The Future of OK Doomer

As many readers know, I was told to resign from my teaching position this year after requesting an official remote work option. The ironic thing: As I was packing my bags, the faculty and administrators who did nothing to advocate for me told me how bad they felt, and then they asked me to give them all the learning and teacher-training materials I'd developed. It was a pretty hefty amount of stuff, including online textbooks and manuals.

They wanted to use it all.

I gave it to them.

Since then, I've committed to writing this newsletter full-time. My family is getting settled in our new home, and I'm starting to think about reopening this platform for other writers again, with stricter guidelines about content. There's been a stream of support, but it's still unsteady and uncertain at times.

If you've been supporting this publication, then I appreciate it. You're the reason I've been able to keep going, and you're the reason I'll continue writing about controversial and unpleasant topics.

Meanwhile, hate readers continue to pile on attacks. They come from both ends of the political spectrum, accusing me of everything from ignorance to racism, for telling them things they don't want to hear.

Here's a good example:

These kinds of attacks were happening almost every day when I wrote on Medium. Back then, I was accused of being a Russian asset because I dared to criticize the western response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Since then, a number of those mudslingers have wound up apologizing.

For the record, my stance toward global politics has always been: there's no heroes or villains on the world stage. Russia, China, and the U.S. are all guilty of human rights atrocities. They've all made dumb mistakes. None of them are as good, or bad, as they appear in the corporate media. Most importantly, they could all put aside their differences and work toward a shared vision of a better world, but they often don't. Who's the most responsible for the divided state of the world? It's probably the U.S., for what it's worth. But that doesn't exonerate other powers from their actions.

When we talk about the actions and accountability of other countries, we're talking about the leaders of those countries.

Anyway:

It's interesting how eager some people are to jump on a writer they admire and start movements against them, before even trying to examine facts or contexts for themselves. Content creators deal with this on a regular basis. I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard to deal with.

Even some of my own supporters have wound up nitpicking articles and complaining about the website, demanding that I take down subscriber signup buttons because they don't like seeing them. One supporter even got my name wrong when criticizing my management of the site.

I'm not going to stop writing, and I'm not going to start telling people what they want to hear to make myself more popular.

However...

The future of free content on this particular newsletter depends on how much appreciation and support it gets. If you've been wondering whether you want to support my work, now would be a good time.

If you truly appreciate what I do, I'd like to see it. And of course, if you don't want to be here, then... don't be.

Thanks,

Jessica