We don't need this fascist groove thang

A few observations from the week Elmo waved me bye bye from Twitter

Hello magazine people,

I don’t want to bang on about politics in this newsletter; I’d much rather be sharing ideas that you can steal to make your print magazine business stronger.

But - you knew there was going to be a but - I’d like to share a few observations from the week that I announced on LinkedIn that I was leaving Twitter because I felt that billionaire Elmo had crossed a line with his ‘not a Nazi’ salute.

* There is a print takeaway, I promise.

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Social media is engineered to suck

The network effect at the heart of social media is wild.

Seeing people that you have no connection to (not even the same industry) pop up in your comments to give you abuse is kind of a shock to the system (shout out to female journalists who deal with way worse than me every single day).

The combination of network amplification, outrage algorithms and instant gratification is a toxic recipe carefully designed to keep the pot boiling.

There are nutjobs on LinkedIn too

I thought that, of all the social media spaces, LinkedIn was the one where people would keep their harshest criticisms to themselves. I mistakenly assumed a place to make professional connections and find work was a safe space to say ‘OK, I’m done with this manchild’s dangerous dog-whistles’.

However, within an hour, I was being accused of spreading lies and fake news, told to remove myself from the platform, and of being ‘silly’ (that one really stung). But then, I am ‘all that is bad in this toxic environment’.

People have forgotten how to say nothing

I don’t want everyone to agree with me; the world would be a pretty boring place if we all thought the same. It would be nice, though, if more people did a Burt Bacharach and just walked on by.

I’m not devoid of opinions.

My Facebook bio used to say ‘If you’re not pissed off, you’re not paying attention’ and I still believe that. That doesn’t mean you should hammer the keyboard every time you come across something that doesn’t fit with your worldview.

Just walk on by.

Print publishers are the heros we need

Back in the day, I was super excited about social media.

Remember when Facebook connected you with your outer circle and old friends. And you would actually see them in your feed?

John McCarthy, Opinion Editor, The Drum

Many of my friends live on the other side of the world and it was a joy to be able to keep up with what was going in their lives and share what was going on in mine. We had group chats, commented on each other’s pictures, shared new music and old stories.

Then the money started rolling in, the algorithm took over and that was that.

This long-read from The Atlantic - Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid - does a great job of tracing the decline and it’s impact on our civil society. If you’re outside the US, don’t get smug - it’s pretty much the same level of stupid everywhere.

Why print is the hero of this story

Because there’s no algorithm on a printed page.

There’s no comment button; you read solo and anything you have to say about what you’re reading goes no further than the people sat beside you. And that means there’s no way to spew instant insult at writers, editors and your fellow readers.

At best, you’ll need to take the time to write an email, a one-to-one endeavour absent the possibility of a pile-on. In the inbox, no one else can hear you scream.

Magazine people say it all the time, but print is a considered medium, carefully curated, a closed loop that’s safe from the dolts that can all-too-easily invade your digital spaces. And the best titles keep their communities close, not their enemies.

These are wild times, but I genuinely believe now is the time for print magazines to offer an alternative to this sad social-media shitshow and shine.

Slàinte Mhath

Peter

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Speaking of heroes…

In the second issue of Grub Street, we ran a short piece that had it all - magazines, Nazis, gender fluidity.

“Who has the right to sacrifice a people in order to save a government?”

During the Second World War, when the island of Jersey was occupied by actual Nazis, artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore risked their lives to sneak ‘paper bullets’ into magazines, cigarette packs and even soldier’s pockets.

Their ‘bullets’ contained “wicked insults against Hitler, calls to rebel, and subversive fictional dialogues designed to demoralise Nazi troops” – not bad for a lesbian couple (one of whom, Claude Cahun, was half-Jewish) during a Nazi occupation.

Let’s try slipping ‘paper bullets’ into our magazine.

* We came across the story in Helena Bonham Carter’s podcast History’s Secret Heroes.

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Is you Grub Street collection complete?

We’ve published four editions of The Grub Street Journal.

• The Don Quixote issue: What kind of idiots still make magazines?

• The Jerry Maguire issue: Show me the money in magazines

• The Walking Dead issue: Why won’t print just lie down and die?

• The Next Generation issue: Finding the future’s readers and leaders

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Magazine Anti-Fascist Songs

This is where I’d normally share something from my Spotify playlist of songs that reference magazines, but this week I had to share ‘Fascist Groove Thang’ from Heaven 17. It’s the law.

If you have a favourite magazine song, just reply to this email and I’ll add it to The Grub Street Journal’s ‘Magazine Songs’ playlist.