I like what you said about "according to their mythology" and I think it's so important to remember that we're buying and selling these cultural narratives, within which certain things have value and certain things are devalued, and it's so important to keep shifting and engaging with what those mythologies are. For me, that's why I just can't fully buy the "Just ignore them!" mentality. Like, I have never once chosen to read about Meghan Markle, let alone anyone else's opinions on her, and yet I happen to know way too much about her and what others think of her simply from being online.

At the same time, I certainly don't blame Meghan Markle for that. I don't blame any of the influencers of any kind or hold them personally accountable for this system. We're all caught in the same current, some of us bigger fish, some of us smaller fish, all of our sizes dependent on the context and what's happening in the current, so to speak. Everything about identity, about power, and about value is contextual.

There's a kind of implication, sure, if someone with privilege says they "deserved" their success, that others are "at fault" for not being successful in the same ways. And yet, I think we need to look at who exactly is doing that implying (is it us, the unworthy, casting that judgment upon ourselves? So often, despite our best efforts not to, it is).

I think it is as important to learn to stick your head above water as it is to change the course of the current. In fact, I think learning not to buy into it is how we turn the current faster.

I like engaging with your writing because I both completely agree and completely disagree with your viewpoints, and it's really nice to see one side of my views so perfectly reflected so I can debate myself on it in my own mind. Hope you don't mind the commentary, I'm enjoying reading your work :)