How Bloggers Are Paid

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Blogs are a weird thing. No, look… When I was young, I wanted to be a journalist. I’ll wait till you stop hissing.

The thing is, I wanted to be a real journalist. And because I grew up with all sorts of books set in the thirties and forties, I both believed that journalists would tell the truth and that they had a pathway where they came up by doing obituaries and flower shows and worked up to investigating homicides and crooked politicians.

Weirdly interning for a newspaper over three months, as part of my journalism class in high school didn’t dissuade me. I worked in the morgue where I did research for people, basically. And that was fine.

It was becoming more aware of newspapers, and how slanted they were, and also the interview where I was told I was politically biased and they couldn’t hire me, when in fact I was politically un-biased that dissuaded me and shut that door.

Just as well, since journalism was probably never what I thought.

But the weird thing is that in a way I’m a journalist now, though more of an editorial opinion writer. In a way that I couldn’t have figured out when I was young. No, seriously, much amusement is derived from mentally writing a skit in which I go back in time and explain it to young me. “No, no, you won’t work for someone. You just get on the computer and you have your own site where you blather and anyone can read it.”

It is beyond my creativity to imagine explaining to young me the idea of my readers enjoying my typos. (And that’s a smack on the hand with a ruler for every misspelling, Miss Almeida is how I grew up. And let me tell you remembering which way the little accents were supposed to lean was more than tone-deaf me could tell. Of course they’ve now modernized and got rid of accents. When it’s no good to young me. The bastiches.)

Anyway, I think bloggers provide a service people like. Or if they don’t, they have no readers. Our audience is — like the audience for indie books — the purest form of market there is. “I either produce value or no one reads it.”

Given the audience on this blog (I get fewer pings, dropped over night. Seems to be a google counting this.) of around 4k a day give or take, whatever the heck I’m doing (how would I know?) seems to have an audience.

Now if I were doing this for a newspaper, first of all, I wouldn’t be doing a column a day, and second it would be a regular paycheck. I could be entirely deceived on this (why not?) but the impression I had of such jobs is that they paid decentish middle-class type salaries.

Here’s the thing: blogs don’t pay like that.

Blogs pay one of two ways: by having people donate money, or by advertising products. I do some of the second, but honestly, it makes about enough to take my husband out to eat once or twice a month. I do the promo posts because it helps people, but Amazon doesn’t pay bounties on books by and large, so….

Anyway that’s fine. I choose to write the blog. And I didn’t stop even when it paid nothing.

However, I think we can agree that it is a service that has a value. What the value is is up to the readers to determine.

The other part of this is what this blog is.

It’s not as…. bad anymore — for the times they are achanging — because there are things like indie publishing for my fiction, but also because there is a turn of some sort going on in the culture.

But it is still counter-cultural, and against the overculture imposed by the self-proclaimed elite. Who still control much of… everything.

There are signposts on “how crazy is it for me to be doing this?”

The weird stuff attendant on our having to leave to Colorado (or the timing. We were leaving because of the health already, but if we could have taken a year to move it would have been less costly and traumatizing) has never been fully explained.

The fact we were once denied renter insurance because the agent looked at my blog, and said it was too risk…

But most of all, you’d best believe there was a price: in lost work, lost opportunities, and the danger thereof for both me and my family. Even without considering anything more melodramatic.

If you go against the established, loud beliefs of “the good people” you’re either crazy or dangerous and probably both. People hiring you or associating with you might hesitate to do either.

Sometime ago I got in a fight on twitter with someone who disapproved of Glenn Reynolds of instapundit doing fund raising because he’s a law professor and takes expensive vacations. Therefore he “doesn’t need it.”

But that’s not the point, is it? It’s not need. I did one fundraiser in need.

The others? I do because I provide a service every day. I get up and I have to post. or I’m working till midnight on a post the day before. One or the other. Every day. (And you should ask my husband how much he approves of this.) Including on our recent trip. I’d be typing in the car, or late any night in a hotel. No vacation unless I get enough guest posts to take a break.

And the thing is, as well or as badly as us, bloggers to do right of Lenin, do in our day jobs (well, it should be easier now that I’m over the nine month sinus infection with attendant cough that kept me awake at night. How bad was it? I had to sleep with a cough drop in my mouth and woke up coughing when it was gone, then put another one in. Yes, like that. For nine months. I should be able to get books out. That’s my dayjob.) I GUARANTEE to you we all missed opportunities because our politics are known. We ALL even the boss at instapundit have to work much harder than we would to do well at our day jobs if our politics were secret or left. All of us have paid the price for sticking out our necks.

