In the past: Jorn Barger, Denis Dutton, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Mencius Moldbug, Lawrence Auster. Now: I have nothing to say, since you and "G" are the only bloggers I read regularly.
I'm with you on Vox Day. I also read Anonymous Conservative's news feed posts for news about the hidden side of the System, but they can be a bit depressing.
I'd like Vox Day if I could just force myself to stay off the comment section. Talk about fan-boys. Vox himself is quite interesting and constrained just enough not to fall into know-it-all obnoxiousness.
I generally bounce around when it comes to bloggers/vloggers. The political stuff begins to grate on me and I have to try to find something intellectually stimulating. However, even those somehow devolve into politics.
Of course BC Notions does a nice job of mixing it up!
I used to follow about ten blogs regularly, but over the past year or so I have whittled this down to two: you and Vox Day.
For me, Vox has been somewhat of an acquired taste. I had reservations about his blog when I first encountered it, but I now appreciate his style, content, and approach.
I agree with you on Vox Day. He is arrogant and very full of himself which puts some people off. Even if I do not agree with him he makes me think very hard. NN Taleb does not really blog but he is awesome.
Manhattan Contrarian blogs every few days on limited topics, not releated to culture or religion. He writes concise, quantitative pieces on renewable energy, global warming, and public finance. The Duran creates some detailed pieces on Europe.
I agree that Vox Day is the best all-around blogger, present company excluded, for the reasons you cite.
I might add (although you didn't ask!) that I also read Anonymous Conservative on a fairly regular basis - he always links to shocking stories that I would not have otherwise seen, though his perspective is quite depressing and overly paranoid. I also visit Chateau Heartiste for humor and insight into America's cultural and social collapse.
Steve Sailer is another favorite but I feel the quality and energy of his blogging has declined in recent years - not sure why. He should have more than ever to write about in the Trump Era. Anatoly Karlin also runs a very interesting and informative blog about Russia, geopolitics and other issues.
In addition, I check the Unz Review frequently for updates from other authors including Pat Buchanan, John Derbyshire and Ron Unz himself. It's a valuable site if you can wade through the enormous quantities of unhinged Jew-bashing that pollute the front page.
Besides those, and a handful of specialty blogs I consult (focused on economics, foreign policy, etc), I get most of my updates from Twitter, which has the advantage of immediacy, i.e. I can instantly find out what my favorite social media personalities think about a given issue.
I think there will continue to be a place for blogs, although they will get more "niche" as time goes on. There may be more consolidation of the "market" as the smart readers gravitate to the dwindling number of high-quality, frequently updated blogs. I predict blogs will continue to have influence even as most people dumb themselves down on Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Blogs can be divided into the frequent and the seldom. The frequent are the ones you can make a habit of visiting. The seldom are the ones you forget to check because there was nothing new the last few times you looked. The solution is to put all the seldom-updated blogs into your aggregator. (If you don't yet have an aggregator, search for "RSS".) My own feed includes Bugs to Fearen Babes Withal, Boisterous Beholding, The Highway is for Gamblers, and From the Narrow Desert, all by our friend Wm Jas; some of these are seldom updated, and some never, but I just leave it to my aggregator to tell me when there is anything new.
Laudator Temporis Acti and Anecdotal Evidence are good. My explanation why: choose one of your favorite writers and search the archives of either one. I just ran that experiment, searching for what Anecdotal Evidence had to say about Peguy (who wrote Eve, a very good long poem) and although only one blog post mentions Peguy (and the blogger did not show that he had actually thought about Peguy - I don't think he has read Tolkien, either, by the way) , the blog post was a short essay very much worth reading .... or run the experiment with Laudator Temporis Acti, for Tolkien instead of Peguy ... But I don't read those blogs regularly, only from time to time.
Probably Sultan Knish (http://sultanknish.blogspot.com). Although Daniel Greenfield posts from within an unambiguously tribalist mindset, the tribe in question is the tribe of Judea, of the House of Israel. My ancestors of that heritage gave up their tribalism ages ago, and helped advance Western Civilization as a result. My ancestors of other heritages did not give up their tribalism so early, and on the balance this wasn't such a good thing. The point is that, while giving up tribalism is better, if you do cling to a tribe, the tribal identity matters. Some are better (or at least less bad) than others.
I could wish that Greenfield posted more often, or that his focus were more eclectic, but I can just read other blogs, and rely on Greenfield to always do relatively well at what it is he is doing. Which is pointing out that Judaism is still essential to the West. It is not (and by nature cannot be) the whole of Western Civilization. But it is not dispensable.
