Lionel Shriver wrote an article for the NY TIMES about a wave of PC outrage a smart young woman unleashed against her at a writers’ conference. Shriver seems to believe that the young woman in question was serious in her outrage against the writer’s assertion that it’s ok to write about experiences other than your own. Shriver makes the mistake that is common to those who remember the 1970s and takes this PC outrage seriously.
In reality, however, it is not even remotely true that “young people tear one another apart over who seemed to imply that Asians are good at math.” What they really slaughter each other over is who gets to be in the spotlight. It’s all about branding, self-promotion, making a splash to get noticed.
And the young woman who used Shriver’s remarks to fake mortal offense not only got a publication in the Guardian out of it but now has Shriver herself promote her heretofore unknown name on the pages of The New York Times. I say, good for her. Two minutes of exaggerated hand-wringing and she is world famous. That’s smart. And if dense old fogeys like Shriver don’t understand that this is simply a battle for Twitter followers, then the joke’s on her.
The best way to protect oneself from this sort of con artists is not to whine about free speech but simply not to mention their name. Don’t give them the spotlight, and they will move on to another idiot they can bamboozle.
Clarissa's Blog 
No, this is a very pleasant exercise in fainting and branding herself as “brave writer oppressed by PC millennials young’uns who won’t get off her lawn, the last rampart of liberal arts and liberalism.”
Truthfully, I have no idea who this woman is and I’m a regular at bookstores [and she managed to get one of her books made into a Hollywood film] so…
Note the blurb on the bottom of the article. Are you not excited to read her latest novel?
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Shriver is very famous if even I know her name. But after all this, the con artist nobody knew before is a superstar.
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Famous or not, it still doesn’t change the fact she made a conscious decision to react in dudgeon. That last line alone will guarantee paroxysms of further indignation and dumb clickbait pieces to feed on this dumb editorial. She refers to this Supreme Court case: National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie This is mutually beneficial for both of them.
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Unless she actually hired the freak and paid for The Guardian to publish the freak’s piece (which would be super devious and even kind of cool), it’s not on Shriver. I wish she hadn’t mentioned the con woman’s name but it’s hard to resist these cons. I’m not sure I would have managed to resist either.
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A young politician from the ranks of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has caused a storm by suggesting that the party is institutionally sexist.
https://www.thelocal.de/20160923/merkel-party-accused-of-squandering-future-through-sexism
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You are rights, it’s another attempt at hogging the spotlight. Why do any work if you can pretend to be a victim and go big on Facebook?
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