So, what to do with this blog

I basically spelled out some reasons to have a personal blog when I started this one back in 2023. I still stand by that reasoning. I am really much better using a format where I don't have to worry about character limits. I still have a Twitter account (that's going dormant), but that platform has well passed its expiration date. I think Mastodon has some real potential, but I don't really get a lot of interaction there, even when I post a whole bunch. Bluesky is where most of academic Twitter ended up, and where a lot of the Democratic activist and advocate community are heading, and for some purposes it will do. But if I am not going to get much in the way of interaction, I might as well do so without being concerned about whether the platform can handle threaded posts, reposts, quote posts, and so on. At least I can satisfy myself that I could say what I wished to say in the way I wanted and be grateful for the handful of views it will get.

I did let this blog go fallow for a large swath of 2023 and 2024. I chalk that up to some distinct family emergencies, and the death of my father, who was in many respects my most valuable mentor. When you lose one of the people you refer to as your North Star, that leaves a mark. A good friend in my community died suddenly in the summer of 2023. I am still getting over that. The death of friends and loved ones, along with a spouse's health problems, your own chronic pain issues, and so on, I think you can imagine that I was simply too exhausted to write in any significant definition of the term. Obviously much of my grieving is done. That never goes away completely, but it changes. My pain was almost non-existent for a while, but is back with a vengeance at the moment, and I am beginning to think surgery may be in my future. Word to the wise: don't fall once you get past a certain age. I am living the dream. 

So, why keep on blogging? Why not? I do have some expertise in authoritarianism, which seems useful in these troubled times. Seriously, I have published a few peer-review articles and a book chapter on the topic, with more on the way eventually. I study authoritarianism from a psychological perspective which I think dovetails well with others' work on authoritarianism that is more in the domains of history and political science. Since authoritarianism is already my beat, and this is something of a political blog, I might as well make the most of what I know. There's a reason I have been curating Dr. Timothy Snyder's videos recently. They're important. So is is book On Tyranny. I'll be posting the remaining lessons in the series over the coming weeks. Where I can do so, I will discuss what is known about authoritarianism, as I have been already, and tie it into our own current events. 

And any time I need to take some time off, I will remember some wise words from the character Bokonon himself: "It is never a mistake to say goodbye."

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