“Only Love and (My) Life”

I recently came across an evidence-free critique of my work. That’s hardly news, I know. The particular variety of stupidity in this case is the important point.

Online, someone who shall remain nameless wrote that I rarely mention climate change in my essays, much less human extinction. According to the missive from this dim bulb, I no longer “believe” in near-term human extinction. My propensity for writing about my personal life tells this person that I’ve given up on evidence to focus instead on love and my life.

Oh, my. Where to begin? You doubtless know the common expression relevant in this case: It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.

For starters, science isn’t a belief system. To “believe in” evidence is to exhibit rational behavior. Even flat-earthers are guilty of rationalism occasionally, such as when they correctly note that gravity holds them on terra firma or, hilariously, when they claim there are like-minded idiots, “all around the globe” (I actually read this statement recently from a self-proclaimed flat-earther).

Moving along, then, to my recent essays …. Now that I’ve presented a stunningly overwhelming case to support my long-held view that humans have little time on Earth, I rarely post evidence-rich essays. This pattern is consistent with that of my scientific profession and is diametrically opposed to the approach commonly observed within celebrity culture. Scientists publish new findings once. Corporate media “journalists” write endlessly about the Kardashians, “foreign” “policy,” cryptocurrencies, and other, irrelevant nonsense.

I’ve made a compelling case for the near-term extinction of humans, based on evidence. Need I mention it daily? That’s clearly a job for the corporate media, not me. And considering the radical nature of my message and the complicity of the corporate media in denying abrupt climate change, I doubt I’ll make serious headway with the mainstream media any time soon. And soon is all we have remaining.

Instead of capitulating to the dominant paradigm of misinformation and distraction, my ongoing work focuses on social criticism. Such work has been my passion since I accidentally penned my first op-ed piece more than 15 years ago. As with many writers more skilled than me, I use my own life experiences as touchstones for my critiques of culture.

I suspect I’ll be criticizing the society into which I was born until my final days. I further suspect such work will be unappreciated by the masses, as has been the fate of social critics throughout history.

My social criticism might not seem very loving, especially to those under the lens of critique. Failure to differentiate between kindness and niceness sometimes leads one to take personally a message intended for others. And receiving brutal honesty is best done with introspection.

Finally, I’ll point out something obvious. It’s not the first time I’ll be doing so. I doubt it’ll be the last. Living and loving matter. Passionately pursuing useful work and passionately pursuing love matter. Indeed, little else matters more.