportunity to better understand. These people and audience lack that.

I have regularly been referred to as the second coming of Hitch (if you'll pardon the expression) on behalf of my friends, family and colleagues. I'm rather partial to a Johnny Walker black label (breakfast of champions) and engage in public discourse regularly.

They thought he wrote Marx's most famous quote lol.

@@anonymouse1289 That is certainly a contemptible position to take.

So that is true, is it? It can't be legend? It has to be actual truth? Hardly.

Leave your folkloric tale of Rasputin out of the discussion.

+Alloces undertaker You keep bringing up Rasputin. Which begs the question, what do you think atheism is? Even if Rasputin was able to heal using magical powers or not. It makes no difference. Your blind defense of historians is misguided at best. There are historians today who deny the Holocaust. I condemn them as much as I condemn Hitler's "final solution". I return back to my question, what do you think atheism means?

The photo does show he had an interesting gaze. However this doesn't prove that his healing powers came from a god, or even that he had healing powers. History is full of tricksters and charlatans. As I recall Rasputin was poisoned, shot multiple times, stabbed, and finally drowned. Wouldn't powers given from an omnipotent god have saved him? Again I don't think you understand what atheism means/is. Atheism is not a philosophy. Atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods. Your claims about Rasputin are as good as those made in the bible or any other religious texts. That is to say not good at all. You lack evidence of any kind beyond hearsay and conjecture.

***** I'm not sure if you're being willfully difficult or you genuinely don't understand. Since things are getting slippery, let's nail them down. Is it your claim that Rasputin had magic healing powers? Why do you think this has anything to do with atheism? There are many plausible scientific theories as to how Rasputin helped Alexei. Sadly we do not have a time machine so we cannot definitely say what happened. Invoking the names of historians and authors doesn't clarify your assertions about Rasputin. Please enumerate your beliefs/assertions so that I may illuminate them.

Lol never heard hitchens described as wholesome, not sure that word fits haha

Right. I agree strongly with all that except for the admittedly few times I cringed at what was not wholesome at all.

@enterpassword3313 The Truth, can often be viewed by some, as not wholesome. I completely disagree. Wholesome is conducive to promoting moral and or social well being. By telling others who are steeped in barbaric religious traditions and customs that require things like women being Forced to wear a cloth bag for clothing. The Truth. He Is in fact Exactly wholesome..by definition.

@@PhyrstNayme-gm7ej There were times when truth or socially redeeming value were conspicuously absent from a gratuitous remark or two.

This is a classic Muslim deflection tactic in action. Taqqiya (deceit, dissimulation, concealment, lying and diplomacy) is used as a religious/political weapon and a recruitment tool.

Exactly what he said.

Secular Moral Superiority Except Waleed clearly stated he was Sunni, and taqqiya WAS practiced by Shiites in order to deflect persecution under the rule of Sunni (Muslim) caliphs. However, I doubt you didn't already know this as all this information can be found with a quick google search. Most like you are intentionally spreading false information in order to further your bigoted agenda.

Mustafa Ashar Bigoted agenda? Typical theist projection. Explain then, why Waleed couldn't answer the questions...

Secular Moral Superiority "Typical Theist Project" You pretentious idiot I'm an atheist ex muslim. Waleed did answer the questions but his answers either came from an extremely Liberal perspective or were flat out evasive and frankly that's because he's a typical Muslim apologist. However, explain to me how you are not a bigot when your intentionally spreading false information about a person performing a practice from a sect he's not even part of that died out centuries ago?

***** That why I miss Hitch so much :)

+cal kane the world is a poorer place without the hitch r.i.p.

+cal kane Man the planet needs Christopher NOW. Ironically his loss proves his point there is no god!

Ahmad Zaraei I've read the Quran and could give you lots of misogynistic verses but I guess you would just say "Learn Arabic" or "You're reading that out of context" right?

cal kane No it helps if you can speak Arabic and understand the Qur'an in context but ultimately men and women were clearly not created equal. This does not mean that Islam hates women but clearly Islam recognizes that women are clearly inferior to men and that women need to learn their place in relation to men if they want to earn respect from men, there's nothing wrong with that.

Mason Barakat I am two years late, but who :P

@@s.ananthkarthikeyan4560 14:27 and 14:37, sorry im 5 years late

8 years late

This is such a fundamental issue I have with debates.

Hmm I’d say it was beautifully amazing bro

AGREED. I'M SURE HITCHEN'S COULD EVEN DEBATE HIS OWN VIEWS WITH CONVINCING LOGIC.

Always. After watching countless debates about the existence of gods i started to skip the theists, they simply never come up with anything at least slightly interesting or new.

yes agree

He's great! I do prefer Matt Dillahunty, though

What about joe rogan?

