My feed has seen an increase in articles belittling Umair Haque and Jessica Wildfire. In particular, an article by Berna Tural was titled "Nobody Wants to Read Umair and Jessica Anymore".
When I joined Medium in April 2019, Umair and Jessica showed up on my feed. So, I clicked and read. I had to agree with much of what they were saying. But I had doubts whether the message of these two writers will ever be reaching the people that needed to do some rethinking about how the world should work. In other words, these two writers are — in my opinion — in their own echo chamber and really not changing the world very much.
I stopped reading Jessica after about 10 articles. Her stories go too far with “hair-on-fire.” Umair is more reasonable with his sensationalism. And I had some success dogging on to Umair’s articles in promoting my alternative democracy: I got a few Umair readers to read my flagship essay.
What I and other Medium contributors find wrong with Umair’s and Jessica’s approach to their articles is there is no solution to this mess we are in. They tell us about the mess over and over — but there is nothing helpful toward the cleanup. Since we already know something is wrong, these articles are kind of empty.
I also believe that Umair’s and Jessica’s articles are — subliminally — letting many of their readers off their democratic responsibility. It’s not hard to predict that some readers will see these articles as “The world is going to hell, and it’s all the other side’s fault.” This thinking then leads to “There’s nothing we can really do.” So, these readers will happily watch the ship sink not making any effort to stop the leak. The trouble is they are on this ship.
I do have a solution. For three years, I have been promoting my alternative democracy on Medium. I admit that I see a big paradox in the popularity of Umair and Jessica (with no solutions) and my lack of popularity (with a possible solution). We can’t blame a lack of available time: my book takes about three hours to read; most Medium contributors will spend three hours writing, reading, and commenting on Medium in just this week. But they cannot find the time to investigate my new ideas.
Here’s a current example. To plug my alternative democracy, I responded to Berna’s article. Berna responded back to me with something like: “Yes, we should look at alternative ways of democracy. Thanks for reading.”
Berna was looking for solutions from Umair and Jessica; no solution is coming from these two writers; I offer a solution; Berna cannot investigate my solution. What gives?
Without any other information, I can only conclude Berna is mostly using a catchy title to earn some Medium shekels.
To be fair, Umair does have a solution. In his Medium pub, he has several essays on Eudaimonics, his alternative economic structure. It is worthy of reading and discussing. However, his daily rants are far away from this interesting utopia. I suspect there’s not much revenue from writing more of these kinds of articles.
And this leads to my next hypothesis. I believe the Medium algorithms are — rightly or wrongly — giving Umair, Jessica, and other top writers an advantage to be on many feeds, which then contributes to their popularity. With this popularity, these writers have a writing income where they can afford to write more articles. Most of us have to steal time from other life requirements to participate on Medium.
Many of us plebe writers would like to have the Medium advantage of our articles showing up on just about everyone’s feeds. We too have the talents and skills to be there. We just have not won the Medium lottery.
This may sound like I’m casting these two writers in a bad light. No, not really. They could be spending their spare time on activities that are even less beneficial — or even harmful — to bettering the world. They should be acknowledged for their political position, writing skills, and time.
I estimate I have engaged with 3000 Medium people about my alternative democracy. This is a pretty good focus group. This focus group has — in different ways — told me that it prefers to read doom and gloom articles than to discuss any alternative democracy. This focus group prefers Trump-bashing articles to investigating a democracy where someone like Mr. Trump will not rise into high office. The focus group has said that I should not be a top writer.
These collective preferences say more about us than the two writers. They have only carved a niche that allows them to give us what we want.
My response to Berna’s article earned an interesting response from a Medium contributor named SC. SC and I have had a few polite exchanges in the past two years. While I have not been able to convince SC to spend three hours with my ideas, this person is a thinker.
SC gave me a different perspective on this matter. SC considers Umair and Jessica to be clarions warning us of a failing social order. I would agree with the clarion concept — only if the two writers were actually able to deliver their message to those who really need to hear it. Most Medium contributors are already aware that our society is not well. They don’t need convincing. So there is very little incremental political pressure being generated to bend the world to a better way because of Umair’s and Jessica’s writing. And then there is that subliminal effect which I believe is paralyzing some well-meaning citizens.
SC then offered another perspective, using school textbooks as an example. A textbook for a lower grade is preparing students for a higher grade. But giving the higher-grade textbook to the lower-grade students would likely mean these students will be unable to comprehend their education. In essence, Umair and Jessica are preparing their readers for the next grade. This perspective makes sense to me. We need to progress through the textbooks to reach a higher level of knowledge.
For those of us frustrated with the NO SOLUTION approach of Umair and Jessica, maybe that is a sign that we have graduated from the lower grade.
So I have to ask: “When do we open the textbooks for the next grade?”
Published on Medium 2022
Call to Political Fortune Tellers
2024 Addendum
My average earnings per Medium article is about $1.50. This article eventually earned $67.75. I had anticipated this article would go "above average," maybe $5.00.
This article has been my best-earning Medium article to date. Which is kind of sad. This title suggests an "attack" on two prominent writers on Medium, and that was the draw for readers.
I got 62 comments for this article, far below my usual traction. I answered all comments. Here is my synopsis
Yet my articles on "building a new democracy" seem to go nowhere. Isn't building supposed to be better than attacking? Medium readers seem to prefer attacking. This paradox says more about the people on Medium than about Umair, Jessica, or myself. Sad, yes. But what is sadder is that I have not found a better forum to promote my alternative democracy.
Umair is still writing for Medium but reduced his output to about one article a week. His approach has not changed. He still gets at least 20x the traction I get.
Jessica has not written anything for Medium for about a year.