Regarding Vox Day... I used to visit his blog regularly and enjoy his visits with other vloggers in the past, he's very good. However, he has a sick obsession with Jordan Peterson. It's one thing to dislike/disagree with another person, but Day is, in my estimation, essentially revealing Peterson as the anti-Christ himself. It's sad and really off putting.
@Ugh - With bloggers one must take the rough with the smooth - since regular, frequent, sincere blogging can only be a personal thing, and not a public service.
Other than this blog, Morgoth's Review is the blogs that I read most frequently. It's a blog by an Englishman who writes weekly about meta-issues, be it politics, the media, culture, or current affairs. It's got a lively readership, and they are very active in the comments section.
http://nwioqeqkdf.blogspot.com/
He also produces youtube videos. His most recent is titled 'An Ode to the Snowman', which is an analysis of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman. The video is ~11 minutes long (which is a bit long, and I don't want to waste your time, so I transcribed a minute or so from the end to give you an idea of what the rest of the video is like):
"The most haunting part of the story is when the boy and the snowman returned from their trip to Santa Claus the far north in Norway, the boy goes to sleep after a day of magic and miracles and wakes up to see that the snowman has melted away. There's just a lump of snow and his hat left. Raymond Briggs has admitted that the point of it was to give a bit of tough love to boys. The lesson is that things die and childhood will end. The material, the mundane and the modern will inevitably intrude on the magical, the spiritual, the pure. Is it inevitable though? Is it possible to impose a metaphysical reality onto the material world? Well the boy still has the scarf and the cartoon still exists, as does our enjoyment of it. And we still have a vision of what Christmas should actually be. What I mean is that another way of being does exist and it's within us. What we have to do is bend the material world to our will, but that's another video."
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/
ReplyDeleteIt is profound,understandable and accurate.
Robert Godwin's (aka Gagdad Bob) blog has had the most influence on me, and lines up with my disposition towards God!
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, he is a hiatus at the moment.
In the past: Jorn Barger, Denis Dutton, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Mencius Moldbug, Lawrence Auster. Now: I have nothing to say, since you and "G" are the only bloggers I read regularly.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on Vox Day. I also read Anonymous Conservative's news feed posts for news about the hidden side of the System, but they can be a bit depressing.
ReplyDeleteI'd like Vox Day if I could just force myself to stay off the comment section. Talk about fan-boys. Vox himself is quite interesting and constrained just enough not to fall into know-it-all obnoxiousness.
ReplyDeleteI generally bounce around when it comes to bloggers/vloggers. The political stuff begins to grate on me and I have to try to find something intellectually stimulating. However, even those somehow devolve into politics.
Of course BC Notions does a nice job of mixing it up!
I used to follow about ten blogs regularly, but over the past year or so I have whittled this down to two: you and Vox Day.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Vox has been somewhat of an acquired taste. I had reservations about his blog when I first encountered it, but I now appreciate his style, content, and approach.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on Vox Day. He is arrogant and very full of himself which puts some people off. Even if I do not agree with him he makes me think very hard. NN Taleb does not really blog but he is awesome.
Manhattan Contrarian blogs every few days on limited topics, not releated to culture or religion. He writes concise, quantitative pieces on renewable energy, global warming, and public finance. The Duran creates some detailed pieces on Europe.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdeMVChrumySxV9N1w0Au-w
I agree that Vox Day is the best all-around blogger, present company excluded, for the reasons you cite.
ReplyDeleteI might add (although you didn't ask!) that I also read Anonymous Conservative on a fairly regular basis - he always links to shocking stories that I would not have otherwise seen, though his perspective is quite depressing and overly paranoid. I also visit Chateau Heartiste for humor and insight into America's cultural and social collapse.
Steve Sailer is another favorite but I feel the quality and energy of his blogging has declined in recent years - not sure why. He should have more than ever to write about in the Trump Era. Anatoly Karlin also runs a very interesting and informative blog about Russia, geopolitics and other issues.
In addition, I check the Unz Review frequently for updates from other authors including Pat Buchanan, John Derbyshire and Ron Unz himself. It's a valuable site if you can wade through the enormous quantities of unhinged Jew-bashing that pollute the front page.
Besides those, and a handful of specialty blogs I consult (focused on economics, foreign policy, etc), I get most of my updates from Twitter, which has the advantage of immediacy, i.e. I can instantly find out what my favorite social media personalities think about a given issue.
