Really, people don’t care about you.
Recently, I was teaching a graduate class and realised that only a few people knew about some of the interests I defend.
It confirmed what I had long believed. The public does not care about your cause/interest.
When you spend your time absorbed 24/7/365 on one issue it is likely you think most people are doing the same. If you are working with a group of people doing the same, your self-belief is re-confirmed.
If you just read newspapers and blog posts about your issue, your self-validation of the attack is exacerbated.
They only problem is that it is likely the public don’t care about your issue.
Until you understand this, you will waste a lot of time, money, and effort chasing ghosts. The public doesn’t care.
No matter what you do, no matter how many tracts you write or read, the matter how many meetings you hold, the public doesn’t care.
Individuals may care. Small groups may care. The public doesn’t.
You can create the appearance of ‘public interest’. It is just a pretence.
Just because a small group of people are obsessed about your issue means nothing more than that.
I find a few obscure things interesting, including comitology and fisheries policy. I don’t pretend to myself that these are mainstream issues. Even if I have got fish stories into the Daily Mail, I don’t believe the public care about the issue.
It only matters when the government take up the issue. If they believe it is the ‘will of the people’ to act, it does not mean anything.
If the issue is co-opted by a small policy and political elite, you have an issue. When they take it up, policy, legislative and financial consequences will follow.
Journals of record like the Economist or the National Geographic are read by the policy elite. They are not read by the mainstream public. Issues taken up there have influence.
Today, clever social media algorithms can measure if people really are interested. Most of the time, you will find hardly anyone cares about your issue.