Some Wisdom is Timeless

Before there was Jon Stewart and John Oliver there was Mark Twain and HL Mencken

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with ChatGPT, trying to locate the origins of a poorly remembered quote along the lines of “I’m always honest. Not because I’m a good guy but I’m too dumb to lie and too scared to steal.”

I am sure that sometime somebody said something like that at least once but despite me doing such a great job of narrowing the search, all the AI could come up with is a lame quote from a song by Sting and Eric Clapton: “When your belly’s empty and the hunger’s so real / And you’re too proud to beg and too dumb to steal…”

C’mon, I prompted the AI, surely Mark Twain or HL Mencken said something like that once…try again.

I asked nicely and everything but no joy. Still looking for an answer so if you’re looking for bragging rights - “I beat ChatGPT at its own game” - here’s your chance for a big win.

What I did get, though, was a collection of sayings from Twain and Mencken that are surprisingly timely to our current unpleasantness. So much so I wanted to share them with you:

Not sure if Twain had a specific person in mind when he opined but I sure have someone in mind reading his words today!

He was about 100 years too early but Mencken would have a field day with the current resident adorning the White House.

And Mark Twain foresaw social media.

Obviously, the tactic existed well before Lee Atwater, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Steve Bannon and Little Stephen Miller came along but this does summarize their approach to politics: find a bogeyman and make your voters afraid of him/them. In 1988, it was criminals raping our women, in 2004, it was the gays and 2024 it was trans athletes.

And two worth remembering for the months and years ahead:

About the Header Image: I asked Midjourney for an image of Twain and Mencken holding court over a meal and got four choices. None of them look much like the people above but the vibe is right so I’m going with it.