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When I started The Ink four years ago, I thought it as a personal project: a way of connecting to people who had found me through words written or spoken, a way of sharing ideas and people worth knowing.
Four years later, it’s hard to fathom how much has changed. (For example, we were all four years younger just two weeks ago.) And today this once-Little Engine That Could newsletter, and an archipelago of newsletters like it, have assumed a new significance.
What I didn’t understand four years ago that I see more clearly now is that we are living through a media renaissance. The old sources of trust and authority are crumbling, in some ways because of forces not of their making, and in other ways because of their own frailties and refusals to confront the reality of now.
I believe newsletters like this one are going to be a critical part of the infrastructure of reality in the era ahead. And today I want to invite you to help build it with me.
To make that easier, we’re offering you a special chance to save 20 percent on the cost of an annual subscription — forever — if you sign up today. Come on in!
We understand that, for many of you, it’s been hard to keep up with the flood of new information since the election, and then since the inauguration. And while there is great, essential reporting being done out there, the loudest voices of legacy media sometimes just muddy the waters, equivocating rather than naming clear and vital truths about American authoritarianism.
But, through it all, The Ink has been committed to the cause of calling things what they are. Every day, we try to present for our readers conversations and essays that provide the focus and real understanding they need to make sense of the chaotic maneuvers of the Trump administration and the administrative coup orchestrated and currently being carried out by Elon Musk.
As an independent media organization supported by and accountable only to our readers, it’s what we plan to keep doing, as long as we can. All we ask is that you keep reading and thinking along with us, and if you find our work valuable, that you join our community as a paying subscriber.
Look: You’re going to get something different here, different from what you may have come to expect from traditional publications: We’re never going to “hand it to” the White House, or wave off an abuse of power as an “audacious” gesture, or tacitly endorse an illegal, unconstitutional attack on our freedoms by marveling at the strategic chess brilliance of the broligarchs.
At The Ink, as we expand and grow and bring you more voices, more perspectives, and more formats — all thanks to your support — we will call things exactly what they are:
We will cut through the noise of the discourse, and highlight what matters most:
We will bring you regular conversations with the people who take you several layers beneath the day-to-day, as in our Lives with scholar of fascism Ruth Ben-Ghiat:
We will dig into the minds of the dangerous men behind all the chaos, to help you understand why things are really happening:
We will call out the fecklessness of those who should be stepping up to lead:
We will keep the focus on how we can all take care of ourselves and stay in the fight:
And we will bring our readers together in our open forums to think about real action:
It’s better not to be subtle and vague. This new kind of media depends 100 percent, entirely, purely on you, our readers. Since subscriptions are what makes our work possible, we encourage you to take advantage of this special deal and join today to help us keep on calling things what they are.
And: If for any reason you can’t afford to subscribe right now, there is another way to support this work. We ask that you share this with five people you know, and invite them to sign up as subscribers, free or paid. Tell them why you thought of them specifically. Your readership matters to us. Help us reach more great readers.