There was a time, back when I was a student at Berkeley (no, I wasn't mugged), when I appreciated the 'boldness' of Thompson's style. His
Hell's Angels was the first that became an early hit in Berkeley. One of the most memorable scenes was when, after having been "imbedded" within the Oakland chapter's ranks as an author ("I just want to write your guys' story---okay"), they caught on to his clownish and deceptive ways and beat the living shit out of him.
What was remarkable about all that was that, then, Hunter admitted in his book that he was an "asshole."