Re:The Anti-Bamboozler: Early writings of H. L. Mencken
by dtornabene on Monday January 22, 2018 @04:02AM
(#16202962)
Appeal To Reason was a socialist publication that reached half a million house holds in 1910. Not exactly "fringe". Neither was the New Republic, which published both Dewey and Bourne. Dewey was fairly widely published in other publications as well, he influenced many at the same time that Mencken did.
I'm not sure but I'd imagine that Menckens racism very much did go hand in hand with his ideology, perhaps not in a causal way but complementary. As another commenter noted he was very much a misanthrope
Well, pointing the fact they followed the general racist etc feeling might be informational, but the sage part refers to the many issues he wrote about where he was indeed very prescient and competent -- not some total omniscient figure that couldn't go wrong.
>Quite a few of the socialist, social democratic and communist writers of the period had a public record of deep thorough social and political criticism that rivaled menckens sans racism.
Yes, but few were as popular and influential while doing so. This was a major newsperson, most of the others were fringe voices. Plus their anti-racism went hand in hand with the political ideology that they had adopted -- whereas for Mencken it was not so.