History Creator / ChristopherHitchens

* GodIsEvil: A major recurring theme in his work, to the point of one of his most famous novels being outright called "God Is Not Great", is that even if he did believe in God, he wouldn't consider Him worthy of worship and that He'd be more akin to a brutal and omniscient dictator than a benevolent deity.

-->"It will happen to all of us. That at some point you'll be tapped on the shoulder and told not just that the party is over, but slightly worse: the party's going on but ''you'' have to leave."

* InsistentTerminology: He was vocal in wanting to be seen not just as an atheist but an antitheist, drawing the distinction that many atheists would like to believe in religion or a higher power but simply lack the conviction while he was adamant in viewing such beliefs as harmful and was happy he didn't hold such a view.

->''All right, then, because it might make us feel better, let’s pretend the opposite [of CessationOfExistence]. Instead, you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and told, Great news: this party’s going on forever – and you can’t leave. You’ve got to stay; the boss says so. And he also insists that you have a good time. The father proposed by monotheism is the father that doesn’t die. Who reassures his children ‘don’t worry, I’ll never leave you. You’ll never see the end of me. You’ll never get the chance to feel sorry, I’m always there. I’m the absolute ultimate in dictatorships and in my courts there is no appeal.’''

[[caption-width-right:316:Not actually [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine.]]]]

--> "He woke up every morning, pinching his chubby little flanks, thinking ‘I’ve got away with it again’... If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox."

* CessationOfExistence: Naturally, as an Atheist, this was his view on what happens after death and he spent much of his time outlining why such a fate isn't something to be feared, particularly in his final months.

* HollywoodAtheist: One of the most famous RealLife examples, he generally viewed religion as an unmitigated evil that promotes dangerous and infantile beliefs.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: He was openly contemptuous of political correctness, especially when it came to protecting religious sensibilities.

* TheGrinch: Hitchens did not care for Christmas, which he regarded as a "moral and aesthetic nightmare". See [[http://www.slate.com/id/2132806/ this]] essay, or [[http://www.slate.com/id/2206713/ this]] one. He wasn't too wild about [[http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/ Hanukkah]], either.

* ForScience: He agreed to be subjected to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58 waterboarding]] for a Vanity Fair article. It did not take long for him to activate the dead-man's switch and have it stop.

* DevilsAdvocate: ''Literally.'' When the matter of elevating Mother Teresa to sainthood was raised, Hitchens was brought in to argue against it (he described the experience as "working for the Devil ''pro bono''"), although the Church had by then abolished the former "Devil's Advocate" role.

* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: Invoked. Christopher Hitchens was a member of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism, a group of four anti-religious intellectuals and scientists that also included UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. Parodied by the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Subnormality}}'', where [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page433.html Hitchens is portrayed as the embodiment of Equality]].

* SophisticatedAsHell: As a master of polemic, it's hardly surprising. When giving a speech or lecture, he was not afraid to use a juicy expression.

* SiblingYinYang: With his younger brother Peter, a convert to Christianity and opponent of the Iraq war. This caused them to be estranged for a time but they eventually reconciled and engaged in a number of public debates on religion (in fact, according to Peter Hitchens they'd also been estranged ''before'' this when both of them were atheists and socialists, oddly enough).

* DeadpanSnarker: He was quite fond of a bit of snark.

* TheAlcoholic Rarely was he seen without a drink and he quite frequently commented on how much he enjoyed it. The fact that one of the top contributing factors to esophageal cancer is drinking does not help either. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dfaPbH-rmU This video]] shows his denialism.

* TheGadfly: He was so good at being a contrarian of prevailing notions, some began to suspect that some of his stated opinions were [[{{Troll}} actually his attempts to wind-up]] the reader.

[[caption-width-right:316:Not actually [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine.]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:316:Not actually [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]]...''[[FalseReassurance we think.]]'']]

* AccentuateTheNegative: Unsurprisingly, ''God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything'' focuses on the negative aspects of religion.

* TheAntiNihilist: He was always very outspoken about the inbuilt morality of human beings, and did not fear death at all, even when confident that he would experience CessationOfExistence (of course, as far as he was concerned, he would not exist and thus be unable to understand or regret the end of his life).

* GallowsHumor: Very much so toward the end of his life. His last book (written in hospital while already dying), titled "Mortality", is one of the best things ever written on the subject.