Substack, whatever its limitations, offers solid data on reader engagement, so I can see pretty clearly that my last post went over like a lead balloon.
I really enjoyed the last post; I liked and thought I'd restacked it (I'd forgotten and corrected that). People 'do' dissident political commentary for a lot of reasons. I suspect that for many it's a kind of game- how can I be 'righter' than the next guy, how can I mess with the evil system, how can I own the libs, etc. The left is the greengrocer who hangs up the "workers of the world" sign; many on the right think it's enough to countersignal, to mock the sign, create a parody. But it isn't. Politics isn't 'for' philosophers; it's not about scoring points or posturing. Its for those who live in the polity. The only legitimate ideas, the only ones worth pursuing, are the ones that guide normal people into fulfilling lives through organic, transcendent, mediating social and spiritual institutions- Church, family, community, collegial networks, and only then local and national political structures. What you wrote gets to the heart of that, that fun but beautiful art at Coney Island holds things together more than a seminar in Heidegger or a Twitter ratio-ing ever could. We need more stuff like that, and if people don't appreciate it it just means they aren't ready for it yet.
That last image is so weird and off-kilter I had to see if I could find out the source. Finally managed it, but strangely enough Google, safari, and duck duck go couldn’t locate the image. But my Brave browser pulled it right up.
Did you go to this art Installation, Chris? It looks like it would have been very trippy. Lots of phantasmagorical stuff. A suitable grace note to your well put words.
The photo of the demon-looking mermaid is certainly off-putting, but I like to keep track of how art continues to devolve by elevating ugliness rather than beauty.
Read Obama’s speeches from his first two years. Every one was intended to demoralize. Every one. ‘We are in a crisis and we are trying to prevent a catastrophe...’ said one. Now Bjz Guys! Go out and invest! Right.
I loved your last post. This one is good too. I know which choice I shall make, and I have already anchored my boat so that me and my family will not be drawn out with the tide. Thanks for all you do.
I remember reading somewhere that if you were (hypothetically) to wake up in a pitch dark space, the first thing you would do is fumble around to locate the walls. The idea being, that knowing there are boundaries is an absolute necessity, without which we cannot operate. I think that relates to your sentence that "the destruction of bourgeois culture harmed everyone, even the people who yearned for its destruction."
Excellent insight. It reminds me of adolescent behavior. They need the boundaries to push against as they help define life. Remove them and you become lost
It is so bizarre and stupid that anyone anywhere takes an actor seriously about anything, never mind about how other people should live, order their lives, or what other people should consider important.
Aren't these people who gain fabulous wealth and adoration by 1) pretending to be someone they're not; and 2) reciting lines someone else has written? Don't they all live inside a cocoon of luxury and privilege where, if any problem comes up, they have their agents, managers and assistants take care of it?
Where in that job description does it say anything about wisdom, intellect, humility or any kind of moral authority? How deluded do these people have to be to think they have the right to dictate anything?
Hollywood actors are like people who climb atop a building and tell the crowd how magical and liberating it is to jump off the roof—everyone should do it!—except they leave out the part where they have a foolproof safety net but everyone else will smash to the ground.
Hopefully their AI replacements will come with an OFF switch.
Why anyone looks to an entertainer for advice on voting, governance or any other serious subject is a question with an unhappy answer. The sheep are in desparate need of a shepherd and will follow anyone.
Too broad a brush. Some actors step on the first rung of the ladder, then step away and do something else with their lives. Some rise to a featured role, and then are forgotten. Hollywood is particularly brutal on young actors and actresses thanks to the Weinsteins that hold power there. Yes, some achieve great fame and do stupid things, you don't hear about the mass of actors who live normal lives and just about scrape by like the rest of us.
Like Julia Stiles- who remained a normal person after fame. We even drank with her and her dad in the beach town bar where her family had a summer home on Cape Cod.
AI: You are OFF Clever....lol...Their heads being as full as they are will spontaneously spew limbic viscera in mist of maroon before AI can get to them.
'Travelling Players' they got called in saner times. Could be entertaining when you were in the mood but certainly not the kind of people you would invite in through your mental front door.
