Today is TOC’s eighteenth anniversary.
Here’s the 1st anniversary post.
February 19th, 2006 is The Other Club’s first anniversary.
145,000 words and 7,000 unique visitors later (some of whom have even returned) it has been enjoyable and intermittently cathartic. I’ve followed no template. I’ve written about what struck me as funny, or more often outrageous, on a given day. There is a necessity to this. I haven’t got a lot of time to devote here, so the writing needs to come relatively easily. I’m sure this is common to most part-time bloggers.
A plurality of the posts have involved free speech issues – ranging from the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance debacle through American Feminist attempts to suppress thought. I’ve touched on American corporations’ complicity in Internet censorship and extensively discussed the cartoon-jihad.
There’s been quite a bit about Canada’s political process and some comment on the Supreme Court and the meaning of the Constitution. There has been more than a little criticism of the Bush administration, especially on economics. The UN has been mentioned unfavorably.
Finally, there have been many posts attempting to call attention to partisan opportunism where loyal opposition was called for, especially regarding the War against Islamofascism.
Mostly, I write this blog because I like to write and I think I occasionally have something interesting to say. I really appreciate feedback and I pay attention to it. Comments and email are encouraging. I thank those who have visited, and I especially thank those who visit regularly.
I have come to know a few other bloggers via comments and email and for that I am also grateful. Several have seen fit to compliment this blog by linking to what I have written. Thank you.
So, a toast to The Other Club – Happy Anniversary!
That first anniversary post’s small optimism about the internet’s effect on Western culture now looks, shall we charitably say… naive.
Let me repeat this bit: “American corporations’ complicity in Internet censorship”
I had no idea about the real shit coming. But I should have.
Eighteen years and a million TOC words later, our institutions have turned en masse on free speech.
Supreme Court justices are unable to define the word “woman.”
Our armed forces have DIE departments, where those letters stand for diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Skin color is more important than character content.
Any objection to these dogmas may entail life altering shaming. We’re all subject to scarlet lettering by the neo-puritans.
I have long term, intelligent friends making ad hominem attacks over differences of opinion spurred by “woke” issues that didn’t exist in 2005. I’m increasingly battle weary from the downward spiral.
There are 169 draft posts here I can’t seem to finish, and the link below has been hanging around in a Tab on my browser for awhile. I Tweeted it (I joined Twitter in support of Musk’s attempt to restore a semblance of free speech.) – @hershblogger.
I had also thought to comment on it here. I fear that that would make 170 drafts.
So. I’m just recommending this link, without comment beyond, “This is not the future I imagined.”
Fittingly, it’s about free speech.
Jonathan Turley: “Free Speech for Whom?”: Former Twitter Executive Makes Chilling Admission on the “Nuanced” Standard Used For Censorship.