This Isn’t How Consent Works, Medium

“It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission”

Screenshot from my email

It’s been a while since I wrote on Medium. But when I received the above email I just had to dust off my keyboard and type some words of righteous anger.

One of the main reasons I stopped writing here was the oversaturation of ‘make money online’ types, who had descended like a plague of locusts upon the site, greedily shilling their (heavily discounted!) courses.

Luckily, whenever the urge to repeatedly bash my head into a hard object came upon me, I could always close the tab, go outside and touch some grass, or even photograph some birds.

So I did. And I haven’t returned for almost a year, save for a few brief glances at the homepage.

I thought I was safe.

I thought they couldn’t hurt me as long as I didn’t look into the mirror and say “conman, conman, conman” three times.

Yet, as someone in Jurassic Park once said (probably), grift finds a way.

Hence the alarming email I received from Medium, telling me someone had added me to their email list, and that I could always unsubscribe if I didn’t want it.

Names have been withheld to protect the guilty. And to be fair, Medium has apparently made it possible, so why bother with that pesky question of consent?

Well, I didn’t think that was how it worked.

Le Creuset doesn’t spam my inbox with casserole pots, because I’ve never told them I want emails about casserole pots. I’ve never even bought a casserole pot and forgotten to untick a box suggesting I’d like future emails about casserole pots.*

*Just an example, in case anyone from Le Creuset is reading. I’ve never even been on your website. You make some lovely pots, though.

Regardless of how sneakily some companies try to get you on their subscription list, I thought you always had to willingly give your email address. But Medium has allowed one of its users to skip that important step.

Before you victim blame me, know that I’ve never read one of this user’s posts. I’ve never seen their profile before that email. I didn’t even wear a really short…