The Political Imbalance on Medium
A right-wing perspective
I recently joined Medium to take a break from fiction writing and to attempt some non-fiction essays and blog-style articles.
I quickly discovered there were many hot takes on contemporary global politics, opinions, and all sorts of pseudo-journalism. I like to read people's opinions on all different political topics; however, I quickly discovered most of these political takes are from a progressive or left-leaning angle.
I find the lack of balance quite concerning, which thankfully has been addressed a couple of times here.
Help, I’m drowning in all the anti-Trump articles
As a bit of a late preface, I don’t like to label myself as part of any political camp, as I think the left and right both offer advantages and disadvantages in their values. Putting your flag on a particular ideology and not considering its flaws is dangerous. Saying you support a particular political group and not being able to admit when it makes a bad decision is dangerous.
But for the sake of this article, and for many on Medium, I would be considered ‘right-wing’ even if I may not call myself that (centrist is more suitable). I understand many of the arguments of the right and believe there is some validity to them (as I do the left), even if their presentation may be crude, like a lot of political ideas.
As I scrolled through many of the posts Medium was offering me, I couldn’t help but notice a lot (A LOT) of political posts were critical of the president of the United States. Few of these articles on Trump were written in a positive light, the majority were negative. It was like a strange obsession for people.
Trump is a threat to democracy. Trump is paving the way for fascism. Trump is a representation of why America was never good. How MAGA culture and authoritarianism align. How the United States is literally a fascist state (not linking, not fond of doxing).
On and on… In fact, if you search the ‘politics’ topic on Medium, one of the top tags within politics is ‘Trump’.
I’m not even from the United States, and I feel like I know more about the government of this country than my own. On the other hand, because I’m not from the United States, I also don’t believe it is right for me to publish or write articles in defense of Trump, because I do not live under his government, so I can’t fully understand it. I’m only an outsider looking in after all.
But one thing I do know: the United States is most certainly not an authoritarian fascist dictatorial state straight out of “1939.” Having friends from (and having visited myself) authoritarian nations that, for example, , I understand what a single-party authoritarian state is.
After wading through many of these anti-Trump articles, my hopes were fading for a marketplace of ideas on varied political viewpoints, or at least, some interesting articles on the politics of other cultures from countries outside the Western sphere.
Feasting on the ego
Indeed, as of writing, there are few (if any) right-wing publications I could find. However, there are a few left-wing only publications that are running strong and consistently. But a lot of these places are echo chambers and lack dimension for a proper discussion. I found that comments in these political articles and publications were becoming unsurprising and boring. I am not fond of doxing, but classics included:
“The left is right because the right is wrong!”
And an excellent:
“The right has always been, still is, and always will be, immoral, unethical and just plain wrong.”
Then there are the people who bestow on themselves the title of author, artist, or writer, but somehow can’t contain themselves from letting their disgust unravel with the eloquent ‘orange man’ phrase now and then.
I don’t really know where to go with that kind of rhetoric, either in how to engage with it in a manner that’s going to be productive or having confidence that I’ll be met in good faith.
After a while, I could assume correctly what the comments or narrative on many of the articles were going to be, before I even got to the bottom of the page.
A fair culmination of the sentiment of this all, in response to why there aren’t any right-wing writers on Medium, was pitched as such (excuse me while I put on my monocle and light my pipe before I write this):
Because Medium is a platform that attracts a highly intellectual audience, conservative ideas are unable to be defended against logic and rational thinking, therefore, you won’t find them here.
(Side note: I admit there is actually a weird truth to this as ultra-nationalists are more active on Substack, some of whom migrated there after getting banned on X!).
This kind of pompous, self-righteous attitude makes it unappealing for people like me to want to engage in this landscape on political topics at greater depth.
So, where’s the right?
In my time on Medium, as I mentioned, I have seen a few right-wing political articles. The more prominent articles I did find got shredded in the comment section, which seemed to discourage the writer from wanting to engage further on the topic.
Out of further curiosity, I searched if there are any right-wing publication groups on Medium. Some existed, but they were mostly abandoned. Anything Medium was providing in the search results that fell under ‘right-wing’ and current was actually anti right-wing content.
Right-wing blogs and publication sites do exist, like they do for any political idea. So if I desired, I could quite happily submit my work to those platforms instead of Medium, if I wanted to write an article from a right-wing lens. But I am against contributing to an echo-chamber, because this only stokes more division. On the other hand, to provide contrarian political takes in an unbalanced place like Medium is also not exactly a wise idea either — I don’t wish to paint a target on my back any further than what I’m doing now with an article like this.
But Medium is not a left-wing political platform, it’s a marketplace of ideas. Though in this sphere, it’s currently not.
I’m hoping this will change. And I’m even encouraged by Medium standing on their commitment to having a diverse range of writers and content on their platform.
So with this in mind, the question is, in light of the current landscape, why would I want to spend my time here engaging in politics at all?
