I love this response — all of your various responses. Yes, this is a troubling piece for me, too! Because I’m a friendly woman who values people getting along, and I take a deep breath before sticking my neck out.

But!

I also have lived in, observed, and written about San Francisco for nine years, and I think a strong, vital San Francisco is one that can look at itself and smile in recognition, and — blasphemy! — even amusement. (Or for San Francisco, sub in “tech industry,” “progressives,” “bros,” or just “people,” because this story is about all of the above.)

We don’t need to talk to ourselves in an echo chamber of dulcet tones.

What you were saying about the story being maddeningly abridged about basic income —agreed, this story is very abridged, if you’re looking at this as a policy piece. But the basic income policy story already exists (Santens and many others write great policy pieces all the time). The world doesn’t need another one. I would file this story under “cultural studies,” and you get just enough economics to follow the storyline. This is about who is coming together to advocate basic income, and why.

I sat down and wrote the truest story I could write, as darn well as I could write it. It succeeded or it failed; some love it and some hate it (or don’t know what to think at all). But I won’t apologize, as some want me to, for being true to my own reporting and my own style.

David Powers wrote that I’m trying to stifle debate. You only need to look at the responses — his included — to see this story does not stifle debate, but creates it. And it’s on Medium, which itself is a tool for debate, and is allowing us to have this very conversation.