​@@shazzthedon i know you're messing around bur Rogan is a joks.

@@shazzthedon you're funny...

This comment should be the first one to appear ... Kudos, sir!

I was wondering the same thing. She does not have an Iranian accent. She has an Arabic accent. And obviously so unaware of how things are in Iran for women.

You're absolutely right about everything except the capital 'M' at the end of the word 'Islam.'

My Iranian female friend would not dare to go out without being completely covered. She also told me that married couples are sometimes arrested on the assumption that they should not be seen in public together.

I hope with the new anti-terror legislation in place these two sisters are put under surveillance. They appear to carry radical Islamic sentiments or maybe they have already joined the dead cult

Frank Brennan and Waled Ali both dodge key questions in an effort to look reasonable and balanced. Hitchens rightly calls them out for their hypocrisy.

@adamgodfrey6591 Excellent point. Do Not think though that Any catholic or muslim charity cares one bit about women. Let alone Anyone that cannot fill their coffers, and stiffen their ranks.

He's a loser. You are too. 😁

And joking and flirting with you all along in a passive and very aggressive way. Legend. And man he does it so well, in such a polished subtle way, making it appear as harmless banter (when it is not most of the times, a lot of times he slips in a sexualised thing it's actually a very effective offensive move to embarrass or take you down a notch, also extremely difficult to defend against, you loose face whether you react in anger or let it slip). He's so good in fact i m sure were he still amongst us in this post metoo era, he could still pull things like this off cause he does it in such a casual indirect way, with a weird mix of blunt naivety and underlying cynicism.

Even when hes wrong it sounds kinda convincing lol

To presume that it is possible to have a “rapier of a tongue that could cut any opponent down to size” and that doing so can be done “without being nasty or disrespectful” is incongruous, absurd.

@@AmericusMaximus It isn't a literal description so not really. Being humbled by sharp logic doesn't have to be nasty or disrespectful, yet it can be compared to the finesse of a rapier, not its violence, and to be humbled by it is to be cut down to size. That's the beauty of it. I can see how you would think it's absurd, but it really isn't in context.

@@WrestleGermainia Whether there is an actual rapier is neither in play nor relevant here. And while true that a clash between superior and inferior logic need not be nasty or disrespectful, it certainly can be and on KZhead often is-KZhead banks on it. The original commenter finds Hitchens’ schtick uplifting and therapeutic, an antidote for the blues. I contend that however satisfying, watching Hitchens perform is less akin to admiring beautiful art on the walls of a museum than sitting ringside at a UFC match, metaphorically of course.

@@AmericusMaximus that’s fair enough, it’s just a case of personal sentiment then I guess. I still wouldn’t describe the original comment as absurd, but maybe I’m just being pedantic.

Can you give me a time stamp on that, must have missed it

@@russe19642it’s probably just the first few minutes

@@chelsiewei1232 thanks,yeh I went back and looked for it

He carried that English regalness with him, you could hear it in his speech, his body language, and his well thought out insults and jokes. It is always a pleasure to listen to that man.

i find him the biggest asshole on the globe

rachid How come? From what he says or the way he says it? What he says is confrontational but how he says it is steeped in British high society charm. It allows him to say quips and jabs in a very polite way. I think it sounds rather witty and is pleasant to listen too.

nibus9 That sir or madame is a clever insult. It took a second reading for me to pick up on it. Hats off to you.

Gary Milne x

I would have loved to drink with him.

Welcome aboard brother.

Lol lol

What?

***** I don't know why that made me laugh so much.

***** That's funny because Chuck Norris is a bigoted, religious right winger. XD

***** Norris found Jesus, have you heard?

Will you marry me?

Sorry about your father. Hitchens died within 2 years of me discovering him. He was gone too soon.

@@candyman5912 Yep, he died within a year of me discovering him...and there's been no other intellectual contrarian to step up to take his place...Almost all news shows have become entertainment/echo chambers...Oh, what we have lost...

@@toAdmiller Yeah, I think it was about 2009/10 his fame was at its height on KZhead, alongside the New Atheist movement. It was a great time, when reason challenged dogma in all walks of life. We've gone backwards now though.

Carl Sagan was an absolute gem of a human being. I could listen to him for hours.

Well I never met your father but I'll agree with the other two.

Who said you were right? You? LOL. No one know. Please STFU

@@Bobaganush26 best to ascribe your degree of belief to the evidence presented, it doesn't need to get personal

@@veganath Was reason and logic that Hitchens used when making the case for the Iraq war?

@@marcelodasilva942 *_"Was reason and logic that Hitchens used when making the case for the Iraq war?"_* I would hope so, but it would be better if he/we used logic & reason to come up with solutions to ameliorate man's greatest admission to failure *_WAR!!_* I hope you agree?

