Nothing To Hide [was Excellent New 9/11 Video]

craner

Beast of Burden
😅

Funnily enough, later on the Henry Jackson Society did turn into something like Padraig was describing, under the directorship of Alan Mendoza:

 

luka

Well-known member
It's interesting that although supposedly everyone has become more extreme these days dissensus has bunched together in the middle over time. theres no ideological breadth now we all believe the same boring things
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Being portrayed as part of a nefarious conspiracy actually gave me a good insight into the method and culpability of Padraig and his type.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The hilarious thing about Padraig's "discovery" was that he had discovered something that I'd openly talked about on my publicly accessible blog. I mean, I used to show off about it.
 

luka

Well-known member
Portraying you as part of a nefarious conspiracy gAve me good insight into the method of being an evil puppet master staging the reality theatre
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Portraying you as part of a nefarious conspiracy gAve me good insight into the method of being an evil puppet master staging the reality theatre

Even better was noting down the names of those who actually believed you as well.
 

luka

Well-known member
You can hear the bad influence of Hitchens in your initial response if you don't mind me saying. Mendacious etc. That kind of faux outrage, moral bombast and bloviating
 

luka

Well-known member
Having watched him on YouTube a lot now I can understand it. It's irresistible that kind of tub thumping
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The inflation of the self, as if your opinion is crucial to the development of the world.

I was influenced by his line that nobody has the right to be a spectator, but I was too influenced by it.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
But, it's a style that has now been fully absorbed by all the young commentators, although I think they derive it more from the pre-disgrace style of Johann Hari than Hitchens. Owne Jones, for example, displays this grotesque inflation of the self. I'm allergic to it now.
 

luka

Well-known member
It's just such a brilliant act. The best performer, the best stage performer of the past few decades. Owen Jones can't conjure up that gravitas, he doesn't look big, he looks weedy. Hitchens swells to an enormous size and dominates every room, that's where the magic is
 

luka

Well-known member
It also seems to represent a now unattainable adulthood. Whisky cigerettes broadsheets and complicated personal life as i think you said in relation to Mad Men.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
It's just such a brilliant act. The best performer, the best stage performer of the past few decades. Owen Jones can't conjure up that gravitas, he doesn't look big, he looks weedy. Hitchens swells to an enormous size and dominates every room, that's where the magic is

Also, Hitchens was a genuinely excellent writer. Maybe not the late stuff so much, but the essays from the 90s that were put together in For the Sake of Argument are up there with Robert Warshaw and Conor Cruise O'Brien in terms of literary style and flair.
 

luka

Well-known member
He always seems to extemporise better sentences than he could commit to paper although I admit I've only read his articles about boozing really.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The difference is, if you were a victim of Hitchens in the late 80s through to the mid 90s you would be expertly filleted. After 9/11, you would just be smashed over the head.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
He always seems to extemporise better sentences than he could commit to paper although I admit I've only read his articles about boozing really.

The books with the really good stuff are Prepared for the Worst, For the Sake of Argument and Unacknowledged Legislation. The very worst ones are Letters to a Young Contrarian, God is Not Great and Hitch-22, all of which contain the most of him as a personality and are the most embarrassing to read.
 

luka

Well-known member
Dissensus is where I parade my personality but the older I get the more I want to purge all personality from my other writing it starts to feel like the most pressing thing. Purge purge
 
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