Medium shut me down

I’m not some important guy. ^^^ This here is kind of the high spot for me nowadays—old man with a cheap boat, husband, dad, granddad. Nonetheless, I’m what some might call a graphomaniac. I rather compulsivley write. Not always well and not always profoundly and certainly not in a way that has gained me great popularity and some huge following. It’s what I do, though. I write to figure out what I’m thinking by letting a few others see what I’m thinking. There are times—not infrequent—when I change my mind. The name of this page, for example, is Molting. I shed my skins. I’ll never be famous or “influential,” though I admit I do desire a certain influence, which is why I write, often with the intent to persuade, even if I’m only persuasive for a few people. In twenty, twenty-five years, I’ll almost certainly be dead as a rock; and within months of that passing, I’ll be forgotten by everyone but a few friends and family. What I’m getting at is that my expulsion from the platform Medium this October is not some momentous event or some screaming outrage. The Israeli government is engaging in genocidal violence as this is written, and we remain in a potential nuclear conflict in Eastern Europe, and the menu of real and truly momentous outrages does not include a bunch of conformist little censors kicking an old fisherman off of an online blog platform.

Having said all that, it’s a little bit important, because it’s one instantiation of a phenomenon that has taken a real toll on people who were far more vulnerable to these tight-ass little ideological inquisitors. Their sense of self-righteousness, maintained at a fever pitch inside their ideological silos and immunized against anything resembling a reasonable argument, eclipses prudence and conscience to such a degree that they unhesitatingly attack anyone who dares to question them. They promote mob attacks upon others—virtual and physical. They even destroy people’s livelihoods. All this, and the banner behind which they rally for war is demonstrably and stupendously wrong.

This latest censorship of a very minor social critic didn’t accomplish jack shit as far as all that goes. I had like 568 followers, and none paid a cent to read my rants. Hopefully Substack won’t do likewise. I’ve read their rules, and they prohibit inciting violence, plagiarism, and porn. Nothing about being banned for saying Judith Butler is a female. I’m good with that.

As to Medium, to hell with it. As to those poor souls who are the brainwashed child soldiers of a neo-gnostic ideology, I’ll pray you someday shed that lifeless skin.