Helian Unbound is one anonymous writer’s eloquent crusade for radical skepticism. His sober scientific realism is directed against every ideology – including the fashionable ersatz religions espoused by many self-declared “skeptics” nowadays. Added to my recommended Subscriptions.
In his latest post, Helian discovered a digitized archive of The American Mercury, a cultural and political magazine founded in 1924 by noted razor wit H.L. Mencken. Enjoy this excerpt from the first issue’s programmatic editorial:
The American Mercury will devote itself pleasantly to exposing the nonsensicality of all such hallucinations, particularly when they show a certain apparent plausibility. Its own pet hallucination will take the form of an hypothesis that the progress of knowledge is less a matter of accumulating facts than a matter of destroying “facts.” It will assume constantly that the more ignorant a man is the more he knows, positively and indignantly. Among the great leeches and barber-surgeons who profess to medicate the body politic, it will give its suffrage to those who admit frankly that all the basic diseases are beyond cure, and who consecrate themselves to making the patient as comfortable as possible.
The archive website, Unz.org, hosts many other historical American print periodicals, articles, books, and also some informational video broadcasts. Worth bookmarking for future reference.