Matt Johnson – The Lessons of Christopher Hitchens
Episode description
0:00 How Matt first encountered Christopher Hitchens
6:07 Matt’s new book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
8:00 Why Matt thinks Cornel West’s Vietnam-Afghanistan analogy is flawed
14:21 What’s worth preserving in the left-liberal tradition?
21:38 Matt: Identity politics is a “toxin”
27:20 Was affirmative action ever necessary?
35:29 Matt: I wish the left would rediscover Hitchens’s universalism
45:04 Hitchens’s “fearless liberalism”
Recorded July 6, 2023
Links and Readings
Matt’s new book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
Hitchens’s NYRB review of Douglas Murray’s Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas
Hitchens’s book, Why Orwell Matters
George Orwell’s book, Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Glenn’s recent conversation with Cornel West
Matt’s Quilette essay on John Mearsheimer
Matt’s Quillette essay on Bayard Rustin
Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life
Nathan Glazer’s book, Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy
Roland Fryer’s NYT oped, “How to Fix College Admissions Now”
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Atlantic essay, “The Case for Reparations”
Bayard Rustin’s 1965 Commentary essay, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement”
Norman Finkelstein’s book, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It!: Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom
Glenn’s conversation with Norman Finkelstein
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