In certain young people today … I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship.
Adichie’s piece is much more insightful — and braver — than the article here. I wouldn’t care if it were just MM, but this is about a whole swathe of young people across the continents…
I doubt young people are worse on average than any other period. Social media just creates a platform for the sanctimonious that didn’t exist in the past.
Remarkable writing from Adichie and seemingly well covered. But her essay on her website seems to have been removed. Odd bit, that. But she is so well known the Internet Archive has a copy of her essay She starts with “In this age of social media, where a story travels the world in minutes, silence sometimes means that other people can hijack your story and soon, their false version becomes the defining story about you.” Sad that she removed her own essay.
Lennon Ó Náraigh
2 years ago
Numbers (2)-(6) are basically what happened in Medieval witch-hunts.
Interesting to note who gets cancelled – it’s mostly people on the Left (broadly defined) – hence the Left eating its own. The Right meanwhile are pretty much uncancellable because they follow the Milwall Principle (“We are Rightwing, no one likes us, we don’t care”, etc.)
So true about medieval witch hunts! I’m not so sure that it’s only people on the left that get cancelled though – I think it depends who sits above the progressive heretic. Ie, a right wing person could be fired for saying something that doesn’t fit with their company’s woke mantra.
Albireo Double
2 years ago
I don’t use Twitter or Facebook. All of this stuff just passes me by, except when I read about it in publications like this.
I really have no idea why anybody would use Facebook or Twitter, Tik-tok etc.. they all appear to be full of people who are mad and stupid.
Sharon Overy
2 years ago
It’s very disheartening to know that this vicious nonsense is as rife in Nigeria as in ‘the West’.
Simon Coulthard
2 years ago
The blog by Adichie is real power to it. It speaks to both the dehumanisation that comes with fame and the ugly insincerity of some of the more vocal social justice warriors.
When Adichie wrote
I instantly thought of Meghan Markle.
Adichie’s piece is much more insightful — and braver — than the article here. I wouldn’t care if it were just MM, but this is about a whole swathe of young people across the continents…
She does write beautifully (and taught me 2 new words 😉 )
But did she buy that domain only for that one post?
I doubt young people are worse on average than any other period. Social media just creates a platform for the sanctimonious that didn’t exist in the past.
Remarkable writing from Adichie and seemingly well covered. But her essay on her website seems to have been removed. Odd bit, that. But she is so well known the Internet Archive has a copy of her essay She starts with “In this age of social media, where a story travels the world in minutes, silence sometimes means that other people can hijack your story and soon, their false version becomes the defining story about you.” Sad that she removed her own essay.
Numbers (2)-(6) are basically what happened in Medieval witch-hunts.
Interesting to note who gets cancelled – it’s mostly people on the Left (broadly defined) – hence the Left eating its own. The Right meanwhile are pretty much uncancellable because they follow the Milwall Principle (“We are Rightwing, no one likes us, we don’t care”, etc.)
“it’s mostly people on the Left (broadly defined) – hence the Left eating its own”
Yes, but definition is everything.
So true about medieval witch hunts! I’m not so sure that it’s only people on the left that get cancelled though – I think it depends who sits above the progressive heretic. Ie, a right wing person could be fired for saying something that doesn’t fit with their company’s woke mantra.
I don’t use Twitter or Facebook. All of this stuff just passes me by, except when I read about it in publications like this.
I really have no idea why anybody would use Facebook or Twitter, Tik-tok etc.. they all appear to be full of people who are mad and stupid.
It’s very disheartening to know that this vicious nonsense is as rife in Nigeria as in ‘the West’.
The blog by Adichie is real power to it. It speaks to both the dehumanisation that comes with fame and the ugly insincerity of some of the more vocal social justice warriors.