Martin Lewis “Fooled” Right Wing with His “Brilliant” Satire
Oh, now I get it. Martin Lewis’ letter to Gen. Peter Pace to military arrest President Bush was Swiftian satire. We Right Wingers are clueless to sophisticated Huffington Post humor:
A much wiser person than I once asked rhetorically “How do you explain bad taste to people who haven’t got ANY taste?”
I have been reminded of that question as I watch with bemusement the right-wing blogosphere getting its knickers in a twist over my column that presented a tongue-in-cheek open letter to General Peter Pace suggesting that he arrest George W. Bush for “Conduct Unbecoming”. It was of course just ‘a modest proposal’…
Anyone who has read “Gulliver’s Travels” (even the ‘Comics Illustrated’ version from Regnery Publishing for the “challenged reader”) is aware of a little thing called satire. Perhaps has even heard of Jonathan Swift.
But it appears that the only “Swift” that the right-wing nuts have heard of is the Swift Boat.
Swift = Smear they understand.
Swift = Satire…? Well, let’s just be charitable and say that it “eludes” them.
In my post I thought about adding a line wondering if Lewis was joking. The thought of advocating a military coup seemed too over-the-top even for a Bush hater. What got me to delete the line was Lewis defending the idea in the post’s comments. His defense was too sincere. Bruce McQuain quoted quite a few of Lewis’ replies. He too looked for brilliant bits of satire but couldn’t find them.
John Hawkins offers something really funny:
Oh, the hilarity! This guy should be writing for John Kerry instead of the HuffPo after penning lines like that.
Martin, take notes.
“‘Let’s Twist Again’:
Right-wing Bloggers
“‘Let’s Twist Again’: Right-Wing Bloggers Smear HuffPost” [via memeorandum]
The difference between the works of Swift and this boob; is that Swift would haven’t been foolish enough to not know the rules and regulations of what he was satiring. It’s more effective to poke fun of something so obsurdly, it could literally happen if the organization takes itself to the extreme.
Twain was much the same with his satire.