The Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh, best known as the author of Trainspotting, sat down with Lovin Malta to discuss his views on the moral panic the world is currently facing, canceling culture … and Malta.

Welsh warned that the decline of industrialism in the West led to the shattering of the firm definition of work and masculinity, and subsequently to the shattering of people’s identities.

“When people don’t have these certainties to stick with, you get this big upset, moral panic and political change,” he says.

“You see all this kind of identity crisis, from toxic masculinity to sexuality – everyone seems to be in a position where we don’t know who or what we are anymore and we’re trying to work out what to do next.”

Welsh has declared the culture of cancellation to be a cry of “kind of liberal fascism” arguing that the world will be good as long as everyone is nice to each other and sees what they say and do.

“It’s very weak for society,” he says.

“I know some people have faced so much cruelty and oppression and we should try to end this but without cutting layers of skin from people and expecting them to be able to function. All you are doing is making them more vulnerable. ”

Welsh was invited to Malta as a special guest for the Malta Book Festival 2021, organized by the National Book Council.

He had words of praise for the island.

“The architecture is beautiful and the weather is fantastic, compared to where I come from,” he remarked.