When I first began posting my work—mostly design and photography—online in the late 1990s, it felt like stepping into a quiet art gallery where people actually took the time to look before they started reacting.
Comments were few and far between, but when they popped up, they were almost always constructive…and positive.
Fast forward to 2025, and the art gallery has become a crowded arena where anyone with a smartphone and a stray thought can pop off about anything and everything.
Don’t get me wrong: most of the comments I get on my work—now mostly videos and writing—are still constructive and positive, but there’s been a noticeable uptick in that other kind—the kind that’s not there to help, but is aimed to harm.
As a creative, I’ve learned there’s a big difference between critique and cruelty.
Constructive criticism—even if it stings at first—comes from a place of wanting to make the work better. I welcome that. I learn from it. Sometimes it pushes me out of my comfort zone in ways I wouldn’t have chosen for myself.
Constructive criticism helps me grow and learn.
But destructive feedback? That’s a different animal entirely. Written by keyboard warriors wouldn’t recognize common sense if it sent them a friend request. They confuse “honesty” with negativity, and “opinion” with expertise.
Let me be very clear: Tearing down anyone’s work without offering anything useful isn’t edgy, it’s lazy. And frankly, it says more about the critic than the criticized.
For me, the mental health impact of destructive criticism can be mighty real.
Online haters may not throw literal “sticks and stones,” but their words can still fracture my creative spirit. Left unchecked, the comments feed self-doubt, erode momentum, and can lead to focusing on pleasing the comment section instead of honoring your creative vision.
In my experience, listening to assholes is the quickest way to a creative block.
So I do whatever I can to protect both my head and my heart. I only engage with the constructive—feedback that challenges me, teaches me, or sparks new ideas.
The rest? I block, delete, mute, report…and/or scroll on.
Not because I’m avoiding “the truth” or want to live in an echo chamber, but because my time and energy are better spent creating than wrestling in the mud with strangers on the internet who thrive on outrage.
The internet has made love and hate sit closer together than ever before.
One click showers you with praise. Another leaves you dodging digital daggers.
After nearly three decades of sharing my work online, I’ve learned this: you can choose who you listen to and who you tune out. So choose wisely.
Better, not bitter—that’s my goal. Always.
Keep calm and color on!
Clint 🌈✌️
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FOR YOUR (SUBSTACK) CONSIDERATION
Palangeau Park - Episode 19 ( PalCinema, Television, & Music)
On The Difficult Question Of Global LGBTQ+ Unity (Fabrice Houdart)
ON THIS DAY = AUGUST 11
BIRTHDAYS
1908 = Don Freeman = American author and illustrator
1913 = Angus Wilson = English novelist and short story writer 🌈
1913 = Paul Dupuis = Canadian actor
1920 = Mike Douglas = American singer and talk show host
1936 = Andre Dubus = American writer
1944 = Frederick W. Smith = American businessman and FedEx founder
1950 = Steve Wozniak = American computer programmer and Apple co-founder
1952 = Reid Blackburn = American photographer
1965 = Viola Davis = American actor
1968 = Anna Gunn = American actor
1968 = Charlie Sexton = American singer-songwriter
1974 = Chris Messina = American actor
1976 = Ben Gibbard = American singer-songwriter
1983 = Chris Hemsworth = Australian actor
1995 = Quinn = Canadian professional soccer player 🌈
EVENTS
1929 = Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
1934 = The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
1942 = Actor Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radios, and Wi-Fi.
1973 = American Graffiti is released in theaters.
1973 = At the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in The Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc hosts a house party widely considered to mark the birthplace of hip hop culture and music.
1991 = The Ren & Stimpy Show premieres on Nickelodeon.
1992 = The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, opens. At the time, it’s the largest shopping mall in the US.
1997 = The View premieres on ABC.
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY
“What is art if not a concentrated and impassioned effort to make something with the little we have, the little we see?”
Andre Dubus
“Talent is cheap. What matters is discipline.”
Andre Dubus
Such excellent advice, Clint. Digital boundaries are no less important than any other kind! Also, your content is a true delight, always 🥰. Also/also, happy birthday, Andre Dubus (I feel like I know him after reading Andre Jr's memoir, Townie)!!
Oh Clint, please, please don’t let the jerks and a-holes get to you. Ya gotta read ‘em because there is a remote chance they’ll say something worthwhile. But when it turns out they didn’t go on a never think about ‘em again, they are not worth your agony. Better yet, block them so they can’t hassle you again. I know it isn’t always easy and it isn’t fun to read the garbage, but when you rise above it, you’re the better person.