The “world’s 50 most powerful blogs”
I contribute to one of them, and yet here I am, still not ruling the world! Go figure.
I join Adriana - one of the editors of that “powerful” blog - in questioning the methodology used to tabulate the list, scratching my head over some of the glaring exclusions, and not thinking very much of the concept of a “powerful” blog list to begin with:
To me it has always been about who reads your blog (and shares your ideas further), not how many that makes a difference.
My life changed irrevocably when I found Samizdata, with astonishingly far-reaching consequences that I never would have anticipated when I first stumbled upon it back in 2003. It’s top of the list of the blogs which have been most powerful for me. What makes your list?
Filed under: Life
The Gaurdian said, “Samizdata is one of Britain’s oldest blogs. Written by a bunch of anarcho-libertarians”
and you made a face when I called you an anarchist.
Any reason you didn’t read the whole sentence? “Written by a bunch of anarcho-libertarians, tax rebels, Eurosceptics and Wildean individualists…”
I’m a minarchist.
I swear I was thinking of that the other day — wondering what you’d call yourself. Libertarian wasn’t enough, I knew. :)
Oh gosh, I don’t even want to go near the l-word. I reject it as a label for myself, no matter how much EVERYONE I KNOW (except Adriana, who shares my distaste for the term) insists that I am.
For the record, I would no sooner support the Libertarian party in the US than I would the Socialist Workers’ Party.
Most powerful for me? Icanhascheezburger.com, because preservation of sanity during the work day is so important for overall quality of life.
It’s so weird how people try to L-label any ideas related to capitalism/ freedom/ reality, that don’t fit into the right-left conspiracy, er, I mean dichotomy.
I’ve given up on all the labels, but “Wildean individualist” sounds kind of cool. Wondering what the social repercussions of adopting that one might be. (Other than the obvious- it’s probably no less inaccurate when you think about it.)
Not being sufficiently Libertarian was one of the commenter-missiles that used to bug me over there. Among others!
The US party does seem to suck a lot. The actual ideology has always seemed cool to me, though. Just like everything else: socialism, anarchy, Christianity, furry fetishes… Nothing in practice is ever as cool as it seemed in ideology.
Alice, what scares me is how the concept of liberty and the principle of personal freedom from the jackboot of the state is now held up as some wackjob ideal. People truly believe now that the state is the answer, that politics has the solution, that it is selfish to want everyone to be allowed to make the most of themselves and their lives. I do despair…
perezhilton.com lol
Jackie: yes, and that’s most of why I’m not in the UK anymore. I think people are going to have to vote with their feet, because doing it through politics is missing the point. People who think politics is the answer are always going to win that battle. We have to act different, to make a different world.
Which I think is happening more and more, even though you wouldn’t guess it from reading political news. That’s the basis of my generally optimistic outlook.
Takes a bloody long time to filter through, though.
The Drudge Report is not a blog, for one thing. And if it were, it would be way more influential than the Huffington Post.
God, I love Dooce. Can she be convinced to come to SW OH for design help? Because my house is crying for it. The Sartorialist is marvelous, although it occasionally provokes a “seriously? that’s hip?” reaction.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how Instapundit gets left off that list.