Comments on: Speculation on Victor Davis Hanson’s health problems

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 19:57:28 +0000

A “cancerous tumor” tells us a bit more about Dr. Hanson’s situation. I wish him a full recovery and many more years among the living.

By: Ty Rex

Ty Rex — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 19:49:55 +0000

I was diagnosed in my early thirties with “inactive sarcoidosis.” I had developed some asthmatic type symptoms, which probably are allergy related, and a small blip was detected on my chest x-ray. At any rate, I feel fortunate I can breathe and live a normal active life many years later. Praying for Dr. Hanson’s recovery.

By: R2L

R2L — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 02:46:10 +0000

Skip and Watt; great to hear!!! Thanks.

We see so many marvelous medical break throughs and advances that it is hard to consider that with all that is known, there are still many areas yet to be successfully addressed and overcome. But we know that a basically free market environment is what is essential to achieve what has been and may yet be obtained.

By: Watt

Watt — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 01:09:09 +0000

https://x.com/CondoleezzaRice/status/2007601668163252291

By: Skip

Skip — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:46:50 +0000

Passing this along
“”I wanted to share a brief health update. I recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and am now recovering. I’m doing well and hopeful as I move forward.

Thank you for the many messages of support and prayers—they truly mean more than I can say. As I focus on recovery, I may not be able to respond to everyone, but please know how grateful I am.”

— Victor Davis Hanson

By: Mrs Whatsit

Mrs Whatsit — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 22:05:59 +0000

The two people I’ve known with sarcoidosis are both men. One is doing well in his 70s but must be constantly vigilant to protect his lungs. The other died way too young in his late 40s or early 50s, because his disease didn’t manifest first in his lungs but took a less predictable path, crippled his mobility first and then attacked his brain before finally reaching his lungs, and thus wasn’t diagnosed until too late to do any good, leaving a wife and a couple of teenaged children bereft.

My impression is that it’s a mysterious, capricious and malevolent disease that does more harm than most of us recognize.

By: Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)

Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 16:17:16 +0000

Dr. Hansen is an American treasure. He has an encyclopedic memory for names, dates, places and the significance of every event in the history of Western Civilization. His literary output is prodigious and eclectic, from ancient Greece to modern California. Nothing he says can be dismissed as without support in the historical record. His personal story is likewise full to overflowing of momentous events and activities. My admiration for him has no bounds, and every complaint lodged against him that I am aware of is nothing more than a pure quibble. The complainers are like Lilliputians seeking to bind him with gossamer that he easisly bursts with facts and logic. His prescriptions for how to cure what ails contemporary America are unassailably correct. I hope and pray for his quick and full recovery. We can’t afford to lose many like him. And while on the topic of losing people, I am reminded that Scott Adams (not in the same category of Dr. Hansen, to be sure, but an interesting thinker and producer of voluminous and frequently quirky opinions on his internet channel) has announced that he is literally within days or weeks of passing. Yet he perseveres! Amazing.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 12:52:52 +0000

Well, since he spoke of his condition being rare for a non-smoker and non-drinker, we might consider illnesses usually associated with those behaviors. Hoarseness and coughing sound like lung problems.

By: Digigal

Digigal — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 05:43:38 +0000

Other diagnoses to consider are some form of fungal disease or lymphoma

By: Paul Nachman

Paul Nachman — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 05:40:47 +0000

Although I appreciate a good deal of what Hanson writes and says, I also think he writes and says way too much. He routinely cranks out long chin-strokers about the contradictions and paradoxes in this or that. Some of them make me think he’s being paid by the word.

I do like the books of his that I’ve read, most notably 2003’s Mexifornia: A State of Becoming. It includes some actual reporting, based upon his experiences living in California’s Central Valley.

The late, esteemed blogger Lawrence Auster had an astringent take on Hanson — parallel to mine — from early on, notably expressed in a 2004 entry Victor Hanson: Liberal Universalist With A Gun: http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/002266.html