via SxSW Interactive
As Thurston explained, he can trace his natural inclination towards political activism back to his great grandfather who was born into slavery, and taught himself to read. Similarly, Baratunde has taught himself, and hopes to impart onto others, the ability to Read the World.
When the media is busy talking about the state of the media, Baratunde explained, it falls on the comedians of the world to cover things in a way that other people won’t and to play the role of communicating truth indirectly.
Having been at The Onion for over 4 years now, Baratunde was able to perfectly articulate how “the ability to mock the world, with people from around the world, tests the limits of freedom” and how you can almost directly measure the freedom of a country by its tolerance of that satire.
if you don’t know Baratunde Thurston, you should.