a lot of people are taking this essay to heart.

my opinion is that there’s plenty of seats at the table and you don’t need an english/lit-related degree to call yourself a writer.

however, enshittification of social media platforms (including substack) due to monetization/like valuation is very real and it’s naive to think that $$$ doesn’t ultimately shift the kind of writing that gets shared here and i appreciate emily’s perspective on that. i don’t see her making individual call-outs as much as a general observation of the echo chambering, overproduction of “content,” among other issues. i read it less like “punching down” as one person called it and more like a “state of the union” address, a prompt to get us thinking of our own work.

some people are clamoring to defend themselves, to defend hypothetical would-be writers who are getting shut down by emily’s words. it’s all a little bizarre. listen, no one can tell us that we aren’t writers. but if we choose to call ourselves that, it also comes with the responsibility of reflecting on our own work and the value it brings to the world.