Thread by @SethAbramson

Beyond my feed and media hits—BBC, CNN, etc—here's how I tried to help.

Proof Books—bit.ly/ProofSeries
Proof Pod—bit.ly/ProofPodcast
Newsweek—bit.ly/NewsweekColumns
Interviews
🔹Playboy—bit.ly/PlayboyIntervi…
🔹HBO—bit.ly/HBOInterview
Site: sethabramson.net

I've been thinking about this lately because my time as a political journalist is almost done. I've been planning to move on for a long time.

(Note: I'd add my recent chat with Russell Brand to the list above, but it's not out yet. So I'll add the below.) theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

I know some will feel put out that I won't be spending November obsessing over each new Trump atrocity. But I just can't. I've given 5+ years of my life to covering this madman, and it's taken a toll. My work on Trump's life from 1987 to mid-fall 2020 will have to stand as it is.

I've made a lot of noise about this for a long time, I know, but the time is here. I've one more interview scheduled, and two more podcast recording sessions. But then I'll be focusing on journalism about journalism and the many things I love that I haven't focused on much here.

Besides media theory—and journalism on media theory—I'm into metamodernism, sixties music, alt-art, graphic novels, nerd culture, street art, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Wisconsin Badgers, the Dartmouth Big Green, stand-up comedy, emerging tech, experimental writing and much more.

Donald Trump is a poisoner. He poisons souls and poisons institutions. Those who pretend that there's any glory, happiness, or profit in covering Donald Trump prove in saying so that they've never done it themselves. No one who thinks about the man daily sees their life enriched.

When I wrote my first article on Donald Trump the day in 2015 he announced his candidacy—and followed that up, in the summer of 2015, with a series of academic articles on Trump as a metamodern phenomenon—I did so because I knew something important was happening before our eyes.

When it became clear that Donald Trump wasn't just a poisoner of every business venture he's ever participated in and every life he's ever become entangled with but was a would-be poisoner of the nation he aimed to lead—which had been so good to him—my focus changed considerably.

I began to ask not what an academic might say about Trump but what historians would say about any nation that permitted him to lead it. I began to think about how I'd look back on these years, about what I would say my contribution had been in standing up to this obvious villain.

I didn't anticipate that I'd face years of attacks from the left—vile accusations about my motivations and character, despite having spent a lifetime wearing my values on my sleeve, being involved in causes and professions that underline where my interests and my principles lie.

It was what it was. I know who I am and why I did what I did. Those who attacked me relentlessly are folks who I don't know, whose motivations I can't understand and whose character I can't get caught up in trying to guess. Mainly, I just hope I've been helpful in some small way.

As I said, I've a few things left to do political journalism–wise over the next couple weeks. But my political postings will become fewer and farther between. I'll still be here—and active—but increasingly focused on what makes life worth living, not the face of evil in our time.

5 times daily I encounter a stranger wondering publicly how I'll "adapt my grift" if Trump loses. It's pretty sad to abide in that sort of cynicism about a man you don't know. But one reason I'm writing this now is because the election results have nothing to do with my decision.

I didn't plan the spend the last five and a half years doing what I've been doing. I wish Trump had never run, and that none of us had gone through any of this. It was always my plan to get *back* to life—not make this insanity my life. Those who thought otherwise don't know me.

I do hope you'll stick around, as I've a lot to say on many topics, and things I hope to create and to discuss with everyone here, whatever happens November 3. But this feed can't be, going forward, what it has been since May 2015. I'm afraid I don't have that gene in me anymore.

If Trump wins, there'll be a whole new generation of people rising up to meet a new challenge, and as I (and so many others) tried to do, they will inductively build their research, writing, ethical, and advocacy practices based on all the knowledge bases and skillsets they have.

What this feed will become is an expression of all the same knowledge bases and skillsets that brought me to write the Proof books, participate in the Proof podcast, become an infamous "threader," make appearances—both happy and otherwise—on live media and in citations by media.

The Proof books would exist if I hadn't written the Metamodern Trilogy—three poetry books—between 2013 and 2017; my Twitter practice wouldn't have evolved as it did if I hadn't written a book on writing pedagogy called the Insider's Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing.

I wouldn't think as I do without my years of trial work and criminal investigation, which I'll now apply to the thorny topic of how we evolve journalism to adapt to the post-truth era. I'm working right now on a graphic novel called Citizen Journalist that addresses exactly that.

And the best part of my day—on social media, at least—is when I post an art recommendation (novel, music, video game, film, or otherwise) and even just one person says "Damn—that was great." Those are the sorts of connections between strangers that I'd like to help foster online.

Anyone who'd be an artist as well as a contributor to public discourse—and I'm in that group—knows you have to do what you have to do whatsoever the response may be. I've written books read by 60 people and books read by 60,000. You always just write the book you *have* to write.

I hope at least some folks remember this thread when November 3 comes around, if/as they notice a change in this feed and wonder—especially because there'll be plenty of meatheads who say so—whether the change is a result of the election results. It isn't. It's me being who I am.

I do wish I'd had more than five and a half years of this fight in me. I even sometimes wish I were the sort of person who thrives on being hated—rather than someone who spent these years as he did despite feeling profoundly hurt over being misunderstood, and feeling hurt daily.

No matter what comes, I'll take with me the immeasurable kindness of so many of you in posts, DMs, emails, letters, and other communications. I focus on the hurt because of how I'm wired; but there's been boundless kindness given to this feed, too. I know it and will remember it.