Thoughts about everything/one kind of specific thing
Wise words from someone wiser than me
I have been quiet here (in your email inbox, which I bet is otherwise fairly loud) for the last few weeks. Family gatherings, Christmas bars, less time at the keyboard, holiday movies, See’s Candies, illness, miscellaneous fun times, etc.
This week’s “news” “letter” started as an acknowledgment that everything feels kind of everything-y at the moment, but also included a wish that you’re having a decent new year. I went looking on LinkedIn for a joke about this from Hunter Walk I was going to reference (I guess I just did anyway?!), when I found his latest post, which itself references a blog post of his from 2017 A.D.
The post is called “What I Think We’re Talking About When We’re Talking About What We Can’t Talk About,” and you should read the the whole thing. But there are a few salient points that put into words exactly how I’ve been feeling about the latest sentiments from whiny white male billionares who happen to run gigantic social media companies.
There are 3 of Hunter’s points I think are worth repeating/amplifying:
Point 1: Social media has given rise to more public challenges of dominant (white, generally male) opinions
Maybe segments of the population always had strong reactions to controversial ideas but those people (women, non-whites, the poor) didn’t have a microphone. Perhaps nothing has changed other than giving voice to a broader set of the population? This is a good thing by the way and does lead to the increased exposure and examination of racism, classism, misogyny, and so on. Some of those “unpopular ideas” are just plain wrong, lead to real harm for people and work only to preserve an existing power structure (which actually constrains innovation versus allowing new ideas, voices and people to rise).
This reminds me of a sentiment with an origin that’s hard to track down, but goes like this:
When you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression.
Members of the dominant social group easily look at movements like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Black Lives Matter, and feminism through a lens like, “Hm, this seems like I might need to change my behavior a bit, and that seems hard.” But the point of all these movements is that live is inherently hard for many folks in the groups represented by these movements, and it’s simply a responsible thing as a fellow human to listen, accommodate*, and advocate.
Point 2: Ideas should be challenged, and if you're the originator/publisher of an idea, you need to be cool with this
Somewhere along the way we wanted there to be zero cost to have an unpopular belief but I’m not sure zero cost is optimal. Maybe a bit of friction is what forces you to consider why people disagree with you? Maybe a bit of friction helps you prioritize what’s worth your time and energy? Maybe there are hills worth dying on and hills that aren’t even worth scaling?
A lot of things I’ve heard recently from the CEO and founder of a certain company that happens to own and run two of the most popular social media platforms and two of the most popular messaging platforms and one of the most popular marketplace platforms (and that yes, I used to work for) amount to this: “We tried being cool with diverse opinions but it was hard. We’re just gonna go ahead and prioritize mainstream opinions now.”
Gross. Lazy. Predictable.
Point 3: Not every conversation belongs in every space
You’re not a fucking expert about everything. Maybe sometimes it’s ok to listen, to read, to evolve and experience versus pontificating. Communication is listening, not speaking. Your desire to share might be rooted in your own desire for attention not always some joyous quest for knowledge or intellectual rigor. “I tweeted something dumb and now people are mad at me.” The problem might not be the second half of the sentence.
There’s a certain false bravery afforded by the separation of keyboard and monitor vs. saying something in front of a crowd of people, or speaking to a journalist, or submitting something to an editor. Democratizing publishing has obvious benefits, but there’s also a dark side (or several dark sides) to letting everyone put everything out there for everyone all the time.
Of course, this can go the other way: someone can tweet/post/blog/bloop something and a sort of mob mentality (or coordinated attack) takes over and makes life difficult—even dangerous—for someone who posted something that was maybe only mildly dumb or really just misunderstood.
In conclusion
i hope your year has started off well
XO,
Grant
* I majored in journalism and am generally a very good speller. But “accommodate” remains a vexing word for me to spell.
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Currently reading:
How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy
Dune by Frank Herbert
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