The Hunter S. Thompson Question

[Mr. Bones]

Hunter is one of my heroes. He's a true American hero

https://youtu.be/etYed15hjiM

 

[stupid frog]

He absolutely loathed Nixon, but equally recognised that the counterculture wasn’t achieving anything.

When I read some of his stuff on Nixon, I wished he was alive and sane enough to write about everything since Trump showed up.

 

[Pomniman]

On the contrary, postmodern fiction vis-à-vis postmodern philosophy is an incoherent construct and I should hope this board will reconsider platforming any such unfounded assertion (for or against) on the monolithic v. delineated nature of postmodernist output by one whose conclusions not only derive neither from lived experience nor study of the extant discursive criticism on the question, but also by neglecting to include Black and Brown voices belies actual objectives isomorphic to the rape of our democratic institutions via misinformation.

Yes my fellow r‎etard, we must indeed rise up.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Hunter S Thompson is patron saint of the functional alcoholic and drug addict. Every gen X or early-millennial idolizes him because they, too, want to be a drug addicted alcoholic loser who somehow manages to be successful. They aren't, of course, but the fantasy helps them cope with how they fucked their whole life up. Wannabe journalists (strong overlap with alcoholics) idolize him for doing genuine investigative journalism, which no one does nowadays. They imagine themselves riding with the Hells Angels, doing meth to earn their trust, while they sit at their desk and write shitty blogposts no one will read.

Many such cases. Sad!

I mean, Hunter S. Thompson and Ayn Rand are for Gen X and Early Millennial libertarians what Peter Kropotkin and Robin DiAngelo are for Late Millennial and Early Zoomer leftists or Augustine of Hippo, Cotton Mather, and Julius Evola are for Zoomer rightists and traditionalists.

If someone from one of those groups lists them as their favorite writer/philosopher then it's way more often than not a hallmark they're a pretentious pseudo-intellectual jackass.

 

[Chongqing]

They've probably never read Hunter S. Thompson's "mundane" works. They've seen a version of Fear and Loathing and idolize "gonzo journalism" as if it's some kind of method where you get wasted and insightful journalism speaking truth to power happens. (Transmetropolitan is another work that generally subscribes to this version of Thompson.)

Thompson wrote a lot about all kinds of subjects and was also willing to go places and write things in the moment, these dudes who sit around and stream faggotry don't go anywhere or investigate anything. Thompson would go to events and wouldn't say "no" to things so he constantly got into hijinks and wound up places he wasn't supposed to be. Then he'd write about how nuts it was that a fuckup like him could just do [whatever] or get close to [somebody famous] just by hanging around in the right place at the right time. And he didn't hide his on-the-spot editorializing like most bland journalists of the era.

He also wasn't doing the whole "I'm nuts" thing as an act to be edgy and "look how crazy I am", he was pretty nuts in both good ways and bad. He was just into a weird variety of shit and really didn't care if any of it made normie journalist peers uncomfortable. And they're the ones who helped create his reputation as a larger than life figure they wished they could be.

I think that's absolutely true. And, just to add, I think a lot of people idealize him because he did drugs every day of his life, drank to excess, had the sleep schedule of a feral teenager, lied constantly but people still claimed he was truthful...to any true fuckup, Thompson is the ultimate role model. He never had to improve himself in any way, he was just rewarded for all of the worst parts of him.

 

[alreadyhome]

I think that's absolutely true. And, just to add, I think a lot of people idealize him because he did drugs every day of his life, drank to excess, had the sleep schedule of a feral teenager, lied constantly but people still claimed he was truthful...to any true fuckup, Thompson is the ultimate role model. He never had to improve himself in any way, he was just rewarded for all of the worst parts of him.

Being idolized for things you hate about yourself, and nurturing such a situation. It's pathetic.

 

[Tookie]

He's the eccentric outsider genius writer archetype for their generation so a lot of people glom on to him. I've always assumed there were tards in Hemingway or Twain's heydays going "uwu, he's just like me" too.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

I mean, Hunter S. Thompson and Ayn Rand are for Gen X and Early Millennial libertarians what Peter Kropotkin and Robin DiAngelo are for Late Millennial and Early Zoomer leftists or Augustine of Hippo, Cotton Mather, and Julius Evola are for Zoomer rightists and traditionalists.

The only names I know from this list are Rand and Thompson.

 

[Syaoran Li]

The only names I know from this list are Rand and Thompson.

Robin DiAngelo wrote the "White Fragility" book that the Critical Race Theory crowd loves so much and Kropotkin was one of the first Anarcho-Communist writers. The name "BreadTube" is derived from his book The Conquest of Bread.

Augustine of Hippo is a massively influential Christian philosopher from the 4th Century but he has a following among edgy Zoomer /pol/ types who usually haven't actually read most of his writings and Julius Evola was an Italian fascist and occultist who wrote "Revolt Against The Modern World" among other meme-tier books

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Robin DiAngelo wrote the "White Fragility" book that the Critical Race Theory crowd loves so much and Kropotkin was one of the first Anarcho-Communist writers. The name "BreadTube" is derived from his book The Conquest of Bread.

