Two-Week Top Ten
Writers I have to check
I decided to create a top-ten list of Internet writers I follow. I use a thought-experiment where I lose Internet connection for two weeks. When I get it back, whose writing do I go back and check to see what I missed? So here is my current list. Note that the list rotates. Glenn Loury was in the top ten for a while, but my interest in the race discussion has waned recently.
Note also that a number of top podcasters are not on the list, because podcasts are hard for me to keep up with. So no Russ Roberts. No Coleman Hughes. And I have to say that I listened to most of a podcast with Richard Hanania and Rob Henderson without getting anything out of it.
Everyone produces some content that I do not find interesting. But I believe that I can skim an essay and quickly decide whether I want to spend time reading it. Skimming podcasts is not as easy. So even though I believe that the podcast format improves the way people behave, because you’re not just ranting in a vacuum, I find podcasts too time-consuming.
Note also that just about everyone on this list has interesting sources for which they provide links.
The three publications I would first check are
1 Tablet
2 Quillette
3 Wall Street Journal
Finally, note that I used the new chat feature of Substack a few days ago to allow readers to weigh in on this topic. The chat feature is not something I would have asked for, and I don’t think it works better for me than having people leave comments.
It seems relatively phone-friendly (only iPhone at the moment), so maybe that makes it worthwhile for some people. To me, it feels more suited to short grunts and groans than serious writing, so I wonder what the substack executives are thinking. At this point, I have no plans to do more with the chat feature until I see some interesting uses of it.
Great idea to list your current reading. I really respect Glenn, and he's one of the few I pay for - but I'm tired of most racism discussion, too.
Besides here with Arnold, I always read Instapundit, and daily read Neo at https://www.thenewneo.com/
who seems far more truthful and thorough, on the things she writes about, than any other I've found (including Arnold! who's second).
I'm developing Hanania envy, and he's often great, and insightful, plus with the humility of maybe not being correct. Arnold doesn't like Steve Sailor, and he IS more snarky than I like, but I look more for truth AND brevity, than snark or not. I especially like truth that is anti-PC & now anti-Woke.
I'm sick of reading about COVID, tho The Zvi is among the best.
For news, Trump & GOP fanboy Don Surber remains the best for summary.
Rod Dreher is the best Christian Right thinker & networker; but Rod's almost as long as Scott Alexander, whose often good analysis is flawed by me not quite trusting his honesty/ truthfulness; tho I trust him more than "conservative" Sullivan who always votes for Democrats for President.
Bari Weiss, with a bunch of other writers at Common Sense, is a bit uneven.
Razib Khan is fine, excellent on his subjects - but often those are not currently the most interesting to me, like this recent great piece https://razib.substack.com/p/the-turkification-of-anatolia-tales
Great for any interested in genetics based history of Anatolia, but not quite worth me paying limited cash & time for.
For much of the last year I enjoyed the great style of Freddie deBoer, but I'm about to cancel my paid subscription after buying his book, The Cult of Smart. Like with Glenn, the problem of how society should deal with low IQ young men is not yet being honestly discussed as the major problem it is, and the root of so many other problems discussed.
Infovores is now better. Tho I miss Handle's comments.
New to substack Brink Lindsey is right about the Permanent Problem - how, after economic survival issues are solved, should one live wisely, agreeably, and well?
Final plug to often interesting https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/.
Ref. Links (decided to mix some links with mostly link-free text above and links here below):
https://glennloury.substack.com/
https://instapundit.com
https://richardhanania.substack.com/
https://www.unz.com/isteve/
https://donsurber.blogspot.com
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/blogs/dreher/ (with a more religious substack, too)
https://www.commonsense.news/
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/
https://infovores.substack.com
https://brinklindsey.substack.com/p/loss-aversion-by-any-other-name-and
This is off-topic, but I would be interested to know if you have any comments on this:
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/08/sweden-wins-country-that-refused-lockdown-and-kept-schools-open-has-lowest-pandemic-cumulative-excess-mortality-in-the-world/