Science Quote by Jack Schwartz

Schwartz’s line lands like a lab result: cool, clipped, and damning in what it reveals about the burden of proof. The “paradox” isn’t a cute rhetorical flourish; it’s an indictment of a rigged system where accusation is cheap and refutation is endless. Anti-Semitism, he implies, functions less as an argument than as a machine for producing suspicion. The anti-Semite “simply has to make” charges because the charge is the point: it pollutes the air, and the target is forced to breathe it publicly.

The syntax matters. “Invariably” strips away any comforting exceptions; this isn’t a rare glitch but a recurring social protocol. “Explain away” is especially sharp. It suggests the accused isn’t even granted the dignity of a fair hearing; they’re cast as rationalizers from the start, asked to dissolve allegations rather than meet them on neutral ground. The phrase captures a familiar double bind: defend yourself and you confirm the conversation’s premise; refuse and you “must have something to hide.”

As a scientist, Schwartz frames prejudice like an asymmetric experiment: one side introduces noise, the other is tasked with producing clean data under hostile conditions. Historically, this maps onto centuries of conspiracy narratives that can’t be falsified because any evidence against them is reinterpreted as evidence of cunning. The line also anticipates modern disinformation dynamics: a bad-faith claim takes seconds to post; correcting it takes pages, credentials, and emotional labor. Schwartz’s subtext is blunt: anti-Semitism persists not just because people believe lies, but because society rewards the act of accusing and taxes the act of answering.