Readers may have noticed a penchant on my part for quoting one H.L. Mencken, the “Sage of Baltimore” and one of my all-time favorite writers.
I did so recently in an article — the topic of which I don’t recall because his quotes are so poignant and versatile as to possibly apply almost anywhere — and received reproach from one reader who pointed out that Mencken was a “paternalistic racist.”
Related: Flashback: Christopher Hitchens Destroys an Anti-Free Speech Islamist on National Television
Mencken was also, allegedly, among many other lamentable hats to wear, an anti-Semite and a contemporary Nazi sympathizer, the evidence for which is spotty at best and contradicted by other things he said and wrote during the course of his decades-long career.
Continuing:
The diaries show Mencken as an antisemite, a paternalistic racist, a mean-spirited critic of colleagues who considered him a friend, and a Germanophile who never denounced Hitler but ranted against American participation in World War II. On the subject of Jews, Mencken wrote in December 1943 that the Maryland Club had no objection to a Jew from out of town eating there occasionally. “There was a time when the…
Read the full article here