# Aw, man! Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152 "2010-07-01T03:08:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/21 "2010-07-02T08:14:36Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > There’s a world of difference between villainizing someone and saying a reputation they’re not perhaps completely comfortable with is nonetheless well deserved. > > Bush should be villainized for starting it, for example. Colin Powell should be villainized for lying about it to get it started, for another. Hitchens, on the other hand, should only be taken to task for abandoning a consistently leftist position and all the hypocrisy that entails: his renouncement of religion as leading to irrationality and violence didn’t seem to get in the way of supporting an avowedly religious President when it came to war. Or deliberate ignorance of the fact that the US tolerates despotism in other countries as long as it’s despotism that is friendly to US interests in the region - need I trot out that old CNN footage of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein after the massacre in Halabja to illustrate the point? And that God-awful quote about joyfully participating in a civil war over the imposition of the Christian right’s agenda on the US - that’s not revolutionary, that’s buffoonery. > > Granted, perhaps Hitchens is not the exact opposite of a leftist, but it’s pretty clear that this one major flaw alone doesn’t put him all that near this end of the spectrum, either. If the best you can do is try to trip me up on a bit of excessive rhetoric when the facts are clearly on my side, you’re on fairly shaky ground - familiar territory to you by now, I’m sure. Hitchens has stated often that he no longer identifies with any political stripe. Arguments about whether he is with this party or that philosophy belie his own stated position, and few people state their position with such eloquence or frequency than Christopher Hitchens. He is now an Independent, and demonstrates his independence by trashing every idealogical opponent he can get to debate him. He is clearer drunk than they are sober. He never uses the obfuscating and emotional debating tactics that his opponents rely upon, and he doesn’t care about his public image. The one thing I disagree with Hitch about is the Invasion of Iraq. He is wrong about that, but his argument in favor of the invasion transcends the bulk of the drivel put forth by the Neocons. Saddam was, in point of fact, a world-class asshole. To claim that Hitchens is a conservative based solely on his support of the invasion of Iraq displays a left-wing bias to me. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/22 "2010-07-02T09:25:01Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > To claim that Hitchens is a conservative based solely on his support of the invasion of Iraq displays a left-wing bias to me. That would be because I have one. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/23 "2010-07-02T11:25:36Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > That would be because I have one. Well, that’s unsporting. Isn’t there a rule against admitting bias? Somebody alert the Moderator - if this practice spreads, it will kill the Internet as we know it. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/24 "2010-07-02T14:45:07Z")
Don’t think there is, unless I’ve been allowed to flagrantly violate it for the decade I’ve been here because I’m such a quirky and lovable character. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/25 "2010-07-02T14:51:41Z")
Unfortunately, esophageal cancer is almost always fatal. That surprised me when I found it out, because, c’mon, the esophagus is a piece of hose. But your odds of surviving are terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/26 "2010-07-02T14:59:27Z")
I started reading him when we received a gift subscrip to VF. After 3-4 attempts I stopped reading his essays. Impress me as extremely self indugent and I derived neither information not enjoyment from them. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/27 "2010-07-02T16:29:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > You know, Hitch, you just can’t drink 2 1/2 gallons of scotch and smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day and not have it bite you in the ass eventually. Wait, wait… what? I may have to restrategize… Does anyone else find reader comments on articles about it like “You’ll be in my prayers” and “God bless you” to be obnoxious? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/28 "2010-07-02T16:33:40Z")
No, I think people can say things like that and sincerely mean it. They aren’t asking him to convert or anything (and if they are really fans, they already know there’s no chance of that). ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/29 "2010-07-02T16:46:09Z")
I’m sure they mean it, but do people always have to say everything that they think? Religious people who know _me_ don’t tell me they’ll pray for me, or whatever, because they know all it’ll do is irritate me. And if there’s one person alive who I can think of who is more hostile and irritable than I am, it might be him. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/30 "2010-07-02T17:59:16Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Does anyone else find reader comments on articles about it like “You’ll be in my prayers” and “God bless you” to be obnoxious? I don’t find them obnoxious. I do find them pointless. IMHO, such statements are intended to give comfort, at least a bit, to the person in question. Unless Mr. Hitchens reads the Dope, which I doubt, such statements are pointless. Further, unless such statements are directed to a religious believer, which Mr. Hitchens certainly isn’t, then the statements are doubly pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/31 "2010-07-02T19:58:30Z")
