Hunter Thompson

[Rushmore]

I have thoroughly enjoyed a great deal of what Dr. Gonzo has written over the years. I think he's really a great talent.

He recently wrote words to the effect that the Abu Graib debacle was worse than anything Hitler ever did, etc. (which was, of course, censored by the powers that be).

I'm wondering how we feel about this, AND the line at the very end of the same piece, where he says that he is "ashamed to carry an American passport?"

By "we," I mean "Americans reading this post," OR "others with an opinion on the subject."

[MMMMMM]

If he truly thinks what American soldiers did in the Abu Ghraib affair was worse than anything Hitler did, then he is genuinely insane.

[CORed]

For once, I agree with you. While I thing the abuses there are deplorable, they are hardly in the same league with murdering 12,000,000 people.

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
He recently wrote words to the effect that the Abu Graib debacle was worse than anything Hitler ever did, etc. (which was, of course, censored by the powers that be).


[/ QUOTE ]

Mason and Mat censored Hunter /images/graemlins/confused.gif I'm shocked /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Thompson must have been off his meds if he tried to say that putting a dog leash on a prisoner is worse than slaughtering men, women and children. I'd be interested in seeing this alleged psychotic babbling. And to see documentation about any censorship.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm wondering how we feel about this, AND the line at the very end of the same piece, where he says that he is "ashamed to carry an American passport?"


[/ QUOTE ]

How I feel is that he is free to leave, just like all the Hollywood phonies threatened to do if Bush was elected. Why are they still here, BTW? I didn't vote for Bush, and I think the Iraq decision was a major screw-up, but if those are accurate representations of what Thompson said, he has finally fried all the synapses in his tired little brain. How about some links here??

[Rushmore]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1141560/posts

[Bill Murphy]

He's been a tired old drunk for twenty years now. Just recycles his old stuff; substituting "Bush" for "Nixon", "Ashcroft" for "Hoover", etc.

But F&L'72 is a stone righteous masterpiece, so I guess he's entitled to cruise, just off that book alone.

[Zeno]

I have enjoyed much of Hunter's writing over the years and I agree with your main points. His better material is in the 1960-1980 time frame. Perhaps he feels the bitterness of old age finally, and is pandering to sensationalism to revive and pump up his public persona or garner attention. He is an alcoholic of grand statue and will not last beyond 2010, unless he made a deal with the Devil.

A bit sad that Hunter feels the need to stoop as low PETA tactics in his writing. He should take a page from Mark Twain’s later years – and use his animus against cant, sham, and hypocrisy with better style and wit.


-Zeno

[BadBoyBenny]

The actual line was

"Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these [Abu Ghraib] photographs did."


Saying that something is more shocking is not the same as saying it's worse.

[MaxPower]

Thanks for clearing that up.

It still doesn't change the fact that he hasn't written anything good in years.

[MMMMMM]

Thanks for the actual quote.

If he truly meant it, he is looking at things upside down and sideways; if he didn't mean it, it's a load of cheap hyperbole.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
The actual line was

"Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these [Abu Ghraib] photographs did."


Saying that something is more shocking is not the same as saying it's worse

[/ QUOTE ]

You're absolutely right. I really should have gone back and checked the exact quote before I posted.

So allow me to try to salvage: HST was more shocked by some rogue reservists with poor supervision and leadership acting abominably than he was about the Holocaust?!

Not the same, of course, but curious nonetheless.

[Cyrus]

I share all the admiration for Hunter S. Thompson expressed by others in this thread but I always visit his outpouring with reservations. It so happens that I do believe in organic chemistry. All that stuff is not just going away when you go to the toilet!

Got any links to the article? Sounds like a typical Gonzo hyperbole (and, as you know, he is the world champion of hyperbole).

[MMMMMM]

The chemically induced problems didn't make him into a jerk; that must have been a personal choice.

It's an assh#le comment he made: hyperbole with a deliberate assh#le edge. The guy may be a creative genius but he's also obviously a certified dick.

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1141560/posts

[/ QUOTE ]

As I read it, the comment was censored by a middle-level editor, not by the "powers that be." And I believe that such an editor has no business rewriting opinion pieces, as opposed to straight news. I do believe that ESPN had the right to not run the piece, which is what they should have done if they didn't like it.

That said, Thompson is a great and wasted talent who has been living off of his reputation for many years. I gave up reading him a long time ago, because he has been going downhill since the Fear and Loathing books. He has turned into just another shock jock, no better than Howard Stern or Michael Savage. The statement in question appears to have been thrown out for pure shock value, without a shred of thought behind it. And saying things like he is ashamed to be an American, while continuing to live here, puts him in the class of intellectual lightweights as Alex Baldwin and Barbara Streisand. All mouth and no conviction.