@@veganath Yes, i do. I just still don't understand the logical argument behind Hitchen's position throughout the years.

Bollocks

@@zapkvrthus demonstrating that you immediately don’t have the capacity to either to understand that statement, or to respond to it intelligently. Or maybe both ?? 😂

LOL! That was brilliant by Hitchens.

Haha yeah he is so good with his words. The audience were lapping it up too

The Church deserves to be bagged and to be smeared after protecting so many pedophiles. Hitchens was right.

Hitchslap

@@alanroberts3013 Depends on "the church".

Christopher called him out on it lol but yea everyone who watched this caught on his first answer the gymnastic he performed is Olympian tier

Just Dangerous

Except when he states that homosexuals would need to have a discussion with their pastor to know whether they were immoral or not... True colours are difficult to hide.

Listening to him is grating. He says absolutely nothing. It’s word salad without any dressing.

Even Waleed knew that she was wrong

Knew she couldn't deny that so turned to minimising that.

well he is on the winning side of the argument 😅

He's a proficient wordsmith.

give that old bint at the end a bashing

Is this the best debaters Australia can come up with? What we had were 2 women, a drunk and a confused ones and two religious apologists with such a BS spin!!

@@peterdanharding6041 you thought hitch was drunk.....then i would love to see him sober

A kid/teenager would learn more from an hour of Hitchens, than in a week of school. The man instills high-culture wherever he goes.

NOTABOOS no one could escape from Hitchens' mind

I disagree. This is just a game of semantics. Convert, to go from one state to another. Convert apple to shit, just eat it and wait. Convert to atheism implies you previously held the belief there was a God. It doesn't make an underlying assertion that atheism is a religion.

No, dropping out of a religion is called deconversion. Converting from a religion means you're switching to a different religion. It's not the same.

***** Not quite. Converting means to go from one state to another.

Adam G: Yes, but we're speaking specifically about religion. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deconversion

***** Converting isn't a strictly religious term. If somebody said they converted to Atheism, that does not imply Atheism is a religion. No more than saying I converted to the text to Arial implies Arial is a religion. It's a pathetic attempt at an argument. Very superficial and lacking in substance to what is usually the bigger picture.

he would have refused a knighthood…. he was a life-long republican and detested the idea of hereditary rule.

coventryboy68 Life-long republican? He was a socialist in his younger years.

Adam s do you know what 'republican' means? do you? really? wikipedia is your friend

coventryboy68 It holds different connotations in different countries. It could be confusing to Adam s since Hitchens became a U.S. citizen, and lived in D.C. most of his adult life.

A Nobel peace Prize maybe, but I very much doubt that The Hitch would be impressed with a bauble from the house of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.

The actual events confirms what he said in his last decades about Islam and Gaza... He would be the man to go to have a complete full picture of the problem, that we already know is religious extremists...

J.M i know right?!!! Who is he fooling!

The hadiths are religious laws, the most severe being apostasy, where you only need to be born in aa muslim nation to be tried for.

Sea BelowMe I've seen it all. Trust me, it can all be pretty ugly when a religion rules over a nation

LOL right

It's perfectly ridiculous... Why the fuck doesn't anyone, especially The Hitch, maim him on that point. Making such claims is just inexcusable, and quite disingenuous at that. I'm so fed up with hearing people constantly torturing the language so they may say the opposite of the truth, and still seem credible.

Two world wars are still non-religious episodes though.

And, he was a gentleman. I met him at one of his debates in Dallas. He asked me to do a favor for him and purchase his book from a book seller he invited to the debate and was concerned that this person did well. As usual, he demolished all opponents with his brilliant wit and intellectualism. Years later, Prestonwood Baptist Church thought that cancer stricken Christopher would lose the debate against a professor from Southwestern Seminary. How wrong they were. Hitchens overwhelmed the poor guy. The 4000 seat auditorium was filled and many young people that exited with a new way of thinking.

@@nostalgicever3267 WWII was about Nazis feeling they were the one superior race created by god. I'd encourage you to listen some of Hitchens's speeches on how the Nazis were backed by the Vatican and so forth. I wouldn't say that the whole world war was religious but the main power that was threatening taking over the world felt they were doing it because of god.

We have the problem of feeling superior in America today. I have never seen Trump show any humility.

+Tarpikus Didn't heard that oen before! good one!

Honey Ryder --- I'm a man dipshit...

Biker Tramp Caitlin Jenner started out as Bruce Jenner, don't fight your transformation, DIPSHIT.

Honey Ryder --- Sounds like Bruce is your dream boy --- Fuck Off Punk!

Biker Tramp Don't fight your new body, embrace your new identity go forth and explore. Deal with your anger issues as well, OK?