6 Years on LGF. 163 Pages. Where Should I Go From Here?
Prompted by some strange homing-pigeon-like instinct, today I clicked to check my profile out, to see what my regular visits to, reading of, and contributions to LGF have amounted to.
I comment here a fair amount - when I have time during the day & feel like snarking a bit with other exhausted, decent people … or when I’m watching the latest RWNJ treachery unfold on Maddow, and need to check in with other people who are saying “Are you seeing this too? Is it just me, or is this totally BATSHIT??!!”
And when I’m really exercised about something, I’ll spend a 1/2 hour or so, doing screencaps, tagging, setting links, and writing the context of why I think it’s important, why it needs to be shared, etc. etc.
My most popular post is still “The People Who Stand With Omar Mateen” with ~64K views, followed by “This Week on Politics: Trump Goes Mola Ram on the GOP.” at about ~57K.
On March 17, it’s going to have been 6 years since I created the Khal Wimpo persona here. Back in 2014, I knew that there was a gathering storm of right-wing hate that had been festering online - some of my earliest posts are around Gamergate. Working, as I do, at the intersection of technology, culture and mass-media, I tend to have what an old colleague of mine termed as “wide antenna.”
In 2014, those antenna were shrieking. Something bad this way came.
Six years later, I feel exhausted.
It feels like no matter what we do, this roller-coaster ride from hell Just. Keeps. Going. And we’re not allowed off. Like George Carlin’s old “fake news” one-liner about “127 people suffered 18 hours of continuous whiplash when a man claiming to be the devil hijacked a roller-coaster on Coney Island…”
Rimshot. Cue the laugh track.
And I’ve certainly had my share of laughs - rueful, deep belly, angry, triumphant, whatever - here over the years. But I am feeling, more and more, like this just isn’t enough.
So here’s my question to all y’all: what do I do with this?
I have deep tech skills - I run websites for clients big & small. I’ve worked around the world with media companies, helping them build news sites and start profitable digital-content verticals. I’ve got deep knowledge & understanding of politics here in the U.S., and I’m obviously willing to write about it, and able to attract an audience.
So what should I do next? Is there an online progressive digital outfit that could use the skills of someone like me? Who? How shall I go about volunteering or whatnot? Is this even needed right now? Or should I just say fuckit & go back to wrenching on balky web interfaces?