I think there will continue to be a place for blogs, although they will get more "niche" as time goes on. There may be more consolidation of the "market" as the smart readers gravitate to the dwindling number of high-quality, frequently updated blogs. I predict blogs will continue to have influence even as most people dumb themselves down on Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Edward Feser
ReplyDeletehttp://edwardfeser.blogspot.com
&
Ite ad Thomam
http://iteadthomam.blogspot.com/?m=1
Blogs can be divided into the frequent and the seldom. The frequent are the ones you can make a habit of visiting. The seldom are the ones you forget to check because there was nothing new the last few times you looked. The solution is to put all the seldom-updated blogs into your aggregator. (If you don't yet have an aggregator, search for "RSS".) My own feed includes Bugs to Fearen Babes Withal, Boisterous Beholding, The Highway is for Gamblers, and From the Narrow Desert, all by our friend Wm Jas; some of these are seldom updated, and some never, but I just leave it to my aggregator to tell me when there is anything new.
ReplyDeleteLaudator Temporis Acti and Anecdotal Evidence are good.
ReplyDeleteMy explanation why: choose one of your favorite writers and search the archives of either one.
I just ran that experiment, searching for what Anecdotal Evidence had to say about Peguy (who wrote Eve, a very good long poem)
and although only one blog post mentions Peguy (and the blogger did not show that he had actually thought about Peguy - I don't think he has read Tolkien, either, by the way) , the blog post was a short essay very much worth reading ....
or run the experiment with Laudator Temporis Acti, for Tolkien instead of Peguy ...
But I don't read those blogs regularly, only from time to time.
I suppose the answer to the question of which is the best blog could be different from the answer to the question of what is my favorite blog.
ReplyDeleteBut favorite blog would be Throne and Altar or maybe Edward Feser's blog.
Those two blogs and Steve Sailer's are the only ones I read regularly. Formerly, I also read View from the Right and Zippy Catholic regularly.
Probably Sultan Knish (http://sultanknish.blogspot.com). Although Daniel Greenfield posts from within an unambiguously tribalist mindset, the tribe in question is the tribe of Judea, of the House of Israel. My ancestors of that heritage gave up their tribalism ages ago, and helped advance Western Civilization as a result. My ancestors of other heritages did not give up their tribalism so early, and on the balance this wasn't such a good thing. The point is that, while giving up tribalism is better, if you do cling to a tribe, the tribal identity matters. Some are better (or at least less bad) than others.
ReplyDeleteI could wish that Greenfield posted more often, or that his focus were more eclectic, but I can just read other blogs, and rely on Greenfield to always do relatively well at what it is he is doing. Which is pointing out that Judaism is still essential to the West. It is not (and by nature cannot be) the whole of Western Civilization. But it is not dispensable.
I enjoy Mark Richardson's Oz Conservative.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Vox Day... I used to visit his blog regularly and enjoy his visits with other vloggers in the past, he's very good. However, he has a sick obsession with Jordan Peterson. It's one thing to dislike/disagree with another person, but Day is, in my estimation, essentially revealing Peterson as the anti-Christ himself. It's sad and really off putting.
ReplyDelete@Ugh - With bloggers one must take the rough with the smooth - since regular, frequent, sincere blogging can only be a personal thing, and not a public service.
ReplyDeleteBut I happen to agree with Vox on this issue!
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/search?q=Peterson
The only blogs I frequent are this one and amerika.org, and I rate them both highly.
ReplyDeleteOther than this blog, Morgoth's Review is the blogs that I read most frequently. It's a blog by an Englishman who writes weekly about meta-issues, be it politics, the media, culture, or current affairs. It's got a lively readership, and they are very active in the comments section.
ReplyDeletehttp://nwioqeqkdf.blogspot.com/
He also produces youtube videos. His most recent is titled 'An Ode to the Snowman', which is an analysis of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman. The video is ~11 minutes long (which is a bit long, and I don't want to waste your time, so I transcribed a minute or so from the end to give you an idea of what the rest of the video is like):
"The most haunting part of the story is when the boy and the snowman returned from their trip to Santa Claus the far north in Norway, the boy goes to sleep after a day of magic and miracles and wakes up to see that the snowman has melted away. There's just a lump of snow and his hat left. Raymond Briggs has admitted that the point of it was to give a bit of tough love to boys. The lesson is that things die and childhood will end. The material, the mundane and the modern will inevitably intrude on the magical, the spiritual, the pure. Is it inevitable though? Is it possible to impose a metaphysical reality onto the material world? Well the boy still has the scarf and the cartoon still exists, as does our enjoyment of it. And we still have a vision of what Christmas should actually be. What I mean is that another way of being does exist and it's within us. What we have to do is bend the material world to our will, but that's another video."
https://youtu.be/51goIK8IJYk
Obscure, but very good:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tjdonegansblog.com/?m=1
Especially this post:
http://www.tjdonegansblog.com/2018/12/american-pie-great-apostasy-and.html?m=1