| Taki Theodoracopulos | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 11, 1937 Greece |
| Occupation | Journalist, publisher, writer |
Taki Theodoracopulos (Greek: Τάκης Θεοδωρακόπουλος; born August 11, 1937),[1] originally named Panagiotis Theodoracopulos is a Greek/American journalist, socialite, and political commentator.
Better known as Taki, diminutive for Panagiotis, he is a Greek-born journalist and writer living in New York City, London and Switzerland. In addition to his 1991 memoir Nothing to Declare (about his life as a "playboy" and his experience spending three months in jail for drug conviction, during which time he received a bottle of vaseline from a friend of his), his column "High Life" has appeared in The Spectator since 1977,[2] and he has also written for National Review, the London Sunday Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Press, and Quest, among others. In 2002 Taki founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He was also publisher of the British magazine Right Now!. He currently publishes and writes for Taki's Magazine, a Libertarian webzine of "politics and culture", which features contributions from writers such as Steve Sailer, Paul Gottfried, Jim Goad, Gavin McInnes and Charles Glass.
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Although much of Taki's writings concern (satirically) his life among the rich and famous, he is also well known as a conservative political and cultural commentator on both sides of the Atlantic. He professes traditional views about family, values, and religion, but such professions must be taken with a grain of salt given his ubiquitous irony and his "untraditional" lifestyle. His precise political orientation is difficult to categorize, though; for instance, he is a vocal critic of vulgarity in both the media and in professional sports, has stirred controversy with comments about contemporary immigration policy, supports abortion rights, is strongly pro-American, is a fierce anti-communist, is critical of the new Russian "kleptocrats", and writes dismissively of neo-conservatism. Taki is an outspoken critic of the current Iraq War and lays the blame for the "fiasco", as he calls it, on American neoconservatives, who have "destroyed the legacy of Ronald Reagan", levying harsh criticism on people like David Frum, William Kristol, and John Podhoretz. He considers war supporter Christopher Hitchens to be among "the former Trotskyites now masquerading as patriotic Americans".
He was prominent in the campaign to free the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose arrest he considered inconsistent with international law.[3]
Taki was imprisoned for four months for possession of cocaine.[1] Private Eye magazine sometimes refers to this by nicknaming him 'Takealotofcokeupthenos'. He documented his prison experiences in a 1992 book.
Taki has been accused of using ethnic slurs by The Guardian, in an article criticizing London mayor Boris Johnson for employing him[4] and was investigated by Scotland Yard for some of his racial comments, although no charges were made.[5] Due to Taki's characterization of himself as a "soi-disant antisemite",[6] coupled with strong criticism of the Israeli government and its supporters in the United States, The Spectator no longer permits him to write about Israel or Jewish affairs. In March 2010 Taki, in an article in Chronicles magazine, said of the last Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld that "he's a very homely, simian-looking Jew who couldn't punch his way out of a nursery".[7]
In a follow-up Spectator column,[8] Taki stated that he does not consider himself an anti-Semite and that the term "soi-disant antisemite" was intended to mean "so-called" rather than "self-styled". Taki claims some of his comments are intended "to piss off politically correct journalists" and not to be taken at face value, and that he wasn't bothered himself by ethnic slurs in his youth. "The Italians were called wops, the Jews were called hymies, I was of course a greaseball, and every Hispanic was a spic. Well, we all got along famously! It was rough, but it was fine. Obviously, one doesn't like to be called a greaseball, but you know — Greek, greaseball . . . Now, of course, all that is very, very unacceptable."[9]
He has expressed his admiration of the German Wehrmacht in his "High Life" column in The Spectator: "And speaking of the Wehrmacht, if I couldn’t have been a German officer in Paris 1940, being an expatriate American there would have suited me fine." ("High Life", The Spectator, Wednesday 1 July 2009)[10] Referring to this in a subsequent column, he said that "I know, I know, too much Wehrmacht makes young Taki a bore, but I do have my obsessions, and Keira Knightley, martial arts, Ashley Judd, classic sailing boats and the deputy editor of The Spectator are some of them, along with the dear old W." ("High Life", The Spectator, Wednesday 29 July 2009)
Fraser Nelson, the current Editor of the Spectator, publicly endorsed Taki when taking up his post in September 2009: "Ah, Taki! For decades it has been traditional for a new Spectator editor to be inundated with calls to show his commitment to civility by hiring a new High Life columnist. But this time, not a soul has asked for him to be sacked. All I hear is how the old rogue has never been in better form. This won’t please him much, as he prides himself on calls for his resignation. But it’s not that Taki is conforming to the world. The world, I think, is finally conforming to him."[11]
| Title | Volume / Number | Date | Page(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In praise of older women | 308 / 9397 | 4 October 2008 | 58 |