Others say, “Fuck it,” and pick up their sword and ax and dive right in. Some have gotten sucked in against their will. One by one, I’ve watched other prominent bloggers and thought leaders get sucked into some politicized bullshit. And if you can’t draw the attention, you’re done. I’m proud that I’m read by people on both the right and left (that’s rare these days) and neither side has ever seemed to be able to correctly pinpoint my political beliefs.īut the sad fact is that we seem to be reaching a point where the only way to survive in the current media hellscape is to pick a battle and fight on one side of it.
Instead, I prefer to write about these politics and ideologies from a bird’s eye view. Most of the things that I write about are pretty universal experiences, therefore I’ve tried hard not to unnecessarily get bogged down in politics or ideology. My strategy over the years has been to try my best to float above the fray. But as that engagement becomes more and more tainted by absurd comments, then it a) makes it hard to get any feel for what actually matters to most people, and b) ruins my day.
I rely on engaging with a wide and varied audience. Unfortunately, as a writer, I must rely on publishing online. And people seem to be more polarized on more topics than ever before. The quality of journalism continues to decline (on both right and left). The media gets more fragmented and angry. And every year I hope we’ve found it, but discover we haven’t. We’re still looking for rock bottom as a culture. I’ve also written about how things like terrorism, school shootings, and Trump are products of this social environment, more than causes.īut every year, things somehow seem to get even worse. I’ve written about the attention economy, the age of outrage, and how online media promotes conflict and tribalism. Can we have some historical context, please?įor the last few years, I’ve written a number of articles on how the internet is fucking up our culture in a lot of weird and unexpected ways. And if I use “she,” I’ll get messages from angry social justice warriors telling me that I’m part of the patriarchy, and I’m sexist, and white-cisgender-straight-male privileged, blah, blah, blah…Įven articles as innocuous as my Kant article, one of the most brilliant men in history, gin up angry emails about misogyny and sexism. If I use “he,” I’ll get messages from angry right-wingers complaining that I’m a man-hating, pussy-whipped commie. There are moments when I’m writing now where I get anxious about what pronoun to use when making a joke.
The other week, a journalist in New Zealand compared me to alt-right neo-nazis for no other reason than because I’m a white male and my book title tells people to not give a fuck. A recent Amazon review called my entire book sexist because of one possible interpretation of one sentence. I’ve been compared to Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Richard Simmons. But these days, I get called some combination of racist/sexist/homophobic/socialist/fraud on pretty much a weekly basis no matter what I say or do. That’s what.Īnd this doesn’t even get to me… someone whose words literally reach millions of eyeballs online each month.
Can’t a woman enjoy a soccer game while exploring a different culture? Fuck you. Can’t a sweet old man just enjoy his chocolate Easter bunnies? No. Yes, friends, the internet has achieved its final form: absolutely everything- everything-is now offensive. A friend’s father, who is religious and old, posted on Facebook this spring, “Happy Easter everyone! God bless you.”įirst comment: “Stop shoving your religion down people’s throats, no one wants to hear it.” Here’s a similar story, different person, different issue. Apparently, all soccer is off limits as long as someone, somewhere is being oppressed. The first comment was, “I see, so now you support a country that oppresses gay people.” When we got home, my wife posted some pictures online and wrote a short blurb saying how much fun we had in Russia. Last year, my wife and I went to the World Cup.
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