(also i do seem to recall that he traveled the country meeting all sorts of people and served as Gov of Cali, so while he was an actor, he did put in some more effort than his modern "tweet first, think later" counterparts.)
My point is that we ignore these people at our peril. They wield massive influence. Breitbart and the daily wire guys understand this. Hathaway will be Secretary of State in the Taylor Swift administration. And people will wonder why. Because they thought actors are silly, absurd, stupid people. The road to atrocities is paved with absurdities.
They are silly, absurd, stupid people. But they and other silly, absurd, stupid people have a lot of money and have bought themselves a silly, absurd, stupid aristocracy.
This situation won't be righted until actors, busybodies, and merchants are put back down on the bottom tier of social status where they belong. This is going to be a painful process for everyone.
Actors used to be considered on the same untouchable social tier as prostitutes. It's time to bring that back. There's no reason they should be taken seriously about anything, ever.
You're absolutely right. We all need to disengage from Crazy World in order to catch our breath and stay sane.
The poultry do not care what gibberish the president said today, they're only interested in the table scraps I bring down to the barn. The geese are concerned about their winter swimming pool and whether I remembered to get rid of the ice. And oh, did you pick up watermelon at the grocery store, they wonder? The cats want scritches and treats.
We watch the back porch at dusk for the opossums, one big and fat, one smallish, who come by to eat the cat kibble I leave out for them. There's a three-legged raccoon that raids the bird feeders at night and a flock of huge wild turkeys that wander up and down our dead-end road regularly. A friendly Barred Owl sits on the chair on our back porch in the evenings, unconcerned with our comings and goings while the mice, lodgers in our outdoor wood box, have made cozy homes for themselves with the bits of laundry lint they've picked up.
On winter evenings the husband and I drink hot chocolate and watch the sun set. All is well in the real world.
We have raccoons and owls in our back yard in suburban Los Angeles, for which I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL. A raccoon toddled up to me once and stared until I handed him a slice of apple, which my wife still regards as a remarkably poor piece of decisionmaking. That's the part of life that I hope for.
We feed the wild birds, provide shelter and water to all critters who want/need it, have an owl box currently occupied by a barn owl mama, have a bat box, feed the outside rabbits leftovers from the inside rabbits (hoping they reciprocate and leave some of our plants alone). We shut the gate to our property as we shut out the world. Our little slice of heaven keeps us sane and grounded. There is nothing like nature to center you and bring you closer to our Maker.
I had a chat with our resident Barred owl recently and said that s/he is always welcome to take a break on our covered porch, but would all our chickens please be off the menu? So far, so good.
We have Embden geese as our security detail in the poultry pasture and I'm pretty confident they could give any owl a good thrashing, especially Gottfried, the gander, who gives me a little piece of his mind on occasion.
We have a camera in the owl box and it has been fascinating to watch. My husband is pretty much a love sick stalker. We are hoping her eggs start to hatch some time around Valentine’s Day.
We have raccoons that come to our porch. We feed them every night. Oh--we also co-founded an animal rescue 20 years ago. Our pets are our kids (yeah, yeah, I know...but it is what it is). So, we are non-kid having, rabies-encouraging, animal loving pagans...
During the spring, we'll have 3-4 mother raccoons with babies on the porch--we call it our own little Burning Man. They are getting high on dog and cat food. Cracks me up.
Our raccoons, as well as the groundhogs and Bob the Bear, get high on the drops out in the orchard that have fermented. It's pretty funny to watch them roll on the ground.
Chris, I've seen several posts from you in the past few days, and honestly I haven't had time to catch up. Perhaps that's the reason that your engagement stats were not as you expected. It seems every writer on Substack this past week has been very prolific, coupled with the insanity of world, national and local news. It's been a busy time to keep up with all the insanity.
Chris, You cannot post enough for some of us. I read many stacks, but yours is one I always read in detail. Yesterday's was likely too backhanded...and that peanut picture is still completely off-putting. But this one is incisive and funny...a good combination.
It’s a struggle for sure. Then I realized what a beautiful “problem” it is. So many amazing writers all in one place, actually feeling free enough to express themselves without fear. It’s almost like freedom of expression causes creativity to explode🤔
My hope is that this can gather momentum and that more people will keep coming to Substack and have their minds and eyes opened.
