Atheist Leftists Are Leftists First And Atheists Second, Or Less

Update: Christopher Hitchens died on 15 December, 2011.  National Review and Vanity Fair have the details.

Here we have Christopher Hitchens speaking to a group of atheists at a Freedom From Religion Foundation gathering.  He sounds like damn near the only atheist in the building:

One of the great things about Christopher Hitchens is that he is principled.  He dresses down a Leftist surrender monkey (around the 3:40 mark) and asks what he is doing in a conference like this.  He uses as an example the Greek Myth of Antaeus to respond to the ridiculous notion that if bin Laden is killed many will spring up in his place.

The point he makes is, there are religious zealots who are fighting us, killing human rights volunteers, etc. and they need to be stopped in the name of liberty for all.  The next questioner, a Marxist/Communist is "troubled" by Hitchens' earlier answer.  "You see how far the termites have spread" is the Hitchens money quote in response to the ridiculous question and the man's accusation that the West is the big "war crimes" instigator.

Hitchens continues in this clip about Islamic slaughter in East Timor and its appearance in the Al Qaeda/bin Laden manifesto:

Now, the point of all of this goes directly to the bigger issue of Atheism in the Socialist vs. Libertarian dialogue.

A hallmark of Socialists/Leftists is their professed atheism.  Not all of them to be sure, but one must mount a tremendous search to find a non-atheist among them.  In the libertarian ranks, the search is ever so slightly shorter.  That said about both, many a libertarian and many a Socialist will side with any non-Christian/Jew who wishes to attack Western Civilization.  Much like Murray Rothbard, on a different principle, clapping for Khrushchev  because "Khrushchev had killed fewer people than General Eisenhower, his host."

In the video clips above, Hitchens (now a libertarian Atheist) dresses down two pseudo-atheists for being against the Western response to being attacked by Islamic fundamentalists.  The basis of these pseudo-atheists' objection to the war against a religious theocracy is a recurring theme: Western free-market leaning governments caused the problem, so we should leave the jihadists alone and they will settle down.  Hitchens does not accept their arguments and dices them as any thinking human being should.

Now, for my own personal "bias", I am a Christian and libertarian who can agree with Hitchens in virtually all that he said in response to these people.  I do not want to impose my beliefs on others by force, terror, government coercion, or any other tactic that the jihadists are using.  Additionally, if some person or group want to force anybody else into a religion of any kind I feel that should be opposed, even with force of arms.

Sadly, many libertarians combine atheism and pacifism into a bizarre mix that results in a defacto support for any non-Christian group that is willing to attack the West.  Their atheism is more like an endless attack on Christianity from a non-denominational agnostic view than true atheism.  Perhaps there is a dose of false libertarianism in there too.

Natural rights do not enforce themselves.  Words to live by from quite a few libertarian and conservative thinkers.  If someone is trying to take your rights by any means, you have every right, indeed you have an obligation, to prevent them from doing so, even if force is required and the police power of the state is perfectly appropriate.  One can understand leaving our powder dry when some group of people outside of our control wishes to abuse each other, issuing official embargoes, strongly worded telegrams, and the like.  However, when they move to attack us and impose their version of il-liberty on us, including our allies, the gloves need to come off.