Irony

"The worst offenders of the virtue of irony, this talent for multiple emotional and intellectual points of view are moralists.  They think they know what is right and wrong, tell others how to live, and see themselves as models of virtuous living.  Next in line are literalists, who anxiously take their every thought or belief as pure fact.   They are incapable of appreciating the paradoxes in belief and need to feel that they possess truth.. "  Thomas Moore