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 apply almost anywhere — and received reproach from one reader who pointed out that Mencken was a “paternalistic racist.”
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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 club always had one Jewish member, but the last was Jacob Ulman. Ulman was married to a Christian woman ... and had little to do with the other Jews of Baltimore. When he died the board of governors decided that he should be the last of the Chosen on the club roll. There is no other Jew in Baltimore who seems suitable*," Mencken wrote.
Firstly, anyone familiar with Mencken’s style can spot the dry, sardonic humor in his remark about “no other Jew in Baltimore seeming suitable” for a local country club.
Secondly, on his alleged support for Nazi Germany, a.) at the time World War II was being waged, no one knew about the Holocaust outside of Germany; as such, a Nazi sympathizer in 1943, if he can be said to have been such, is not remotely akin to a Nazi apologist in 2024, and b.) he was an ethnic German who grew up in Baltimore speaking German, so his affinity for Germany should surprise no one and is not an indictment, to my mind, of his worldview.
So, no, to whoever it was who demanded I quote or not quote whom they tell me to: I will not be retracting my quotations of Mencken and, if anything, will ramp them up out of spite.
If all of this condemnation of historical figures using today’s moral code reminds you of the left’s statue-toppling orgy in the name of Social Justice™ after George Floyd overdosed on fentanyl in 2020, you would be correct.
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Furthermore, if you dig deep enough, you will find skeletons in nearly everyone’s closet. (This is why so-called “opposition research” in politics is such a lucrative profession for the dirt-diggers; something always pops up to make hay out of for at least one media cycle, and sometimes it’s career-ending.)
The Brandon entity, for instance, very possibly raped a young female staffer on the job way more recently in history than 1943, yet he gets to be president (kind of, at least on paper) and pretend to champion women’s rights or whatever.
Add to that the fact that Mencken produced written material prolifically — easily into the millions and probably tens of millions of words over his years — and you’re virtually guaranteed to mine some damning quotes to smear him and tarnish his legacy if that’s what you’re into.
So, again, no thanks, I won’t be tossing Mencken’s entire canon in the dumpster like yesterday’s trash as some liberal smear artist demands.