Most of us can’t or won’t give you specific instances. Some of them I know only through gossip, and can’t substantiate. Others… well…. you have to guess what happened by the negative shape of things that should have happened.

But all of us have these. And if you compare histories the pattern becomes d*mn obvious.

Because you see, there is a price for sticking your neck out, for breaking the chorus of approved opinions. For being the nail that sticks out.

Now, you’ll say, that was our decision. You’re not obligated to compensate us.

You’re right. You’re not.

Heck, for years I took the entire cost of it because it was my choice. I refused to do a fundraiser. Until I realized it affected my family too. And while they never complained, it d*mn well wasn’t THEIR choice.

The point is, though why do a fundraiser rests on two things:

1- is the service worth it to you.

2- do you think it’s worth to compensate people who take the risk to stick out, so that not everyone has to sing the same song from the same “approved” songbook?

The idea of the lost opportunities, the stomping down on those who dissent, is to make them examples, to prevent them from being perceived as someone to emulate.
If you’re okay with that, you should do nothing. If you aren’t, you should do what you can to compensate those who dare stand out.
That’s all.

Now, my particular fundraiser: I know I’m dismal at follow-through on rewards, though arguably that is mostly due to wretched health these last few years. That HAS been getting better though, and I will try to do better going forward.

Yes, I am aware I still have tuckerizations to do, and they are coming, though it needs my writing books with “normal world” names. Which are planned.

And I have plans for the substack.

However, the options this year will be much clearer and easier. We’ll go into that on the fourth. Not today.

For today I’m just sticking to explaining why bloggers fundraise. And how I view it.

And that’s it.

Not an emergency, and I don’t wish anyone to hurt themselves to contribute. But if you can, if the service provided is valuable to you, consider contributing anyway.

And no, not starting today. Will start on the fourth. This is more a “think about it” for now.

175 thoughts on “How Bloggers Are Paid”

  1. “And let me tell you remembering which way the little accents were supposed to lean was more than tone-deaf me could tell.”

    LOL! It was only two years ago that I realized that when I printed Q’s I put the little notch to the left instead of the right. I’m just backwards like that.

    The twitterite who wrote about Glenn Reynolds not “needing” the money has clearly internalized the insane Marxist dogma of “From each according his means, to each according to his needs.” No, no, you fool, “The workman deserves his pay.”

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            1. If you get a chance (they seem to be seasonally available in stores where I live), try Steelhead Trout. Like Salmon, they migrate to salt water until ready to breed, then travel back to their spawning place. Their taste is rather similar to salmon, but it is a bit lighter and less oily.

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    3. Now see, I’m the weird person who puts capital Qs everywhere when I’m printing, even in the middle of words. I have no idea how to make a lower case, print Q.

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      1. LOL! When I’m forced off my computer, I usually print (my handwriting is frequently illegible even to me), and I print in all caps, cuz I’m deficient in the coordination department. Also I try to avoid typing on my phone cuz my thumb is so big it presses three letters at once. At least, for once, AI saves me (if I’m careful) by suggesting the next word. Sometimes it even gets it right. :)

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          1. Dead metaphor alert: I found out recently that “mind your Ps and Qs” is from WWII ration books.

            “All your “t”s are crossed and “i”s are dotted” is very nearly dead, too. I write my grocery lists in cursive, just so I don’t forget how.

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            1. It’s older than that. Tolkien used it in a story for his children between the wars.

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            2. Somewhere, somehow, “mind your P’s and Q’s” got into my head as being an admonition to typesetters, back in the days when that was done by hand.

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            3. Actually, it’s from pubs. “Mind your pints and quarts” means disengage from whatever dispute is looking like turning into a brawl, settle down and drink up.

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  3. As I’ve mentioned, we had a seriously interesting winter starting last February. Lost the barn’s chimney stack, the dog kennel roof (and maybe posts), and a bunch of trees with broken limbs, many of those the infamous “widowmakers” of the forest.

    The barn’s chimney is done (along with a much needed redo of the entire system), the kennel will used recycled deck boards for a pergola roof (no need to protect puppies anymore; we’re too old for non-adult doggos), and the tree people are coming today. Best count, we have 5 really dangerous trees (ie, hanging branches in the 100+ pound range), and a like amount of lesser. Full crew at $Yikes/hour plus $Yikes fixed costs, but weather says it’ll have to be only the really bad ones. Long way of saying that we’ll have a good idea of the budget after today. Still, we’re doing OK.

    I’m in. No idea of amount, but the check will be in the mail.

