by William Skink
Today was a big day at Reptile Dysfunction: 31 visitors as of 9:19pm. It’s the first time we’ve gotten over 30 visitors in the month we’ve been writing here. Thank you for reading!
I check 4&20 every time I open my browser because I haven’t gotten around to changing it as my default website yet. There hasn’t been a post since jhwygirl indicated she’d try to start writing more regularly again. That was June 14th.
I think it’s pretty clear Jay Stevens was more interested in shutting us up than he was in rebooting his vision of providing a platform for progressive voices to write about local Montana issues. Putting the pressure of posting on someone who hasn’t written for 3 years for good reason was as much a shitty move as was his reactionary blocking of our posting privileges.
I don’t think there’s really anything more to being shut out from 4&20 than Jay could, so he did. Steve Kelly posted a link to a featured story at MIT Technology Review about Democrats and Big Data that’s absolutely worth a read, but I’m hesitant to leap to this kind of conclusion:
It is time in the election cycle to calm things down, which apparently requires a ban the online distupters. 4 & 20 must have been deemed beyond control. Maybe this is so the data mining operation and new algorhythmic models can be tweaked to near perfection for millions more individual voters in 2016. You and I are being “followed,” and not just by the NSA.
I don’t exclude this as a possibility, especially because of the gratification my ego would receive to be “deemed beyond control” and therefore in need of further marginalization, which ultimately is what happened thanks to Jay’s indelicate eviction notice.
But Jay is right, the readership was already down because the topics and angles that interest me are not the same topics and angles that interest more mainstream tastes, and that’s fine.
JC and I haven’t had a chance yet to “plot” the way some local Democrats are apparently plotting, but I am interested in exploring a more expanded online presence, considering my inclinations toward poetry, collage and, increasingly, music. In the meantime, this is the 25th post in a month at our new digs. Writing here will continue.
Stay tuned…
JC
I’d rather have a few thoughtful readers than a herd of Democrats. You surely know that all you have to do to gin the numbers is write about party politics and candidates, of course hitting hard on the wedge issues, currently flagism.
(By the way, a “wedge” issue is not something that doesn’t matter, but rather something that doesn’t matter to party leadership. They don’t care about abortion, flags, mosques, guns, immigrants, and so encourage the herd to have at it. It’s good distraction and divides us very nicely.)
Eleanor Roosevelt said “great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” I would change that somewhat … “great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss sports; small minds discuss party politics.”
Thanks for Reptile Disfunction, it’s unique and creative. You do your thing well.
Like real art or poetry, it is unrealistic to expect popularity from a blog that asks people to think outside the box, or think, period. If you produced a common commodity or service for sale, or for free, perhaps then you’d see greater appreciation/traffic from the hoards of consumers, spectators and recreationalists that populate our fair “state.” But then you and JC would have to be someone else. I like what did at 4 & 20, what you do now, and how you do it.
Congratulations on your first month! As a reader and a writer I feel very lucky to have Reptile Dysfunction. Keep up the good work.
thank you all very much.
I will never attempt to speak for Jay’s motives beyond what he has written himself. It is beyond any human authority to do so. But I’m glad you have struck out on your own, so to speak. If nothing else, it frees you from the defensiveness that tells you others must be corrected by telling them what they *really* think. That is not an insult, nor is it a small thing. Agree or disagree, I look forward to reading RD for some time to come.
It is a given, Rob, that people are layered and conceal motives, often even from themselves. The attitude that we must take them at face, honor their self-proclaimed motives as the real ones … well, I guess that attitude explains a lot. It’s why politicians can so easily lie and fool people. What’s the word … credulity?
Some time if you haven’t already, take in the movie “The Invention of Lying.” The first half hour or so is priceless, a world as you describe where everyone takes everyone else at face.
I also wish you good the best with your blog.
Apologies for stumble fingers and a limited brain. Strike “good.”
Glad you landed your own site. I’m sure we’ll agree on many things and disagree on others. These differences, and the discussions that follow, are a good thing, don’t you think?
a good thing, absolutely. but realize I have lots of discussions with lots of people dealing with very difficult realities so I don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to how much empty talk happens while systemic insanity persists. the best discussions I have are the ones where politics are sidelined. and I’m having more and more of those discussions every day.