Prep School Bullies

ANOTHER ASIDE

I may be making a mistake in responding to the reappearance of the egregious Tom Bissell hatchet-job-against-the-underground Believer essay. I hate for falsehood to go uncorrected. But it’s also true that the prep school bullies at the McSweeney’s empire love to have enemies so they can exercise their innate snobbery, which they usually hold in check behind phony smiles. Oh! The outrage! They won’t come on here directly of course—they don’t have the intellectual capacity or courage for that, but they’re no doubt plotting and scheming. The roles they play as eternally innocent untouched-by-reality icons is very difficult for them to constantly maintain, from the Great White Father on down. I’m not much of an opponent anymore—never was, really—but it’s like practicing on a gym dummy. Keeps them in training.