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Apparently the latest fad for influential opinion leaders such as myself is to lash out at our Twitter critics. A literary reference is de rigueur,¹ and Notes From Underground has already been taken. So here goes:

Call me Devin.² Online tantrum throwers have been around forever, and I don’t think anything has changed recently except that instead of being able to bellyache only in the privacy of your own home where I’m blissfully unaware of it, Twitter allows you to direct your flames and shitposting where I can see them. However, I mute you all regularly and rarely see your cutting remarks, so we’re back to you yelling into the abyss but the abyss not caring.³ I recommend this to everybody.

And that’s about it. You may all pretend that I’ve added 750 words of pseudo-anthropological filler to explain the meaning of it all and fill up a column.

¹This is French for “required by etiquette or current fashion.” Don’t you guys know anything?

²If you don’t get this, you are either ignorant of Great American Novels or Great American Internet Memes. Either way, shame on you.

³This is an erudite allusion to Nietzsche’s quip that “If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” which was directed at the shitposters of his day.

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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