[at_a_remove]

Interesting, I came to post the same thing.

It's a shame, semi-permanent communication now represents an attack surface for randos hoping for their free-floating rage to find a surface upon which it might condense. In a sense, this provides little benefit to you except as an outlet and perhaps as a way to exercise writing skills, learning about a blogging platform, perhaps SEO (or not!), and so forth, but now the possible benefits are outweighed by the potential negatives.

The future looks like a lot of people performing the "grey rock" method. It's a pity, but that's the system as it punishes and rewards today.

[coldpie]

They make a lot of headlines, but you really have to say something extremely boneheaded for anyone to care about your opinions enough to do something about it. Stick to topics you're knowledgeable about (this is how you avoid saying boneheaded things), and generally stay positive and constructive, and you won't have any trouble. The fear you're feeling is wildly out of whack with reality.

[at_a_remove]

Or you can be some random Mexican guy fired for making an OK sign with your hand, by accident.

Because that is now the white power sign. That's reality now.

[coldpie]

That doesn't seem very relevant to the topic of creating a personal blog.

[at_a_remove]

In the sense that I was discussing, you know, just existing and expressing yourself at a bare minimum, and suddenly having strangers swoop in to get you cancelled, it's relevant enough to me.

My point is very simple, and it goes for blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or bumper stickers on your truck: there's a lot of people out there who looking for the barest thing to fixate upon to get you in trouble, right down to a simple knuckle-crack.

[coldpie]

Yeah what I'm saying is that doesn't really happen in the real world, unless you go invite controversy by discussing controversial topics, especially if you aren't an expert on those topics. And even then it's honestly pretty rare and there's even whole industries dedicated to supporting people who are purposefully provocative.

I'll be blunt: I think it's very unlikely that your opinions on <insert current controversial topic> are going to revolutionize the status of the debate on that topic. The world has nothing to gain by you writing about that topic, and as you say, there's a chance you have something to lose. So just don't write about that. My advice if you want to maintain a blog is to write about something you care about and know about.

You can view my personal blog if you like, it's in my profile. I write about woodworking and video games and gardening. No one has tried to destroy my life for my experiences with growing grapevines. Sure, if I went off on a rant about <insert controversial topic> or wrote a bunch of hyper-negative invective about <insert group of people>, yeah that might come back to bite me. So I don't.

No one's going to come after you for a personal blog about playing guitar or whatever. Stay positive. Stay constructive. Stick to what you know. Don't invite controversy. You'll be fine, and maybe you'll even create something that touches someone else in a positive way.

[at_a_remove]

Except a guy cracking his knuckles got fired, in the real world, so when you say that it doesn't happen, I know that is wrong. We both know it is wrong. I shall now post the link so you can stop saying "that doesn't happen."

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...

There. It happened. In the real world. So cracking your knuckles is there under "inviting controversy."

[throwawaysea]

I think the biggest issue is that those who are most moderate, most interested in nuance, and the most correct are most likely to be grey rocks. True believers who are committed to their views are most likely to be outspoken, since they value that belief above other considerations. In short, we will breed a society dictated by extremes.