PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH: Marxists. I Hate These Guys. Eric Hobsbawm was a nasty old tyrant-lover and enabler of mass murder. That he flourished is evidence that the academy will accept the worst into its bosom, so long as they lean left. Even after the Wall came down and the true horror and failure of Marxism could not be denied, he didn’t really change his views, just the excuses. He was no hero. That he is being praised by a man whose latest book is On Evil only completes the irony. He should be remembered as the horror, and the cautionary example to academia, that he was.

Yes, I know: Do not speak ill of the dead. But when that maxim was originated, there were no communists or nazis yet.

UPDATE: Father Do Not Forgive Them. They Know Damn Well What They Do.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh, my mistake. I thought, somehow, that Hobsbawm had died. Oh, well — all the more reason to speak ill of him now, then. He might even hear it.