Anne Applebaum om förflackningen

Human Smoke, in other words, is not a\nconscientious pacifist tract. It is not a clever contribution to\ntoday's debate on warfare, and it does not add anything to what we know\nabout World War II. It is a cheerful contribution to the movement\nagainst scholarship--a movement which has advanced so far, in fact,\nthat I fully expect these observations, too, to be condemned as\n\"elitism.\" As one who does contribute (it's pathetic, I know) to the\nmainstream media on a regular basis, I know that any author who\nexpresses a sliver of doubt about the wisdom of amateurs risks bringing\ndown a torrent of recrimination and insult upon his head. But if we\nhave arrived at the point where a solemn and excited individual can\ncobble together anecdotes from old newspapers and Nazi diaries, and\nwrite them up in the completely contextless manner of blog posts, and\nsuggest that he has composed a serious critique of America's decision\nto enter World War II, and then receive praise from respected reviewers\nin distinguished publications, then maybe it is time to say: Stop.