Yes!!! THIS! ☝️ There are authors that I haven't seen anything from in months, not complaining, just saying, that I'm getting 2 extremely long articles from per day. People you may hear from once every week or 2, are writing 2 to 4 articles A DAY! I can't keep up!
I would hope that you are not too wedded to your post stats.
I subscribe because I like your writing style and I think you observe many things in a way that makes sense to me..
Sometimes I find your posts funny, some times informative, sometimes both and sometimes neither.
I do not always agree with your views, which is fine.
But that can be as much an affect of my mood, what time of the day it is, whether I've just been berated by my wife or any number of things that may not have much to do with the quality of the post.
You shouldn't be captured by this audience of me, although I would say, being an avid tramper (an odd phrase we use for hiking in New Zealand) and camper myself, I do like your camping interludes and observations from the trail.
It's good to indulge in real physical things and they have a calming benefit even when expressed in the digital world.
I'm not wedded to them, and they rise and fall by a natural 25% or so. This one and that one, a few more and a few less. But man, sometimes the numbers really shout at me.
Some of us (me) don’t have a clue about art. I did appreciate your point that things have been pushed so far that now the self-declared nonconformists are in fact encouraging conformity. Wearing N-95s to an art exhibit... 😡 #masksdontwork
I liked your last post. *shrug* It's not about hoping or not hoping (or peddling hopium). It's about finding reasons to hang on so if there is a chance to turn this around (and lately I am genuinely hopeful that there is because the other "side" of this is such a hysteric mess), we are still mentally prepared to do so (rather than just having given up and crawled under the bed to hide with the dust bunnies).
“A receding tide drags all boats out to sea, unless your boat is firmly tied to something.” Brilliant. I’m using that ( if you don’t mind) the next time someone says it. Which will be soon here in the Marxist state of Maryland.
It often occurs to me that my life and the life of those around me do not look like the narrative. We often talk about what we have read in the media and how messed up everything is. I catch myself during some of these conversations realizing that at the moment of the conversation the sky is blue, the sun is shining and I am in fact quite happy as is the person I’m talking to. During the height of covid hysteria I hiked to the top of Kendrick peak in Flagstaff AZ. I was all alone, I stood quietly and looked out at the magnificent landscape including the Grand Canyon in the distance. In the ethers was nothing but the feeling of love, it was overwhelming, I cried from its beauty. It’s important from time to time to step out of the bubble and look around. Beauty is everywhere all the time, the problem is the lens with which we focus and direction we chose to look.
I need to pay attention to how much media I consume in the same way I have to pay close attention to what I eat. Left to my own devices, I overeat every bite of every meal, every day. It takes work to stay fit under the constant siege of food ads, lures of comfort/ease, and my own tendency towards sloth/fatigue during the dark winter days.
I find Substack an oasis of truth and community--but this too can be a lure towards conformity, or getting lost in the choir.
If I poke my beak too deeply into the morass of our current culture/current events/politics, it can suffocate any degree of agency I have. Dark thoughts about the state of the world, the Leftists, the ruin we've witnessed has sucked all the energy out of me at times. Instead of creatively doing something/anything good for the world, the pit of despair/depression/darkness can mutate my inner sovereignty into a spitting cynicism, anger, and judgment. All of that is gross. Irresponsible. Not helpful. Immature.
Sports talk--but I think it is accurate today.
I'm an old 49ers fan. Joe Montana to Dwight Clark 'The Catch' fan. I lost my shit as a 12 year old fan that day. I'm such an old 49ers fan that I am still happy when Dallas loses to anyone...
I now live in the PNW, and was actually a Seahawks fan for longer than SF fan. Jim Zorn to Steve Largent. My brother is a Southpaw, and we were Zorn/Largent in all of the street/neighborhood 2 on 2 football games for over a decade.
It was better for me when Seattle was AFC...but here we are. I still love the damn 49ers and the Hawks. So...
So I'm watching the game Sunday. The Lions' narrative is awesome. Gotta love 'em. I was also thinking about CA in general, and SF specifically. These turds do not deserve another Super Bowl was my thought. I'll root for the Lions.
