The essay that was previously posted here can now be found at Quillette.
I removed it under agreement with Quillette, which
wanted to repost it and wanted exclusive rights to the text. After being
assured that I would have approval over their final copy, I agreed to the
arrangement.
In the week since it was reposted, I have had my motives
questioned, both in private messages and on social media. I have been called a
“Nazi” for being associated with that outlet, or at least have been told that
other people would or had thought I am a Nazi, which strikes me as a cowardly
way of saying the same thing.
I want to address the altogether mundane reasons why a
freelancer might accept payment for a piece of writing here. I also want to
stress that I consider my statements here to be an unfortunate trifling in minutiae.
1. Quillette asked to repost it and didn't change anything
other than some edits for clarity with my approval, which only improved the
essay. So if anything, it's "my politics," not "theirs."
2. The essay as it was, on my rarely used blog, had reached
critical mass. Few people were likely to see it who hadn't already, which is
maybe fine, but when they offered to put it on front of another audience, why
say no?
3. Before putting it on my blog, I offered the essay to a
fairly well known new music publication (not the Wire, for whom I was reviewing
the festival). They replied that they don't want a response to the incident
written by a white male—never mind that I was actually there. Tw
4. Covering a music festival is rarely a break-even affair;
Let's not speak of actually making money for my efforts. I knew I would lose
money covering the Obey Festival, but I thought it would be a nice trip for my
wife and myself. The festival did buy me a plane ticket (1) and gave my wife
and I tickets to all of the concerts. There were a couple of other “perks”
offered which didn’t materialize. What Quillette paid me more or less covered the
unanticipated expenses while we were in Halifax.
5. While Quillette might be a conservative outlet, it isn’t
exclusively so. According to a story in Politico, "It’s not as though [founding editor Claire] Lehmann
wants an echo chamber, either. 'I want to give more of a platform for people on
the left who are in support of liberal values,' she says.”
After the attacks on composer Mary Jane Leach outlined in my
essay (which can still be found at the link above) by the lefties of Halifax, I
certainly feel no allegiance to them. Likewise, I feel no allegiance to people
on the left who want to call me a “Nazi” (for God’s sake!) because of articles
that might appear on the same site as my own writing.
Frankly, I'm getting tired of this whole affair.
