Co-opted? Me?

The Forbes article mentioned in my last post has made quite a stir. One of the most disturbing responses is from Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Betsy Hart.

Hart doesn't understand "what everyone is getting so bent out of shape about." Her article seems innocuous enough. She writes from the perspective of a career woman who think that Noer may have some good points about the added stress that two careers may place on a marriage.

But there is something creepily ingratiating about her prose. For instance, she writes that Noer's piece "has driven the feminists completely nuts -- easily done, as the typically humorless sisterhood takes itself way too seriously, and in general seems not to like dealing with data."

So feminists are humorless and girls aren't good at math. And presumably WASPs are uptight and blacks are good dancers (Hart leaves no stereotype unturned, accusing feminist critics of "hysteria"). This does nothing to contribute to a reasonable discourse on the subject.

What is does, effectively, is to bully women into shutting up. Better not stand up for yourself, or you'll be called out for being "humorless." Blacks go through the same thing: if a black person points out something that is patently racist, they are accused of imagining injury or of being ideologically motivated.

This deflects, of course, the fact that the original comments were ideologically motivated. And where's the humor in manipulating statistical data? Is it funny to say that two career marriages break up because "the more successful she is the more likely she is to be dissatisfied with you"? Couldn't one as easily write: "the more successful she is the more likely you are to be threatened by her"?

But the name-calling rhetoric deftly turns the tables, and puts the critics on the defensive. "Humorless" is a trump card, like "liberal" or "support the troops," for shutting down discussion.

It's disturbing to see how effective the right is at silencing or neutralizing all opposition. It's even more disturbing to see they do this with the complicity of the opposition.

p.s. I have lost control of my fonts. There is no secret message encoded in the shifts in size and boldness. For some reason, I can't get them to regularize. Repeat: the eagle has not landed. This is just technical difficulty.