As she said on her SNL skit, keep calm-ala, and carry on-ala.

I'm scared right now. Not just for me, but for my community and our ability to connect and trust each other. But I'm going to lean into the community, and hope that my further investment now will help strengthen us for whatever is to come.

Your role, if you're looking for one, is to remind us why we're doing whatever it is we're doing, that there's other people out there doing good work and that we're not alone. At least that's why I follow folk like yourself. "Look for the helpers" and all that.

As someone who has read your blog since my early teens in the 2000's, you have helped shape my creativity and worldview in so many micro and macro ways. This election is devastating, and in turn I know how heavily it weighs on you... but I implore you not to lose hope nor your shine, as you have consistently injected so much inspiration and quirkiness into our lives, amongst the ever-growing sea of ill-informed podcasts, disinformation, fear. Thank you for all that you do and who you are.

What you've got is all we ever wanted. Keep up the work that is meaningful to you. Take care of yourself.

Keep doing what you have always done in good times and in bad. Find the interesting, intriguing, creative, inspirational “stuff” that has become “Jason should know about this.” I don’t know how to explain it better than that. And we will all help.

Beautiful photo. Thank you.

Don’t give up.

Don’t give in.

Don’t go along.

We start there and figure out the rest.

For me, part of what's distressing about what's to come is this: last time it felt like to care about what happens to the country was to be constantly engaged in a monumental energy suck. Since whether or not to care about something isn't really a choice, as the years went by just being online became exhausting.

What I've always found here, especially during the last round, was that curiosity and creativity can still exist even in dark times. And in certain cases, where dedicated journalists were doing good work to uncover stories and put truth into common sense words, the "watching the train wreck" could even bring a little grace.

It's hard to imagine how taxing the toll of online-ness must be doing the job in that context, but I hope you know that it's a source of light and it's deeply appreciated.

Jason-

I posted this last month about "your role":

https://www.sellke.com/2024/10/19/avenues/

It has always been enough for Kottke.org to "be," and yet it's been more than we could have ever asked for.

Thanks again (rolls up sleeves).

Love,

Adam

❤️

Hello - I've been reading kottke.org for about a year and enjoying it immensely. I just bought a membership so I could chime in and say - whatever you are doing, just keep doing it. It really helps. Thank you so much for all your work.

Thanks, Jason, for what you do and keeping us connected to the cool things folks around the world are doing. Just upgraded my membership level.

Just want to echo what everyone else is saying here: what you do has a tangible positive impact for the community of folks who are dedicated to your site, and spreads out from there in ways known and unknown. You are very appreciated, and I hope you’re feeling that!

In disturbing times like these, it can feel sad and pointless to keep doing things, making things. I try keep reminding myself that we are on the right team... we have all the greatest thinkers, writers, creators. The other side scraped the barrel for their best talent to make a case for authoritarianism and they were a laughable bunch of ass clowns. Our political power may have been gutted, but we have power reserves elsewhere that are unmatched.

Doing good work is our only option. The daily process of showing up for our creative practice, notching the arrow and letting it fly straight and true. I think this is what will preserve us. I'm not normally this earnest, but damn, there's something in my eye today. Press on, Jason! And press on, all of you!

Thank you, Jason, for being you and doing what you do. I hope you’ll continue as and when you’re able for as long as you like. Please know that for me, when all the other “eating my vegetables” sites get to be too much, coming to Kottke is lovely brain cleanse. Reminding us that there will always be art and music and bike rides and providing a connection to other thoughtful and intelligent people who appreciate you as much as I do.

More than every we all will need reminders of the wonderful things, and this is largely what I come to kottke.org for. So thank you, Jason. It has really helped. Please please take care of yourself first, then family, then bike maintenance, then blog.

what you're posting is what we need. the reminders of the glory and beauty and passion and unbridled love of humans.

i think just knowing this community of thoughtful thinkers and observers exists helps. these little pockets of the internet are so valuable, and the things you share make spending time online feel more meaningful than terrifying and doom-scroll-y. i really appreciate this place right now. what helps most is remembering i'm not alone in how i'm feeling and what i believe/value.

Long time reader, and also first time member just to post here: yes, yes and yes to all the comment above to why we love you and your work, and to keep up the things that bring you joy and intrigue (and in turn, bring us the same). So happy you have opened comments so you may hear from us, feel our support for you during tough times. I'm not on any social media, but take pleasure in your site, Cup of Jo and Swiss Miss - and may you gain from your comments the love and inclusion and acceptance found similarly at Cup of Jo. Part of the ills of our country are the lack of feeling of community and belonging, and when that is lost, too many find that in unoptimal places (T****verse) ... your site is part of building community and bringing out the greater good of this online world at its best. Carry on!