I couldn't do it. I tried. At half time, when the 49ers were down by 17, I almost left to hit Costco--but I didn't. I watched the game. So glad I did. As much as the decline of CA breaks me--I still freaking love the SF 49ers. Can't help it. They pulled it off, and it was beautiful. I'm skeptical about their chances against the Chiefs--but I have two weeks to wallow in the joy of that come from behind victory.
The world is not football, but I have learned my most important lessons playing ball.
The war is not over. We have not lost. We have so much on our side: truth, reality, integrity, faith, courage, tenacity...as long as I limit the amount of negative input, and then do a frequent '30-90 day water fast' of media--then I can live, breath, swim, run, walk in this polluted world without smelling like a turd.
Thank you Chris. I love the community you've built--or that has coalesced around your truth bombs.
Brian, you should write your own Substack. You have the greatest gift a writer can have: you speak from your heart and you do it well. Much like Mr. Bray.
My sister has never lived in Dallas, but has adored the Cowboys for 45 yrs. I am SO glad there’s a countervailing force in the Universe to balance her irrationality out. 🤣
Yeah man, I'm not optimistic SF can pull it off against KC. Like Hollywood elites, why should any of us give an fbomb what an NFL linebacker has to say about medicine?!?! Did he go to medical school and I'm not aware of it?
They are distraction grenades. Both of them. Even though they have both legitimately achieved greatness in their careers--this latest little love affair seems contrived and they both seem deeply unhappy. Weird isn't it? All the money/fame in the world, and yet they continue to pimp themselves to the world...proving what exactly?
I think it may prove that our material goals are mostly a fool's errand, and we should focus on things that matter.
Lolz, that was the turnoff in the previous post, that creepazoid mermaid carousel critter. Then, sorry, but the mention of Basquiat sent me into Doze Mode. But you see, I'm back. I dig your blog.
I really enjoyed the last post; I liked and thought I'd restacked it (I'd forgotten and corrected that). People 'do' dissident political commentary for a lot of reasons. I suspect that for many it's a kind of game- how can I be 'righter' than the next guy, how can I mess with the evil system, how can I own the libs, etc. The left is the greengrocer who hangs up the "workers of the world" sign; many on the right think it's enough to countersignal, to mock the sign, create a parody. But it isn't. Politics isn't 'for' philosophers; it's not about scoring points or posturing. Its for those who live in the polity. The only legitimate ideas, the only ones worth pursuing, are the ones that guide normal people into fulfilling lives through organic, transcendent, mediating social and spiritual institutions- Church, family, community, collegial networks, and only then local and national political structures. What you wrote gets to the heart of that, that fun but beautiful art at Coney Island holds things together more than a seminar in Heidegger or a Twitter ratio-ing ever could. We need more stuff like that, and if people don't appreciate it it just means they aren't ready for it yet.
"And writers, don’t ever start a post with this picture."
---
We're gonna find out if you should end a post with it, either ;)
It's much harder to run away from the finish line.
What is it supposed to be? I don't care, start or finish, I just want to know what it's supposed to be. I already know it's hideous.
It's supposed to be a, you know, a thing.
That last image is so weird and off-kilter I had to see if I could find out the source. Finally managed it, but strangely enough Google, safari, and duck duck go couldn’t locate the image. But my Brave browser pulled it right up.
Did you go to this art Installation, Chris? It looks like it would have been very trippy. Lots of phantasmagorical stuff. A suitable grace note to your well put words.
I’ll share the link if anyone is interested.
I did go to this art installation, and wrote about it here:
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/before-artlessness
Nooooobody read it. People saw that opening photo and pulled the "eject" lever.
I’m off to read it now.
Thanks for the reply.
The photo of the demon-looking mermaid is certainly off-putting, but I like to keep track of how art continues to devolve by elevating ugliness rather than beauty.
Mr. Peanut meets Evard Munch?
It is supposed to be what we think it ought to be.
If an idea resonates it does - if it don't it don't.
If it don't the ones pushing it must think those of us who don't think it resonates have no merit.
So, at the end of the day - tis a war of ideas.
May the best idea prevail Bandit - that is what I think.
