Mencken’s Forgotten Wisdom on War
by Jim Bovard | Jun 25, 2025
As a stampede of weasels just sought to con America into supporting another Mideast war, it is time remember America’s most underrated critic of bellicose folly. H.L. Mencken is famous for his smackdowns of politicians and ridicule of government and of much of American culture. But he also offered sage advice for citizens judging officialdom itching for carnage.
On May 9, 1939, The Baltimore Sun published Mencken’s essay on “The Art of Selling War.” This piece, included in the Second Mencken Chrestomathy published in 1995, deserves a far higher position in the Mencken and antiwar pantheon.
In words that are painfully relevant for today’s news, Mencken warned, “The fact that all the polls run heavily against American participation in the threatening European war is not to be taken seriously.” Mencken continued:
“Wars are not made by common folks, scratching for livings in the heat of the day, they are made by demagogues infesting palaces…The very unpopularity of war makes people ready to believe, when they suddenly confront it, that it has been thrust upon them…because their own demagogues have been pretending, all the while, to be trying to prevent it.”
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/menckens-forgotten-wisdom-on-war/
It's easy to mock this guy, laugh at him, say it's always Gingers etc.
However why are we not asking why, as a society, young men are making life choices like this?
Same as anyone who chooses to go against our natural order with how they live.
Something has gone badly wrong.
“Oregon is using satellites to hunt small farms.”
Farmer Justin Rhodes says the state redefined “CAFO” so even 3 cows and a milking stand count as a factory farm.
Cease-and-desist letters. $100K “upgrades.” Family farms shut down.
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“The fetal bovine serum is just disgusting, and it’s in almost every viral vaccine. They harvest it by inserting a needle into the beating heart of a baby cow to extract its blood. Where is PETA when you need them? The FDA even admits they use ‘cow parts’ because cows are large and have a lot to use.”
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