Well, ol' Matt here ain't much for all that thar fancy book larnin'.

[matt_zimmer]

They had a poll on Daily Kos in the community diaries asking about the site readers' level of education. I found the results a bit appalling and annoying.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/09/29/2273637/-Whats-(Y)Our-Level-of-Formal-Education-With-Poll,-Naturally

According to the poll of Kos readers, 85% of that blog's readership has a bachelor's, graduate, or professional degree from college.

It explained a LOT to me, and sort of pissed me off at the same time. It explained why so many people on that site are such fucking snobs when it comes to popular culture. That bit always drove me nuts because there are many issues like rights for writers and actors, liberals could wind up on the popular right side of (most people actually LIKE TV and movies) but every time I wrote a diary about the subject at least a dozen people told me they don't watch TV and indulge in that sort of mindless dreck. And those self-same liberals will be heard in other threads shaming the rest of us for not relating to actual issues the middle-class actually care about. Because actual real-world people don't actually care about movies and TV shows. Obviously. Whoever heard of such a thing?

85%. Shit. Don't ever believe Daily Kos is NOT an outlier in its beliefs. And I agree with most of them! But that blog's readership is NOT the fucking 99%, and after seeing that poll, I will never treat them like that again.

Here is some information about Matt Zimmer you probably do not know. I never went to college. I barely graduated high school and earned my degree with some after-the-fact tutoring because I did so poorly in school (mostly due to behavioral and mental health issues). When I was in school, although I was intelligent I always barely passed my classes. Why? Because I literally NEVER did homework. I take solace in the fact that I got solid C-'s all the time despite doing the ONE thing everybody else HAD to do to make pass grades at all. School was never my thing.

Is it weird for a writer to admit this? Considering how much shit I talk about professional writers who have clearly gone to workshops and studied the craft in the way I never did, maybe the proper response is "How dare you, Matt?"

I'm not going to bullshit anybody and say that I'm a self-taught writer. But maybe it's the fact that I never had teachers who insisted to me the right and proper way to tell a story, might be the actual reason I came to a different conclusion about that than the rest of the writers of popular culture did. And it might be the single reason Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse is as messy, genre-busting, meta, earnest, and singularly unique as it is.

Nana has said Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse is unlike any comic he's ever read. I think it's very sweet he thinks that, and it's amazing, but honestly, my perspective is, if it WERE like every other piece of fiction, I wouldn't bother telling it. I wouldn't need to. I'd feel satisfied with what Hollywood is churning out, and it would never occur to me to do my own take on something everybody else is already doing. I love movies and TV already. I wouldn't bother.

I won't lie to you and say writing isn't fun, or that I find writing hard. But it IS time-consuming and a bit of a pain in the ass at times. And the only reason I really do it is because I DO believe I am filling a hole in fiction that nobody else is. For every other writer who does NOT feel the same way about their own work, more power to you, but I only do what I do because I hate TV and comics so much. If I loved them there would be no need for Gilda And Meek to still exist.

But I am untrained. I am uneducated. I am unlearned. I am professionally inexperienced. And yet I'll put my work, spelling mistakes and all (remember, in The Un-Iverse, the typos are actually canon) against every single season of cliched predictable Arrowverse claptrap all done by writers with formal training, education, and who clearly paid their industry dues.

And that's not even a question.

So, no, I am not an intellectual writer. As flowery and wonderful as my prose often is, it's not due to either training or education. It's that loudmouth fucking muse again. I just channel the story. At this point I don't write it anymore and I probably haven't for years.

One last thing about me being an uneducated, while male with strong opinions. The fact that I am SUCH a staunch Democrat, and reject the toxicity of the Republican Party, DESPITE me having a not-so-refined background, upbringing, and education is why I refuse to forgive Trump voters. This shit is not as hard as Democratic voter outreach would have you believe. Economic Anxiety My Ass. The truth is it doesn't take a formal education to see through the repulsiveness that is Donald Trump. It takes a speck of human decency. I don't need a college degree for that, and neither do any of Trump's shitty uneducated supporters. I've told Candice, this is NOT a political disagreement for me. It's a moral one. And me not having an especially educated or privileged upbringing means I understand this reality more than many well-meaning educated Democrats, who believe Trump voters have been misled and brainwashed, and are good people deep down.

They are not. This is not hard. It does not take a Master's degree to look as a guy with a whiny nasally voice, tiny hands, a repulsive face with lips that look like a puckered anus, who wears women's make-up and think this is the OPPOSITE of a person projecting strength. It's weird some liberals believe "misled" Trump voters are due that cover. Take it from a white dude who barely graduated high school, who grew up in the extremely racist state of Massachusetts. This shit is actually not so hard for actual grown-ups and decent people. This is not the actual ordeal everyone is insisting it is.

