It was with some sadness today that I read that co-conspirator John Nash will likely close up shop on his blog -- The October Weekend -- at the beginning of next month.
His writing has been a part of a diet of reading every time he posts something and his collection of memories about his late mother this month has been outstanding.
His reason for shutting down is something I've considered many times. As a writer -- and, more importantly, a broadcaster -- I work extemporaneously. The obvious advantage as a writer is that I have a delete button and an opportunity to think before I press the button to post anything.
This, of course, is a different writing style from that of a pure reporter where I -- yes -- report the facts. But my true writing style is that of a columnist.
And, as a broadcaster? Unless we're taping or in some kind of delay, there's no delete key. It's out there.
It's terrifying and has been for years. Any joke, parody, snark, anger, or anything can be exposed and blown far far out of proportion. We see it so often.
Careers can be destroyed over things big and small. Puns -- often uttered without even knowing the etymology -- can ruin lives. Don't believe me? Google "Jeremy Lin in the armor." One editor was fired and an on-air voice -- whose wife is Asian -- was suspended for 30 days.
It certainly makes one believe that there is a "cancel culture" or even "callout culture" (and also, spare me the Republican/Democrat/Liberal/Conservative nonsense). You've seen it. I've also seen people from the left and the right get canceled, so you can't play that card with me either.
So, yes, there's a scary reality to this and I get where John is coming from. For me, one of the toughest and most disappointing things is having to control my mouth/keyboard/pen.
And I'd hate to scrub back through over 14 years and 3,123 blog posts. Or 44,000 tweets plus Facebook posts and comments and so on.
As it was, I recently went through and reconsidered some things I've written over the years. Just stuff on one topic or person and decided to clean up what I could. It's back to what I wrote last night about opinions, I guess.
Around that time, I also did a large purge of those who I follow on Twitter. It was time to do away with some bad things.
I think what scares me the most is the humor, which I have dabbled in my whole life. I've loved laughing about anything and anyone -- my included. I fear we've lost that ability.
And we're no longer authentic.
You see, phoniness might be my least favorite trait in a person. I can't just pop over to their social media page and act like things are cool when I know they tried to do something bad to me or my loved ones. It's just not how I'm wired and I admire those who can put that aside, even if only for a moment.
So I tried to make this place real for whatever it was that I was thinking at that time.
But, now, one has to be careful and truly sanitize so much or risk the outcome.
Trust me, I've thought about ending this effort many times, as recently as a week or two ago, because of something I wrote. I've also pondered deactivating accounts or just walking away for a stretch. Again, it's normally because of something else.
We shouldn't have to live in such fear and John shouldn't have to stop writing publicly but that's where we are in 2021, I guess. It's a shame.
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