On Literature, Politics, and Privilege

One of the reasons I launched this Substack a week ago is because I wanted a space to write things that I didn’t believe the American liberal media would print. Over the past twelve years, I’ve published in peer-reviewed journals, public-facing online venues, and academic and literary blogs. Yet increasingly I’ve felt that what I most want to express—and that what most people would actually want to read—simply will not pass through the filter of contemporary progressive outlets (and I have no desire to write for conservative ones). A culture of self-censorship dominates our media ecology. Liberal outlets will print the most vituperative attacks on Donald Trump, his circle, and the MAGA movement, but rarely publish anything incisive about prominent figures of the left/liberal cultural scene. My own view is that such intra-left/liberal analysis is healthy, and that the failure of progressives to engage in it is a liability rather than a strength. Of course, I’m not referring to internet

One of the reasons I launched this Substack a week ago is because I wanted a space to write things that I didn’t believe the American liberal media would print. Over the past twelve years, I’ve published in peer-reviewed journals, public-facing online venues, and academic and literary blogs. Yet increasingly I’ve felt that what I most want to express—and that what most people would actually want to read—simply will not pass through the filter of contemporary progressive outlets (and I have no desire to write for conservative ones). A culture of self-censorship dominates our media ecology. Libe