What Kurt Vonnegut thinks about America
American novelist (1922 to 2007), author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions; a senior editor of In These Times until his death, writing the columns collected in A Man Without a Country (2005).
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Kurt Vonnegut did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
2 dated positions, 2004 to 2005, in their own words. Our reading of what Kurt Vonnegut has said — not written or endorsed by them.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Their wordsSome of the loudest, most proudly ignorant guessing in the world is going on in Washington today. Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting.
↗Your Guess Is as Good as Mine (In These Times, 2005)inthesetimes.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 19 months earlier
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Their wordsBut I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power.
↗Cold Turkey (In These Times, 2004)inthesetimes.com 1st of 6 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.