Why I'm Quitting the Common Denominator

and why you'll soon be joining the revolution

One can only write about politics and the ‘culture’ for so long.

When I started this newsletter, I called it the Common Denominator because I had lofty ideas about the muscular power of my writing.

As if I could write about the government in a way that would inspire my readers to take up arms against their overlords and name me their leader. If I’m one hundred percent honest with myself, that was probably the most idyllic version of what I dreamed Substack would bring me — revolution and fame. So, basically Ché Guevara without the hammer and sickle.

Somebody put me on a t-shirt.

Alas, that was never going to be the case. I mean, how could anything with the word ‘common’ in the title radicalize anyone? (don’t bother me with Thomas Payne references, ok?)

I had a vision of uniting opposing viewpoints into a shared understanding of love and cooperation that would bring us all a little closer to enlightenment. But I’m no bodhisattva, I’m just as deranged as everyone else, thinking I’ve got the answers to the world’s biggest, most complex problems. (Obviously, I still think that is the case, but I haven’t been as effective as I would have desired in that self-promotion.)

So, that’s why I’m quitting the Common Denominator. Not only have I grown to hate the name and all of its pretension, but I’m not writing for that purpose anymore.

Artists should make no bones about what they’re doing and for whom they’re doing it. My essays aren’t donations to the public conscience. Of course not, they’re desperate cries for attention and praise — of which I’ve gotten far too little, by the way.

Every good artist is an egomaniacal tyrant hellbent on getting society to listen to them by shouting from the rooftops until either someone yells at them to get down or says, ‘you know what, they’ve got a point.’ The Beatles literally did this in their famous rooftop concert during the recording of Abbey Road and Let It Be.

So, the Common Denominator will have a new title in the near future, and I’m working on a series I’m excited about. I’ll still write about politics and the godforsaken ‘culture,’ but there will be more poems, more jokes, and probably more posts like this one.

Next week, regardless of whether this newsletter will have undergone a name change, will feature the first installment of a series I’m working on titled Before the Flood: Contempt and Paranoia in the South’s Most Liberal City.

So, stick around. It’s gonna be fun.

To a better next week,

Cheers,

~FDA