Ken
Read Obama’s speeches from his first two years. Every one was intended to demoralize. Every one. ‘We are in a crisis and we are trying to prevent a catastrophe...’ said one. Now Bjz Guys! Go out and invest! Right.
My question exactly.
I’m pretty sure it’s a prototype of a rejected design for a Jeff Dunham puppet.
🤣🤣🤣
😂🤣 It doesn't look good enough fir that either.
🤣
I thought it was hilarious. But it does look like a Mr. Peanut blow-up "companion"
I assumed it was Anne Hathaway after she'd shed her human skin.
yeah lizards all the way down when they unzip their human suits....lol
🫣
lol
Now that I see that I can see nothing else. Sort of like Viggo being Aragorn. No one can ever play Aragorn again.
Lolol. EXACTLY
Hahaha! That was exactly my take. I am glad I am not the only one that saw this.
lolol. sans the monocle
but the monocle is the best part
I agree! As I'm rummaging through my pantry looking for some peanuts to eat!
Me too. At least my fellow commenters also saw the “peanut”. Lol
I couldn't figure out if that was a singing penis, a human peanut, or Jabba the Hutt on keto.
"...a singing penis."
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Lol. I can’t tell what it is. A pink peanut shell with a face?? Very weird. 🤣🤣
I loved your last post. This one is good too. I know which choice I shall make, and I have already anchored my boat so that me and my family will not be drawn out with the tide. Thanks for all you do.
Keep up the fire!
I remember reading somewhere that if you were (hypothetically) to wake up in a pitch dark space, the first thing you would do is fumble around to locate the walls. The idea being, that knowing there are boundaries is an absolute necessity, without which we cannot operate. I think that relates to your sentence that "the destruction of bourgeois culture harmed everyone, even the people who yearned for its destruction."
Yes!
Excellent insight. It reminds me of adolescent behavior. They need the boundaries to push against as they help define life. Remove them and you become lost
Precisely.
It is so bizarre and stupid that anyone anywhere takes an actor seriously about anything, never mind about how other people should live, order their lives, or what other people should consider important.
Aren't these people who gain fabulous wealth and adoration by 1) pretending to be someone they're not; and 2) reciting lines someone else has written? Don't they all live inside a cocoon of luxury and privilege where, if any problem comes up, they have their agents, managers and assistants take care of it?
Where in that job description does it say anything about wisdom, intellect, humility or any kind of moral authority? How deluded do these people have to be to think they have the right to dictate anything?
Hollywood actors are like people who climb atop a building and tell the crowd how magical and liberating it is to jump off the roof—everyone should do it!—except they leave out the part where they have a foolproof safety net but everyone else will smash to the ground.
Hopefully their AI replacements will come with an OFF switch.
Why anyone looks to an entertainer for advice on voting, governance or any other serious subject is a question with an unhappy answer. The sheep are in desparate need of a shepherd and will follow anyone.
they looked great in that costume, they must know how we should run the government!
Cue Taylor Swift...
Too broad a brush. Some actors step on the first rung of the ladder, then step away and do something else with their lives. Some rise to a featured role, and then are forgotten. Hollywood is particularly brutal on young actors and actresses thanks to the Weinsteins that hold power there. Yes, some achieve great fame and do stupid things, you don't hear about the mass of actors who live normal lives and just about scrape by like the rest of us.
Like Julia Stiles- who remained a normal person after fame. We even drank with her and her dad in the beach town bar where her family had a summer home on Cape Cod.
AI: You are OFF Clever....lol...Their heads being as full as they are will spontaneously spew limbic viscera in mist of maroon before AI can get to them.
It's hebeening already...:)
'Travelling Players' they got called in saner times. Could be entertaining when you were in the mood but certainly not the kind of people you would invite in through your mental front door.
Ronald Reagan was an actor.
good call!
but a not very good one ;))
(also i do seem to recall that he traveled the country meeting all sorts of people and served as Gov of Cali, so while he was an actor, he did put in some more effort than his modern "tweet first, think later" counterparts.)
My point is that we ignore these people at our peril. They wield massive influence. Breitbart and the daily wire guys understand this. Hathaway will be Secretary of State in the Taylor Swift administration. And people will wonder why. Because they thought actors are silly, absurd, stupid people. The road to atrocities is paved with absurdities.
