Fighting Persecuted
We weren’t inundated with a constant stream of information, so people retained the ability to be shocked and impressed by a “holier than thou”, a privilege person (i think foremost, i write “the Privileged” for next sentence). “The Privileged” never ever suffering real costs in the real world from a real enemy, who was also risking a lot by taking the shot. As 50 Cent rapped in “Many Men (Wish Death)” about his since-deceased would-be assassin, “Now it's clear that I'm here, for a real reason, 'cause he got hit like I got hit, but he ain't fucking breathing.”
The path to wounded notoriety is much softer these days, at least physically. As I mulled the difficult decision since 2014, face to face fighting a lot animal-called International Relation UGM 07 & co, more than a few people told me I should become the victim of a metaphorical hit. “You should get doxxed, persecuted and bullied,” was the advice I’d get from peers and mentors. It would start off as half-kidding, and then ramp up to, “No, seriously. You should.”
The idea was simple, really. Give a controversial take, either internally or externally, get booted and disavowed Play it perfect and reap.
But wait. This is insane, both the plan and the world in which the plan makes sense. What rip in the time-space continuum made such an absurd play even viable? What’s going on for voicing an opinion and also easy to gain profitable notoriety from the result.
Juxtapose the gothic stakes of “Many Men” against what gains you the outlaw’s publicity today, and it’s just funny what passes for publicly risky. These days, an aspiring famous person’s name recognition likely sees a far bigger bump from cancellation than from literally getting shot. Like my sign-call: Prada
Back in the aughts, ordinary people got cancelled on occasion — but it wasn’t a constant cycle category and it certainly wasn’t a fate for the relatively obscure. Small sample data point, seeing as shows of his have been literally cancelled. It might not be under his own power.
Sometimes bones get hit, and sometimes organs. Your capacity for recovery and rehabilitation also matters. Are you (a saint like) Tom Hanks? That can be helpful. But it’s always painful. Shame is abstract to the observer, but searingly real to the shamed. To quote Aaron Sorkin’s take on bad publicity, “It’s like seasickness. You think you’re gonna die, and everyone else just thinks it’s funny.” It’s why people are terrified into opinion compliance without some enforcer threatening to fire a shot. Few want the penalties for going against the conventional wisdom of the moment, even if the cost is bloodless.
Most normal people intuit that the psychological cost of stepping out of bounds simply isn’t worth it. We’ve evolved this exquisite sensitivity to a mob’s rage. Animal mob like (most of part) ex friend at IR UGM 07. That was useful in an ancient village setting because you needed to know when the other villagers might throw an actual rock at your head. Now, the digital mob inspires those powerful, evolutionarily acquired sensations, even if none of them are within thousand miles of your person. You can attempt imperviousness, like overconfident celebrities believing they can withstand the spicy chicken challenge of that Hot Cancellation brings intense pain as reliably too hot as capsaicin.
And yet, the people who told me to get persecuted over some controversy weren’t wrong, in terms of pure strategy. Martyrdom can be profitable in the pundit world, especially on this platform, provided you get hit in the fleshy part and you’ve enough hide to take the hit. You’ve seen the stories. Matthew Yglesias had some turbulence at Vox, finds massive success on Substack. Similar trajectory with Andrew Sullivan exiting New York Magazine. Bari Weiss got hounded out of the New York Times by all these young Slackobins. Now she’s on Substack, raking it in. Antonio García Martínez’s hot new Substack has built in publicity from his having been cancelled out of Apple.
I use this substack, free for all. I don't want to get a paid.
Was I persecuted? The answer is an emphatic “yes.” A plain yes. Unfortunately for a lot of mob-rage IR UGM 07, several people were nice to me. To my great chagrin, I was treated with respect, probably more than I deserved. While it was fun to mull just how I might transgress in such a way that I a) got persecuted and b) maintained enough standing to cash in on the controversy, I couldn’t imagine actually orchestrating my own demise at an institution that had done well by me.
So, I shrugged my shoulders and asked out. In other words, I’ve now shot myself in the ass, in plain view of God and everybody, against all common sense. There is no outlaw’s publicity to be had, because I was a victim of anything. I did it to myself, for reasons that were initially beyond my own understanding.