I have been reluctant to step into any political waters on this blog not because I don’t have an opinion but because when I have tried to gently or even severely critique the logic of so many writers on this blog, I’m basically ignored by the people I’m trying to reach. I deeply suspect this will just flow like water off a duck’s back of so many in this blog. However, as someone who cares very much about the state of discourse in this field that I love, I feel inclined to write. So here goes, my opinion:

For several years I have repeatedly received electronic notifications from progressive websites which you probably know the name of but I will refrain from naming. During the previous administration they continued to argue against a right wing media and for a free press that tells the truth. Boy have they changed their tune the last couple of years. Whenever a hollowed institution like the Times or the Washington Post dares to publish any article that says bad things about the Biden Administration or Sunday talk show invites any Republican or conservative, they can’t berate them fast enough as being undemocratic. It is very clear that for all the castigation they give Fox News, essentially they want all media to be as fair and balanced as them where all Democrats are saintly and all Republicans are evil.

I’m not sure which part of their journals I find more offensive: these castigations of a free press or their constant postings of social media threads of people who refused treatment for Covid and then died. Sure, they don’t mention their names, but the point – and the schaudenfraude is obvious. They mouth the words about it being a tragedy they’re dead, but honestly they have no use for them when they’re alive.

I mention this because for all the hypocrisy and horrors they creative, I find them infinitely preferable to your articles. Hell, I actually find so much of the other side’s media preferable as well, and I can’t stand reading it. It’s horrific and monstrous, but at the end of the day, at least I understand what they’re trying to do: sell their party. It may be purely political, but at least they stand for something. I’ve been reading your articles for two years, and I still don’t have the slightest idea what you – and basically everybody else who writes similar columns on this site - stand for.

All of your articles are basically the same: democracy is broken, capitalism is destroying the world, the earth is doomed because of the way the system works, we’re only a short while away from collapse. Okay, fine. But I have yet to read in any of your articles something resembling a solution. Advocate for a new political party? Begin political drives that deal with issues? March on the capital? All your articles – and I speak for all of the writers in your circle – basically seem to say the same thing. The world is screwed, we’re all doomed, stay tuned for my next piece. This is bracing once, maybe interesting half a dozen times, but by the hundredth or two hundredth article, you’re literally just cut-and-pasting the same message.

So my question is: are you just spreading this nihilistic message for the money? Do you just want to post these articles so you can get clickbait from people who agree with you, ignore the people who don’t and basically live in the same bubble that social media has been using to help polarize us for the past decade? (I rarely see you blame social media for your problems. Interesting.) In a sense, I really hope you are getting paid for this. Because the alternatives – that you’re some kind of bot, that you’re a troll for the right-wing (unlikely) or that you just like spreading chaos ‘for the love of it’ are actually scarier.

The world is in a crisis. I agree with you there, which is why its incumbent for all of us to try and do something about it. I don’t know if it’s too late to change our trajectory; I do know just writing hundreds of articles saying ‘The sky is falling’ doesn’t do anything to stop it.

But what do I know? I’m just a TV and film critic. For the record, though, I try to read as many political articles as I can from every source. I also chase down the author online to see what biases they might have. I have voted in every election since I was eligible too and support candidates who I believe might be able to help the system. I try very hard to win hearts and minds to my argument even when I know its futile. And for the record I have never used Twitter or Instagram, even as a link to my blog though it has no doubt cost me hundreds if not thousands of readers. I use Facebook solely to promote my articles (all of which are about entertainment) and never post on social media otherwise. And I never use a link to my article just for the sake of getting clicks even though I’ve lost hundreds of readers that way too. I’m not saying that makes me better than you, but it may make me more of a realistic which I know from reading your columns you are not.

I don’t think you’ll respond to this comment: you haven’t to any of the dozens I’ve left challenging your points of view over the years. You don’t respond to anybody who challenges you, no matter how fiery the comment is. (That’s actually led to my ‘bot’ theory.) So I’ll close this comment by doing what my reviewers have approved of me doing: offer a criticism of this column and in context, all the ones by this author and all like them:

“As Maggie Smith said in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, ‘For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like.’ These columns are well written in the sense that they are grammatically correct and offer a point of view. If one is looking for a solution or hope or anything other than an urge to go home and drink yourself into a stupor, look elsewhere. I am reminded of the old chestnut: ‘It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.’ I have no doubt the author of this blog would argue that whoever said that statement, say its their right to curse the darkness and would curse out anyone who dares to think of lighting a candle as belonging to the wax-industrial complex. It’s one thing to fiddle while Rome burns, these authors would say we shouldn’t even bother fiddling, just let the fire consume us while I play the piano.”