Doug, I think our interactions here which are both respectful and thoughtful thus far on medium’s platform would constitute a friendship. I have more than a few friends here on this platform and I definitely would consider you a friend here as well.

I appreciate your kind words and hope to maintain consistency with my messaging and quality of writing. I will internalize those kind words as confidence and as an example of our interdependence.

I want to get to the crux of your reply though about the label “parasites” categorically being thrown about under the guise of satire.

While readers (like you and I) read to satiate a thirst for knowledge, the ill-advised inference that everything written and thus read is providing some nourishment for the brain is absolutely a misnomer. A lot of this stuff has no nutritional value to that end.

So with that in mind, you are not a parasite. Your cerebral responses, in my opinion, are in fact engaging and positive, not parasitical. Satire holds the reader to reexamine what generally should be perceived as counterproductive while using tragic comedic humor mainly for applause and not further analysis. The expectation is that you see the irony or the humor in something negative without further analysis to it. In a sense “it goes without saying”.

However, it is important that we not consider that piece to accurately be viewed as satire — even if the author says it is or believes it is. He is trying to be funny by mocking certain readers and writers on medium, which is fine, and many may see themselves as the butt of his jokes but it should not be taken as an offense personally, because really it was written poorly and in poor taste.

In this day and era of Trumpism people (on both sides) confound and blur the lines of humor with meanness. In this aspect of socialization it is okay to be mean when using humor. The assumption there is that it is suppose to cancel each other out by appealing to his authority on the matter. You and I don’t find his humor or authority appealing.

The writing style of the piece you linked in your reply has a negatively derisive tone and the guise of satire is misleading when it is obviously used to provide cover for communicating unnecessary negativity. Usually satire is employed to critically highlight or call out negativity by using cynicism, humor or irony. But that piece is merely sardonic not satire. In essence he is mocking certain readers whose only intent in the exercise is to comprehend.

The poor taste of wordplay with using serious illnesses as metaphors for readers he dislikes is literarily deficient, obscene, and non-equivalent. An English teacher or professor would certainly demerit his work.

Most of us read with the intent to comprehend, while others (who are not like you and I) are simply skimming — hence the format used for that piece. I wouldn’t give it much thought since it wasn’t written with much thought.