Well, shit. Seems he was right writing his [del]biography[/del] memoir this “early”. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/32 "2010-07-02T20:10:31Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > In the latest issue of _Vanity Fair_ he somewhat jokingly claims to have cut back to a couple bottles of wine in the morning and a couple more with lunch, with gin taking the driver’s seat the rest of the day. > > Mostly tongue-in-cheek I’m sure, but still it doesn’t sound like something a freshly-minted teetotaler might say. I’m reminded of an interview Terry Gross did with Richard Pryor (I think [this is it](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1113112), but I can’t be sure because I can’t listen to it where I am right now). She asked him at one point what he does to fill his time and he answered “smoke crack.” ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/33 "2010-07-05T10:41:38Z")
The first two and a half minutes sound like a man delivering his own obituary. > **[Christopher Hitchens On 'The Daily Show': Author Talks 'Hitch-22,' Life As An...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christopher-hitchens-on-t_n_605874)** > > Christopher Hitchens On 'The Daily Show': Author Talks 'Hitch-22,' Life As An Idealist In The 60's (VIDEO) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/34 "2010-07-05T18:09:15Z")
Yeah, it doesn’t look good. In learning more about esophageal cancer it seems that by the time by the time symptoms appear and the disease is discovered most tumors are no longer operable and chemo is intended mostly as a way of extending life as much as possible rather than as a cure- although in some rare cases chemo will shrink the tumor enough to make it operable. Wiki has this to say about the disease’s prognosis: > [@](#): > > In general, the prognosis of esophageal cancer is quite poor, because so many patients present with advanced disease: The overall five-year survival rate (5YSR) is less than 5%. Individualized prognosis depends largely on stage. Those with cancer restricted entirely to the esophageal mucosa have about an 80% 5YSR, but submucosal involvement brings this down to less than 50%. Extension into the muscularis propria (muscular layer of the esophageus) has meant a 20% 5YSR and extension to the structures adjacent to the esophagus results in a 7% 5YSR. Patients with distant metastases (who are not candidates for curative surgery) have a less than 3% 5YSR. So it looks like Hitchen’s future depends upon how soon his cancer was discovered. There’s a tremendous archive of Hitchen’s various speeches, debates and TV appearances on Youtube which I’ve been watching the last few days and now I’m afraid I’ll miss him even more than I originally thought should his illness prove fatal. [Here’s a link](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+hitchens&aq=f), in case anyone would like to see more of him in action. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/35 "2010-07-05T18:17:49Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Thx. I feel better now. I haven’t smoked in 40 years. I still drinks a bit. You’ll be cursed with me a bit longer. 🙂 Buckley made it to 83. I guess he didn’t shorten his life too much. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/36 "2010-07-05T18:21:28Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > The phrase “drink soaked Trotskyite Popinjay” was invented for Hitchens. “Some of which,” wrote Hitchens, “was unfair.” (It was “ex-Trotskyist” though.) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/37 "2010-07-05T18:27:51Z")
Yeah, but who knows? Buckley was a slim, strong, active guy of the type who might have made it well into his nineties if not all the way to a hundred had he not developed the emphysema which made his last few years so miserable. Same with Johnny Carson. They both lived what would be regarded as suitably long lives by most measures, but I’d wager they’d both have lived at least a decade more if not not longer had they never smoked. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/38 "2010-07-05T18:31:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > “Some of which,” wrote Hitchens, “was unfair.” > > (It was “ex-Trotskyist” though.) This on the subject, from Wiki: > [@](#): > > Anti-war British politician George Galloway, on his way to testify in front of a United States Senate sub-committee investigating the scandals in the U.N. Oil for Food program, called Hitchens a “drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay”,[112] to which Hitchens quickly replied, “Only some of which is true.”[113] Later, in a column for Slate promoting his debate with Galloway which was to take place on 14 September 2005, he elaborated on his prior response: “He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a “popinjay” (true enough, since its original Webster’s definition means a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest).”[114] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/39 "2010-07-06T02:19:59Z")
Good luck to him. Whenever he opens his mouth about religion it pisses me off, but the guy is damned intelligent and fun to read. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152/40 "2010-07-06T06:12:55Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > There’s a tremendous archive of Hitchen’s various speeches, debates and TV appearances on Youtube which I’ve been watching the last few days and now I’m afraid I’ll miss him even more than I originally thought should his illness prove fatal. [Here’s a link](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+hitchens&aq=f), in case anyone would like to see more of him in action. Thanks! I’ve been reading _The Portable Atheist_, which he edited (superbly, I might add) but I’m not too familiar with his other work, besides seeing him once on either _The Daily Show_ or _The Colbert Report_ when he was promoting _God Is Not Great._ I thought he came across as a shallow asshole then, but _The Portable Atheist_ has made me curious about the other things he’s done. Until I read this thread, I had no idea he was known for anything other than his writing about atheism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-man-christopher-hitchens-has-esophageal-cancer/545152.md?page=3)