# Quote — Christopher Hitchens, For the Sake of Argument

> Rushdie had written a book of nonfiction which offered critical but decided support to the Nicaraguan revolution. He had also been eloquent about the rights of the ever-relegated Palestinians. What more natural, when he was threatened with assassination by contract, than to jubilate about a terrorist-symp who had been caught in his own logic? I counted some ten newspaper and magazine columns from the Podhoretz school, all making this same point in the same words — demonstrating the impressive Zhdanovite discipline that is the special mark of the faction. All of them seemed to regard the affair as some sort of heavenly revenge for the sin of radical promiscuity; much as they have represented the AIDS crisis as a vengeance as on sixties morality. The ethical nullity of these positions never got beyond mere gloating, and will one day help to illustrate the essential distinction between irony and brutish sarcasm.

- Author: [Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md)
- Book: [For the Sake of Argument](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#For_the_Sake_of_Argument:_Essays_and_Minority_Reports_(1993)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/rushdie-had-written

## More from this book

> The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-polls-undoubtedly.md)

> The pornography of tough-mindedness, covert action, and preparedness for "peace through strength" has had a predictably hypnotic effect on the legislative branch, turning it from legal watchdog to lapdog.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-pornography-of-tough-mindedness.md)

> The United States has an isolationist and insular culture, combined with a global and interventionist posture. This highly dangerous and febrile mixture, which greatly facilitates the task of the fear-mongers and chauvinists, needs a very exact and nuanced diagnosis. I don't think that analogies from the totalitarian model, however suggestive, are sufficient.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-united-states.md)