The Eternal Allure of Bullshit
Why did I just read a piece by a writer with less than 600 followers on the Medium platform about how to “easily” attain followers in the tens of thousands?
Lying — bullshit, to turn a phrase — can be seductive to both the giver and the receiver.
Bullshit on Medium, apparently, is a microcosm of bullshit in the rest of the world.
When I clicked on the article referenced I had no idea how many followers the writer had. Really, it didn’t matter to me much … until I casually noticed it.
Where is the credibility?
Why does it matter?
That question, my friends, addresses an issue many of us have encountered as we’ve plied our trade in the writing haze. The most effective barometer of that statement is to ask yourself how you’ve responded to pieces by others you have recently read … and judged.
Did the writer maintain the integrity of the topic? Did the writer cheat? Did the writer come across honestly?
Or did they lie?
Based on the answers to the above questions you may be in the grip of a cheap writer.
It does not matter if a writer pens the most far-out fiction or the most meticulous non-fiction, nor does it matter the medium (no pun intended) in which the author is writing.
A reader can always spot a cheap writer.
Learn to become a writer of value in response, and spare the rest of us, including your readers, your bullshit.
I beg you.
On a related note, I recently gave up moderating rooms on the social media platform Clubhouse in part for reasons related to the preceding comments. See here for a comprehensive piece I composed about the much-hyped platform just a few short months ago:
Let’s just say I was wrong and we’ll go from there.
I built a community on Clubhouse with the same title as my Medium publication, “Writing For Your Life.” As of the date of this writing, our membership base looks something like this:
Over 17,600 followers in less than six months. Not bad, and I’m proud of that number.
However, I’ve elected to retire from Clubhouse — at least for now — for two reasons: a) my schedule, and b) the nonstop bullshit that began to prevail on the site.
Examples of the latter have included advice rooms about my business — film and television — from “moderators” who have no real life experience in either industry, scam artists charging artistic dreamers inordinate amounts of money with promises they will either finance their film or find them an agent ($35,000 was the most expensive fee I’ve heard), and those proclaiming to moderate 100 hours of Clubhouse rooms weekly while furthering the b.s. that this room is for those writers and producers who “get shit done.”
Of course getting “shit done “ while working 100 hours weekly online — or anywhere — is possible. If one does not sleep, that is.
I got tired of the growing presence of scammers and so my decision to leave was that much easier.
Writers who swim in my waters deal with bullshit on an ongoing basis. It is up to us to curb it. The business of film and television as a collective is no picnic. The lies and manipulations one hears about are indeed true.
It becomes our job then, as writers, to stray from a culture of garbage and cultivate careers where we better our world of letters and develop trusted readerships.
So … how does one attain tens of thousands of followers on Medium?
Tell me when you get there.
Until then, the thesis is simply not provable, and I sincerely will not give a shit until the writer develops some much-needed credibility.
And that’s the point, fellow scribe. We need to be credible. It’s part of our job description.
Otherwise …
Thank you for reading.
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