So Sally Rooney’s racist? Only if you choose to confuse fiction with fact | Nick Cohen
The author is the latest to suffer an attempted ‘cancelling’, one born of malice and stupidity
Social media did not create informers and liars. The malicious have always manufactured denunciations and the literal-minded have always confused nuance with sin. The web is simply supercharging one of those dismal moments in history when wilful ignorance and active malice are rewarded rather than disdained.
In optimistic times, one can almost sympathise with character assassins. In Normal People, Sally Rooney has her female lead think, “cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently”. The victim may get over it. The abuser must always live with the knowledge that they are a thug.
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