Bete Noire

John Lahr is the kind of critic who loves to share his opinions, even when unrelated to the show at hand.  Here's how he opens his New Yorker review of La Bete:

Reader, have you noticed a whiff of misrule in the air? At home and abroad, terrorists and Tea Partiers, emboldened by ignorance, are threatening to bring an early fin to our siècle. Civil discourse is strained; understanding is regularly trumped by hectoring...

Is he so tone deaf--or has such a low opinion of his readers--that he feels he can casually compare terrorists and Tea Partiers? (Since his first thought after 9/11 was it's an inside job, I suppose it's natural he sees a connection.)

Actually, his main gripe seems to be with the Tea Party people.  Terrorists aren't the ones straining civil discourse or hectoring us--they just blow us up.  It's those nasty fellow citizen who don't vote like him that are causing all the trouble.  When it comes to terrorists, he's more likely to call for understanding.  But then, he's always believed in selective outrage--all those people comparing Bush to a chimp or Hitler never had him bemoan the lack of civil discourse.

Still, he's making progress.  At least he didn't call them teabaggers this time.