It's a cute scene in the movie Aliens with Ripley -- a mom whose child grew up and died while she was in deep sleep for space travel -- and Newt, a little girl and the only survivor of something terrible.
Social stuff doesn't really work that way. If you participate in a sick system, no one accidentally ends up clean.
I don't really need to tell you the Internet has deteriorated in my lifetime and efforts to monetize this cool futuristic thing is a huge part of why. We have words for that, including enshittification, and everyone knows common sayings like "If you aren't the customer, you're the product."
I'm a big fan of Google. This site is hosted by one of their products and when the Internet was younger, AdSense probably worked well for some people. It never worked well for me. I never had adequate traffic to turn that into something resembling an adequate income for my work.
I write about topics that are inherently not ad-friendly. I write a lot about homelessness and homeless people don't have much money, so I feel strongly that trying to make a difference on that topic and support my work via ads is probably a scam, if it makes money at all.
I spent a lot of years on Hacker News and I largely agree with most of the criticisms and objections they have to ads on websites and also to paywalls. I don't wish to use either on my blogs.
I have several blogs that talk about health topics. I have an extremely debilitating and deadly condition and I've gotten a lot healthier since finally getting a proper diagnosis.
But I have very strong feelings and opinions about how the way you monetize health information or any form of health care can do enormous harm to the people you are nominally trying to help get healthier. I've previously written an entire post on that topic alone elsewhere.
I get a lot of flak from people who imagine I'm some holier-than-thou "judgy bitch." I'm really not.
I'm allergic to marijuana, so I don't toke and don't want to date a toker, but I am for the decriminalization of most drugs -- provided we make reasonable accomodation for denying people the right to use drugs to facilitate crimes. But so long as you are not doing something like getting drunk or high to get a shot of liquid courage and then provide yourself "plausible deniability" for molesting kids or whatever, I believe you should be allowed to put what you want into your own body.
There's plenty of research showing that people who commit crimes like child molestation drink and drug to facilitate it and therefore make the conscious decision to offend again while still sober, before taking that first shot. I see absolutely no reason to deny everyone access to drugs based on "SOME people misuse them" and every reason to believe this approach only aids and abets crime by agreeing with such people that "they can't HELP it because DRUGS."
Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
By the time you commit your third crime under the influence, you are capable of predicting where this is likely to go before you get drunk or high. And the way to bet is you are someone actively looking for a good excuse if you continue getting drunk or high and "making the same mistake" after the third time.
I'm not some holier-than-thou type on any topic. I have been essentially forced at gun point to make the choices I have made because I was born with defective genes, which means I don't have wiggle room for a little bit of compromising of my values.
I've been CELIBATE for medical reasons for 21 years and counting. I'm sex positive. I like sex. I like men. I like living the good life. I just have dire germ control needs.
I'm willing to say "In some cases, the medical best practice is celibacy." I'm also happy to tell you what else you can do if your situation is less dire than mine, including prophylactic, condoms and tell people upfront what your medical situation is so they have a shot at informed consent and you aren't spreading disease.
I'm very acutely aware that how you make your money shapes what you end up telling people.
If I were to somehow convince the makers of Viagra to pay me an adequate income for my needs, even if they genuinely didn't care what else I said about "Well, Viagra treats circulatory stuff and so if you don't want that, you could work on your cardio health." I'm probably not going to harp endlessly on "Take up WALKING, stupid! That's what you really NEED!"
If Viagra is paying MY bills, I'm probably going to tell myself "They can get that information elsewhere and no one is MAKING them take little blue pills and there's LOTS of OTHER health topics I can talk about. No big!"
And then you have to wonder exactly how far that goes in biasing my writing on all health topics. Even if the topic isn't boners not working, if it's gut motility, will I try hard to communicate with you that walking helps with gut motility and a thousand other health issues?
If I tell everyone walk more for other reasons and my income coincidentally goes down, will I continue harping on walk more? Or will I worry that maybe that's not coincidence and maybe I should shut up about that because I have bills to pay?
You already know that if YOU aren't paying me, YOU can't really trust anything I say. And if I don't get PAID, at some point I will probably STOP doing this.
You could buy yourself some peace of mind and assurance that I will continue writing the things you want to see more of.
I already have a clear conscience. I know I have made a small clean spot and I am speaking my mind as honestly and accurately as I know how.
What I don't have is:
1. An adequate income.
2. Clear motivation to continue doing that when there's seemingly nothing in it for ME.