People Still Read (If The Writer’s Worth Reading)
Writers (columnists, journalists, pundits, essayists, etc.) nowadays are not paid to get people to think, they are paid to tell people what to think. They’re not even there to be read, their entire word count is just there as window dressing for a headline. The idea is, you see the headline, dive into the first paragraph, become bored, and trust that the rest of the article actually backs up what the headline asserts. Honestly, most people don’t even make it to the first paragraph, they just read the headline to learn what people in their group are supposed to be supporting, and take their marching orders. If tomorrow a headline read that a given country was doing something bad to another country, they would put the appropriate flag emoji in their bios. If the headline said another letter or symbol was added to LGBTQ+, they would throw their support 100% behind it without ever bothering too much about what it was. We live in a world where instructions are given through headlines.
If someone like Paul Krugman or Max Boot wrote an opinion piece for the NYT and put “blah blah blah” in every paragraph save the first, 90% of NYT subscribers would never notice. All that would matter is that some well-paid and fêted columnist was saying how good a job Joe Biden was doing. Message received and imprinted. The reader knows the paper is a trusted source, assumes it only hires the best and the brightest, and figures they know what they’re talking about. I mean, for Christ sake, Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize in Economic Science! When he suggests Democrats just saved civilization, who are you to question?
If people took the time to read Krugman or Boot — critically — they’d realize how completely they serve the powerful and how invested they are in convincing people that we are living in the best of all possible worlds so long as neo-conservatives or neo-liberals are permitted to enact their agenda. By extension, if people were to critically read their writing, they would realize how completely it is the job of their publishers to uphold the status quo, a status quo in which the rich are continually getting richer, freedom of speech is being restricted, the environment is circling the drain, and the hands of the Doomsday Clock are as close to midnight as they’ve ever been.
Because people don’t even read the writers they take their cues from, it gives them perfect justification for not reading the writers they disagree with (or more appropriately, the writers they are told they are supposed to disagree with). Chris Hedges had a show on RT? Why would I waste my time on him? Caitlin Johnstone doesn’t work for the Washington Post? Then she is not worth my valuable time (which I will use to binge-watch all 8 seasons of some show over a weekend). And didn’t I read somewhere that Glenn Greenwald was a fascist? Bit by bit, the number of journalists and commentators is whittled down to a few approved elite. Which very few of you will read, far less of you will share, and even less of you will be able to draw your own thoughts from and connections to.
In their defense, many of these esteemed journalists, pundits and opinion-shapers have their work hidden behind a paywall, so it is not always possible to share their work. But this works in their favor because their work is not intended to be read, just their headlines. Hiding their work behind a paywall is the best of both worlds because their headlines are still able to do their work while the risk of someone actually reading their work is lessened.
It is said people don’t read anymore, that there is too much information being thrown their way for them to have the time and attention span to immerse themselves in a 2,000 word essay. This is not so. True, people’s desire to read is diminished by so much of the writing that is pushed down our throats and is not intended to be read, work meant to confuse rather than enlighten. But people still read. I do so every day. People who don’t would like to believe somehow that nobody else has the time or the inclination to do so either, and become defensive and hostile to people who do. “Christ, man, I’ve read fourteen different headlines today alone, what more could you possibly tell me?”
In a way it is a golden age of political writing. While lacking the backing of large organizations with the means to deploy journalists across the world or defend them from powerful interests, people like Caitlin Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, and Chris Hedges are writing truly courageous articles. Black Agenda Report and FAIR (Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting) should definitely be on your radar. Sensing that these are desperate times, writers are not holding back. And readers, thirsty for honest and fearless writing, are responding. I see it every day, the passion with which people share the articles of their favorite writers.
The truth is, people will read if you give them something worth reading. The establishment intelligentsia are not worthy of being read, and they’re training people to believe that even the (presumed) best writers are not very interesting. Their writing does not connect with the average person because the writers hired by corporate papers and magazines know little or nothing about average people. They speak to their group who inhabit the same bubble, those of the PMC (Professional Managerial Class). They are there to tell us what to think, because presumably we would not be able to think without them.
I am encouraged because people actually read what I write. People actually comment on what I write, and share my writing with others. Often they will highlight salient points of my articles, which lets me know they actually paid attention. In this age where writing seems passé, I am still able to connect with my fellow human beings through often involved pieces of prose.
I may not have a huge following, but I have managed to acquire a few fans. And I see my work and the work of others like me shared on social media more than I see the work of writers from the big newspapers and magazines being shared. Assuredly it is because my feed is biased and the work of the professionals is often reserved for paying customers, but I also think it’s true that people really aren’t interested in what they say or how they say it.
Go ahead, tell me the last columnist you read (besides me, of course). Share with me some insight imparted to you, tell me how it made you want to tell others about it. And if you’re having trouble calling to mind what it might be, if you yourself have to admit you’re not inclined to read a semi-involved bit of writing on what is happening in the world today, perhaps it is not your fault. Check out some of the names I’ve mentioned and perhaps you will find writing worthy of your time, your attention, your admiration. Perhaps you will be reminded — or shown for the first time — what power can be found in the written word.
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