Americans and Our Twisted Priorities

It's not only right-wing disinformation holding us back from a better future. Another kind of reality denial pervades our "liberal" media

Early this morning, as I lay in bed unable to sleep (again) after a night of intermittent insomnia (of which I’ve had so many of late), I picked up my phone.

I know, I know, bad idea. I looked at my Gmail. Worse idea. And then, I clicked through and actually read two entire articles in The Atlantic, which was probably the most terrible idea of all.

For what it’s worth, one of the two was actually good! The other was terrible, and a perfect reminder of why I quipped two weeks ago that I hate myself, “and therefore still have a subscription to the Times (and The Atlantic!).”

I can’t help it. I am, among other things, a media critic. And I suppose some of us have to keep an eye on the legacy media, pointing out its failures in the hopes not only of, perhaps, encouraging critical thinking and helping others to see through the bullshit, but also that we might someday have a more socially responsible media landscape.

If we want to do something about the problem of reality denial on the Right, we have to contend with the extent to which reality denial also shapes the supposedly “liberal” media.

To that end, as regular readers are aware, I am part of a ten-person team working to bring feminist blogging back to the internet through a new worker-owned outlet, The Flytrap. As of this morning, our Kickstarter is about 89% funded.

I believe such value-driven, worker-owned, reader-centered collectives are the wave of the indie media future, but it would also be nice if the legacy media improved. And if worker-owned progressive outlets can become truly competitive, they just might have to start listening to their critics.

In any case, regardless of who is (not) listening, in what follows I’m going to do some critical analysis of what I read in The Atlantic this morning. But first, some announcements and administrative matters.

This adorable pug wants you to know that he, like the people who produce and read The Atlantic, is a VERY SERIOUS PERSON. Photo by charlesdeluvio, via Unsplash.

COVID in the House

First off, we’ve got an uninvited guest in our home—COVID! I went to get my booster on Monday along with this year’s flu shot and an overdue hepatitis B booster, and I figured I might be knocked out for a couple of days. What I didn’t count on was my chosen sister M. testing positive for COVID the next day.

That got me thinking that I may have it as well. I’d been feeling rather under the weather lately, but chalking it up to allergies. However, I now think it’s very likely that I already had a “mild” but symptomatic case of COVID that was already present when I went to get my shots. I’ve been fighting through brain fog, fatigue, achiness, and a generally “blah” feeling all week to do what work I could, and I’m still dealing with some of that today. So I apologize if this post contains more typos than usual.

Anyway, COVID does seem to be going around, at least here around Portland, Oregon and southwestern Washington, so consider checking your local conditions and taking precautions.

Administrative Matters

I’ve noticed lately that an unusually high number of unsubscriptions from The Bugbear Dispatch occurred because billing failed. I don’t know if something is going on with either Stripe or Substack, but if you intended for your paid subscription to auto renew on the card you used to pay for it, you might want to check your status.

I would never question the motives of those who deliberately choose to cancel their paid subscriptions. People do that for all kinds of perfectly good reasons. But seeing all of these unsubscription notifications with the reason giving as “billing failed” got me thinking that there may be a number of you out there who didn’t mean to unsubscribe, so I thought it worth posting this notice.