It doesn’t matter if a girl identified as a cat (she didn’t). The issue is how post-truth politics exploits it | Nesrine Malik

We pay a high price for the rows and divisions created by the right and its media allies to distract from their failings

I apologise in advance, because this column is about something that didn't happen. Too much is actually happening in the world that deserves our attention, but in this instance, it's worth pausing, and then tracing, how fiction becomes fact.

By now, you may have heard that a girl in a school in Rye in East Sussex said she was a cat, that she identified" as such, and that others who disagreed with her were chastised by a teacher. If you have come across this story, you would be entirely forgiven for thinking it was real. Catgirl: today's culture of affirmation is failing children," wailed the Telegraph. Nick Ferrari on LBC hosted a whole phone-in segment about the story. The Mail unveiled an investigation" that revealed this was not an isolated incident, but part of a larger phenomenon where children are identifying as cats, dogs, dinosaurs and furries".

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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