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Albert Jay Nock

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Philosopher

The Resume

    (October 13, 1870-August 19, 1945)
    Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania
    Libertarian philosopher, journalist, and author
    Editor of ‘The Nation’ and ‘The Freeman’
    Wrote ‘The Myth of a Guilty Nation’ (1922), ‘Jefferson’ (1926), ‘Our Enemy, The State’ (1935), ‘Free Speech and Plain Language’ (1937) and ‘Memoirs of a Superfluous Man’ (1943)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was so secretive about his past that ‘Who’s Who in America’ was unable to find out his birth date.
    He abandoned his wife and two children (and a career as an Episcopal priest) to become a journalist.
    He claimed he voted in only one presidential election in his life, when he cast a write-in vote for Jefferson Davis.
    He complained about the New York Public Library being ‘infested with Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics.’
    His response to accusations of anti-Semitism: ‘Someone asked me years ago if it were true that I disliked Jews, and I replied that it was certainly true, not at all because they are Jews but because they are folks, and I don't like folks.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    H.L. Mencken said of his editorials, ‘They were well-informed and sometimes even learned, but there was never the slightest trace of pedantry in them.’
    He opposed all forms of totalitarianism.
    Despite his disdain for Communism, he criticized American intervention in the Russian Civil War.
    He wrote, ‘The surest way to make our youth suspect that there may be something to Communism would be for the government to outlaw it.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 18 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 78 Votes: 55.13% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 16 Votes: 43.75% Annoying