Content Paywalls, Lisbon, Kiev, (Kabul?)

Email me if you want comped: [subj: comp me]

Sadly, we did not meet the threshold to DEPORT me to Kabul but I’m going anyway. Those readers who purchased deportation tier subscriptions during the promotion period will be comped. Those readers who are located near Dushanbe, Tajikstan, or Doha, Qatar, or Islamabad, Pakistan, please be in touch.

For everyone else, if you will be in Lisbon from November 7th to November 10th, or in Kiev any time afterwards, let me know. Also if you speak Portuguese and Ukrainian (or Russian) and want to help me learn/practice (fluent in Spanish, only speak babbys first Russian), please also be in touch. It’ll be fun (for me).

Yeahhhhh, the dating posts are coming. In the style of our favorite Moldbug Mèng Kē, we’ll be taking a sharp turn into gender issues. The Greek word from which we receive ‘economics’ in English, οἰκονόμος , translates to something like “What does that have to do with how I live?” or “Why can’t consenting adults do this in the privacy of their own home?”. What seems like a picayune part of life best relegated to the glossy pages of teen magazines (is this still a thing? I have not been in a checkout aisle in a long time), is actually a cornerstone of society. Unlike Uncle Yarv, (and by the way, it was very Lindy), I will not be attempting to find a wife with these posts, which will not dominate the feed.

Potentially all the graphs and data tables will make most womens’ eyes glaze over but maybe they could cause the very female inflected journalist profession to become upset. Upsetting (or disappointing, or wasting the time of) female journalists is a great pastime for red-blooded American mnn, so this may seem a cop out. But also, you know, one can only tempt fate so often and I’m using my mulligans on arranging travel to Afghanistan.

A paywall does a couple of nice things; it clarifies how worthwhile content is, and it also gives me a firmer sense of engagement. If you’re a cool person from Twitter or Clubhouse or I know you or whatever on the free plan already and don’t want to pay but do want to read, let’s say the price of admission is taking the time to write an email [subj: comp me]. As OG readers know, this whole IB thing is a both a deadly serious and not serious at all internet project—but if you want to help subsidize a short trip to Afghanistan, that remains an option.

Speaking of which….

I am in contact with the Taliban. The actual Taliban, not Malang Khostay (who is funny, but not even located in Afghanistan). If you work for a journalistic outlet, please know an Urdu speaking terminally online Anglophone native blogger is going to Kabul and wants to publish his video and written interviews and vox pops with you, pseudonymously. If I haven’t bugged you about this already, let’s get in touch. There’s a plan writeup.. Hire me, give me enough documentation that the Qatari govt is like “Hm yeah, okay.” and we’ll be off.

It’ll be like when Vice was cool before Vice became what it is today.