The D Word again - 2021. Call for donations.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The D Word again - 2021. Call for donations.

(Full disclosure, I'm riffing off a previous D Word message since it was a good one.  )

 

Well, it's that time again. 

October is a traditional month where we call for donations. And believe me, every cent is appreciated. Talk about helping to keep the lights on...

OL is now blessed with a few people who have chipped in much more than others: Peter and Ellen. Brant and a lady who prefers to remain anonymous earlier. Marc also helped out. So times are not as bad as in previous years. I hope they don't mind me mentioning their names. To each of them I am grateful in a most humongous way and, if you love OL like I do, you should be grateful to them, too.

Never, ever let us forget about Kat. She carried this site during the times of greatest participation by the luminaries of O-Land and, over the years, in pinches. Much love and gratitude to her from me.

Also, I am grateful to those who have sporadically sent in small sums. As I said, every cent is appreciated, so never think a small sum doesn't make a difference.

It does.

 

Technical

On a more technical issue, I still want to get to the point where we move OL to a different platform, but that is in the future. 

Why is this important? Because, OL's place in the world, and by extension, your participation, is to be made permanent. Our most precious material is our archive of posts by luminaries in the non-Ortho Objectivist world going back to 2005 or so. 

 

Political

In the last few years, we have drifted in a more political direction. I can't think of a more stark philosophical contrast than Trump and Biden. So we have to do politics--at least until that Biden imposter thing and his entourage are out of office.

The Objectivist world used to be split strongly about Trump. Now it is less so (although it still exists) and I like to think OL had a hand in that. However, I have to admit that reality had the biggest hand.  

In 2019, I said, "As things settle down after the 2020 election, I anticipate OL will get back into a more philosophical direction."

As it turns out, not so fast. The American coup came around with one of the most brazen election thefts in human history, even using a bioweapon attack, and we have to deal with that.

And we will. Just like we will win. When the history books are written, OL will be on the side of the angels who helped make this world a better place. We will be a small voice, granted, but we will be there.

 

Censorship

Also, with all the tech censorship out there in social media and the mainstream press, it's good to know that places like OL exist. That means our very existence is important in today's context. And you are part of that.

I've personally had to toe a fine line between censorship and trolls. At what point is dealing with a troll censorship? I had to come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as censorship of trolls. There is only censorship of ideas and the people who discuss them.

Free speech allows for an awful lot of friction and back and forth, and we certainly have our share, but when the entire community starts falling apart because of an individual's bad behavior, keeping that person around under the mantle of free speech is actually Sanction of the Victim. And that is not what OL is about.

In the end, it's a judgment call and I'm doing the best I can to be wise about it. 

 

OL is important--to me, to you and to our culture

Even though our audience is not huge and it fluctuates, after all, even on bad months, we still pull in over 2,500 unique people, many of those are the cream of our subcommunity. They may not participate much by posting, but they read. And they keep coming back. So I know we are getting through to them.

If you like being on this journey, if you like making a difference in this world in concrete terms, not just in words on a forum or a social media site, if you like helping to make history for as modest as it is with OL, then please consider making a donation. It takes a lot of work and, yes, money, to keep this site going, especially in today's world. You can help us.  

Just click the yellow-orange "Donate" button at the top of the page and it will take you to Paypal. There you can contribute in several manners. 

And if you can't or don't want to donate, we love you just the same. Your presence, even if only as a reader, is precious.

Thanks and much love,

Michael