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The Lies of Trauma Merchants
The Lies of Trauma Merchants
Hasan Minhaj won a Peabody in 2019 for his Netflix series Patriot Act. (Bryan Bedder via Getty Images)
Hasan Minhaj won over progressives by playing the victim.
By Kat Rosenfield
09.24.23 — Culture and Ideas
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The Free Press
The Free Press
The Lies of Trauma Merchants

My colleagues and I filed into the vice president’s office at the publishing house where I worked, crowding around a television that was turned to ABC. The year was 2005. The mood was giddy, as if we were about to witness a public execution—which, in a way, we were.

James Frey, author of the best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces, had been exposed a…

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Kat Rosenfield

Kat Rosenfield is a culture writer at The Free Press and author of five novels, including the Edgar-nominated No One Will Miss Her. Prior to joining The Free Press, she was a reporter at MTV News and a columnist at UnHerd, where she wrote about American culture and politics. Her work has also appeared in Vulture, Playboy, The Boston Globe, and Reason, among others.

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