Augustine of Hippo is a massively influential Christian philosopher from the 4th Century but he has a following among edgy Zoomer /pol/ types who usually haven't actually read most of his writings and Julius Evola was an Italian fascist and occultist who wrote "Revolt Against The Modern World" among other meme-tier books

How's Cotton Mather fit with /pol/ zoomers? Iirc wasn't he a preacher and a staunch abolitionist?

Edit: I must be thinking of someone else. He was in the Salem witch trials but he also promoted innoculation and messed around with hybridizing plants

 

[BrunoMattei]

He was a great writer who lived a helluva life and was a fun anarchist sonofabitch drunkard. This isn't hard to figure out.

Read any of his Fear and Loathing books. Kingdom of Fear is a great oeuvre of his style. Or at least watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

 

[корона-тян]

Kropotkin was one of the first Anarcho-Communist writers. The name "BreadTube" is derived from his book The Conquest of Bread.

The ironic thing is that Kropotkin's "communism" was very tentative by any stretch of the imagination, and if the modern left actually read any Russian Anarchist works for that matter without blowing up their mind they'd be appalled, as they tend to shit on Marx and co as unnecessary and dumb.

As for Mr. Thompson, the reason for the obsession with him is because he's a major teaching point in american libarts programs. He's read, he's taught, and he's bright, shiny, and unusual, and therefore sticks in people's minds as a figure to be emulated in style, and maybe in lifestyle.

Read any of his Fear and Loathing books. Kingdom of Fear is a great oeuvre of his style. Or at least watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Or, just read some of his motorcycle reviews, they're much more pertinent, don't take up quite as much space, and can be done with in 15 minutes.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

Hell's Angels had an interesting end, as the Angels got completely fed up with Hunter Thompson acting like an asshole and stomped him out. I have a feeling that lots and lots of people who spent time with or around Hunter Thompson wanted to do the same thing. He was an obnoxious, unrepentant, unremitting asshole. He's the epitome of That Guy who never knows when to turn it off. I've read his books, and enjoyed some of them, but I don't actually rate him very high as either a writer or as a human being.

 

[Syaoran Li]

How's Cotton Mather fit with /pol/ zoomers? Iirc wasn't he a preacher and a staunch abolitionist?

Edit: I must be thinking of someone else. He was in the Salem witch trials but he also promoted innoculation and messed around with hybridizing plants

A lot of Mather's puritan rhetoric is prominent among the /pol/ crowd, particularly the ramblings about "degeneracy" and "moral deviancy" but he was not unique among the puritans in that regard but his writings did survive more into the 21st Century and you occasionally read excerpts of his writings in high school whenever discussing American literature or US History

 

[Andrew Neiman]

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" are both great books. However, Hunter S. Thompson brought the same tone, and the same approach, to practically everything. What does it mean to denounce George W. Bush as a Nazi retard faggot if you've already denounced every other president you've lived under as a Nazi retard faggot? I don't especially wish Thompson was around to cover Trump, because he'd probably just denounce him in the same hyperbolic terms with which he denounced Trump's predecessors. The same for Ralph Steadman: another artist who is incapable of adapting his style to suit different subjects.

Thompson's distortions, fabrications and self-insertions worked in part because Thompson was an outsider. Now, these practices are almost the norm in journalism in the U.S. Thompson's practices worked well to disrupt or to counterbalance the shortcomings of the journalistic tradition that strives for objectivity, but they don't make a good norm, especially when practiced by people less talented than Thompson.

Some of Thompson's work is great, but he's become a sacred cow since his death.

 

[BrunoMattei]

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" are both great books. However, Hunter S. Thompson brought the same tone, and the same approach, to practically everything. What does it mean to denounce George W. Bush as a Nazi retard faggot if you've already denounced every other president you've lived under as a Nazi retard faggot? I don't especially wish Thompson was around to cover Trump, because he'd probably just denounce him in the same hyperbolic terms with which he denounced Trump's predecessors. The same for Ralph Steadman: another artist who is incapable of adapting his style to suit different subjects.

Thompson's distortions, fabrications and self-insertions worked in part because Thompson was an outsider. Now, these practices are almost the norm in journalism in the U.S. Thompson's practices worked well to disrupt or to counterbalance the shortcomings of the journalistic tradition that strives for objectivity, but they don't make a good norm, especially when practiced by people less talented than Thompson.

Some of Thompson's work is great, but he's become a sacred cow since his death.

So basically you want someone to completely change their style every time they're addressing a similar but slightly different subject. Hunter lived and breathed politics, as well as football and guns, so it makes sense he would approach the same subject the same way.

Your post is just asinine. Yeah, let's tell Ingmar Bergman to stop making depressing metaphysical dramas. Let's tell Dali to stop drawing in his surrealist style or tell H.R. Giger to stop drawing Biomechanic shit.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

When I read some of his stuff on Nixon, I wished he was alive and sane enough to write about everything since Trump showed up.

