Denton replied to my question (as I quoted already). MizJenkins delivers the only possible response:
Could it be too much? For some people, yes. But we don’t need to please everybody. Just our readers.
Since we’re sharing allow me to remind you that not all your readers are White. Let that be noted. Maybe post a sign on the wall there at headquarters or something? Or maybe get some more diversity on your staff. Wouldn’t hurt.
For one thing I think the popular uprising that Edna is referring to is linked to a larger social demographic shift in this country, i.e., straight White men aren’t necessarily going to be in charge anymore. Not that this hacker stunt had anything directly to do with a race/gender/class/culture war but there is one a’brewin’ that incorporates all those elements. So if your aim is to command the cavalry at the forefront of some journalistic counter-culture revolution and to bait/jab at the Establishment, then you might better consider the extent to which you and your writers are the Establishment and which way you’re aiming your lances.
There’s a difference between taking intelligent aim at overbroad and out-of-touch standards of “politcal correctness” and carelessly heaping more ignorant shit on top of people who already get shit by the status quo because you yourselves are out-of-touch.
You can’t on the empower a “peasant” revolution on the one hand (which you are doing and I echo Edna’s applause) and antagonize the peasantry with the other. And it seems to me that the audience you’re trying to “please” is more multi-dimensional than your writers are occasionally capable of comprehending or connecting with.
Granted, it’s a unwieldy task and you can’t please all the people all the time. But if you’re going to harness this new revolutionary energy rather than being consumed by it I think you guys would do well to avoid alienating or enraging the swelling ranks of youth/women/minorities who comprise the rising tide.
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