What are we doing here?

The purpose of this post is to provide a space for a blog-wide conversation on what LGM is or should be doing in the context of the so-far nameless catastrophe.

Here’s something one of my wife’s favorite internet commentators, Jason Kottke, posted a couple of days ago:

Hey, everyone. I just wanted to update you on what’s been happening here at KDO HQ. As you might have noticed (and if my inbox is any indication, you have), I have pivoted to posting almost exclusively about the coup happening in the United States right now. My focus will be on this crisis for the foreseeable future. I don’t yet know to what extent other things will make it back into the mix. I still very much believe that we need art and beauty and laughter and distraction and all of that, but I also believe very strongly that this situation is too important and potentially dangerous to ignore. And it is largely being ignored by a mainstream press that has been softened up by years of conservative pushback, financial pressures, and hollowing out by Facebook & Google. But I have an independent website and a platform, and I’m going to use it the way that I have always used it: to inform people about the truth of the world (as best as I understand it) and what I feel is important.

I have pivoted like this a couple of times before: in the aftermath of 9/11 and during the pandemic. This situation feels as urgent now as those events did then. Witnessing the events of this past weekend, I felt very much like I did back in March 2020, before things shut down here in the US — you could see this huge tidal wave coming and everyone was still out on the beach sunbathing because the media and our elected officials weren’t meeting the moment. I believe that if this coup is allowed to continue and succeed, it will completely alter the course of American history — so I feel like I have no choice but to talk about it.

If you need to check out, I totally understand. I’ve heard from many readers over the years that some of you come to the site for a break from the horrible news of the world, and I know this pivot goes against that. I expect I will lose some readers and members over this — the membership page is right here if you’d like to change your status. For those who choose to continue to support the site, no matter what, my deep thanks and appreciation to you.

I’ll end on a personal note. I’ve talked a little about the impact that covering the pandemic for two years had on me, particularly in this post about Ed Yong’s talk at XOXO:

It was hard to hear about how his work “completely broke” him. To say that Yong’s experience mirrored my own is, according to the mild PTSD I’m experiencing as I consider everything he related in that video, an understatement. We covered the pandemic in different ways, but like Yong, I was completely consumed by it. I read hundreds(/thousands?) of stories, papers, and posts a week for more than a year, wrote hundreds of posts, and posted hundreds of links, trying to make sense of what was happening so that, hopefully, I could help others do the same. The sense of purpose and duty I felt to my readers — and to reality — was intense, to the point of overwhelm.

Like Yong, I eventually had to step back, taking a seven-month sabbatical in 2022. I didn’t talk about the pandemic at all in that post, but in retrospect, it was the catalyst for my break. Unlike Yong, I am back at it: hopefully more aware of my limits, running like it’s an ultramarathon rather than a sprint, trying to keep my empathy for others in the right frame so I can share their stories effectively without losing myself.

Covering the pandemic broke me. I spent the weekend and most of Monday wrestling with myself and asking, “Do you really want to put yourself through that again?” I could easily just go on posting like this existential threat to the United States isn’t happening. Like I said before, I believe we need — like they are actually necessary for life — art and beauty and laughter and distraction…and continuing to cover them would be a noble and respectable undertaking. But I eventually realized, thanks in part ot an intense session with my therapist on Tuesday, that in order to be true to myself, I need to do this.

Thankfully, I am in a much better place, mental health-wise, than I was 5 years ago. I know myself better and know how to take care of myself when I am professionally stressed out. There may be times when I need to step away and I thank you for your patience in advance. I hope that you’re doing whatever it is you need to do to take yourselves. 

This post resonated for me in a number of ways. Ever since the inauguration I’ve posted about basically nothing but the Catastrophe, and I find that this is not doing my emotional and mental health any favors. Like a lot of people I suppose, I feel like someone who is trapped in an abusive relationship with a malignant narcissist, who demands constant attention and can never be satisfied. It’s like taking care of a two-year-old, except the two-year-old has the excuse of being two, won’t always be two, and doesn’t have access to nuclear weapons or the US. treasury.

I very much don’t want to write about nothing but Trump in particular and current political events in general. Almost all of my own favorite personal contributions to LGM have been about other things. But like Kottke, I feel impelled by the urgency of the moment to write about pretty much nothing else at present.

I certainly don’t mean to imply that other FPers or commenters should take the same tack, especially given that I’m far from confident that what I’m doing at present even makes much sense. Which brings me to just some possible answers to the question asked by the title of this post.

(1) Providing timely commentary on current political events, and in particular the Catastrophe.

(2) Engaging in general discussions of politics, law, culture, art, history, economics, etc. beyond current political events.

(3) Providing a third space for like-minded people in the form of an internet community. The phrase third space refers to the need for people to interact with each other outside of their homes and workplaces.

(4) Creating a place for progressives/liberals/leftists to get emotional and other forms of support, and to avoid despair, as we all navigate the Catastrophe over the next few years. This could be thought of as an especially important subset of (3).

(5) Maintaining a space where people can discuss and coordinate various forms of political actions, including protests, participating in electoral politics, and other forms of activism.

These are just some ideas that I’m throwing out, as I try to sort out how I’m going to handle the next four years. But I don’t want this to be primarily about my struggle, I want it to be about your views about what we are doing and ought to be doing as one of the last surviving OG blogs. In the midst of the Second World War Orwell wrote:

In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.” All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

To engage with an insane world without becoming insane oneself is an easier thing to say than to do.