They are silly, absurd, stupid people. But they and other silly, absurd, stupid people have a lot of money and have bought themselves a silly, absurd, stupid aristocracy.
This situation won't be righted until actors, busybodies, and merchants are put back down on the bottom tier of social status where they belong. This is going to be a painful process for everyone.
True. And Fukitol, you have the second best handle on substack. Second only to Clever Pseudonym, of course!
Yeah I'm a little jelly of Clever Pseudonym.
He was also a policy wonk his whole life. Acting was a job he did for awhile.
Actors used to be considered on the same untouchable social tier as prostitutes. It's time to bring that back. There's no reason they should be taken seriously about anything, ever.
You're absolutely right. We all need to disengage from Crazy World in order to catch our breath and stay sane.
The poultry do not care what gibberish the president said today, they're only interested in the table scraps I bring down to the barn. The geese are concerned about their winter swimming pool and whether I remembered to get rid of the ice. And oh, did you pick up watermelon at the grocery store, they wonder? The cats want scritches and treats.
We watch the back porch at dusk for the opossums, one big and fat, one smallish, who come by to eat the cat kibble I leave out for them. There's a three-legged raccoon that raids the bird feeders at night and a flock of huge wild turkeys that wander up and down our dead-end road regularly. A friendly Barred Owl sits on the chair on our back porch in the evenings, unconcerned with our comings and goings while the mice, lodgers in our outdoor wood box, have made cozy homes for themselves with the bits of laundry lint they've picked up.
On winter evenings the husband and I drink hot chocolate and watch the sun set. All is well in the real world.
And yeah, that picture is creepy.
We have raccoons and owls in our back yard in suburban Los Angeles, for which I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL. A raccoon toddled up to me once and stared until I handed him a slice of apple, which my wife still regards as a remarkably poor piece of decisionmaking. That's the part of life that I hope for.
We feed the wild birds, provide shelter and water to all critters who want/need it, have an owl box currently occupied by a barn owl mama, have a bat box, feed the outside rabbits leftovers from the inside rabbits (hoping they reciprocate and leave some of our plants alone). We shut the gate to our property as we shut out the world. Our little slice of heaven keeps us sane and grounded. There is nothing like nature to center you and bring you closer to our Maker.
I had a chat with our resident Barred owl recently and said that s/he is always welcome to take a break on our covered porch, but would all our chickens please be off the menu? So far, so good.
We have Embden geese as our security detail in the poultry pasture and I'm pretty confident they could give any owl a good thrashing, especially Gottfried, the gander, who gives me a little piece of his mind on occasion.
We have a camera in the owl box and it has been fascinating to watch. My husband is pretty much a love sick stalker. We are hoping her eggs start to hatch some time around Valentine’s Day.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2yfUsDrheD/?igsh=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ==
My husband’s Instagram site featuring our alpacas and owls.
This is the only part of life in Vermont that our idiot legislature has so far not screwed up. Or taxed.
Our home in Suburbia abuts a 10 acre greenbelt.
We have raccoons that come to our porch. We feed them every night. Oh--we also co-founded an animal rescue 20 years ago. Our pets are our kids (yeah, yeah, I know...but it is what it is). So, we are non-kid having, rabies-encouraging, animal loving pagans...
During the spring, we'll have 3-4 mother raccoons with babies on the porch--we call it our own little Burning Man. They are getting high on dog and cat food. Cracks me up.
bsn
Our raccoons, as well as the groundhogs and Bob the Bear, get high on the drops out in the orchard that have fermented. It's pretty funny to watch them roll on the ground.
this is the way...
That Anne Hathaway speech is by far the most cringeworthy pitch for TransCommunism that I have ever witnessed.
And it's a crowded field, let's be honest.
She is smugness personified. It's quite repellent.
I suspect that is true for most of Hollywood
But she's a good actr...
Everyone always says the revolutionaries are the first ones lined up against the wall and shot. I wish they would hurry up. I'm getting impatient.
https://ifunny.co/picture/excuse-me-comrade-when-do-we-get-the-free-healthcare-sAJPhb149
Those walls need rebuilt, hence the flood of 12,000,000 illegals, as of the 28th.
