Weekend Thinkfest
Here's a quick rundown of recent events in the Thinker community
I normally don’t do a “Weekend Update” kind of thing, but a lot happened recently that I thought it was worth going over and acknowledging the support I have received.
Thinker at the Gates is growing fast!
This past couple weeks has seen my number of subscribers more than double! As much as I’d like to attribute this to my witty charm, or thoughtful groundbreaking analysis, I know it’s largely because of a couple Notes I posted that went somewhat viral. I normally wouldn’t dwell on my Notes too much, but I thought it was notable (no pun intended) because of the subject I posted about, and what it could mean, if anything.
Here’s the first one, posted on 7/3. As you can see, it got almost 3k likes and just over 200 restacks, and sparked many replies (you can click on it to go to the original note and see the responses if you like). I am a pretty small publication, so getting this response was pretty shocking to me. And of course, I added a lot of new subscribers as a result, which I am very thankful for!
Here’s the second one, posted on 7/15, which, again, I honestly never intended to get nearly as much attention as the first one, but ended up surpassing it in likes and restacks:
The interesting thing is that neither of these Notes are particularly clever or unique. I just was feeling strongly and had a simple thought and posted it. It obviously resonated. Getting over 2K likes on a Note is a big deal for many accounts, much less one as small as mine.
If you’ve been reading me much recently, you’ll know that I am a Joe Biden supporter. For one thing, I just love the guy. For another, I think he’s the best option moving forward to beat Trump.
The response to these Notes shows me that Biden has a lot more support than the media and prominent pundits would have you believe. There’s an energy out there for him that is unseen and largely unheard, but it pokes its head up occasionally and is powerful and persuasive. It’s like the new “silent majority”, which I do believe will win the day in the November election. I wish more pundits and party leadership would recognize this and behave and report accordingly.
Not to get all “Inception” on everyone’s ass, but as long as Biden sticks around, I may keep doing layered restacks of these Notes to hopefully raise awareness and keep the energy flowing.
Welcome to the Thinker community!
I wanted to thank any of you that contributed to the attention these Notes got and who signed up to be a subscriber to my publication based on them. Welcome to the community, and I hope to continually provide you with valuable and entertaining insights with the work I do.
And, of course, thank you to all of you that were with me before these Notes, the loyal readers that jumped in and supported me early on in this publication’s development.
I hope to keep growing, so please tell others or share my publication by sending friends and family a link via email or the Substack app.
And please consider becoming a paid subscriber or a Founding Contributor, if you’re not already. Your financial support ensures I can comfortably continue brining pro-democracy and sane political news analysis to you and others. This is becoming more and more necessary as we see the legacy media fail over and over again to meet the moment.
It shouldn’t take a paid subscription to help ensure a voice like mine survives, but that’s where we are now as a society. We have to keep clawing and scratching our way through this morass of discombobulation and irresponsibility in today’s media.
Thinker in The Banter
I had a piece published yesterday in Ben Cohen’s important pro-democracy Substack publication The Banter, called “What Nate Silver Doesn’t Get About Joe Biden”. Please take a few moments to read it, I think you’ll like it.
It focuses on one recent poll by Marist College that included a couple questions that, for some inexcusable reason, has not been asked until now….and it explains a lot about why the polling results are currently in the state they are in.
I don’t like focusing on polls, especially this early in the race, but unfortunately there is huge gravitational pull to them, and they are cited so often by pundits when opining about their ideas for how to run a presidential campaign or completely revamp a party’s nominating process. Therefore, they deserve some analysis, but mostly in the context of how others are interpreting them.
Anyway, if you haven’t read it yet, please do, and feel free to let me know what you think, in the comments section, in my publication chat room, or in a direct message to me.
Again, thank you! Your support means the world to me.
Jeremy