What if calling someone stupid was a crime?
Lionel Shriver imagines cancel culture going to even greater extremes
ARE YOU hateful enough to use the S-word? You know the one: stupid. It has been banned in schools, its use and synonyms (dumb, slow) considered “slurs” worthy of expulsion. Even its antonyms are grounds for book bans and boycotts: only a “cerebral supremacist” would have the gall to buy Elena Ferrante’s novel “My Brilliant Friend”. Instead, those wanting to be politically correct display copies of “The Calumny of IQ: Why Discrimination Against ‘D— People’ Is the Last Great Civil Rights Fight” on their coffee tables.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Dummy business”
Culture May 25th 2024
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