After this shocking display of.... lacking (it's the best word I can think of) by the majority of Americans, I think we all feel like we've been slapped in the face by our neighbors. I know my wife and I are both not in a good place right now. I think I understand some of Conservatives' concerns but they've picked one of the worst people in American politics to address those concerns. To say he will throw the baby out with the bathwater is an understatement.

That being what it is, we as individuals need to (continue) to lead by example, showing love, compassion, and appreciation to those in our orbits. Jason, you are loved by me and everyone else who frequents the bastion of curiosity you've created. You are a good person and you do important work. Keep on keepin' on!

This post made me curious about your November 2016 posts, so I just spent a few minutes in the archives. There are so many items that you could have posted today and I would not have known they were 8 years old.
I don't have a big conclusion about what that means. Thanks to the ongoing magic of RSS, all those posts have come to me via Feedly this whole time. I look forward to whatever you find on the internet when you're ready to share again.

My takeaway from the results is that more people are more motivated by cruelty than I wanted to imagine. My commitment (and this seems to be inspiringly widespread in this commentariat and elsewhere online) is to do more to dampen or counteract that cruelty as applied to actual people in my communities.

In that vein, it'd be cool to see (more?) posts about ways people are finding to be a helper. But like in the kottke style, not Upworthy circa 2013.

❤️

Jason, thank you so much for what you do. To me a key part of your site and this community is the desire to build things, to create, to foster positivity through art and culture and technology and curiosity. Basically the opposite of what we saw in 2016 and on Tuesday. So please know that for some of us your work is a beacon of resistance in this confusing and cynical world. Thanks again.

Somehow your photo is perfect for the moment

Agree to all the vibes on here! I appreciate corners of the internet like this because they are generative and restorative. We so need that in times like this.

here we are.
we are here. all of us.
and we are going to go where we want to go. where we need to go.
for as long as we can.
for as long as we can still go.
this is our way.
this is the way.

thank you, Jason. ❤️

let us keep going.
together.

❤️

Feeling emotional about these comments!

Thank you Jason. Keep on keeping on, this community you’ve gathered is precious and wonderful. I hope you found as much peace taking and posting that lovely image as I have just now doing a small meditation on nature uninterrupted.

Reminded of "Learning in Wartime" by CS Lewis at the start of WWII:

"If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun."

I am so grateful for my work diverting me from “scrolling myself into dust,” and I hope that this work and the community you’ve gathered here can bring you a sort of peace too. These comments are also lovely to soak in today, on this second day of internal tempest.

Jason, thank you for doing what you do. It’s wonderful to have a space like yours, in good times and bad.

I know I’ll react by partially disengaging from news, as I did in 2016; though I’m incapable of not reading about what’s going on (and I wouldn’t want to be otherwise) I’ll definitely take a step back.

I want to recognize that this must be quite difficult for you—being that your work requires you to be in it pretty constantly, ongoing, that step back likely isn’t possible.

So thank you for braving it to bring us all of this. It'll be a rough time, sticks to mud, but we'll get to summer eventually.

Thanks for doing your thing Jason. I just joined so I can spend more time and attention on the beauty and awe in the world. We’re here to support what you do.

Mountains like those and places like kottke.org can provide a solace. To maintain my mental health I plan to spend more time here and more time sliding down mountainous snowy inclines.

Solidarity and let's all try to be gracious to ourselves. Thanks for everything you do.

Hang in there. I’ve loved your site for about twenty years now. I’m glad you took that sabbatical recently as I had been worried. I also have found it inspiring to see someone emphasize their mental and emotional health as you have. I have been trying to do the same in recent years and felt a sense of kinship even though you don’t know me. We’ll keep going.

The voices of people of goodwill are always needed, no matter what they are saying. I look forward to braving this next era with you - and everyone else reading.

Invigorating just reading all the comments and ideas and poetry in this thread from the amazing community you’ve attracted and nurtured here, Jason. Thanks for all you do!

I hope we are all open to being expansive in the coming days, weeks, and months. I hope we find and give solace.

I hope I am more of an activist and accomplice than a doomscroller.
I am grateful that you are here, Jason, doing your work and doing the work —and vulnerably sharing the struggle along the way.
I am grateful to feel in community in one more safe space.

Healing Hobby Hot Tip: If you want to wear both your anger and your hope on your (literal & metaphorical) sleeve, I can’t recommend taking up embroidery enough. So far this week, I’ve stitched “eat the rich,” “f*** the patriarchy,” and —after the Working Families Party national call— “hope is a duty” onto sweater sleeves. I’m working up to confidently stitching handwriting around curved collars.

Jason, I finally subscribed. I'm sorry I've been freeloading for so long. Kottke.org gives us daily reasons to celebrate our short lives on the planet. Your work is so important. Again, sorry it took me so long.

Thanks for doing what you’re doing (keeping kottke.org going). It helps.