    (A friend is in dire need of firewood after his collection efforts got interrupted by open heart surgery. Since I have more than a lifetime’s supply already, and three full-grown pine trunks, I can help. Also, a neighbor wants some of the extra. He’s going to have to move that himself. Win-win. They get firewood, I get a less cluttered property. Too many acres to call it a yard.)

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    1. It wasn’t bad, considering how many trees were how badly damaged. Pain level well within expectations.

      With luck, I can make the check human readable. :)

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        1. I have impressive amounts of cutand/or broken branches all around the formerly damaged trees. I already have the t-shirt, and the chainsaw, and the space to put the results. Not sure about the energy, but it’s been a strenuous period. Can’t burn until Fall sometime, so no huge rush, mostly.

          OTOH, when I burn the few dozen piles, I can achieve the same carbon footprint as Leonardo DiCaprio does in a mile of private jet travel. Nice double digital salute for the Green Nude Heel crowd.

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  4. “Now if I were doing this for a newspaper, first of all, I wouldn’t be doing a column a day, and second it would be a regular paycheck. I could be entirely deceived on this (why not?) but the impression I had of such jobs is that they paid decentish middle-class type salaries.”

    According to Lileks, it did. Not any more. He posted on Monday that he took a buyout and is now a former newspaperman. This while on vacation in Italy. He’s always going somewhere, so you know there was money in his job. Although I think Mrs. Lileks makes pretty good money. He’s always had the Bleat and has a place to donate, same as Stacy McCain. McCain makes a joke out of telling you to hit the tip jar on a constant basis, while Lileks asks meekly. I don’t begrudge any blogger asking for money, I just don’t have the excess funds to donate much. Every site I visit has value to me. I just try to talk them up in comments at other sites to try to build traffic for them. It’s the best I can do at this time.

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  5. You know I’m in. Gotta keep you and the family happy at least long enough to find out how a secretary bird and an emu ended up with a Dragonette. (I have my theories involving long-dormant DNA, but who knows?)

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  6. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

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  7. I think the hard part is getting up in the morning and reading articles on 25 websites. Who do you tip and who don’t you? Choice overload theory AND ease of access comes i to play. I don’t have to subscribe to get it sent.

    I run into the same thing on Sustack. Read four or five good articles, who gets the subscription.

    Advantage of the old newspaper model was I got national news, local news, sports, entertainment, the comics, the crosswords, and grocery coupons, all for one price. So I haven’t subscribed to any. I try to buy the books if they are authors but i havebto like their books. Helps if they are on KU.

    a tip jar seems like a good idea. End each post with “help if you can, tip jar on the right”. Substack subscription model is the worst, IMHO, because I have to commit to paying them each month, even if I stop reading, or remember to cancel. Plus it adds up fast.

    conclusion after my very long TLDR post? I don’t really have one. Hope it works out and I’ll throw something in the tip jar for all the articles I’ve read over the years.

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      1. which doesn’t resolve the issue of who to pay. If I support IP do the contributors get compensated? Do they get compensated to the extent that I enjoy their work? Not I terested in funding Ed Driscoll’s excessively long copy/paste contributions, for example (nothing against Ed). 😁

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        1. InstaPundit (including Ed) gets paid about like Sarah does, through ads (and I include click through Amazon links in that) and donations. He has a high enough volume of traffic for it to be profitable, apparently.

          PJ Media: Some of the same, although their VIP category is a paid subscription service for the privileges of commenting and access to more content. Beyond that, they MAY have other backers.

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  8. GimmeGimmeGimmeBegBegBeg….

    Sorry, but I began feeling you were about to ask for $$.

    Yes, you’ve earned it. I also read you to see what Portugal was like when you were growing up there and I thought you came here and learned English as an adult. So you learned about journalism in Portugal (they had high schools!) and I remember your writing that many neighbors didn’t have electricity.. OK I had friends who went to Portugal and Spain to see steam trains and electric old streetcars in the ’60’s and ’70’s. Delightfully backward places..so was and is Canada!

    All in all, you have interesting observations. I’m not fond of SciFi but family members read some. Maybe I should buy a book or two to help you out. I usually comment under stage names. I tried doing some things under my real name and DISQUS doxxed me which is why I hate DISQUS.

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    1. To explain: Yes, Portugal had schools. (Geesh. Europe.)
      Also I learned English at 14. Came here first at 18 as an exchange student, then later at 22 when I married my husband.
      Electricity was hit or miss. We had it early but it went down a lot in summer. Also indoor bathrooms were iffy where I lived.
      I understand no worse than Apalachia.
      I’m not asking for money today. Yes, I will do a fundraiser on July 4th for two weeks.
      I try to do only two weeks, so I don’t have to have it in people’s faces ALL THE TIME>

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  9. “Pay what you want” is a perfectly cromulent business model, and it always astounds me that some people think it isn’t.

