September 6, 2019

A Note to My Critics

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Apparently the latest fad for influential opinion leaders such as myself is to lash out at our Twitter critics. A literary reference is de rigueur,¹ and Notes From Underground has already been taken. So here goes:

Call me Devin.² Online tantrum throwers have been around forever, and I don’t think anything has changed recently except that instead of being able to bellyache only in the privacy of your own home where I’m blissfully unaware of it, Twitter allows you to direct your flames and shitposting where I can see them. However, I mute you all regularly and rarely see your cutting remarks, so we’re back to you yelling into the abyss but the abyss not caring.³ I recommend this to everybody.

And that’s about it. You may all pretend that I’ve added 750 words of pseudo-anthropological filler to explain the meaning of it all and fill up a column.

¹This is French for “required by etiquette or current fashion.” Don’t you guys know anything?

²If you don’t get this, you are either ignorant of Great American Novels or Great American Internet Memes. Either way, shame on you.

³This is an erudite allusion to Nietzsche’s quip that “If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” which was directed at the shitposters of his day.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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