It seems to me that literature is the last thing that we can depend on to tell us the truth about who we are.

Because politics can no longer do that.

Politicians have to lie.

I mean, they have to.

I'm not talking about your speeches, John.

No, I know.

I'm not saying you had to tell us a few burnished lies.

Because Brother Barat has to say what he had to say.

No.

I'm John Fabro. Welcome to Offline.

Hey everyone, my guess this week is Chimamanda and Gozy Adice, a Nigerian feminist and writer of novels, short stories and nonfiction.

In 2009, she gave a speech about cultural representation called the danger of a single story that's become one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time.

A few years later, she delivered another speech called We Should All Be Feminists that became so famous it was sampled by Beyonce for the song Flawless.

So why am I interviewing her for Offline?

Well, last summer, when I was first thinking about doing the show, a friend sent me an essay that Chimamanda had written, an essay that went so viral it briefly crashed her website.

It was about social media.

And here's the part where my jaw dropped.

Quote,

There are many social media savvy people who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion, who can fluidly pontificate on Twitter about kindness but are unable to actually show kindness.

She goes on to write the quote,

We have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow.

The assumption of good faith is dead.

...