On the basis of having been reading his blog for years (and even trading a couple emails), I feel safe in asserting that Jon Schwarz is one of the most level-headed and fair-minded people in the political blogosphere. A genuine nice guy, and if not, a genuinely gifted actor, then. His blog is named after a line from Orwell that says, “Every joke is a tiny revolution,” a clue that humor is a very important aspect of his political worldview. Politics shouldn’t be taken that seriously in the end.
So when I see many of the reactions to a post that seemed to me to be a clear enough joke, a basic truth exaggerated for comic effect, I’m truly amazed. So often, we see and hear only what we want to see and hear, we immediately get as stern, uptight and defensive as possible, and we don’t hesitate to impute the most base motives to someone for saying something we don’t approve of or agree with, especially when sex, biology and race are the topics. Given the rorschach nature of our communications, it’s amazing we can ever agree on anything at all.
On the humorous side, this all reminded me of a classic old anarchist pamphlet called Laughter is Bourgeois.