The idea that kids have too little self-esteem is antiquated. It’s a Zombie Lie, one of those ideas that perhaps was true in the past but now is not, and yet people keep saying it. Kids now have too much self-esteem, and it’s turning them into angry, screaming grievance collectors.

All of that childhood tolerance is resulting in grown-up tyrants. It’s no wonder that by the time they get to college, just having to listen to an opinion they don’t agree with is considered an act of “violence.” This is what happens when no one ever loses and everyone gets a prize. ...

But maybe Paris is the one who owes us an apology for being patient zero for today’s vapid, entitled, famous-for-nothing culture. She kind of birthed the world where every fifteen-year-old with a phone aspires to be an “influencer”—she’s the face that launched a thousand little shits. Paris is who led directly to the Kardashians, and then to Housewives and Teen Moms and Snookis and a generation of young girls who look up to the “role models” who managed to turn an unenthusiastic blow job into an empire.