Webthing

As the 2016 keynote speaker at the Brisbane Writers' Festival, Shriver gave a controversial speech critical of the concept of cultural appropriation 301[31 which led the festival to "pull its links to Shriver's speech and publicly disavow her point of view" 32] Shriver had previously been criticized for her depiction of Latino and African American characters in her book The Mandibles, which was described by one critic as racist and by another as politically misguided. 33][34] In her Writers' Festival speech, Shriver contested these criticisms of her book, stating that writers should be entitled to write from any perspective, race, gender or background that they choose. 35][31]

In June 2018, she criticized an effort by the publisher Penguin Random House to diversify the authors that it published and better represent the population, saying that it prioritized diversity over quality and that a manuscript "written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven" would be published "whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling". Penguin Random House marketer and author Candice Carty-Williams criticized the statements. 36! As a result of her comments Shriver was dropped from judging a competition for the magazine Mslexia. 37] Shriver expressed her opposition to woke and identity politics in a 2021 interview with the Evening Standard, stating that "I don't like discrimination of any kind" but adding "there is nothing malign, initially at least, in the impulse to pursue a fairer society. The biggest problem with the 'woke' is their methods - too often involving name calling, silencing, vengefulness, and predation." [38]

Shriver has argued against migration into the UK; in 2021, she wrote an article that stated "For westerners to passively accept and even abet incursions by foreigners so massive that the native-born are effectively surrendering their territory without a shot fired is biologically perverse."[39][40][41] She is a patron of British population growth rate concern group Population Matters, 42] and supported Brexit. 4] Shriver has been an outspoken critic of what she describes as a "deeply disturbing social obsession with transgenderism," especially following the arrest of Graham Linehan when he arrived at Heathrow airport 43] In September 2025, two years after she left the UK for Portugal, Shriver said she is now scared to travel to the country "because I'm worried that, given what I have put into print, I could be arrested the next time I come to the UK."[44]

In a 2022 letter endorsing Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Shriver described herself as a "lifelong Democrat and reported voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. 45] In the letter, she documents her shift away from Biden-whose presidency she says was a "White-House-cum-care-home"-and Donald Trump as poor leaders, and praised DeSantis for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, banning critical race theory in schools, opposing transgender involvement in women's sports, and passing the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, while noting that she disagrees with him on abortion. 45] Shriver also unfavorably compared the charisma of Democratic contenders to the charisma she felt DeSantis possessed. She cited a national "apoplectic loathing" for Vice President Kamala Harris, and categorically rejected both Pete Buttigieg (as a "meek softy") and Gavin Newsom (as a "slick, vain huckster" responsible for allegedly turning the state of California into an "open-air pit latrine"). [45] She expressed some appreciation for Amy Klobuchar, though also claimed she was "hardly likeable". 45]

Big oof

The WaPo opinion page supports free markets above all else but also wants you to feel bad for participating in them

Insane Clown Posse V @icp •• • I Don't care what we've said in our raps, woman come No 1. We all owe our lives to wemon.

Happy International Women’s Day

If Joe Biden had said this Jake Tapper would have hit him with a hammer

Why Trump’s war on Iran is definitely taking place What's it like to re-read Baudrillard as bombs fall on Tehran?

if you want to understand how trump talked himself into an war of choice to overthrow the government of iran, you have to start where all discussions of great wartime leaders start:

with french postmodernists and SUNSET BOULEVARD

One thing they don’t tell you about doing standup comedy is that you can get explosive diarrhea ten minutes before your set

OpenWar

So much online conservatism these days is just "I miss being a kid"

This is the DOJ using AI as intended - as a scapegoat

trump is taking political hits on iran is because he is now undermining his supporters' ability to win online arguments. you can just own them ruthlessly on the iran thing now for being dumdums. and this they cannot bear. they can tolerate any amount of murder and mayhem, but not being owned online

38% of airline passengers vote to open plane door midflight because that bitch stewardess said not to

The case is that investors don’t understand war

The official stance of the DOJ is that Real Eyes Realize Real Lies

A strange group of cloaked figures has assembled around Donald Rumsfeld’s grave

Trump is going to put Urban Meyer in charge of Iran and he’s gonna bring in Tebow to be head cleric

Absolute fucking nightmare blunt rotation

Today I Will Look The Burrito Man In The Eye and other stories of manifesting success

ON THIS DAY
I SEE KELSEY

Remember - the core audience of this shit doesn’t have the same antipathy towards AI slop that most of us do

I think “falling for” is the wrong language here. I think the majority of them are playing along with a fantasy like a much more pathetic version of pro wrestling.

a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people

The Iron Sheik (RIP)

Does anyone else remember when Andy Samberg and the Maroon 5 guy rapped over an Aphex Twin sample about being gay for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Well it’s war so they’d probably like it anyways

International Relations Is Not a Morality Play: What to Expect From the War With Iran The Trump administration has no plan and no path to a good outcome.

War is not a morality play.

Looks like there’s no long-term plan.

Trump ending JCPOA in 2018 set things on a path to war.

Killing Khamenei isn’t regime change.

Iran’s ability to retaliate appears limited, but watch tanker traffic.

And more of my thoughts on the Iran war in @liberalcurrents.com.

Are you fucking kidding me

this isn't the worst of the Democrats' statements, but statements like this are a stark reminder that to many people, the real issue with the Iraq War was that Americans died. everything else is a footnote.

People really struggling with the idea that the Iranian government sucks but we shouldn't be bombing them can both be true, eh?

Don’t they call it the longhouse now or is that some other stupid fucking concept