Chris, I've seen several posts from you in the past few days, and honestly I haven't had time to catch up. Perhaps that's the reason that your engagement stats were not as you expected. It seems every writer on Substack this past week has been very prolific, coupled with the insanity of world, national and local news. It's been a busy time to keep up with all the insanity.
I try to discipline myself to post less, because I see engagement numbers decline when I overdo it. But it rarely works, and here I am again.
Chris, You cannot post enough for some of us. I read many stacks, but yours is one I always read in detail. Yesterday's was likely too backhanded...and that peanut picture is still completely off-putting. But this one is incisive and funny...a good combination.
I totally agree.
Gato and Bray can never do too many post in my mind.
^ What they said.
If you feel the need to write something but don't want to post it here, you can always post it over on my blog. I am lucky to get 2 a month done :D
It’s a struggle for sure. Then I realized what a beautiful “problem” it is. So many amazing writers all in one place, actually feeling free enough to express themselves without fear. It’s almost like freedom of expression causes creativity to explode🤔
My hope is that this can gather momentum and that more people will keep coming to Substack and have their minds and eyes opened.
Yes!!! THIS! ☝️ There are authors that I haven't seen anything from in months, not complaining, just saying, that I'm getting 2 extremely long articles from per day. People you may hear from once every week or 2, are writing 2 to 4 articles A DAY! I can't keep up!
Interesting stats on the source of this insanity. No accident Babylon Bee had this headline today. https://babylonbee.com/news/california-becomes-first-state-to-ban-heterosexual-marriage
I had to read that twice for the Babylon Bee part to sink in. 😕
Lol.
I would hope that you are not too wedded to your post stats.
I subscribe because I like your writing style and I think you observe many things in a way that makes sense to me..
Sometimes I find your posts funny, some times informative, sometimes both and sometimes neither.
I do not always agree with your views, which is fine.
But that can be as much an affect of my mood, what time of the day it is, whether I've just been berated by my wife or any number of things that may not have much to do with the quality of the post.
You shouldn't be captured by this audience of me, although I would say, being an avid tramper (an odd phrase we use for hiking in New Zealand) and camper myself, I do like your camping interludes and observations from the trail.
It's good to indulge in real physical things and they have a calming benefit even when expressed in the digital world.
To me anyway.
I'm not wedded to them, and they rise and fall by a natural 25% or so. This one and that one, a few more and a few less. But man, sometimes the numbers really shout at me.
HEY, CHRIS! I LIKE YOUR WRITING! KEEP IT UP!
Did I shout loud enough? Love ya, man!
I think its more about the time of day you post them imo.
This is probably true.
Some of us (me) don’t have a clue about art. I did appreciate your point that things have been pushed so far that now the self-declared nonconformists are in fact encouraging conformity. Wearing N-95s to an art exhibit... 😡 #masksdontwork
That berated/wife thing, turns out it can happen.
I liked your last post. *shrug* It's not about hoping or not hoping (or peddling hopium). It's about finding reasons to hang on so if there is a chance to turn this around (and lately I am genuinely hopeful that there is because the other "side" of this is such a hysteric mess), we are still mentally prepared to do so (rather than just having given up and crawled under the bed to hide with the dust bunnies).
“A receding tide drags all boats out to sea, unless your boat is firmly tied to something.” Brilliant. I’m using that ( if you don’t mind) the next time someone says it. Which will be soon here in the Marxist state of Maryland.
It often occurs to me that my life and the life of those around me do not look like the narrative. We often talk about what we have read in the media and how messed up everything is. I catch myself during some of these conversations realizing that at the moment of the conversation the sky is blue, the sun is shining and I am in fact quite happy as is the person I’m talking to. During the height of covid hysteria I hiked to the top of Kendrick peak in Flagstaff AZ. I was all alone, I stood quietly and looked out at the magnificent landscape including the Grand Canyon in the distance. In the ethers was nothing but the feeling of love, it was overwhelming, I cried from its beauty. It’s important from time to time to step out of the bubble and look around. Beauty is everywhere all the time, the problem is the lens with which we focus and direction we chose to look.
Very few things on this planet are more beautiful than what you saw. Arizona is an awe inspiring landscape.
