Christopher Hitchens can be entertaining; that's apparent in his work. But the statement above is a rant: you either agree with it absolutely 100 percent or you don't. There's no room for conversation here, no space for dialogue, no opportunity for mutual discovery, for actual learning. And that's the stuff that causes us to engage intellectually, you might say makes us fully human.
Hitchens' statement is fully protected by the First Amendment. He's got every right to declare his opinion. So does the guy wearing the "Yankees Suck" t-shirt. The law, fortunately, doesn't compel anyone to respond to either. What's there to say, beyond unimaginative exclamations, like "Yeah!" or "Says you!" We get enough of that shout-you-down stuff in the stadiums... but there, at least you can get a beer and a hot dog.
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