The Tacit Muse expands my blog for Psychology Today, Aswim in DaNile. After six years I had to quit writing for the magazine because advertising pressure was pressuring the editors to censor content.
My last essay for them weighed in on the #Me too controversy. I suggested that the workplace is more authoritarian these days because business has crushed unions and made it harder for working folks to have a voice. And without a voice, it’s not easy to say No.
Since the editors’ job was, among other things, to sell ads, and since business generally has been hostile to organized labor, an essay urging a stronger voice for working folks would have presented problems. In the Internet world, where things can suddenly go viral, the editors I dealt with didn’t risk being quoted. So they refused to answer questions, explain policy, etc. A totally de-professionalized situation.
In six years if writing for Psychology Today, I had roughly 250,000 reads. Such figures, I take it, are marginal—trivial—for online business. So let’s try to create a space for ideas here.