I love BLUF. I use it often myself.
Good counsel.
I need to pay attention to how much media I consume in the same way I have to pay close attention to what I eat. Left to my own devices, I overeat every bite of every meal, every day. It takes work to stay fit under the constant siege of food ads, lures of comfort/ease, and my own tendency towards sloth/fatigue during the dark winter days.
I find Substack an oasis of truth and community--but this too can be a lure towards conformity, or getting lost in the choir.
If I poke my beak too deeply into the morass of our current culture/current events/politics, it can suffocate any degree of agency I have. Dark thoughts about the state of the world, the Leftists, the ruin we've witnessed has sucked all the energy out of me at times. Instead of creatively doing something/anything good for the world, the pit of despair/depression/darkness can mutate my inner sovereignty into a spitting cynicism, anger, and judgment. All of that is gross. Irresponsible. Not helpful. Immature.
Sports talk--but I think it is accurate today.
I'm an old 49ers fan. Joe Montana to Dwight Clark 'The Catch' fan. I lost my shit as a 12 year old fan that day. I'm such an old 49ers fan that I am still happy when Dallas loses to anyone...
I now live in the PNW, and was actually a Seahawks fan for longer than SF fan. Jim Zorn to Steve Largent. My brother is a Southpaw, and we were Zorn/Largent in all of the street/neighborhood 2 on 2 football games for over a decade.
It was better for me when Seattle was AFC...but here we are. I still love the damn 49ers and the Hawks. So...
So I'm watching the game Sunday. The Lions' narrative is awesome. Gotta love 'em. I was also thinking about CA in general, and SF specifically. These turds do not deserve another Super Bowl was my thought. I'll root for the Lions.
I couldn't do it. I tried. At half time, when the 49ers were down by 17, I almost left to hit Costco--but I didn't. I watched the game. So glad I did. As much as the decline of CA breaks me--I still freaking love the SF 49ers. Can't help it. They pulled it off, and it was beautiful. I'm skeptical about their chances against the Chiefs--but I have two weeks to wallow in the joy of that come from behind victory.
The world is not football, but I have learned my most important lessons playing ball.
The war is not over. We have not lost. We have so much on our side: truth, reality, integrity, faith, courage, tenacity...as long as I limit the amount of negative input, and then do a frequent '30-90 day water fast' of media--then I can live, breath, swim, run, walk in this polluted world without smelling like a turd.
Thank you Chris. I love the community you've built--or that has coalesced around your truth bombs.
bsn
Brian, you should write your own Substack. You have the greatest gift a writer can have: you speak from your heart and you do it well. Much like Mr. Bray.
Thank you Rayzor! (blush emoji)
bsn
And being happy when the Cowboys lose to anyone is not confined to niners fans.
My usual retort about 'my football team' is, "I like three teams. Seattle, SF, and anyone playing Dallas."
Good to know there are great Americans out there who see the Cowboys for the evil they represent...
bsn
My sister has never lived in Dallas, but has adored the Cowboys for 45 yrs. I am SO glad there’s a countervailing force in the Universe to balance her irrationality out. 🤣
John, there are so many in media today that would leave out that your sis does however live in Fort Worth.
🤣(In fact, she lives in AZ.)
Brian, Ravens fan here. Sorry the fix is in this year for team Swift-Pfizer.
Yeah man, I'm not optimistic SF can pull it off against KC. Like Hollywood elites, why should any of us give an fbomb what an NFL linebacker has to say about medicine?!?! Did he go to medical school and I'm not aware of it?
They are distraction grenades. Both of them. Even though they have both legitimately achieved greatness in their careers--this latest little love affair seems contrived and they both seem deeply unhappy. Weird isn't it? All the money/fame in the world, and yet they continue to pimp themselves to the world...proving what exactly?
I think it may prove that our material goals are mostly a fool's errand, and we should focus on things that matter.
bsn
Another SB I won’t be watching. But I am rooting for the niners strictly as the lesser of two evils 😂
Lolz, that was the turnoff in the previous post, that creepazoid mermaid carousel critter. Then, sorry, but the mention of Basquiat sent me into Doze Mode. But you see, I'm back. I dig your blog.