The November 2022 article on my classmate Walter Kirn portrays him as a passionate advocate for Middle America. But his vision of Middle America is a particular one. He is self-described (in a New York Times opinion piece, "Why I Dabble in Jeffrey Epstein Conspiracy Theories" [7]) as "the next thing to a conspiracy theorist" and claims that pedophile Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself and may even now be alive. In the Wall Street Journal ("Walter Kirn Is Middle America's Defiant Defender" [8]) he sympathizes with Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two men and wounded another, as "a sort of boy, a little bit out of his depth."

Walter is a first-rate fabulist. To suggest he is a creditable political or social analyst is dubious at best.