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      1. Oh, I think it’s great for bloggers, streamers, and anyone else who creates things outside a paywall. I’m baffled at the people who get upset when, say, Glenn Reynolds rattles the tip jar on occasion. It’s like standing in front of a street musician shouting, “Nobody pay this man! He should be doing it for free!”

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  10. I was denied any custody of my sons almost entirely due to my anti-Feminist blogs. The militant Feminist social worker claimed that my blogs whereat I explained the reality of the institutionalized wickedness unleashed against me on behalf of my deceitful and slanderous ex-wife were proof that I was not acting in the best interest of my sons. The feminists would have it that it was in the best interest of my sons that I be publicly slandered and take the blame for everything I was eventually able to prove in court to be false. For me to publish the truth to combat the false accusations published against me, was justification to deny me access to my sons to assure I would pay the maximum allowable amount of child-support.

    Anyhow, I like your website, Sarah, I even link to it, but I am now doing my best to make sure I don’t give women anything more than what they have already stolen from me during my ongoing years of indentured servitude. Bros before sisters! It is now my life’s goal to make sure you lose the battle of the sexes. Not you personally, but you women collectively. Try to enjoy what womankind stole from men like me while it lasts, because the natural good will that I once had towards women is gone, or at least I’m doing my very best to banish it all from my life.

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    1. That’s a travesty. I hope you find some measure of justice, or at least peace.

      Regarding your second point, consider saving your ire for the people who deserve it. There’s no shortage of liars, abusers, and enablers, but painting with too broad a brush only alienates potential allies.

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      1. Thank you for your kind words, brother.

        I have been an upright and Godfearing man my entire life, and then for the crime of forgiving and marrying a woman who wasn’t, I’ve had my business, life, reputation, and legacy destroyed. For my good I was only given evil in return. My wife who refused me sex for an entire year, claimed I was a “sex addict” because I still wanted to receive that one thing for sharing half of everything I had with her. Furthermore, she claimed that then made me a danger to my sons. And the Feminist lady judge granted her every wish and kept my sons from seeing me for a long time, during which my ex-wife and whole bastion of people worked to alienate my sons from me. Seven years later I still don’t have any contact with my oldest son whom I have now been told is claiming to be gender-fluid. Both of my sons have been damaged greatly by what was unleased on our family for “No-Fault”.

        I had no allies. Nobody stood up for me. Not even people who had known me for my whole life. Anybody claiming to be my ally now is a day late and a dollar short.

        Women started a war against patriarchy/men and the ability of fathers like me to exercise some modicum of rule over our own homes. In the war of the sexes my vote is that we carpet bomb all women until we get unconditional surrender. It’s a war. They made it a war. They dropped the bomb on me when I was as innocent a man as exists in this depraved generation. If they can crucify me for the crime of being masculine and not ashamed of it, what male is safe to grow up to fulfill his natural longing to become a patriarch?

        If this woman here, or that woman there, surrenders to this aspect or that aspect of God’s holy order of patriarchy, good for them, but I feel the entire sex should be treated as enemy combatants until such time as they have collectively had the fight taken out of them and are returned to subjection. I now despise the lie of equality of the sexes. God set the superior sex as head in the best interest of everyone, but arrogant women who think themselves wiser than God have sought to usurp men. It is my intention to spend the rest of my life proclaiming the inherent natural superiority of the male sex and our divine right to exercise dominion in the very image of God our Father.

        The fact that women and their complicit simps have worked to so demoralized my son that he would no longer even wish to maintain the dignity inherent in his own natural gender is appalling to me. Women need to be crushed under the heel like that serpent of old, whom they still serve, by usurping against the image of God. (1 Corinthians 11:7)

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        1. What you are actually saying “Regardless of whether I agree with someone or not, they’re all guilty for having been born with a vagina.”
          Then the rational action for ANY woman would be to be at war with YOU personally. (Not with men, because men in general are not brain dead.)
          Also, dear Feds you need to up your game. Some of the attempts to sow dissension here are too entirely laughable.

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          1. To be fair, this is the first one who does Bible citations do justify his silliness. Fed or a buddy of the Volksdeutch Expatriate, do you think?

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            2. Not very good, either way– there’s theological arguments that would be far sounder than this, though they wouldn’t align with his more… Iranian… twists.

