I only recently discovered the “recommend” function. It’s nice - reminds me of the ol’ Wordpress blogroll days. So feel free to recommend some good blogs that you guys enjoy and I’ll check them out in the coming days.
Only the truly worthy will be added to the much-coveted recommended section.
Also, we’re all still waiting for Elon to deliver on free speech on Twitter. That would be nice. I could see the traffic to the blog increasing 4-fold, easily. But we should enjoy this cozy intimate time that we have together in our own little corner of the internet. We will look back fondly on it.
In the meantime, feel free to, I don’t know, share some of the articles I wrote, I guess. I know some of you guys already do that, so thank you for that. I’ve also apparently been linked by some somewhat large media sites and this led to a temporary spike in traffic. That’s pretty cool, but I find that the higher quality readers are the 1-2% that scroll down into the comments sections of articles and fish out the links that other readers leave there. You’re my target demo, guys.
By the way, I just passed 600 subscribers!
I thought I’d take the time to review some key points about the blog for newbies.
As you may have noticed, I don’t really provide day-to-day war coverage mostly because:
a) I’m not a military expert
b) There’s a lot of info and disinfo and the fog of war is dense
c) I find it rather boring
I try instead to provide a perspective on the internal state of Russia and other Eastern European countries. I also talk about the Authoritarian political tradition and defend it.
That’s pretty much it.
I’m not trying to shill for Russia as much as I’m trying to just provide a somewhat grounded perspective on the country. It’s hard not to root for Russia against ZOG, but it’s also hard to root blindly for Russia knowing what a bardak it is internally.
There’s also a non-zero chance that I might get swept up in this war and sent to serve.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, it could be an interesting experience. On the other hand, I see the current war as a political failure on the part of the Russian government and the FSB, which through its incompetence or its malevolence, let Ukraine slip into the grasp of NATO before the special operation even started. The people that are shooting at one another right now ought to be standing side-by-side, rifles leveled at the enemies of Slavland. But the damage is done now, and I hope for a speedy Russian victory. Only, I know that I, personally, would have a hard time shooting at people that look like me. A war against Turkey? In Central Asia? Against Western mercenaries who fight for fake money? That’s one thing. A Slavic civil war is another matter entirely.
Like all Slavs, I’m pessimistically optimistic. That means that I’m sure things will get worse and that the Russian government will muck things up spectacularly. But that gives me optimism for the future as well. Change will have to occur if Russia is to survive. I already see these positive changes occurring, in fact, and that is the main reason why I started blogging in the first place. I wouldn’t have the stomach to document non-stop doom and gloom and proselytize it to a Western audience.
So stick around if any of that made sense or my perspective appeals to you.
Also, feel free to donate some crypto. It goes a long way in Eastern Europe.
All the best,
Rolo
I like Moon of Alabama, Saker, Reminiscence of the Future (Andrei Martyanov), anything with Pepe Escobar and Larry Johnson. You are my new favorite Substack. I also enjoy Niccolo F'd by Foucault, Eugypius and Russians with Attitude on Twitter and Patreon.
You were my first Substacker but I picked up some blogs by your colleagues that I liked: Winston Smith, Theophilius Chilton, and John Carter. Haven't read much of Chilton but the other two have me hooked.