H. L. Mencken quoted
One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms.
The other half of it is
It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent."
Is that an idiom? What does it imply?
In the article The Crimson Bookshelf: Mencken Collects His Choicest Works I read this interpretation:
Mencken does not take himself seriously, and he is always dismayed when his readers overdo the business. "One horse laugh," he says, "is worth ten thousand syllogisms," and he proceeds to provide many move horse-laughs than examples of neat, careful, judicious, and thorough thinking. I repeat that this is a matter of doctrine, not of accident. Speaking of great critics, he says that "they could make the thing charming, and that is always a million times more important than making it true."
From this paragraph it seems its used as a sarcasm?
That is, is he using it in a mockery manner that "Instead of scratching your head trying and reasoning with people using tools like syllogism; just using horse-laugh (fallacy but impactful nevertheless) is more impactful"