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                1. Russia’s been sending out nags to Catholic blogs for at least 15 years, they show up and complain about the Church and then wax poetic about how wonderfully manly Putin is and how real men will become Orthodox.

                  They really don’t like when you point out that Putin’s puff-photos make him look like a man’s man. Like, really into guys…..

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          2. What you are actually saying “Regardless of whether I agree with someone or not, they’re all guilty for having been born with a vagina.”

            Yes, inasmuch as I was guilty for having been blessed with a prodigious penis. I didn’t start this war. Tertullian also taught that all women were born guilty and should go about penitently in this life. After what I’ve been through only now am I able to consider that he was right about that. Like you, I would have thought him just crazy or bitter before. However, you also have to believe his same underlying beliefs to come to that same realization that he did.

            I wish I was sponsored by the feds. But they couldn’t ever pay me to be as pissed off as I am for having my sons stolen for No-Fault other than my sex.

            Anyhow, I’m not mad at you, in fact I’m quite proud of most of what you do here. However, I need to put the whole female sex back in its place to restore God’s holy order of patriarchy. So sexually we are on opposing sides of a war of the sexes, that I did not choose to start. But I will battle back, and I’m not planning on reenacting “Summer of My German Soldier”.

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            1. Tertullian also taught that all women were born guilty and should go about penitently in this life.

              You apparently missed the part of Original Sin where is applies to all descendants of Adam…….

              So sexually we are on opposing sides of a war of the sexes, that I did not choose to start.

              Holy fuck you are such a woman.

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              1. Huh. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but the dude argues like the most toxic women I have ever known. All about grievance and group blame.

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                1. It’s usually that way; people who scream incessantly about how the opposite sex is the root of all evil almost always personify the very worst traits which they decry in the other.

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            3. Ah, you believed the feminists when they said there’s a war between the sexes. They’re still victimizing you. They want you to become a snarling ball of misogyny because it helps them. You’re lashing out at women who might have taken your side. It isolates you, and it helps the feminists recruit. They can point at you and say, “See? We were right about men.”

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            4. If you’re going to go in for second century north African heretic for your quotes, you should probably try reading Ad uxorem instead of trusting a paraphrased quote from De cultu feminarum.

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            6. Mote, beam, eye.

              Women should not obey men who teach them to sin. In particular, by claiming you are right to do others what was wrong to do to you, you are setting a bad example.

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            7. However, I need to put the whole female sex back in its place to restore God’s holy order of patriarchy.

              Talk about exceeding your authority…

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          3. Are we sure this isn’t actually a Rabid Feminist making up a caricature of all the worst aspects of ‘Toxic Masculinity’? Because the rants sure are getting more toxic as they go on.

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            2. Yeah, but how many of them would be familiar with 2nd century heretics? They tend to be pretty provincial and deeply ignorant.

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              1. Tertullian is one of the “prove Christianity is deeply hateful to women” go-to quote sources, always without context and generally with massive playing telephone, in some cases just flatly made up and then attributed to him.

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          4. I am sure of one thing. If this is for real, if there is somebody out there that actually believes in the content of these shitposts, she/he/it should be kept far away from any impressionable children. Or impressionable adults, for that matter.

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            1. Sadly, I can believe that this person actually believes that nonsense.

              Elsewhere, I encountered a person who believe Christianity was for Whites Only and especially not for Black Africans.

              That person continued that nonsense for much longer than this current person has in the face of strong disagreement. ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

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              1. ((scratches head))

                Dafuq? A specifically, explicitly universal and proselytizing religion, restricted to a single phenotype?

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        2. And yet, He commands that we forgive. As He does.

          Yup. Tough to do My own disaster of a marriage isn’t much of a positive example. But that burning fire of hatred isnt burning them. It burns -us-.

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        3. Um, maybe you could clear up a slight misunderstanding, for me?

          The intended result of your post is to make the rabid feminist social worker (spit) look like they were in the right after all, right?

          Women need to be crushed under the heel like that serpent of old, whom they still serve, by usurping against the image of God. (1 Corinthians 11:7)

          Says a man who is doing exactly what Adam did in that passage that got him cast out.

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          1. If he attacks all women he’s a fed
            If he thinks there’s a war between men and women
            He’s a fed
            If posts like he wants to get you fighting with each other
            He’s a fed
            (A not particularly competent one)

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          2. If he wants the sexes fighting he’s a fed!
            If he wants the sexes fighting he’s a fed!
            If he wants the sexes fighting and old drama he’s reciting
            If he wants the sexes fighting he’s a fed!

