New Game, New Rules & A New Bargain

NinaIllingworth July 10, 2016December 30, 2020 anarchy, bad posts, blog, Change, chaos, content changes, corrupt media, corruption, Donations, fourth branch of the government, legal analysis, letter from the Editor, Media, New Game New Rules & A New Bargain, News, Nina Illingworth, Opinion, personal, police violence, Politics, Site Updates, social breakdown, Spread the Word, the rule of law, update, writing

Hey, can I talk to you for a second?

It has been well over a month since I last wrote about the Clinton Email Server Scandal and the extremely difficult choices facing the government and the FBI itself in the related investigation. In the time since, literally the entire world has been rocked by horrifying tragedies, staggering corruption and political upheaval almost every single day, at what appears to be a steadily increasing pace. Even as I write this to you now, the nation is reeling after the horrifying assassination of five Dallas police officers while protecting a protest against the blatant, extrajudicial assassination of two African American men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota in the days prior.

I don’t have to tell you that things are bad; people are tense, confused and there’s appears to be a general sense that the social order we know is disintegrating both rapidly and in real time. As a society, we appear to have come to a point where we openly acknowledge that the rule of law will be applied unevenly across different classes of people and we have arrived there so rapidly, that I no longer think we’re headed for a dystopian, fascist future but are rather living in a dystopian fascist present.

I am not ashamed to admit that the sheer size and scope of our rapid descent into lawlessness and chaos paralyzed me for a while. These stories are all too big for me and I am acutely aware of this fact. Unfortunately, we remain trapped in a corporate media hellscape where a mere six companies control over ninety percent of the news we receive – and my friends, those six companies fucking love them some Clintons, let me tell you. No matter how meager my resources are, no matter how inadequate my talents remain; there simply isn’t a cavalry to come rescue us anymore – the mainstream media no longer has a vested interest in even examining the truth objectively and we’re now living in what I’ve described as a “Pravda” situation.

In light of all this, I’ve been forced to ask the kind of hard questions that leave a grown woman trembling with fear and rage. If not now, when? If not I, who? When I started this website back in April, I honestly wasn’t entirely sure where I was going with the whole thing; that’s why there was such a wide variety of my writing posted in the early days. Today, I’ve realized that my purpose on this very earth is to catalogue, explain and expose corruption in both government and our media; which for all intents and purposes is now an active goddamn branch of our government.

Naturally, this is going to lead to some changes around here – as I mentioned above, the speed at which the machine continues to lie to the public at large is only growing faster and my traditional writing process for a long-form essay is often a question of days; sometimes even a week. In order to properly respond to this, I’m going to have to start releasing shorter posts and perhaps leave out some of the comedic elements; which are often the most difficult and time consuming aspects of each piece when all is said and done.

Of course, I’m not completely abandoning the long form essay, or mocking pathetic neoliberal assclowns on Twitter by screen-capping their ridiculous posts but there is simply too much bullshit going on here for me to continue focusing on making every post a work of art in it’s own right. As it stands now, I often find myself posting the most valuable and shocking information on Twitter – in a format that people only see if they happen to be paying attention at the same time I’m ranting. This is no longer acceptable to me in the face of open collusion between mainstream media and the government and as a result I intend to devote less of my time to both Twitter and discovering the most artful twisting of the screw when critiquing the media; those of you who’re waiting with bated breath for my return to football writing may find yourselves disappointed.

Finally, this new direction for my writing and this website will required me to spend a great deal less time promoting my work than I have in the past. Traditionally, for each full length essay I have been willing to devote an entire day, sometimes even two towards sharing my own content on various forms of social media as well as the periodic passing of the digital hat to fund my efforts. Unfortunately, this activity is not only a soul-sucking, humiliating experience that leaves me exhausted and angry – it’s also the single most time consuming thing I do that actively keeps me from writing. In order to refocus my energy where I feel it most needs to go, I’m going to try and spend a maximum of one hour in total, spread across a day or maybe two to advertise each piece and many articles will likely receive far less advertising than that. I’m also going to going to reduce fundraising posts on social media to once a week, perhaps pasted in two or three different places and instead post a paypal donation button and/or the link to my Patreon account at the bottom of each post.

I guess that’s where you guys come in – I’m going to need you to you to subscribe to the page and/or learn to check the front page of my Twitter account or again, my Patreon page. You’ll always be able to find my most recent story pinned my profile on Twitter and on the front of my profile page on Patreaon. Furthermore, I’d like to ask all of you who enjoy my work and think the things I’m writing about are important to also find the time to share these links on social media; I’ve put together a full page explaining how you can do so in our Spread the Word section, although I should warn you the language is a little salty. Finally, I’d like to ask y’all to understand that the paypal donation button on the bottom of each post is not an attempt to shake the last few nickles out of your pockets; please, always take care of yourself and your family before you consider donating to my website. More importantly however; please remember that I’m sincerely happy you’re reading and sharing my work – whether you donate or not.

It’s high time I got serious about fighting the wickedness I can’t help but see around me; as always thanks for your support and your understanding. Let’s drag these bastards into the light together.