One of the easiest ways to tell that one side is losing a debate — whether it’s about politics or anything else that’s grounded in the real world — is when they stop talking about specifics, and start talking about fantasy. Once you have to start relying on pure fiction to make your point, it’s usually a pretty good indicator that you don’t have much of a point to begin with. When feminists began citing “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a warning of what Donald Trump’s administration would look like, serious people understood that it wasn’t a clever analogy or a useful metaphor. It was desperation. It was a bit like citing “Shrek” as proof that we need to open the borders to creepy-looking outsiders. No one who’s attained even a basic level of maturity and competence would fall for this kind of thing.
Unfortunately, as we’ve all known for a while now, basic levels of maturity and competence are nowhere to be found in the UK, which is why the entire country is currently transfixed by a Netflix miniseries called “Adolescence.” The show debuted last month, and already, it’s something of a cultural icon over there. At this point, calling “Adolescence” a mere “miniseries” is practically hate speech in Britain. They prefer to think of the show as a documentary, if not their bible. Everyone is expected to watch the entire show, start-to-finish, before they can engage in any kind of public debate on any topic.
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