Overwhelmed by the nastiness

Over the last few years I’ve quoted frequently from Melissa McEwan of Shakesville. Her blog has been a primary source of my news for much of that time. I probably quoted McEwan more than any other writer.

In mid July McEwan declared a sabbatical, lasting through August. I thought that would fit well with my own plans because I would be gone for much of August and wouldn’t miss much of her wisdom.

In mid August McEwan posted she will no longer write the Shakesville blog. The reason: researching and reporting the nasty guy and GOP cruelty became too much. She grieved over the pain they caused and the constant anguish was appearing as physical health issues.

Another big factor was Twitter. McEwan put links of her posts into tweets, and that attracted a great deal of supremacist pushback. Though she was quite good at defending herself the constant online abuse took its toll.

I quoted McEwan so frequently because I could see she was right and she could explain her points very well. She pegged the nasty guy as an authoritarian the day he came down the escalator to announce his candidacy for president. Several months later she went through his speech point by point to say what was authoritarian about each one.

The first few times I followed links to Shakesville I read well written articles which resonated with me. But I saw most of the other content on the site was geared towards feminism. I wasn’t much interested in women’s issues.

But after a few more looks and probably after the demise of another blog I depended on for news, I became a regular reader of Shakesville. I realized that women’s issues, in the way McEwan explained them, were also LGBT issues, minority issues, and even men’s issues. She was writing about the ways of supremacy, calling it out and explaining it. She frequently talked about rape culture – the ideas in our culture that project misogyny, imply that rape is OK, and then protect the rapists.

Over the last couple years she has put up a post every weekday documenting the latest trash committed by the nasty guy, his minions, and the GOP. This was an act of resistance. She frequently wrote, because the story highlighted it, that with this administration malice is the agenda. Starting last January she also posted every weekday a summary of news about the Democrats running for the presidency. She praised the good things they said and called out the supremacist things. It is through her evaluation of the candidates that I created my list of favorites, currently Warren, Harris, Booker, and Castro, none of whom are white men. I’m pleased to see all four are still in the running.

I’ve had a pretty good understanding of the various aspects of supremacy for a while now. Even so, McEwan taught me a lot. She could say see this here, that’s misogyny. And over here, that’s racism. And that over there, is fat hatred. And this little bit is why intersectionality has to be considered.

McEwan also had her lighter moments. She posted pictures of her pets every workday, saying after reading about the day’s malice we needed something cute. She asked about us – what have we been reading? What craft things have we done? What are some of our recent joys? How have wee been feeling? Is there a personal situation we’d like to ask her community in hopes of getting a fresh perspective? There was usually a question of the day, something offbeat to allow us to share experiences and see how others think. She built a community and nourished us.

She ran her comments as a safe space. Those who belittled others were warned and then banned. We could be free to express how we felt about something without someone dumping on us (I’m sure she wished she could have done the same on Twitter). Even with that I learned something, when it is important to say nothing.

So Liss, I’ll miss your wisdom of how the world works. I’ll miss your understanding of what the nasty guy and his minions are doing. I’m sorry you were overwhelmed by the nastiness of the nasty guy and his followers. I wish a full recovery for you and great happiness in whatever ventures you take up next.