September 9, 2022

We Now Interrupt Nothing to Bring You News of the Queen’s Death

No, we will not stop posting—ever.

NURPHO/AP

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The news of Queen Elizabeth’s death sent off a wave of tributes, shitposts, and denunciations for the departed monarch from people around the world. We all waved goodbye; Ireland even did it with just its middle finger.

As I watched the outpouring of grief and antipathy, one thing was notable: our inability to shut up.

Historically, when major news happens, the broadcast is stopped for a special announcement. A reverent halt begins. Now, the opposite appears to have swallowed that tradition. Major news sparks a worldwide bang in the content machine. The queen’s death did not stop us. It got us started—and now we’re in frenetic overdrive.

Our entire new way of intaking information can basically be summed up in this video:

House beats go bang, queen dead, house beats go bang bang.

Often, this social media overload is bemoaned as the decline of culture. I’m not sure about that. But it should at least be noted that if the queen had died in 1992 I don’t think you’d have outlets, celebrities, your mom’s friend all locked in an arms race to best each other in reverence or hatred. And so major news events, and especially this one, have secretly been extremely revealing. How we have consumed the queen’s death is how we consume everything: All at once, at high volume, jammed next to all the other things going on. 

Gawk, below, at how the major news event had to be commented on, in some way, by everyone, despite many having nothing to actually say. Behold our new world. Graceless? Maybe. But it is good to know nothing will stop us—no death, no tragedy—from being dumb idiots. That’s what life is all about.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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