Find Out Everything the Media Doesn't Tell You with this One Weird Trick
Part I of a V-part Series
I hope you’ve all enjoyed a joyful and peaceful Thanksgiving weekend. I have. I’m so thankful to all of you who’ve contributed to this newsletter. If it weren’t for you, I’d have figured no one wanted to read this and quit. Instead, I wake up every morning with a challenge—how do I keep them interested?
It’s hard to think of a better way for a writer to live.
I’m so happy and grateful for it. Thank you, all of you, so much.
Claire Berlinski’s Positive Thoughts
Some of you have written to tell me you think I’m “pearl-clutching,” or that these newsletters are too unrelentingly negative. (Can we retire the phrase “pearl-clutching?” It’s a cliché.)
But you’re right to say that I focus too much on the bad news. The book you’re reading is not, in fact, all bad news. It has the conventional tripartite structure of a non-fiction book, though. First I explicate the problem, then I show examples, then I offer solutions. I do have practical ideas for saving liberal democracy that you can try at home.
Transposed to a newsletter, though, this structure isn’t obvious. It seems as if it’s all bad news. You’re right to say that receiving newsletter after newsletter about the danger to liberal democracy and the decline of our culture—unrelieved by optimism or constructive suggestions—is depressing. It’s also not what I’m trying to say. I do think there’s cause for optimism. I even think this is a great time to be alive.
I’m therefore going to reorganize things and introduce some ideas for fixing things before I’ve fully demonstrated how badly things are in need of fixing. That, I think, will be better for your morale.
For example, in the coming days, I’ll reveal this one weird trick that will revolutionize the way you see the world.
You’re also complaining the newsletters are too long, and I reckon you’re right. You know that an ancient Chinese maxim that says that if seven sober people tell you you’re drunk, it’s time to lie down? Enough of you have now told me my newsletters are too long that I suspect I’d best take the complaint seriously.
Welcome to the new, shorter newsletter. (It will take me five of these to get to the one weird trick.)