By Thomas Neuburger, who writes regularly at DownWithTyranny!
Heres why you, dear reader, should support the independent writing at Naked Capitalism. But if you are already hooked on this site’s cutting-edge commentary and cute animals, please go straight to the Tip Jar and give generously.
These are perilous times, or worse, watershed times. What’s decided now, in this year and the next, will set the course of the nation and the world for a dozen years to come. And if in those years our future hardens and sets, what’s decided now will cement our course for millennia.
In presenting information affecting today’s decisions, Naked Capitalism is unparalleled in its breadth. From economics to environmental hazards, dysfunctional politics to functioning climate science, finance to futurist technology and more, Naked Capitalism checks all the important boxes. For that reason alone, it deserves your support, so head to the Tip Jar to contribute.
A second reason for helping maintain the work at Naked Capitalism is the perilous state of independent journalism. These are times in which Establishment neoliberalism is increasingly challenged — this is the real #Resistance — and the push back against that challenge is strong. The Establishment mainstream, keeper of the neoliberal consensus, is striking back hard using all the tools at its disposal save outright censorship — from active media promotion of outright lies, to passive censorship-by-disappearance of topics and candidates, to a starve-them-of-money attack against heterodox sources that includes tactics like placing sites like Naked Capitalism on “fake news” lists.
Public media is increasingly co-opted and starved to support an under-fire, radical and pathological status quo. Support for independent sources like Naked Capitalism is more than a godsend — it´s a necessary act of citizenship.
But I think the main reason for you to support Naked Capitalism is the most capitalist reason of all — naked self interest.
Naked Capitalism offers the best public commentary on published articles of any site on the net. My work has appeared at a number of venues — left, right and center, from DownWithTyranny to Zero Hedge to Alternet, Common Dreams and the San Francisco Chronicle — and I have yet to see comment threads as uniquely valuable as those at Naked Capitalism.
Your comments are a vastly underrated resource, not just for readers but for writers as well. While some of us stay mired in the “Don’t touch my prose, dude” mode of self-fulfillment, most writers appreciate knowing when this idea doesn´t work while that one does; when some concept can´t withstand contrary evidence while another has further proof to support it; when some phrase or expression, delightful to write, still misses the mark by wider than its length while another, equally loved, brings smiles.
It’s accurate to say that I’ve read every comment on every article of mine that Yves has chosen to print, and I did so to make my work better. For no other site with this many comments per article has that been true. Even the “good” sites, and there are many, don’t offer the comment value that this site offers in spades — all thanks to you.
So my plea, dear reader, is that you click the link that supports the work here at Naked Capitalism. Give what you can, even if you can only give a little; the Tip Jars shows several ways to donate or subscribe. In these uncertain times, every contribution is important. You may do so for any reason you like, but when you do, know that you will also be supporting yourselves as main contributors to this site’s value.
Support the best commentariat in independent journalism — support Naked Capitalism.