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        5. sigh. This is a lovely example of the kind of nonsense that led me to become a Buddhist after vacation bible school when I was eleven. Yes, I realize there are people who think like this. You cause suffering for yourself, and suffering for others. Stop.

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            1. I never quite got that – isn’t forgiveness/redemption literally the *point* of Christianity?

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              1. It is. The problem is to get there you have to admit that you need it to be forgiven and redeemed. (And that’s leaving out the whole ‘and this offer is to ALL humans’ and all those implications.) They get stuck on what got you to the ‘need to be forgiven and redeemed’ and stop there and beat everyone else with it without looking at themselves. And without taking the step of “The whole point of talking about what you did wrong is so the rest of it can happen.”

                And there’s also sets of why forgivness (In the sense of ‘setting aside greviences’ not the more modern ‘now you must be a rug for people to beat.’) is needed. Which, honestly, we’re getting full case in point of what damage that refusing to set aside the grievances does to a person.

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              2. Not just “forgive” but “love”.

                I fall -way- short. Guilty. But trying to improve self. Day by day steps. Glad I have a Redeemer of such magnatude. Oh so very needed in my case.

                That rather confused poster is facing some rather unpleasant Judgement if he persists on the path his words suggest. Not to mention all the self inflicted damage he gets to experience along the way.

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                1. Honestly, dude, there are days where I am very glad that, being Jewish, I’m not called upon to forgive and love.

                  Righteous fury tempered with mercy is, in many ways, much easier.

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                    1. Umm… is that the right reference? That’s the passage talking about telling your buddy if he is screwing up, both to help him fix it and to not get resentful and start being a jackass yourself.

                      I swear, so much of the Torah is “guys, don’t be jackasses.” “No, seriously.” “Look, I really mean it ((sends a war or plague))”

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                    3. Well, yes. “In your heart” here refers to keeping it quiet. The teaching is that if you see your friend/neighbour/etc committing sinful acts, you aren’t supposed to just start thinking “he’s a bad person” and go along your way, you are supposed to actively go and help him stop sinning – presumably something is going on (either he isn’t thinking about what he is doing, or he is facing some circumstances, etc). The danger also is that if you start thinking of him as a bad person, you are likely to be harsh or uncaring towards him towards him, which may then push you into sinful behaviour.

                      I don’t need to like him, or even really forgive him – but I am obligated to help him recover from sinful behaviour.

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                    5. Because it’s about not allowing yourself to be quietly resentful and disdainful of someone who falls into sin. I’m required to point out his issues and offer to help, not just think “what an ass” and allow him to sink. If he tells me to piss off, or tries to take advantage, I have no more obligation to him in this matter. I am still allowed to think he is a jackass and despise him, but in the end, he is more or less just hurting himself, and no longer being involved in the matter, I am not in danger of sinning in reaction to him.

                      This is separate from a person who commits harms against me. That dude I can pursue to destruction, with rage and vengeance (or at least to the extent that the law allows – an eye for an eye is a limiting factor to prevent clan wars, after all)

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                    6. But it doesn’t say “You shall not hate your brother in your heart as long as he sins against other people.”

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                    7. Correct – it says you are supposed to confront him about his sins, not hold it private.

                      “hate” in this case isn’t about love/hate/forgiveness – Hebrew is weird for this, some of these translations are stupidly context based. In this case, it comes down to “don’t be passive aggressive, because that will lead you into sinful behaviour as well, say or do something to put the guy on the right track if you can”.

                      I’m not required to forgive him if he wrongs me, I’m not required to love him. How I feel about him is utterly irrelevant. I am only commanded to try and turn him from sin and make sure that I don’t commit sinful acts because of him.

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                    9. “in your heart” in this context is an expression meaning “held privately/silently”. State of mind doesn’t enter into it, only the action is important.

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                    11. No, seriously, I’m not sure what the relevance of that is. To be fair, being Jewish, my NT knowledge is fairly limited. If you could elaborate, I would appreciate it.

                      Mary C: I think we may be arguing past each other. As I understand it, Christianity is very focused on the state of mind. Judaism practically ignores it except to warn that if your state of mind is lousy, lousy behaviour will generally follow, and that certain acts (such as prayer) need to be mental as much as physical or they’re meaningless. We are operating under completely different paradigms.

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                    12. Simply an example of how that figure of speech is used, and possibly where it came from.

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                    13. Therefore, you should not hate your brother privately/silently.

                      That appears to be the opposite of what you say in the next sentence.

