Hunter S. Thompson

The godfather of gonzo says 9/11 caused a “nationwide
nervous breakdown” — and let the Bush crowd loot the
country and savage American democracy.

By John Glassie, Salon

Feb. 3, 2003 | He calls himself “an elderly dope fiend
living out in the wilderness,” but Hunter S. Thompson
will also be found this week on the New York Times
bestseller list with a new memoir, “Kingdom of Fear:
Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final
Days of the American Century.”

Listening to his ragged voice, there is some sense that
Thompson, now 65, has reined in his outlaw ways, gotten
a little softer, perhaps a little more gracious now
that he’s reached retirement age. “I’ve found you can
deal with the system a lot easier if you use their
rules,” he says. “I talk to a lot of lawyers.”

But do not be deceived. In “Kingdom of Fear” and in a
telephone interview with Salon from his compound in
Aspen, Colo., Thompson did what he’s always done: speak
the truth about American society as he sees it, without
worrying much about decorum. “Who does vote for these
dishonest shitheads?” he writes, referring to the
people currently occupying the White House. “They are
the racists and hate mongers among us — they are the
Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.”

That’s his enduring attitude in this new age of
darkness: a lot more loathing than fear.