Identity politics ‘an ugly way to think about the world’ 

She's great. And not once did I hear her play the victim card.

Good on ya girl. We need more to speak out about this authoritarian crap.

People who buy books don't care about who wrote it, people who care about the race and sexual orientation of the author, don't buy books.

Yes, keeping us all in little boxes - the ones they define, and no others.

Lionel Shriver is brilliant! Shame on Penguin Random House. Being a bookworm from a very young age, I fear for what kind of books will be out there in the future, and if they will be worth reading anymore.

Correct, Yasmin and her ilk have zero authority over us!

So the publishers will be looking for absolutely everything except the ability to write good books. That sounds to me like a successful business plan, although not one I personally would have adopted.

Wow, this lady is brilliant! It's so nice to hear such rugged common sense.

To teach Penguin-Random House a lesson let’s just keep buying and reading good books. They’ll go broke in no time.

Lovely, intelligent lady!! Excellent interview as usual. What would we do without these valiant souls!?

Racism, sexism, *and* identity politics are all forms of collectivism. The solution is individualism.

It starts early, like in elementary school, and it keeps building.

This lady is a heroine.

Its always racist people who are the first to scream racism. She's right, ignore them. I say turn it around and point out their racism. And also, the Nazis burned books that didn't aggree with them, like those people conplaining about her.

Make Orwell fiction again.😆

To me, each of these would-be tyrants perfectly matches the famous quote from "Terminator," describing its character: "It can't be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear."

Shes really brave to speak up. This topic can cost you dearly $$$

"I'm not against diversity, I'm against quotas." Brilliant! I absolutely LOVE that statement! I'm also curious, What is the "rule" when a writer/filmmaker, etc, tells a story from the point of view of a dog, or any other animal for that matter? Do we now have to have animals tell these stories? Where exactly is the line, where exactly does it end and who exactly is qualified to make that decision for everyone else?

I’m glad you came back , pizzing off Leftists is what life’s all about 😁

Totally agree - thank you for standing up for sanity in this increasingly unhinged world.

Well done Lionel Shriver, you're a bloody legend and I love your work. I agree and I'm far from white. Creative freedom's important.

Woody Allen, rumoured to have done??!! He married his step daughter for Gods sack. There is something seriously wrong with that guy. She sure threw out a bad example.

Identity politics started with stereotypes in university.

After loosing all hope in females, this specimen shows up!

The PC movement is bringing in the most potent and effortless form of repression and Fascism ever. Well done...

Excellent post, SNA. I'm always reminded of Abigail Adam's letter to husband John in 1776 when she summed up her thesis: "you know that every man would be a tyrant if he could." And we see how this lust includes women as well.

Congrats Andrew. One of your RU-vid clip was selected by American Conservative University podcast. Keep up the good work.

Those who have talent write, those who don't criticize. It's how they vent their envy.

As an Australian, I'm embarrassed the a great mind, like Lionel Shriver, had to suffer this sort of nonsense & at the same time grateful she has come ack & in doing so, demonstrated to the militant left just how better people, better minds, conduct themselves as truly members of society. All of us could stand to learn from her behaviour in this instance. Thanks Andrew Bolt for this interview & thank you Lionel Shriver for rising above this nonsense, coming back to Australia & having the courage to speak out against it.

Thanks Lionel, your always welcome, we'll even buy you a beer!

She hit the nail on the head,they have no authority.

Good for her. These rule setters have NO authority. Two fingers up to them and on our merry way we go!

Woman asks a male fiction writer."How do you write women so well"...Writer.."I think of a man then I take away reason and accountability" Second only to the Fight Club line..." We are a generation of men raised by women"

Well said

4:00 "People are constantly coming up with rules we have to obey but these people have no authority and we don't have to obey those rules." Lionel Shriver --- That was a really cool sentence and the bit that follows is awesome too. On top of that she was so logical. So glad that people like this still exist in the English speaking world. It gives me hope about the future of liberty.

Wow - this woman is brilliant!

Great interview.

Yasmin is a Muslim woman of color. What gives her the right to tell anyone who isn't also a Muslim woman of color what to do? (See how that works both ways?)

Shriver's trying to get writers to stop cowing to SJWs. I applaud her!

