What's the deal with people who are evidently very well-read

In what way does Hitchens display "incredibly simplistic patterns of thought" ?

>>8428578
You have to understand that Hitchens was a serious alcoholic for the last 20 years of his life, I think that was a big part of it

Plus he always hung onto unrealistic thought like Trotzkyism, which came with his environment

>>8428578

Agreeing with >>8428581 but I'll bite you fag. Most anything you've seen him in or read of his has been for the layperson. He has to be simple--which doesn't equate to simplistic. Watch old videos of him as a young reporter, totally not famous, and he's almost too obtuse and winding in his thoughts to be enjoyable. He slimmed it down to be palatable and now you, presumably, can't read between the lines and are butthurt about it.

Also you're baiting I'm guessing, but, heeyoooo any Hitch thread is a good thread

>>8428588
>Plus he always hung onto unrealistic thought like Trotzkyism

Why do you consider Trotskyism unrealistic

>>8428581
Simplistic might not be the best word, as the lowest pigshit can be prohibitively complex (look at the more traditional astrology charts) but as with any proud rhetorician his actual justifications for his claims are just repeated revisits to snappy essay-points that exist so he can make everyone, including himself, forget he avoided founding his stances in any positive rigorous epistemic sense during the whole affair.

For instance, reading actual atheist thinkers like Ladyman and Ross or any of the older naturalistic metaphysicians makes reading Hitchens' atheism some sort of ironic greek hell sentence where you have to watch everyone over inflate the worth of a man who never even did the first steps of the necessary work but is getting praise because the doodles he drew around the margins are sort of pretty.

>>8428598
Leninism for people who are averse to the idea of actually being associated with the Soviet Union, even if that means denying that historical materialism ensured the institutional failures and upper-caste behavior of the project no matter the leader of the party

>>8428604
It really sounds like you haven't read anything he has written.

I've read a lot of his work, and tbqh he doesn't seem like a shallow thinker at all.

I mean just read his essay collection Arguably, and tell me if this is in any way written by someone who is simply a "rhetorician".

>>8428611
>even if that means denying that historical materialism ensured the institutional failures and upper-caste behavior of the project no matter the leader of the party

but how tho

File: b86sq.jpg (75KB, 460x577px) Image search: [Google]

75KB, 460x577px

>>8428604
>during the whole affair

Not sure whether to hate him or his brother more.

>>8428604
Who in the hell are Ladyman and Ross? Can you give full names please? I can find no reference to them on the internet. Thanks.

>>8428604
Hitchens was much more of a "just believing in God or letting others believe in God is not harmless" atheist; and not at all a metaphysical one.

At this level he is quite sound in his argumentation.

You could attack his emotional support of neoconservative bullshit or something, but your angle is a shot one to come at the argument.

>>8429381
James Ladyman and Don Ross, authors of probably the most dominant systematization of a naturalistic ontology currently out there. See the SEP page on Ontic Structural Realism first because their book is comparably very technical

>>8428604
>positive rigorous epistemic sense
i kant believe you just said that

>>8429986
Thanks for the names. I will definitely do my due diligence to read them.
I am sorta new here though. SEP page?

>>8430058
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

>>8428604

Jesus Christ, what a dumb post.

>>8428578
that describes essentially everybody on this message board.
it's easy to read things without actually engaging with them, or developing deeper comprehensions and allowing your brains to form connections, etc, etc. also a lot of people go to works of literature with biases that don't allow them to truly engage with the works.