The Witness Chronicles, June 6, 2024

Why I write this stuff

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

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Who is This Guy and Why Do I Do It?

Am I curating politics?

The vast majority of my newsletter writing has migrated over to political comment and observation, from a moderate to liberal point of view. The focus is generally US politics, which encompasses other issues like climate change (if you don’t think that is political you might want to rethink it) and international issues, like the Gaza war, that influence US politics.

Why do I do this? The answer, like the topic, is complicated. First it’s because I have real concerns about the future of free speech and our democracy. Second, I am a news junkie, absorbing a lot of viewpoints and finding the biases, the lies, the exaggerations, and a lot of hypocrisy. And I try to navigate these things to find what I think might be the underlying truth.

As you might imagine, there is a lot of opinion in there. This is not journalism and I hardly can claim to be fair and balanced, in part because the pursuit of that standard has been warped beyond recognition. Reputable ‘real’ media like the NYTimes have bent over backwards to present both sides of political stories as though they are somehow balanced.

They are not. In the Presidential election the choice is blindingly clear. One side revolves around the ego and paranoia of their candidate while the other side tries to do what politicians are supposedly elected to do, that is govern.

This unbalance is the reason why I write about these topics. If it was a ‘normal’ political environment where bipartisanship forced the two sides to compromise, I probably would be writing a cooking blog. But that normal has not existed for years as the country became divided and one party embraced that division as their primary strategy.

And they’ve gone all the way with it, employing fear, hatred, bigotry, and violence to make their case. Frankly it’s appalling that this seems to appeal to a significant cross section of our population. Significant, but not a majority, not yet.

That last statement reflects an underlying principle in my writing, that most people are not haters, regardless of political orientation, but also that many people have chosen silence or apathy over wading through the noise. Noise that is increasingly offensive and disturbing, by intent.

There is another factor in why I write. I practice based on Buddhist thought, not as a religion, but as a path to being a better human. That path says that compassion for others, even when we disagree, is the only route to positive change.

Hate cannot be defeated by hate, only by love, not the lala kind, the kind that says our fellow humans are basically good when given the choice. This is reinforced by my many conversations with those who I may disagree with politically.

We generally may agree to disagree so we can have a conversation. It’s not hard, you just don’t try to change minds through cajoling, only through example. Our minds generally only change when confronted by better options that make their own case.

So I write to make my case. Readers can take it how you please.

Finally, I do write for money, a truly ludicrous way to make a buck. This is work, work I love, but I have been a professional writer on many levels for most of my life. And professional in our society means you get paid.

Today, it is the readers who choose to pay, if and only if you get value from my work. And with a platform like Substack, the way these newsletters get to you, the money goes directly from you the reader to me the writer, less a small service fee.

For my Medium readers, any payment I receive is based on an algorithm that evaluates how much I get read and gives me a piece of their writer fund based on those numbers. Unfortunately those payments have shrunk drastically in recent years. So it goes.

This is all a game changer for writers and creators, but it also requires a leap of faith for readers. In my case, none of my newsletter work is behind the paywall, everyone has access whether you support me financially or not.

There is a reason for this. I could easily hide some of my work from free readers and I understand that option. But this is an experiment in human nature. On my side it means I must write well and tell what I see as the truth. On the reader side it is a personal choice whether what I am doing has value.

I understand that many cannot afford the luxury of financial support. I have a limited income myself so I completely understand. And I appreciate each and every reader equally.

Thank you.

~ I write The Grasshopper, an occasional letter on the creative life and it’s sister, mostly daily publication The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate. They share a free and paid subscription. I also write The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. I don’t paywall any content in these, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen.

If you want to show support but don’t want to commit to a subscription, you can always buy me a coffee!

Believe me, it makes my day. M