I am anti-"diversity." Can anyone name one good thing this "diversity" has done?

The identity politics attacks on writers takes book burning to a whole new level. They would not even allow thoughtful, insightful books to be written.

So you can write about another person with sympathy......NO NO NO.

Where is the double thumbs up button? Who said! “Those who are easily offended are easily led”?

Well there goes science fiction - unless, I suppose, written from the point of view of an illegal alien lol...

You cannot make a lesser individual greater than their aptitude allows.......

The question is why the majority was silent for a long time ?

People will still have to by and read what they put out. What goes around will come around eventually.

Amazing some free speech is still allowed in OZ.

In Canada they tried having stores stock only books with female authors the books stayed on the shelves. I and millions of others found the second-hand book stores after reading two of these books. The authors were completely clueless about things men are quite familiar with.

If the Australian news are mirror image of the Australian nation, I would like to become Astralain myself, if it's possible of course.

Well I guess we better take Harry Potter off the shelves then

Basically, identity politics is saying, I don't care how great or good you are, you will be judged by what group you are allocated.

I like his lady. Talks intelligent but plain old fashioned common sense

It's easy to stereotype women working in the humanities as fuzzy-brained, but here is one who thinks and communicates more clearly than a lot of men.

Identity and religion cannot be separated, Someone who religiously adheres to an identity will never even hear what is said by others but accept every word from one of their own religion.

She's so right about cancel culture. This isn't a million miles away from what happened under Stalin, where any artist who didn't follow the official line was not allowed to work. It's also being forced by a tiny fraction of the population who are active on social media but who are completely unrepresentative of the general population. Why politicians and the media seem to think these idiots are worthy of listening to and obeying is one of the mysteries of our age. Almost every day it seems that there is a story that someone does or says something that 'causes outrage on social media'. But when you actually look into it it's obvious that there is a tiny percentage of outrage and a much larger percentage of, 'you cannot be serious!' and people making fun of the perpetually offended moblet.

She's a great author and, listening to her, she is a great character too.

I love this

Yep, a lot of the ways we look at the world are ugly.

Jack London narrated "The Iron Heel" in the voice of a young woman living in the distant past, and it was thoroughly delightful. The body of London's work would not be complete without the exposition of this unique facet of his incomparable talent. Identity politics is a Procrustean bed that resorts to considerable violence in the interest of imposing equality where it need not exist. Lionel Shriver is brilliant. I must read some of her books!

I totally adore this lady.

This is a modern take on the historical book burning...brutal censorship!

George RR Martin has written books from the perspective a fat old king, young dragon princess, undead beings, young warriors etc . It's not appropriation. It's called TALENT. We used to celebrate that ability

This is a good story, stay away from all pro left stories. Thanks Sky.

A person is to be judged by their character and their actions. No matter who they are. Anything else, especially identity politics, is disgusting, old fashioned bigotry. Plain and simple.

How doe's disney make movies from the point of animals like lion king? they have no animals that can write or talk or direct.

One thing I can do is to go to my man shed put on planet rock and tinker with my historic motorcycles, and weld and turn and mill, and forget the lunacy that is this world

Identity politics would have us stringing up Kafka for wronging insects by “assuming he knows what it’s like to have an exoskeleton.” Everywhere morons would be burning every copy of “Metamorphosis” as harmful to bug rights.

You madam is a class act!

We LOVE BOLT in America!!!

It's simple, if you think the book will offend you don't read it.

You know what also can be quite ugly at times? Being a German in Germany.

How can JK Rowling write about a boy wizard. The hypocrisy is getting absurd

Yeah I do creative writing for fun, won't let anyone tell me what I can and can't write, fiction is fiction.

How is sky news over here so backwards? Yet just across the pond you’ve got Australia with the way NEWS should be done! How?!?

