I was talking with a friend, about a mutual acquaintance who the friend of our good friend (did you understand that sentence?).

I don’t like this acquaintance. Never have. Just something about him.

He writes for blogs in a recognizable style of pseudo-ironic mockery. His writing, like much in the genre, can be funny.

But I was trying to articulate why that wasn’t enough. It’s not enough to mock the silliest and most mock-able aspects of modern life (usually politics) when it’s not combined with research and and investigative reporting of some kind.

Then my friend summed it up:

It’s writing that only adds its own verbiage to existing knowledge.

Quite possibly I have been guilty of that. Actually, I can say for certain that I have been. But it’s also becoming a problem, I think. I’m not talking about a Facebook post or meme, but writing that theoretically purports to be more – to be an essay, a polemic, an article.

Anyway. That’s my rant for today.