From Glenn Greenwald, via Ed Brayton of Dispatches who says it’s true for him as well:
I always tell people who want to start blogs, it’s a great way to have an outlet. I don’t think I’d be able to pay attention to political issues if I didn’t have the outlet of my blog, like if I just had to keep all that anger and frustration inside and read about lies and have no means of addressing them and exposing them. It’s a healthy way, ultimately, to expunge these negative emotions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the case for everyone who blogs about politics. It certainly is for me when I write about politics. But blogging is also about pointing to things in the world that are cool or uplifting or fascinating and saying “Hey, this is cool/uplifting/fascinating, check it out.” I suspect that it’s hard to maintain sanity without having a least a little bit of the latter to go along with the former. Some people only point out the good stuff, the cute stuff, the funny stuff, and that’s okay too. But others of us have to, as Greenwald says, expunge the negative emotions. Insofar as Greenwald does it he’s helping the world by criticizing things that very much need to be criticized, so I’m grateful he has those emotions to expunge. Ed, too. For me it might be a little more about personal therapy. 😉
When people ask me why I write, I respond that it's cheaper than a shrink.