There's No Such Thing as a "Pure" Programmer

New videos DAILY

Join Big Think Edge for exclusive video lessons from top thinkers and doers

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every piece of writing has a political bent, says Amis. Thus, in his view, neutrality is a chimera — a "mythical creature." Some things are so "unshirkably ill-advised" — such as white supremacy — that Amis believes treating such views "evenhandedly," as an alternative perspective of equal moral standing to others, is ridiculous. Amis says that he doesn't have it in him to be respectful toward people who harass the bereaved parents of Sandy Hook or Parkland, Florida.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARTIN AMIS

Martin Amis is regarded by many critics as one of the most influential and innovative voices in contemporary British fiction. Amis is often grouped with the generation of British-based novelists that includes Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes. His latest book is "The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1994-2017".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABOUT BIG THINK:

Smarter Faster™

Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, we help you get smarter, faster. ​Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields—subscribe to learn from top minds like these daily.

We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life.

Other Frequent contributors include Michio Kaku & Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Michio Kaku Playlist

Bill Nye Playlist

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Playlist

Read more at for a multitude of articles just as informative and satisfying as our videos. New articles posted daily on a range of intellectual topics.

Join Big Think Edge, to gain access to an immense library of content. It features insight from many of the most celebrated and intelligent individuals in the world today. Topics on the platform are focused on: emotional intelligence, digital fluency, health and wellness, critical thinking, creativity, communication, career development, lifelong learning, management, problem solving & self-motivation.

BIG THINK EDGE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW BIG THINK:

📰BigThink.com

📸Instagram

✉ E-mail: info@bigthink.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT:

MARTIN AMIS: Salman Rushdie has argued that you can't be—you know, it's idiotic to say you're above politics, because politics is all around you and above you and beneath you. I was resistant to that idea, but it's clearly true, isn't it, that it's very hard to imagine a piece of writing or a longish speech that doesn't have political bearing on us all. So I think neutrality is a chimera. It's not there. It's a mythical creature.

And evenhandedness is its own trap as well. I mean if the press had not been so "evenhanded" we would have President Clinton and not President Trump. Some things are so clearly wrong, so unshirkably ill-advised that I think being evenhanded about it is ridiculous. What do you do with Alex Jones and those people who harass the bereaved parents of Sandy Hook or Parkland, Florida, and say – and threaten them with death and say they're worthless—what is the phrase – emergency actors, crisis actors. Now I'm not going to sit down and say well let's go through your points one after the other. And we hear a great deal about being respectful to white supremacists. I'm not going to be respectful. I haven't got it in me to be respectful of that. Some things are malum per se, evil in themselves and the crisis actor business is one of them.