It’s Time to Take This Thing to the Next Level

Are you ready to take the leap?

So….I guess it’s about time we have a serious talk. We’ve been together nearly two years at this point, and I’m really happy with the way things have been going. A little while ago, you pulled me back from a dark place and I really appreciate it. That’s why I think it’s time to really get serious about what we’ve got going on here.

I got to thinking about writing this after reading SCA’s boycott comment, which I encourage everyone to read in full at the link but tried to trim to its core to save space:

How many readers are there, across all these Substacks? Would no one at all in the evil slimy realms of SwampLand be a little wee bit concerned if every single one of We the Kvetchers pledged to and stuck to a boycott of [pick your entity]? And really I did wonder why Taibbi et al ain't thinking this up too.

First of all, I want to say up front that I’m all for some sort of economic ‘reminder’ of our power. Boycotts have very famously tanked Bud Light and Disney recently, and can obviously be incredibly effective:

Prices up 50%, stock down 50%!

Thousands of us banding together in order to send a message to some vile corporation sounds great to me — though spending these days in a terrifying-yet-satisfying state of Substacking, I can’t boycott much besides my landlord. (Which is NOT recommended!) That said, there are a lot of ways to support a movement — including simply making people aware of it — so if this is something we do, I’ll get behind it 100% and offer my full-throated support. We can begin the plan in the comments right here!

But on the other hand….I feel like we can’t be negative all the time — even if just for our own sanity. Standing against an evil company feels good, but not as good as standing with a good community.

Every now and then I let it slip that I’m actually quite optimistic. Not about Washington DC or the idiots making the rules there, but about the ability of humans to band together and improve their own lives. Human cooperation is the most powerful force on the planet, and cooperation with good humans is one of the most satisfying feelings in life!

Goooooo team!

One of my friends sometimes asks how I can handle doing this (vague gesturing at the ‘Stack), because the topics I deal with here are so often negative. Before I answer that question, I want to post this (slightly edited for space) excerpt from an article I wrote last year:

This Is Not A Drill - Part 2

Think back to those early days when you caught on to the lies and the lying liars who were telling them. I’ll relay my own story, which I’m betting sounds an awful like many of yours.

Late March, 2020. Jay Inslee has just announced the first two week lockdown. I’m poring over covid data from everywhere that’s publishing it. But what I’m finding isn’t matching up AT ALL with what I’m seeing from the media. With a few notable exceptions, the people I know aren’t interested in listening OR discussing the need for a lockdown.

Lockdowns have extraordinary costs — and I’m not talking about financial costs — that we can’t even fathom, let alone attempt to measure. We stopped elderly patients from seeing their families. We removed support systems for groups like Alcoholics and Drug Anonymous. We pulled children out of school yet kept shuttling them through the system. Medical treatments were postponed or missed completely while we waited for a covid surge that never came. We had (and still have) NO IDEA the cost of these decisions. Given that these things are obvious even to an idiot like me, lockdowns should be a ‘last resort’ move.

I could see it all in front of me yet was unable to convince (almost) anybody else to listen. I watched helplessly as government assumed unprecedented powers and declared entire industries non-essential basically without a peep.

Again, nobody wanted to talk about this, not even the bleeding heart liberals so common in the Northwest who would talk about ‘disparate impact’ until your ears bleed (typically 4.2 seconds). At this point, all my discussions were on Facebook. It got so bad that I actually downloaded Twitter to see if there was ANYBODY who was seeing the same things that I was, because I was starting to think that I was crazy. Crazy and alone.

That, my friends, was rock bottom.

Hopefully (again for our own sanity) the memories are starting to get a little fuzzy at this point, but now and then we have to remind ourselves of exactly what we were facing down not that long ago:

And while this was happening — especially early on — we had nobody we could really talk to about it. All the gathering and conversing places were closed (bars and churches especially), while relentless covid propaganda ensnared the vast majority of our family and friends — often to the point that we couldn’t even broach the subject, lest we be banished from a family gathering. Of course, this is on top of the blatant censorship of social media platforms that many of us suffered as well.

The main thrust of coronamania has been over for a little while now, but I’m still guessing most of us find ourselves in this corner of Substack because of the decisions made during the covid era. (And wow are there a lot of terrible decisions to choose from……)

Without trying to speak for the community, I’ve received lots of notes and comments discussing the loss of family and friends during the covid years. I feel — and a lot of readers do as well — that the shrinking of that social circle was the worst part of whole ordeal, even now that it’s “over”. How can you really trust somebody who, it turns out, would have ratted out Anne Frank? The covidians want to forget about the whole saga, but it’s not that easy for many of us who were ‘staring down the barrel’, so to speak.

I think it’s fair to say — at least in my case — nearly all people left in the inner circles of the monkeysphere are generally on board with the topics I Scream the most about. The wheat has been separated from the chaff, and the relationships that have survived are way stronger than they were a few years ago. In this way, some aspects of the last two years have led to positive results. (Not positive overall, but positive in specific areas.)

So to finally bring this back around to the question my friend asked earlier, how can I do this when Screaming is so often negative?

That’s easy — the positive vibes that come from the community! This awesome thing that we’ve (slowly) built across multiple ‘Stacks and multiple online platforms. No matter what stupid crap comes down the pike, we now have a communication system in place and can quickly disseminate information throughout “the ranks”.

And one thing I learned during the Ron Paul years is that FREEDOM IS FUN! Getting together with like-minded people and setting your sights on a common goal is rewarding! (Also, booze is a social lubricant.) That’s why I think we should coordinate a series of real-life meetups — so we can meet some awesome people and perhaps expand that shrunken inner circle a little bit. (How much better would you be with just one more awesome close friend right now?)

By no means do I think of myself as a leader of whatever sort of community we have here (I feel like I subscribe to those people), but I do recognize this one of the places where the community gathers to discuss ideas and coordinate action. So if this plan of real-life meetups (which in my mind I call ScreamUps) sounds like a good idea, let’s get the ball rolling in the comments below!

Suannee and I are already trying to get something together for Sante Fe, New Mexico in either late October or early November. After that, I’ll be in Tucson for the dreary parts of winter and would happy to coordinate (and perhaps host, will have to get permission) some sort of ScreamUp there. I’m also more than happy to keep tabs on details for events I’m not attending, and/or to act as a centralized hub of coordination for those events.

What do you think, Screamers? How far would you be willing to travel to attend a real-life event with the people you’ve been chatting to on Substack? (Knowing this will hopefully let people determine where to space events!) Are you even interested in the first place?

If you like the idea, spread it to comment sections in other ‘Stacks you subscribe to. Let’s get as many people on board as possible and take the next step in building this amazing community!

STILL afraid of commitment? Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi — no subscription required!

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After all this time, I know what you like. Stuff like videos of this big, majestic beauty:

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Wow, ready for round two already? OK, here’s our local little grey kitty! (editor’s note: totally not more adorable than me.)

Spoiler alert: He wanted up the stairs.