Hell's Angels

What Hacker News says

1. piva00Apr 2025
   Last year I finally got to read a copy of Hunter S. Thompson's "Hell's Angels" that I had purchased while on a trip in San Francisco back in 2015, and just last week I bumped into this quote that is absolutely prescient for the current state of American society which gave power to Trump:

   > "To see the Hell’s Angels as caretakers of the old 'individualist' tradition 'that made this country great' is only a painless way to get around seeing them for what they really are, the first wave of a future that nothing in our history has prepared us to cope with. The Angels are prototypes. Their lack of education has not only rendered them completely useless in a highly technical economy, but it has also given them the leisure to cultivate a powerful resentment... and to translate it into a destructive cult. The people who are being left out and put behind won't be obvious for years. Christ only knows what'll happen in, say, 1985 — a million Hell's Angels. They won't be wearing the colors; they'll be people who are just looking for vengeance because they've been left behind."

   The USA in its everlasting quest of creating wealth without caring for the effects of blind wealth accumulation on its citizens, where good financial outcomes trumps over good societal outcomes, has created this monster. People who are left behind won't be all re-trained to do high-skill jobs, they will be poor, uneducated, they will be angry and resentful, they will want vengeance.

   This is the vengeance, the wrath from a system who doesn't care for you as a person, only caring for you as means of production.

   Like you said, the whole system was engineered by the same nation who now hates the system because their leaders focused on perpetuating the system's worst sides in pursuit of wealth instead of caring for them.

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2. vgeekMar 2022
   Years ago Hunter S Thompson documented the Hell's Angels, if anyone is interested in this topic.

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16032043-hells-angels

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3. phist_mcgeeNov 2021
   I'd encourage anyone who has read or watched Fear and Loathing to go and read Thompson's earlier work Hell's Angels. It's a great look into the beginnings of the outlaw club, and is written in what feels like the beginnings of his gonzo style, albeit more reporter than Duke. It's like watching Thompson get a taste for the first time of the outlandish and exaggerated. A fantastic book.
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4. abakkerDec 2019
   A highly relevant read, to accompany “On the road” is “Hell’s Angels” by hunter s Thompson. I read them as a pair of books that examine both sides of that era. “fear and loathing in Las Vegas” pretty much closes the door on the Beat Generation, but, I think Hells Angels offers more insight into the times.
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5. mjrbrennanDec 2019
   The best books I've read in the last decade (that I can remember, I've only been keeping reading lists since ~2015) are mostly important because they have contributed to my inspiration and style as a writer.

   * The Road - Cormac McCarthy

   * Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

   * No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

   * On Writing - Stephen King

   * 11/22/63 - Stephen King

   * The Stand - Stephen King

   * Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson

   * East of Eden - John Steinbeck

   * Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

   * In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

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6. abakkerJun 2017
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas...

   That passage remains one of the most meaningful things I've read in my life.

   However, his defining work in my opinion is Hell's Angels. It is prescient in so many ways. Among the most interesting is how early he is able to see, inside the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, the rise of so many later developments in US politics. I will not ruin the surprise, but some of the passages would make you swear that the man had a time machine. I've read it 3 times now.

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