Sho_Nuff82
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Here
Honestly I could quote nearly the whole thing as I agree with most of what the writer says, but I've selected a few choice tidbits.
Has the radical left abandoned notions of free speech as much as the radical right? If so, how do we convince a generation of children that hearing things that make you uncomfortable isn't the end of the world?
Honestly I could quote nearly the whole thing as I agree with most of what the writer says, but I've selected a few choice tidbits.
Briefly, my address maintained that fiction writers should be allowed to write fiction thus should not let concerns about cultural appropriation constrain our creation of characters from different backgrounds than our own. I defended fiction as a vital vehicle for empathy. If we have permission to write only about our own personal experience, there is no fiction, but only memoir. Honestly, my thesis seemed so self-evident that Id worried the speech would be bland.
Nope not in the topsy-turvy universe of identity politics. The festival immediately disavowed the address, though the organizers had approved the thrust of the talk in advance. A Right of Reply session was hastily organized. When, days later, The Guardian ran the speech, social media went ballistic. Mainstream articles followed suit. I plan on printing out The New Republics Lionel Shriver Shouldnt Write About Minorities and taping it above my desk as a chiding reminder.
When I was growing up in the 60s and early 70s, conservatives were the enforcers of conformity. It was the right that was suspicious, sniffing out Communists and scrutinizing public figures for signs of sedition.
Now the role of oppressor has passed to the left. In Australia, where I spoke, Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to do or say anything likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate, providing alarming latitude in the restriction of free speech. It is Australias conservatives arguing for the amendment of this law.
Has the radical left abandoned notions of free speech as much as the radical right? If so, how do we convince a generation of children that hearing things that make you uncomfortable isn't the end of the world?