I've been part of the old working class left for years, but I have little in common with the current leftist globalists, climate alarmists, and identitarians (if there is such a a word). I could see this latter beginning when in I was in University more than 20 years ago. Many feminists in University believed that language is deterministic but I would argue that the context in which a word is used influences meaning and can even subvert meaning (e.g. sarcasm). I was told, for example, that the use of the term 'girl' is demeaning to all women of whatever age and in whatever culture (even when consenting women call each other girls). It was at this point that I became vehemently opposed to dogma of all kinds - including feminism and Marxism. Since then the situation has become much, much worse and identity politics highlights the growing gap between reality and our representation of it through language. Criticism of literary empathy (putting oneself in another's shoes) is a criticism of a very important human attribute. In principle, this is a criticism of all attempts to write fiction as pointless and impossible - unless I write only about myself. Identity politics is, perhaps, the ultimate expression of liberal individualism and as Lionel Shriver points out, places us in separate boxes where meaningful communication (and mutual empathy) become problematic. This is mainly a middle class preoccupation: working class people (in general) will be baffled by it. Greeting from Scotland.

Keeping people in their little boxes... That's exactly what YT seems to do, when I see the number of views this video has.

The left: Yes sir you can decide to be a woman any time you like! Also the left: No sir you cannot possibly know what its like to be a woman!

It is ethnic demarcation. It's akin to the old trade union stance of no plurality of skills in the workplace. It's intent was to increase employment and thus Union membership, but often caused company insolvency and less jobs. Identity politics will undoubtedly kill itself off in a similar way.

So by their argument there should be no such thing as fiction? If I'm a bloke who wants to write about a character from a bloke's perspective, technically I can't because, I don't really know what it's like to be a non existent bloke? Wouldn't want to offend non existent bloke's too, would we (?).

Obviously Random House/ Penguin have not taken any notice of Hollywood's recent disastrous foray into identity politics over good films: Captain Marvel; the female Ghostbusters; female Ocean's ##; lesbian Batman series; X Whamyn Dark Pheonix; the upcoming Terminator film featuring the Androgyne 2000; and many more expensive flops. SJWs don't watch films. A few years ago I chose the self-publishing route. I don't make much money, but I don't have someone censoring my views (through characters) either. I also won't have the pleasure of seeing the majority of the print run in "The Works" either.

No educational background ... as a policy for its employees?

Its a false equality. To say its fair where there is no winner and there is no looser. To say that it is good if bad is equal to good, then there is no good and bad. False equality is not about fairness. It is "mix to confuse", babel... Gin,

so you have to be a serial killer to write about a serial killer?

Yes! So much, yes!!!

Might as well go after jack & jill because jill followed jack , she wasn't allowed to go first. Lol. #WTFs goin on.??

I know exactly when this nonsense began. Suddenly 'culture' was the important word. Any country that had a cruel custom was excused because it was their "culture". I knew when I commented about how ridiculously absurd & cruel a certain custom in a country was & I was shouted down because it was their culture - that this was a dangerous road to somewhere. Now I know where.

Breath of fresh air in a world gone mad, as you ossies might say "good on yer"

Commercial is the biggest factor for any business...get woke go broke will fix it.

If you try to resolve cultural appropriation like the value of Pi, which has no end, do I end up being able to write only about myself?

strong woman and absolutely right.

My dad was from England and I frequently use Anglo-Saxon terminology. I have also observed individuals, obviously not of British origin, co-opting my ethnic heritage, rather colorfully too. I should deeply resent this mis-appropriation but I don’t, because it enriches the international lexicon.

I have written a little bit of unpublished fiction. I've written from the perspective of every character, male, female, young and old. I think it forced me to think about life from different people's perspectives. I think that's called empathy. I would love to go to a writer's festival, but they're all peppered with nut cases like Clementine Ford and Yasmin Horrible Mcgoo.

As a European you have a group Identity and get this , we as European's have group interests and should have loyalty towards our group . I can assure you Muslims , Indians , Chinese etc have an in group preference and will swamp our culture , areas , countries etc to insert their culture and interests .When they have the numbers they elect their politicians using our system , who then implement policies that work for their group thus displacing other groups .

Identity politics is in fact more racist and condescending than so-called ‘rightwing’ politics. It stereotypes people according to things they have no control over, in particular their race/skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, socio-économique status. This lady is correct.

My god this woman is making sense and she is on tv WTF is going on did no one read the memo about crushing all human kindness and reasonableness with dogmatic Identity politics? It is also true that even if he had done then it would say nothing about his art

Yup.

I olny got one question. How are you prepared for a war. Think about it.

Intelligent, articulate whats not to like...

I watched got the munchies went into a fantasy. A little bit like what are they yappin about.Meaningless.