I kinda like the concept of writing into my own void.
My approach is a tad different, though “writing into my own void” describes it pretty well too. I tend to write a lot of comments that I know an OP won’t appreciate, when I have found their piece to be so hilariously biased or misinformed or cliche that I can’t resist. I figure that it’s probably just naive to think that such an approach will result in someone changing their mind about anything, and frankly I don’t give a rat’s ass whether they do. I just take a certain perverse satisfaction from indicating to such that at least one person out there isn’t being taken in by the same bullshit that got to them and inspired them to write predictable self-regenerating propaganda, and that yes, I have thought it through, and that no, I don’t need to fall back on throwaway net jargon like “evolution” or “biology” or “cultural marxism” to make a solid point.
There are also a tiny number of people (who don’t sport those suspect K-numbers of followers that dwarf by factors of tens or hundreds the number they follow in return, which I take as an obvious sign that they are a lot more motivated by being patted on the head than they are by ever hearing anyone else out), who strike me as ordinary, reasonably humble but solidly self-confident in their views, and worth trying to interact with. So far I figure you’ll end up in that latter category.
The main thing for me is, to remember that what one reads in these discussion formats online, be it here or Twitter or Disqus or that toxic swamp of smart-aleckiness that is Youtube’s comments sections (I never have done and never will do this farcebook thing, I do have that much self-respect anyway), is in no way representative or indicative of what is actually going on with a preponderance of regular people.
What one reads, is from those who for whatever reason enjoy this activity, but I try and assume that this is not some way of taking any accurate measure of how people think or some reliable cross-section of popular opinion. It’s just what is being said online by people who say things online.
Which is maybe why I feel drawn to give challenge to the echo-chamberists around here. I already know how outnumbered conservative voices are, or at least the ones who don’t care for liberal boilerplate in place of a thoughtful and self-reflected world view, and I doubt that will change. But I suspect (and always have) that these campus-brainwashed skin-deep liberals are really nowhere near as sure of what they think their ideas are as they want to believe, which must be why they are continually looking for affirmation of them, and simultaneously seeking to convert the places they go looking for it, Medium for example, into “safe spaces” where all they get for parroting the Party Line is cheered on for it, and rarely a coherent critique of their rote nonsense that they barely even believe themselves.
