103 Comments
Feb 27, 2022Liked by Freddie deBoer

This is my favorite substack, and I lean right. The variety of topics, the freshness of perspectives, the beautiful writing, and the quality of commenters here are top notch. Here's to another great year. May your subscriptions be fruitful and multiply!

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Congrats. $50 is highway robbery for the consistent quality content Freddie puts up. Pay up people!

Also, I made a goal to read more books this year. I've only been a part of the book club for 1 book but it's been a great way to keep motivated (the discussions are usually better than the readings). I also never would've picked the last book myself, which is nice. I expect I'll be crossing off my "read more books" goal at the end of the year thanks in large part to FdB.

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For the love of God man, move out of NYC to a low cost of living area and put half of your income into savings. The future of this place can’t be predicted. Move to Tennessee, or move in with Glenn Greenwald in Brazil. Just get out of NYC and build that nest egg!

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Congratulations on the first year! Hopefully the first of many.

I can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on Confederacy - my favorite novel.

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Congratulations on one year. I'm certainly hoping we get many more.

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Feb 27, 2022·edited Feb 27, 2022

I’m all signed up. Don’t forget to set up your SEP IRA! A nice target dated fund (Vanguard VFIFX 2050) the would be a good choice. Don’t forget! Don’t put it off!

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Dude, I'm sincerely happy.

Not just for you, but for all of us. Your landing on Substack was one of the best things that came out of the last 2 years' crap fest, and however well you're doing is more than vastly deserved.

I enjoy everything you write (even the statistics stuff - when it doesn't fly galaxies over my head), and I'm a faithful follower of your burgeoning side gig as a podcast guest! ;-)

I especially enjoy your writing about music, I think weirdly *because* of the fact that my old fart vanilla tastes couldn't diverge more wildly from yours.

Sorry I didn't join the Book Club voting - I do tend to lurk. I believe my nickname leaves little to be guessed about my proclivities though.

Take care, and be sure that lots of us out there love you.

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A short story club would be a nice addendum to the book club. Maybe a nice palate cleanser in between books.

Also, what's up with The Buried Book? I'm on chapter 3 now. It's kind of a slog, to be honest. The subject matter is interesting, but the writing is...not.

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Congratulations. And keep up the great work.

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I’m never un-subscribing, never. Best substack ever.

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Congratulations on your first year! I’m grateful for the thought-provoking posts and civil discussion, and I’m looking forward to another great year!

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founding

Congratulations! I’m so pleased that the newsletter will continue. Best value on Substack by miles.

I’m excited for the book club pick too. Everyone should join—the weekly reading assignments are super short and reasonable, just a few chapters at a time. And the discussions are loads of fun.

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For some reason I distinctly remember reading a newspaper online for the first time in 1995 (probably the Washington Post) and thinking "why are they giving this to me for free?". It never made sense to me and I don't know why it made sense to them. They conditioned everyone into thinking that the newspapers online should be free and dug their own graves.

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The guy who called TV a “vast wasteland” couldn’t have imagined in his most dystopian dreams what cultural production online has become. FdB, Taibbi, Wesley Yang are lights in a thickening darkness. It’s we who should be saying thanks.

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Congratulations FdB.

PLEASE SAVE YOUR WORK OFFLINE!

Pay walls. Two ways to avoid:

1) use your local PL (you'd be surprised how much they have!) or community college or university library's e-collection.

2) if you edit Wikipedia you can gain access to a lot of resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library

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Feb 27, 2022·edited Feb 27, 2022

Disregarding the $200 lump sum category, do you prefer subscribers to take a monthly or annual subscription? Logically a higher amount more evenly distributed is better, but maybe the peace of mind of having the money banked from long term subscriptions is preferred?

I pay monthly. Happy to keep doing so or go annual if it reduces any concerns about maintaining numbers or gives you more confidence in making any hires you're considering.

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