Before you trash Nixon too much...
...Nixon proposed UBI, in amounts FAR greater than Yang
...Nixon ended The 'Nam
...Nixon founded Legal Services Corporation to assist the poor with criminal and civil matters, pro bono. State Funded
...Nixon was Pro-Choice
...Nixon opened trade with China/far east commie blocs
...Nixon was self-made, attending public schools and college by scholarship.

Thompson stated openly he opposed ALL of Nixon's policies. Think about that. I'm no fan of Nixon, but Watergate is fucking NOTHING compared to what is going on now.

Thompson was a shit journalist as well. He worked for Rolling Stone mainly due to their culture of drug tolerance. Instead of 'immersing himself' in the Greatest Boxing Match of All Time (Rumble in the Jungle), he chose to binge on drugs (he thought Ali was gonna lose). Fortunately after this final fuckup, everyone chose to ignore him. He lingered on for decades before thankfully self-deleting.

So yeah. Thompson chose to idolize the elite of his day and suckle on the teat of the California 1%. All while convincing psuedointellectuals in the next 3 generations of his greatness.

So basically you want someone to completely change their style every time they're addressing a similar but slightly different subject. Hunter lived and breathed politics, as well as football and guns, so it makes sense he would approach the same subject the same way.

Your post is just asinine. Yeah, let's tell Ingmar Bergman to stop making depressing metaphysical dramas. Let's tell Dali to stop drawing in his surrealist style or tell H.R. Giger to stop drawing Biomechanic shit.

Fantastic. The inspiration behind every Salon article and retarded Reddit post. Too bad he didn't self-delete decades previously.

 

[stupid frog]

Before you trash Nixon too much...
...Nixon proposed UBI, in amounts FAR greater than Yang
...Nixon ended The 'Nam
...Nixon founded Legal Services Corporation to assist the poor with criminal and civil matters, pro bono. State Funded
...Nixon was Pro-Choice
...Nixon opened trade with China/far east commie blocs
...Nixon was self-made, attending public schools and college by scholarship.

Thompson stated openly he opposed ALL of Nixon's policies. Think about that. I'm no fan of Nixon, but Watergate is fucking NOTHING compared to what is going on now.

Sorry, I didn't mean it as a slam on either person. I honestly just thought it would be an interesting read.

But, if I did know those things about Nixon, I forgot. I'm not an American, so I mostly know him for his famous phrase, or only negative aspects of his time. Thanks for some further insight.

People aren't really as black and white as media, et al try to make them. I think a lot of people forget that, especially with public figures (hence orange man bad no matter what).

 

[UnclePhil]

It's hard to get a grasp of who Hunter S. Thompson really 'was,' probably because, as others have mentioned, he was crazy. You've got the basic framework of Thompson in one corner, a liberal who loved guns, hated Nixon and lived by an odd moral code. You have the Raoul Duke/drug fiend psychopath persona from his writings, a caricature made up of Thompson's worst qualities. You have the accounts from Thompson's ex-wife and son, confirming that on some level HST was all of those things. There's also a conspiracy theory that he was involved in CP snuff films, which has thankfully never been confirmed with any concrete evidence, but Christ knows.

You also have the cult of personality that follows him postmortem, made up of people who want to follow in his footsteps on some woke pilgrimage, thinking he was the Johnny Depp character and not realizing he would have despised their journalism. As a person with writing aspirations, I take inspiration from how prolific he was. I like the image of Thompson sleepless and slamming his typewriter like a madman.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

It's hard to get a grasp of who Hunter S. Thompson really 'was,' probably because, as others have mentioned, he was crazy. You've got the basic framework of Thompson in one corner, a liberal who loved guns, hated Nixon and lived by an odd moral code. You have the Raoul Duke/drug fiend psychopath persona from his writings, a caricature made up of Thompson's worst qualities. You have the accounts from Thompson's ex-wife and son, confirming that on some level HST was all of those things. There's also a conspiracy theory that he was involved in CP snuff films, which has thankfully never been confirmed with any concrete evidence, but Christ knows.

You also have the cult of personality that follows him postmortem, made up of people who want to follow in his footsteps on some woke pilgrimage, thinking he was the Johnny Depp character and not realizing he would have despised their journalism. As a person with writing aspirations, I take inspiration from how prolific he was. I like the image of Thompson sleepless and slamming his typewriter like a madman.

Is KF developing intellectually now?
Are we understanding that people are multi-dimensional, rather than the 2D cartoons that others (and themselves) make them out to be?
Your post is one of the best I have read, gives me hope.
So, Yeah...
HST did some great things for journalism/literature/writing. Started some crappy precedents as well- both can be seen in CY 'journalism'.
HST was seen as a 'liberal' by his generation, but would certainly be cancelled by this generation's standards.
HST was self-contradictory in many ways, as we all are.
Hero worship is retarded. Extract the good lessons, discard the rest.
Applause to you, sir.
edit-sp.