poser

When did indulgence, silliness, or even escapism become acts to be scrutinized, judged, and ultimately shamed?

Seems to me, the obvious attraction of being able to monetize your taste—over putting out a probably-more-interesting letter about your actual life—is leading to a lot of very, very similar Substacks.

Substack is supposed to be a safe space, a haven for ideas, creativity, and personal musings. But lately, it feels like the vibe has shifted. The vibe shift being - yall keep having intellectual-offs

I think this this is an issue of content creation that we’re seeing on all these platforms — people see others making so much money off of their “unedited” selves and everyone is like “omg this is me too which means that I can do this too and I can show my ‘real, authentic life’ too” leaving the audiences inundated with unoriginal and unnecessary... See more

So, let’s talk about balance. Because what we’ve created isn’t intellectualism; it’s just another box to cram ourselves into. We’ve traded the messy joy of authenticity for a checklist of what’s deemed appropriately intellectual.