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                    14. How so? I’m not required to not hate him, I’m merely required to not be a passive aggressive jerk instead of trying to fix the situation. Ideally? Sure, hate is corrosive and tends to lead one down bath pathways, and if you can avoid it, so much the better – but that’s not what is required of me by this passage.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    16. And? Just repeating the line adds nothing to this. I happily stipulate that your (and presumably the general Christian) interpretation is wildly divergent from the traditional Jewish interpretation of the passage. That goes back to my original point – as a Jew, I’m not called on to forgive and love those who wrong me and mine. Hate is stupid, and fury should be tempered by mercy lest it go too far and lead one into committing acts that violate the Law. But love and forgiveness are not required.

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                    17. You do remember that you explicitly denied that you had a duty to not hate your brother?

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                    18. Correct. I can hate him all I like. It’s corrosive and I probably shouldn’t because it will likely push me into sinful behaviour, but I have no actual duty to not hate him. Outside of a very few specific circumstances (eg. prayer), my state of mind has absolutely no relevance to my duties, except insofar as it may interfere with the performance thereof.

                      My actual duty is to, rather think “what a turd” and just stay silent and let him fall into lawbreaking (ie. “hold hatred in my heart”), try and rebuke/correct him. My feeling about him are utterly irrelevant, I am required to tell him he is performing sinful acts on the assumption that talking to him may turn him aside. The Jewish tradition is very clear on this.

                      I’m not sure why this is difficult to understand, aside from the fact that the text uses an idiom that becomes ambiguous in translation.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    19. I swear, so much of the Torah is “guys, don’t be jackasses.” “No, seriously.” “Look, I really mean it ((sends a war or plague))”

                      Or there’s always the view of “Don’t be jackasses, or you’ll reap what you sow.” I figure that’s what most of it is, God trying to explain physics to a toddler. “If you hold your ice cream like that, it’s going to fall.” Ice cream falls. Toddler blames God for taking away their ice cream.

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                    20. Accurate summary:

                      G-d “Don’t do the thing”

                      Humansd “We did the thing”

                      G-d, reaching for an advil “guys….”

                      Liked by 2 people

        6. Your hurt is understandable. Your reaction is self-destructive. No woman reading this could take your side, nor any man who loves a woman. How could they? You offer them only contempt for something the vast majority had no hand in.

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            1. I opted for brevity. He’s backed himself into a nasty corner where the only allies he’s going to find are men just as hurt as he is. That’s not enough for a movement but just enough to make some bad decisions.

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              1. The backing himself into a corner happened when — it sure sounds like from his comments — he decided to cheat on his wife.

                Present day is more like do not ever be around him unless you are armed or have people you can trust with you, do not turn your back on him, frankly you should be ready to draw at a moment’s notice.

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          2. I understand your position and your insight. I don’t anticipate many will join me on my narrow way, and I didn’t comment here to recruit or to convert folks, so much as to provide myself as a somewhat spiritual object lesson. That if you deprive a father of his son, you’ll find you have literal hell to pay.

            As far as being “self-destructive”; I was already destroyed. Most everything I once wanted in this life was snatched from my realm of possibilities. I died to myself, to my former ambitions. I have rediscovered myself as a change agent preparing the way for the inevitable return of God’s holy order of patriarchy. Yes, I realize things may get worse before they get better. God is a holy patriarchy, a Father turning over all power to his Son. And God eventually returns to restore his patriarchal order on earth, as it is in heaven. Feminism and the Feminist quest to “smash the patriarchy” is just satanic rebellion against God and His holy order, nothing less — nothing more.

            As for “contempt”, I’ll admit we live in an immoral generation of wickedness, not the least of which is the satanic usurping of Feminism, and I have contempt for the wicked, and for their wickedness, and for those who abet it, and I have little use for those who only stand by and watch. However, I don’t have contempt for the female sex itself, I just recognize it to be the second sex created inferior and to serve the first sex that was created to rule in the image of the divine Father and His Son. So just as children are inferior to adults, so too are women inferior to men, and men are vastly inferior to God. But none of that recognition of people’s relative rank is contempt even if people might take it poorly. Half of the secret to contentment in life is knowing your place, what you should strive for and what things are not fitting for you.

            have you noticed how the more of men’s traditional rights uppity women grasp the less content they are? God holds them in derision. They’re their own worst enemy. I counsel women to repent and return to the ways of God.

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            1. I’m not going to wade into the theology, but please consider whether you are thinking with your head or your heart. As an outside observer, all of this reads like rationalization brought about by a very deep wound. Even if you are right about the place of a woman, you don’t seem ready to love one for who she is or treat her justly. Those are both prerequisites for a man’s place in the order you hope to bring about.

