Writing by mob is even worse than writing by committee
Published: Mon, 05/03/21
Once upon a time, a headline on Drudge caught my eye about the so-called “enemies of writing.” It was a piece written by a guy named George Packer from the Atlantic. And it was about how writers are more and more writing to appease the crowd vs telling the truth or saying anything that goes against the beliefs of the group(s) they belong to or want to associate with.
Considering who that site panders to, it was a "the irony writes itself" piece.
But, it was also useful, in a way.
Here are some notable quotes from the article to illustrate:
“Writers learn to avoid expressing thoughts or associating with undesirables that might be controversial with the group and hurt their numbers.”
“[The enemy of writing is] the fear of moral judgment, public shaming, social ridicule, and ostracism. It’s the fear of landing on the wrong side of whatever group matters to you. . .because popular outrage has more weight than the party line.”
“If an editorial assistant points out that a line in a draft article will probably detonate an explosion on social media, what is her supervisor going to do—risk the blowup, or kill the sentence? Probably the latter. . .So the mob has the final edit.”
And finally, my favorite quote from the article:
“…a writer who carries the thought police around in his head, who always feels compelled to ask: Can I say this? Do I have a right? Is my terminology correct? Will my allies get angry? Will it help my enemies? Could it get me ratioed on Twitter?— that writer’s words will soon become lifeless.”
This is one of the many reasons I left social media.
And why we ultimately created our own platform with SocialLair.
The dumbed-down nature of the like-and-retweet brigade was getting cringeworthy.
It was all about signaling and being liked, and nothing else.
I suspect this is why my old elBenbo’s Lair Facebook group was so addictive to people. It was the only place people could not only say whatever they wanted (within the confines of the clearly-established rules I instituted — like no giving value, no virtue signaling, etc), but I’d jettison anyone who tried to shut people down if they said something unpopular or offensive to someone’s delicate psyche — including (especially) people I disagreed with.
The whole point was to foster discussion and deep thinking, not silence people.
I seriously doubt there are many such places like that left.
It’s also why there are so few legitimately interesting email lists to be on either.
More:
If all you want do is write stuff that appeases the mob of psychopaths wanting to cancel everyone they disagree with, or if you fear being ostracized by your favorite social media sewing circle, or if being (oh noes!) called names because of something you write keeps you up at night, you probably aren’t going to be writing anything worth reading.
I daresay this goes for writing emails and sales copy, too.
And, this is especially true if you do client work.
The nature of client work means you’ll always have to filter your words.
That can be a good or bad thing.
But personally, I always hated it.
Especially in the cases where I knew the market better than the client did. I remember one time writing an ad to an older market (60+) — this was around 2012 or so — and I spent a short paragraph explaining how an eBook would be delivered.
One of the clients — a younger man — said it wasn’t necessary, and:
“Everyone knows how that works.”
No, Spanky, they don't.
Especially at that time when, in a golf company I wrote copy for, we plastered terminology about how the videos were delivered digitally all over the page, order form, thank you email, etc and people still would bombard the help desk asking, "where are my cassettes?"
That kind of ignorance/arrogance combo used to drive me up a wall.
If you are a freelancer and have the same reaction to that story, then here’s my advice:
Be your own client.
For help on that, see my 10-Minute Workday program at AWAI.
Opt-in to the waiting list and you’ll immediately get:
“The One Sentence Business Plan”
Which’ll give you some options whether you want the program or not.
Here is the link:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com/awai
Ben Settle