I Don’t Consider The Bad Influence to be a Publication on Medium
I consider The Bad Influence to be the creative writing platform that Medium will never be.
The ageism, sexism, racism and country-isms of Medium make me crazy. I mean, I like the typesetting and the technical wonders of Medium, but then again I like my ball-point pens and 100-page blank journals that cost $1.00 a whole lot. These journals don’t charge me $5 a month. They don’t refuse to pay me for my writing just because I live in a brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking country with no Stripe or PayPal. (The same country where Ev probably has a few hundred million $ stashed.)
When you post on The Bad Influence (TBI) platform nothing is really taboo. The editors tend to be open to publishing whatever crazy things you want to talk about. Yet they are sharp and will decline to publish poorly written or tasteless (or worse) articles.
As Reuben Salsa has shown us, you can cross many social lines if you direct your scorn at yourself. This is why I say that nothing is taboo. You just need to be clever in how you present the supposedly taboo.
The most important thing Reuben Salsa has given us is “fuck.” Talk about taboo! But that ugly word is so important — it will always carry a jolt that you really can’t get any other way in the English language. So thank you for giving a fuck, Reuben.
The best thing about The Bad Influence is that it isn’t just Reuben Salsa. It’s all the other writers and editors, spread all over the world, who shape the publication. They all are crazy-smart in their own idiosyncratic ways, and it’s truly a wonder.
Talk about wisdom and sheer brain-power. I love TBI.
Thanks for being so patient with me and my ranting.
… Fred Ermlich
