If I Only Had A Brain

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use

May 14, 2021

Happy Friday…

I read a post on Medium this week that made me stop and think. Some guy was complaining about all the “how to make money” posts on Medium.

He said imagine a non-writer arriving at Medium and having to wade through all that. He called it trash. Ev Williams highlighted that.

(If you didn’t know, Ev is the founder of Medium.)

At first, I almost agreed. I don’t like those posts, either. The people who write them say they want to “help” new writers. They give tips an advice, about publications and curation. But it’s kind of a sham.

They aren’t successful because of their tips.

They’re successful because they prey on the newbie. In a world where half the people are broke and living month to month, it’s like showing up at the playground with candy. Also? It seldom works.

Recipes are for cookies, not cash.

If I only had a brain…

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is startled when the scarecrow first talks and tells her he wants a brain. She asks him how he can talk if he doesn’t have a brain.

He says “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think?”

Those “how to make money on Medium” posts aren’t the worst thing about Medium.

I ran across an article where some “relationship coach” said if women are in an abusive relationship, the abuse isn’t really the issue. They need to ask themselves why they were drawn to that kind of person and why they’re still there.

I can’t think of a worse thing to say to someone who is being abused. It’s like asking a rape victim why she went there. Victim blaming at its finest.

Then there’s the glut of “self help” articles about laziness, which does not exist according to a qualified psychologist. There’s no such thing as lazy. There’s only undiagnosed issues that derail us. Depression, mostly, but others, too.

Solve the underlying problem, and laziness disappears.
It’s a symptom, not a problem.

Add in all the people who have “pseudo-proof” that Covid isn’t real, germs aren’t real, climate change isn’t real, vaccines are bad for us, etc.

One guy said there’s no such thing as racism because everyone is entitled to an opinion. I told him opinions are for ice cream, not skin color.

Some of those people are downright dangerous.
But there’s one thing that’s more dangerous.

Censorship

Ev could make those “money” posts go away. Medium is his site. He calls the shots. He’s already said if people write about Medium, those posts will not be distributed. Obviously he doesn’t like them either.

He could prohibit them. But he doesn’t.

Because the only thing more dangerous than an uneducated opinion is censorship. Once it starts, where does it stop?

Can you imagine if we all posted rants about what we hate?

Stop writing about relationships.
Stop writing about Covid.
Stop writing about racism.
Stop writing about feminism.

What would we write about, then?

Our personal dramas? Oh please, spare me. The first person industrial complex is only starting to dwindle and it can’t die fast enough for me. Spare me from drama queens who bring nothing to the table but woe is me. Life is too short for that.

We are the real curators.

Truth is, that guy with the “stop writing about money” rant is doing the same thing the people writing the money posts are. Pushing hot buttons for views. Money is a hot button. Always has been. Always will be.

Know what the funny part is?

I don’t see very many of those anymore. I’ve muted the people who write them and when they do slip into my feed, I use the “dismiss” option.

The algorithm learns.

Every day, we tell the algorithms what we want more of. We get more of what we click. Not just on Medium, but everywhere. It’s the world we live in now.

We don’t get better quality by complaining about what we don’t want to see.
We get better quality by being more selective.

Incidentally? That doesn’t just apply to stories.

/rant

Thought for the day

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

~ Søren Kierkegaard

Hello, Writer!

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