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Abstract

">It’s dark satire in the darkest and most satiric sense of those two words, a la Jonathan Swift. And before you get your panties in a wad, I am not comparing myself, in any way, shape, or form, to quite possibly the greatest satirist who ever lived.I simply kicked the piece off with the kicker “REMEMBER JONATHAN SWIFT?” This, meant to bring to mind Swift’s greatest work, the satire, “A Modest Proposal.”Then, I affixed the toe tag “satire” to this rotting corpse. It seemed fitting because it is satire and according to someone or something at Medium I’m a Top Writer in satire (and “humor”, if you can believe that hideous misjudgment).Did I use the word “satire” enough in the paragraph above?AND, THE HATE I GOT!I don’t want to dignify the haters by quoting their material, but the sentiments ran to the following themes: (Go read the thing and its comments yourself if you want the full flavor of the screaming.)<ul><li>You are a horrible human being</li><li>You’re part of everything that plagues our planet</li><li>You’re not really a doctor, are you?</li><li>I won’t follow you.</li><li>I stopped following you.</li><li>You make me sick (This, in particular, seems all wrong for someone who spent decades doing just the opposite, except of course when I licked all the tongue depressors in the state of California.)</li></ul>And more, but that’s a tasty sample.So, after downing huge doses of alcohol and anti-depressants (there I go again, making fun of the mentally ill) and talking to my therapist (and again) I re-re-re-read the shite story, “Societal Benefits of Vaccine Refusal”.My overall

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conclusion — it only works as a story if it is satire AND you commit to it … TOTALLY. All the story’s “conclusions”, logic, reasoning and anything non-satire falls apart at the slightest touch of thought.That seemed pretty clear to me, and I’m the guy who tossed that flaming bag of poo on the world’s porch.Now J Swift stopped short of providing actual recipes for the flesh of dead Irish children and maybe my story was/is too much and too soon, but we should be able to recognize satire when we see it.So please, put on your thinking caps, read all the words on the page, consider what is actually being said, or at least try to, and then go fuck yourself or something like that. JKJK, or maybe I’m not.To all the people who read and clapped and got it and told me so in so many charming ways I feel you and I appreciate you, I got no fuck you’s for youse.NB: There are some satiric notes in this symphony of rationalization and defensiveness (see how many you can spot). I’ll leave it up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff or the corn from the turds or however you choose to do it.And BTW — Because of all the heat generated by my story linked above I can once again afford to return to The Dollar Store, head held high. So there!At TBI we need everyone to incite change. We support artists and creativity wherever and whenever we can. Help us put a <a href="https://ko-fi.com/thebadinfluence">little money</a> in our writers’ pockets. More donations = higher $$ prizes. The more you donate the more our writers (and editors) get paid. The Dark Lord appreciates it.</article></body>

DOUBLING DOWN?

My Return to Insignificance (and a Response to Haters)

I like it like that.

**Photo taken moments before a horrible squishing sound was heard.** *** Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

One solidly performing story in the last 30 days; that’s what I’ve had.

No going “viral” … just solid.

The kind of story that pushed this platform to add lines — and lots of ‘em — to the bar graphs they generate charting views, reads and fans.

Now that shit is over and I can return to the low-level nonsense that keeps me writing and largely being ignored.

All because of one story I wrote that apparently inflamed a huge proportion of the Medium universe.

Societal Benefits of Vaccine Refusal

Complete fools and the merely-foolish are dropping like flies.

medium.com

It’s dark satire in the darkest and most satiric sense of those two words, a la Jonathan Swift. And before you get your panties in a wad, I am not comparing myself, in any way, shape, or form, to quite possibly the greatest satirist who ever lived.

I simply kicked the piece off with the kicker “REMEMBER JONATHAN SWIFT?” This, meant to bring to mind Swift’s greatest work, the satire, “A Modest Proposal.”

Then, I affixed the toe tag “satire” to this rotting corpse. It seemed fitting because it is satire and according to someone or something at Medium I’m a Top Writer in satire (and “humor”, if you can believe that hideous misjudgment).

Did I use the word “satire” enough in the paragraph above?

AND, THE HATE I GOT!

I don’t want to dignify the haters by quoting their material, but the sentiments ran to the following themes: (Go read the thing and its comments yourself if you want the full flavor of the screaming.)

You are a horrible human being
You’re part of everything that plagues our planet
You’re not really a doctor, are you?
I won’t follow you.
I stopped following you.
You make me sick (This, in particular, seems all wrong for someone who spent decades doing just the opposite, except of course when I licked all the tongue depressors in the state of California.)

And more, but that’s a tasty sample.

So, after downing huge doses of alcohol and anti-depressants (there I go again, making fun of the mentally ill) and talking to my therapist (and again) I re-re-re-read the shite story, “Societal Benefits of Vaccine Refusal”.

My overall conclusion — it only works as a story if it is satire AND you commit to it … TOTALLY. All the story’s “conclusions”, logic, reasoning and anything non-satire falls apart at the slightest touch of thought.

That seemed pretty clear to me, and I’m the guy who tossed that flaming bag of poo on the world’s porch.

Now J Swift stopped short of providing actual recipes for the flesh of dead Irish children and maybe my story was/is too much and too soon, but we should be able to recognize satire when we see it.

So please, put on your thinking caps, read all the words on the page, consider what is actually being said, or at least try to, and then go fuck yourself or something like that. JKJK, or maybe I’m not.

To all the people who read and clapped and got it and told me so in so many charming ways I feel you and I appreciate you, I got no fuck you’s for youse.

NB: There are some satiric notes in this symphony of rationalization and defensiveness (see how many you can spot). I’ll leave it up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff or the corn from the turds or however you choose to do it.

And BTW — Because of all the heat generated by my story linked above I can once again afford to return to The Dollar Store, head held high. So there!

At TBI we need everyone to incite change. We support artists and creativity wherever and whenever we can. Help us put a little money in our writers’ pockets. More donations = higher $$ prizes. The more you donate the more our writers (and editors) get paid. The Dark Lord appreciates it.