              Regardless, I hope you find what you need.

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            2. The hand flogging you is your own. Your woe is self inflicted. Perhaps stop. Not to late to turn aside wrath.

              Liked by 1 person

    2. blink, blink, blink.
      This is an idiot quest. Also very Marxist. You’re attacking a whole category of people under the belief we are all widgets.
      Are you sure you weren’t denied custody due to being mentally deficient?????

      Liked by 1 person

      1. He is contemptuous of you and all like you. He has hijacked this forum for his own rage-driven vengence-quest. He was given his chance to covnerse with you, his host, and has scorned you in your own place.

        Tolerance and forgiveness are a good. But you are also quite free and very justified to ban his rude butt.

        Power and position without manners are an obscenity. If he wants to pretend to that station he claims, he owes, bigtime, an apology for his conduct to you.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Follow through on rewards? Dude, we get like 250ish days/year of entertainment and culture from your blog. That’s the reward…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Exactly — for me, the entertainment from ONLY the blog (well, and from the comments & community) is more than adequate reward!

      I certainly respect your sense of obligation to carry through with what you’ve promised in the past.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. I did tell you that ALL THREE Miso grandbabies are pure white like their daddy, except a dark spot on the heads of two of them?

            And one of them is an explorer like his uncle. His eyes aren’t even open yet and he managed to get himself inside the futon cushion next to his mother’s nest.

            Liked by 1 person

      4. I -expect- nothing. Lots of wants. (grin)

        Seriously, though. Lots of folks like the silly blingthings. They are not hugely expensive to procure, are cheap to ship, do not spoil or draw vermin, and seem to draw money out of surprisingly miserly pockets.

        For example, I would pay up to a C-note for the prior descibed Indy/flag-portion coin. Becase shiny. (Contemplates the 2-7 Inf coin in his wallet since the day received. And the simple white poker chip from another bunch of associates.)

        Liked by 1 person

  13. will you do it the same way as last time? Givesendgo if I remember correctly. I don’t get opportuning emails from them so that seemed to work well.

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          1. That’s my preference, too. Please re-list the PO Box, or whatever might have replaced it, when you make the formal announcement.

            Liked by 1 person

  14. If there’s a place at which one determines one gains value from hanging out at, club dues are reasonable, with no conceivable regard for the financial standing of anyone else involved.

    If one gets heartburn at paying for Sarah’s words, pay then for the gain you get from virtually being here.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That App would have been interesting back when I was driving truck. (now retired)

      There were places where I wondered how many of the workers were in the country legally. The scary places, though, were the places where I wondered if any of the workers were there of their own free will.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Tree planting crews. Hint of ICE meant entire crews scattering into the woods. This was late ’70s, and again early ’90s. Contract companies were legit. Their hires? Questionable, sometimes. Sometimes the crews were here on temporary ag work visas.

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  17. So… I know I’ll need to do some major edits before I advertise; but I’ve forgotten the email/link to request a spot in the promo column?

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    1. Don’t worry, happens a lot.

      email to bookpimping at outlook dot com

      Have the amazon link.

      If you forget again and don’t want to ask, it’s on the book promo posts.

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    2. Look at the top of the promo post. I give it every week. (I’m dyslexic, so I’d have to bring it up to be sure I’m not reversing words or something.)

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  18. Interestign statue.

    “Patrick Stewart Begs for Script Ideas for ‘Picard’ that Do Not Stink Like Rotting Skunk”

    Liked by 1 person

  19. The price for not speaking out is enslavement, either with real shackles, or with the invisible ones of fear, guilt, and shame.

    Shunning and lost opportunities are bad enough prices. Some of us actually have violence and lethal force used against us or our families. And you don’t have to be a Supreme Court justice or opposition politician to be on the receiving end. I got that wake-up call a bit over 2 years ago and live the Molon Labe ethic as a result.

    Support those who speak out. Give what you can, what you think is a fair compensation for the work and the risk the speakers run. (God, now I sound like an advertisement.) Oh, you know what I mean.

    Liked by 2 people

  20. For all the things he wrote and wrote about, G.K.Chesterton considered himself a journalist first and foremost.

    Good company!

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    1. So did Rudyard Kipling.

      https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_press.htm

      Who once hath stood through the loaded hour
      Ere, roaring like the gale,
      The Harrild and the Hoe devour
      Their league-long paper-bale,
      And has lit his pipe in the morning calm
      That follows the midnight stress–
      He hath sold his heart to the old Black Art
      We call the daily Press.

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