'That's Racist' as a Punch Line

Jonah Goldberg

But the simple fact is "that's racist" is the sort of thing those darn kids today say to make fun of their aging Gen X and baby boomer parents.

It's also a common joke among conservatives, precisely because we're used to being called racists for the weirdest things. If I write on Twitter something about how I don't like "Obamacare," some fellow right-winger will immediately respond with some variant of "that's racist!"

And that's the joke. And the people who've spent the last few decades screaming, "That's racist," not as a punch line but as a heinously unfair accusation or in an attempt to bully people, don't seem to get that the joke is on them.