The idea that young people are exceptionally coddled and go to great lengths to protect themselves against the realities of life – to the detriment of the rest of us – has long settled in the brains of the nation, where, in some cases, it seems to have hardened into an immovable plaque.
I was struck by an interview with ex-Python Terry Gilliam. After years of irreverent truth-telling (recent views: #MeToo was a witch-hunt, Harvey Weinstein’s victims were “adults who made choices”, he himself was a black lesbian), Gilliam had suddenly encountered a censorious new generation, the first of its kind, which was simply too soft and closed-minded to take it. They could not handle his truth.
