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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47934
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47934
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

As it stands now, your question seems to boil down to: how can I write a story that no one will criticize? The answer to that is, don't publish it. If you publish it, with any degree of success, someone will criticize it. The more successful you are, the more people will criticize it and the more vicious their criticism will be.

It is unfortunately true today that we are in one of those recurrent periods of history where all works of art are subject to ideological purity tests.

All ideologies are lies. They warp the truth to advantage one party or another. This is why the proponents of ideologies prefer to engage in vicious personal attacks rather than reasoned argument. If they had an argument they would make it. Because they don't have an argument they can only attack. If you write a book that attempts to be truthful, you will offend, and be attacked by, the partisans of one ideology or another. That's the gig.

Of course, ideology is not the only source of lies. Fantasies are lies as well. Pornography is a lie. Romance novels are lies. The hard man soldier stories are lies. They are stories of how we would prefer to be, not how we are. They are stories of how we would prefer others to be, not how they are.

When fantasy meets idology, things can get particularly ugly. The ideologues smell blood in the water because they know they are attacking a lie, and the lie has a harder time defending itself.

There is a certain degree of protection to be found in disappearing into a particular ideological camp or a particular fantasy community and never sticking your literary head out where the other ideologues can see you.

Or you can attempt to tell the truth and be attacked from all sides. Like I said, that's the gig.

EDIT: On this subject from today's LitHub: [https://lithub.com/the-communist-plot-to-assassinate-george-orwell/](https://lithub.com/the-communist-plot-to-assassinate-george-orwell/)

Original score: 3