Some folks have gone to working folks up for a living, instead of providing insight.
Keri and I watched a documentary called Cover-Up on Netflix. I love journalism and I have hero journalists. I think I am a fan of journalism the way many folks are sports fans. How I spend my time is important to me. I don’t want to read a bunch of garbage. I don’t want to get all worked up. I don’t want to distort my worldview. I refuse to possibly change my brain chemistry so someone feels good about their post. But I’ll be damned if that’t ain’t exactly what most folks seem to want.
It’s about the bells and whistles.
I have noticed since the advent of social media a tendency to alarm. I’ve even been guilty of it. It is one of the many reasons I quit socials. “The sky is falling” is the message. I don’t disagree, mind you. However, I think we lost insight looking up. Perhaps we made ourselves vulnerable to fascist take over in the process. If we keep waving our hands around and shouting, we might not notice who is in our pockets.
I miss the old Robert Reich.
I used to love Robert Reich. I still kinda’ do, to be honest. But it’s because I believe he’s smarter than he comes off. Robert needs you to click on his shit to live. I think he’s exasperated and often tempted to use alarmist tactics to either feel relevant or get paid. It’s a shame when this happens. It happens a lot. See, I like Robert’s insight over his fervor. In fact, I don’t find them very compatible with each other, the alarmist behavior and the insight. But he has to eat. Slow, methodical, number-crunching insight isn’t going to score many clicks. His decision to move more toward a sky is falling approach is disappointing. Hard to look at math while looking up.
Rick Beato too?
This happens in music a lot with folks like Rick Beato and “kids nowadays” talk or AI fear tactics. All the music knowledge someone like that possesses, and they don’t want to teach or play. They just want to be Nostradamus. Telling the future and making it grim has paid a lot more than music for a long time. But with social media, that doesn’t jive with slow, deep thinking. The alarms get attention. That’s why even smart folks resort to them. I did and I’m probably not as smart as anyone mentioned.
My experience with the sky is falling technique.
My experience of years on social media consists of spending a lot of time getting worked up about things. Then I unleash my feelings or opinions. Even if I am in the minority, think about the ramifications of that mentality. It runs like a current through any modern society. We’re talking victims, recovery, wasted time, closeted knowledge and emotions, fear, sycophancy, and ignorance too. The detriment I was to society was palpable. And I felt pretty good about it most of the time. I felt like I was connecting with my peeps all over the world. I felt like I was learning cultures. Contributing. But every once in a while, I would want to get clicks or start shit. I probably made a few folks miserable for an evening. I feel bad about that. There was no need for it. I just wanted to impact something.
I want to make an impact. Even if I don’t know it.
What I wanted was to feel relevant. I am so glad I don’t have this anymore. I feel relevant to me, pretty much always. If I didn’t, I’d have issues. Beyond that, I’m just an occasional treat in your lives. Less impact, more good stuff. Not sky is falling, insight about things I know and read about.
How socially aware can we be if we are on substack?
Back to Seymour Hersh. Well, he’s on Substack. Right away, I can tell his wars are a battle of convenience. No one with a corporate or government mind for protest is on Substack. They’re just being convenient. In case you didn’t know, Substack is pretty awful as a company. Remember what I said about alarmist musicians? Substack happens to be partners with Spotify. So how do you send a clear message like a laser when you, yourself, partner with the bad guys? I think you have to sever ties with corporate knuckleheads.
He ain’t the only one.
Heather Cox Richardson also on Substack, she knows better. All these folks do. But they’re desperate. I contend desperation does not call for a compromise in values, especially from leaders and voices of reason. It drives me crazy ProPublica has an X account. How many folks might delete their account if outfits like them led them to it? We might never know. We’ll definitely know too late to change the outcome of an election. Robert Reich substack? Yeah.
What can you offer?
If you want to offer anything, be like our heroes used to be and offer insight. Alarms are so 2025. Thanks.
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