Author Salman Rushdie, recently attacked by a radical Islamic terrorist in New York, is now claiming the West in which he has sought refuge for decades is not so great, and that a “golden age myth” lays behind movements such as “MAGA” and Brexit.
Despite relying upon the West’s commitment to freedom of expression and millions of dollars in taxpayer resources that have ensured his safety after former Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a “fatwa” against him in 1989, Rushdie told an audience on Wednesday:
“Make America Great Again’ – that’s always made me want to ask: ‘When exactly was that?’ What is the date to which we are looking backwards? Was it, for example, when there was slavery? Was it before women had the right to vote? Was it before the civil rights movement?”
Rushdie also hit out at Republicans voters specifically, claiming they no longer value democratic values enshrined in the First Amendment and are embracing authoritarianism due to concerns about the fairness of the 2020 presidential election. He argued, “When you have the large majority of Republican voters believing that the last election was stolen… if the assault on truth has reached that level of success, then we’re in real trouble.”
He made no comment on the authoritarian use of power by the left, in order to imprison those with differing opinions on the matter, including President Trump. Rushdie went on to suggest Brexit – which has never been fully implemented by the British government – was a “catastrophe”.
“In England, the Brexit catastrophe was the result of another golden age myth, which is: ‘England used to be this glorious country and it could be that glorious country again, if only we could get rid of all these foreigners,” Rushdie retorted, without signaling whether or not he, a foreigner, would return to his native India. Probably not, though.
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