Once upon a time, I mused about what makes one a real writer, though couldn’t really come up with an answer (I opted to call out toxicity instead). However, I have finally found an answer to that question. Essentially, the reason that I’m not a real writer is that I’ve yet to face any real-world consequences as a result of my writing. In this article, I’ll list out the possible negative consequences for my spicy sentences and then discuss the risk involved. Since math class neglected to teach us about risk; risk is the likelihood of the consequence combined with the severity of the consequence. I’ll also discuss counter-strategies, though I don’t plan on pulling back my metaphorical punches anytime soon, so that counter-strategy is off the table. As a quick disclaimer; I’m not inviting any of these to happen, I’m simply taking a mental inventory. To paraphrase The Man Himself, you should always be a little nervous when publishing your writing.
One real-world repercussion is being sued by a recipient of my aggressive writing (my writing has been accused of aggressive in the past), specifically a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) lawsuit. There are two risks here; the risk of being sued and the risk of losing the lawsuit. First, the possibility of being sued isn’t a crazy thought; while there are many states that have anti-SLAPP laws, mine isn’t one of them. Therefore, event is somewhat likely, with the severity of the consequence being majorly inconvenient, though not life-altering. The next risk revolves around losing the lawsuit, which I’m not all that concerned about; While my writing is opinion-heavy, my opinions expressed are always based off of publicly available information and peer-reviewed scientific articles, so it would be pretty hard for me to actually lose a frivolous lawsuit. Therefore, the likelihood is pretty low, with the severity being moderate. Putting the risk-assessment aside for a moment, I slept like a rock after lambasting Richard Dawkins for his failure to modernize and dunking on useless TV talking heads who give no benefit to society. I also do not apologize to authors I dislike either. The best counter-strategy that I’d actually be willing to do is to keep a lawyer on retainer. To all of the recipients of a Dan Espinola lambasting; don’t be litigious, be better.
While we’re on the topic of legal matters, another potential consequence of my hard-hitting writing is being harassed by the police and government bureaucrats. I can’t rule this out, considering I’ve advocated for privatizing the police, proposed a far smaller government while openly suggesting that I would do their jobs better than they could. I’ve also openly mocked their favorite ritual and their dumb laws. Admittedly, this is one of the more likely consequences (more so as time goes on), though the best mitigation strategy is the same as above, having a lawyer on retainer. While I feel confident that I’m on solid legal footing (see the above paragraph), they can still make things inconvenient, so the severity is pretty low to moderate. This will likely become an issue as my audience grows, though for now I’ll enjoy flying under the radar.
The last legal consequence is that the chance of being detained in a foreign nation for my writing. This would be a serious consequence, and as we saw with Brittney Griner, being a US citizen isn’t a get out of jail free card; doubly so if said country does not care about staying in the US’s good graces. However, this is both highly unlikely and pretty easy to avoid; the best counter-strategy is don’t go to hostile countries (hint: I wasn’t planning to). It only takes one corrupt bureaucrat to re-route a plane because a dissident is on board. The activism chapter of my book goes pretty hard on the concept of meme-based activism (spoiler: it doesn’t work), and while I was politically-neutral and openly stated that I was merely taking the arguments presented at face value, the mere act of taking said arguments (weak as they may be) at face value could ruffle feathers. Looks like I’m not visiting Singapore anytime soon. Oh well…
Truthfully, losing my job because of my writing has a moderate chance of happening. After all, I wrote an article lamenting the general attitude of my industry, as well as being openly pro-lobbyist and pro-billionaire (which is a no-go in my line of work). I’ve also repeated my father’s wisdom of there being no such thing as the perfect job. Besides holding views that are frowned upon on the job, there is also the possibility of someone calling up my employer to cancel me for mocking criminals, being pro-home defense landmine, or for tantalizing titles. While the loss of income is a serious consequence, several mitigation steps exist. Primarily, having a savings buffer is a great start, as well as keeping my resume/LinkedIn sharp. Fortunately, my line of work has a perennial talent shortage, so chances of a prolonged unemployment are low. Drug companies will still hire me, even if I think the FDIC needs to go.
There is a lot of overlap between sudden job loss and being de-platformed for my writing. While I do benefit from radicalization, it would take quite a lot to actually goad platforms to kick me off of their sites. Furthermore, the severity would be pretty low; akin to 90’s and 00’s parents wagging their finger while proclaiming no more internet for you!. The mitigation strategy would be pretty straightforward; there’s always another site with looser terms of service, so just go somewhere else. It certainly wouldn’t stop me from writing anyways. So, I’m not going to stop dunking on LinkedIn and the other maliciously-ignorant sites I discussed in The Case Against Memes. I continue to stand behind my book and my In Critique Of series.
Being alienated by those in my personal life is the final consequence I could think of. While my book utterly eviscerates what is practically their religion, I haven’t suffered any real-world fallout because of it. While the severity would be high (after all, we are social creatures) and I don’t really have a mitigation strategy in place, the likelihood is rather low. I’ve said far worse things to them in person! Besides, I’m surrounded by a cohort that proclaims to love ball-busting, albeit only when they aren’t on the receiving end of it (topic for a future article). Therefore, I feel pretty unafraid of slamming TikTok, being pro-NFT, or mocking their thin-shaming tendencies.
Consequences are inevitable; expect them, plan for them.
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