Comments

[jasonderoga86]

First off, Matt, I don't judge anyone on how much education they have. After working with amazing disabled participants at my job for two years (hoping to go back in early 2025, I need this year to heal and spend some well-deserved time with other friends and loved ones), I've learned to appreciate those who never had a formal education. And as for me, college was the most difficult part of my education. I was never a fan of school; so many of my teachers would rail on Mom and Dad about how my head was always in the clouds, and how I was drawing or sketching every minute of every class. And I wasn't keen on going to college; like many other stereotypical kids my age, I went because I thought my parents wanted me to get a degree so I could get a job and make lots of money, have a family, etc. I graduated in 2005, but because of some very real soul-searching and no clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life -- and then getting my first job in 2007 while also working with Alterna Comics when they published Lil' Hero Artists #1 -- things eventually spiraled out of control. I didn't graduate until June of 2020; I quit the university I was accepted at because the work was so damn hard, the books so expensive, some of the instructors were straight-up assholes, and I had no idea why I was really there. Then I started peeking around community colleges and having the same problems. Eventually I got my feet on the ground in early 2019 and finally got the hang of things, especially with my Sociology class, which played a big role in me landing my last job. But I still have to deal with the fact that I am very much disabled, with major bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression. Even my collaborator, Nick, has depression, and as we worked on Lil' Hero Artists he made clear his support and his relatability to my struggles. Throughout all this, I gained such a high respect for the entire disabled community; some of my job's clients are capable of things I can only dream of doing, such as being self-employed and running a successful business. I see you as someone who IS smart, who IS morally sound, and who CAN put two and two together without second-guessing yourself. That speaks VOLUMES compared to so many others in this country who simply don't give a shit. All of my job's clients can easily prove they're smarter than any dunce-capped Trump supporter.

I agree with you 100% about Trump and this group of hatemongers that worship and fawn over him. It goes back to that Twitter video you linked us to on Daily Kos; these are people with nothing but hatred in their hearts. They're telling me that "Trump is rough and a bit dark, but I really trust him, and we need a strong leader" or "Well, Trump isn't a Christian, but I like his policies better than Harris, so I'll take one more chance and hope for the best"? I'm sorry, but no. I don't even care if they have a PhD. The question I never hear from the American news media is, "Does Trump make you feel safe, especially if you're not White? Do you believe that Trump won't throw you under the bus at any time, like he's done with the entire Republican Party? Are you okay with Trump having the police kill your friends without a trial because he thought they were illegal aliens? Are you okay with Trump letting you and your whole family die from another pandemic, just like he did with Covid? And are you okay with Trump forcing your 3-month-old daughter to carry her own child to term at the risk of a fatal miscarriage?"

They don't ask that question, because they know what they'd be implying; that NOBODY'S safe in an America led by Trump. The fucker's talking about ending wars when he has no clue how to stop them. He brags about people getting butchered by the cops in a blood-soaked nightmare in such vague terms that he doesn't even realize he's putting a significant portion of his own base in mortal danger. But the news media bought into the bullshit that asking such questions is threatening Trump's life, so they shut up while Trump continues to say things that will get people killed, including his base. Not to mention a lot of his supporters chose to die from Covid rather than take Dr. Fauci's advice.

The election is indeed a moral one, because Trump isn't even running as a presidential candidate this time. He's running as a convicted felon and federal fugitive to save his own ass from judgment. And now that the ruse is up and he hasn't accomplished jack-shit, the only thing he can do now is rile up what's left of his base and pray for another violent riot, and that'll be swiftly stopped by the National Guard and Co. -- because someone ELSE is Commander-in-chief now, and he most CERTAINTLY WON'T abandon his duty. Afterwards, I'm hoping that any and all politicians who swore loyalty (again) to Trump will also be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and then removed from their offices for betraying the country a second time before being sent to prison. That is unforgivable, and they have to pay for it with their jobs.

[matt_zimmer]

Good points, Nana. Thank you.

[classicswim]

The frustration that comes with TV being generalized and put down is something I relate to so very hard. Like you wouldn’t believe.

I don’t regret not going to college. The job market right now is so heinous that you can barely get in on jobs you’ve been qualified to do for years. No telling how worse off I’d be if I couldn’t find decent work with an expensive imaginary certificate saying I’m accomplished.

Anyone who claims themself as an intellectual writer probably isn’t an intellectual writer. And it seems very daft for anyone to play that card and then push off entire art mediums that exceed their own work by miles.

[matt_zimmer]

It's something that pisses me off so much. I'm glad I'm not the only smart person on Dreamwidth who didn't go to college.

[jasonderoga86]

I agree with ClassicSwim on the job market and "college cred"; I have read stories where a White guy with a criminal history was hired for a job over a Black guy with a bachelor's and NO criminal history. And now with the Supreme Court having fucked affirmative action over, that's been the narrative for a LOT of BIPOCs looking for work.

"Equal Opportunity Employment", huh? Shut THAT shit up. My own Mom can attest to that.

[matt_zimmer]

Yup.