#46: You've got something they'll *never* have
Hi, Reader.
There’s a particular flavor of meme going around these days about how stupid this moment in American history is, how insulting it is to the psyche that the men taking over our country are a bunch of dusty incels in rumpled suits.
We were hoping it would look cool, at least — shiny, sleek, impenetrable, efficient, cold. Like a proper evil overlord, says one such meme.
Others say things like, “I knew there’d be a backlash to #MeToo, to diversity and equity, to our first Black president… I just didn’t know it would be so. fucking. stupid.”
These memes fall squarely in the “it’s funny because it’s true” category — they’re not really funny in their own right, even though Trump and his dumbass lackeys and knee-benders are so desperately easy to make fun of — but they don’t make me laugh.
Because of course these are the guys.
The pervy restaurant owner. The co-founder and his tearful man-tantrums. The landlord who only wants to talk to your husband from now on.
We’ve ALL been in situations where we’re smarter than the men around us, and the men know it. And yet they’re still able to silence us, interrupt us, dismiss our ideas, and fire us for not being “professional” (which is code for, “my emotional power grabs don’t seem to be working on you, goodbye”).
I’ve written for a lot of guys like this, and they never get it. Because their primary motivation is not to make something — it’s to take something.
Ten years into my career as a copywriter, and I’m finally able to articulate this:
Good writing is a gift you give to your reader. IF that writing happens to be about the work you do, and IF that work holds genuine potential to help your reader in some way, and IF your reader WANTS to hear about all that —
Then that, my friend, is the only thing you really need in order to be your own best copywriter.
It’s called empathy. And if you have it, and the imagination it requires, then everything else about good writing can be learned.
Fascists and the bajillionaires who suck their you-know-whats do not have this. They lack empathy, which really feels like stating the obvious given all those ICE raids and mass deportations, but they also lack imagination.
And you can’t be a good writer without imagination.
If you were a billionaire, I used to think, why wouldn’t you just wipe out the entire nation’s student loan debt? Or figure out a way for people to have access to healthcare?
Everyone would LOVE you. They’d vote for you; they’d follow you; they’d exalt and worship you; you’d have their loyalty forever. Isn’t that the whole point of being a megalomaniac??
Ah, but no. They don’t want to be loved or worshipped, or if they did at one time, those days are over. All they want now is more money and more power and moremoremore; it’s all they’re capable of wanting anymore.
If they cared about the welfare of others — if they saw other people as human beings — they wouldn’t have become billionaires in the first place, because to become a billionaire requires you to dehumanize the people from whom you extract. Labor, land, time, tax dollars, rights.
Their brains are broken, y’all. They actually think THEY are the Jedis in this situation. The Neos, the Hobbits, the ones on the side of goodness and love and freedom.
And because they can’t (or won’t) imagine the human condition in all its feelings and desires and contradictions and spectrums and diversity and beauty, they’ll never be able to create art that moves people. Or has a soul. Or changes someone’s perspective. Or moves you to tears. Or inspires you.
A fascist is not only incapable of creating such art; they’re incapable of even seeing it. They lack discernment. They wouldn’t know a Van Gogh from a mass-produced Happy Meal toy.
They’ll never be able to create art that is any good — not in any of the ways that matter.
But you can, Reader.
Because you have something they do not. You still have your imagination. You still have your empathy. You still have your capacity to cultivate joy.
The thing that makes it so hard to watch the news or scroll through Instagram these days is the same thing that makes you capable of creating good art.
And we need you to hang onto that shit. Nurture it. Deepen it. Let 'er rip.
In a few weeks, registration opens for the 2026 cohort of The Craft, a 10-week writing course that will teach you to write like the creator (and human) you actually are. Because AI can be a tool for good, but not if it's in the hands of the fascists, and, the longer this dystopia drags on, your ability to communicate with others on in a real, meaningful way is only going to become more precious.
Working through examples from everywhere — marketing emails, film history, fiction, and more — you'll learn to wield the tools of the craft so your reader feels seen and understood (and mayyybe even enjoys what you have to say).
You'll learn to read your own work with a critical eye and how to handle it when something's not landing. And you'll write and work with other business owners (aka humans!) who are interested in making things instead of taking them.
Registration opens October 24th. Until then I’ll just be over here imagining, empathizing, and figuring out how to make a salient point about all of this that ALSO allows me to discuss the weirdness of celebrity veneers.
Could a fascist do that??