‘Orwellian’ author call

LONDON: Harvard professor and best-selling author Steven Pinker, who was one of the 152 high-profile signatories of a letter to Harper’s magazine protesting against a climate of intolerance, has claimed he is the target of an “Orwellian” attack on his reputation.

A separate letter this week from more than 500 academics accuses him of a willingness to “dismiss and downplay racist violence” after he tweeted about a 2015 New York Times article that quoted data showing police in the US are not biased towards shooting black people. “It’s ludicrous; it’s Orwellian,” he said.