These are awesome times for liberty activists and the power of the Internet has been our greatest weapon in exposing the draconian tyranny that is descending upon us like an Iron Curtain. There are some awesomely dedicated folks doing great work for liberty on the Internet with websites, blogs and citizen journalism. I'm a huge advocate for citizen journalism because the slop we get from mainstream media is unacceptable for intelligent, moral and thinking folks. However, liberty media is highly individualistic, small, disorganized and limited. Moreover, there is no liberty media that is designed for mass information, news, communication, activism and education. Liberty does not have a one stop 'go to' website where folks can get news, debate/discuss news and issues affecting liberty, have access to educational material or organize for activism.
What does liberty need? Liberty needs a website with a simple and appealing name that is a combination of Drudge styled news headlines, the best of liberty media (reason.com, LewRockwell.com etc.) and bloggers.
I like the simplicity of the Drudge Report format because it's quick and downloads fast; Drudge doesn't have all the clunky photos and graphics of a Huffington Post. However, I would NOT want a website that looks like Drudge and but something that looks like a combination of Drudge simplicity and other sites that prominently displays linked material. I rather like the format of Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis because of its linked blogrolls and websites. Showcasing citizen journalists, their websites, their blogs and their research should be a TOP priority of any liberty website.
I also think that categories are important simply because folks tend to follow their favorite issues. Minimally, categories should include:
Breaking/Trending Now
Foreign Policy
Civil Liberties
Health/Healthcare
Food/GMO
Economic/Fiscal/Monetary
Legal/Court Issues
Legislative Issues
I believe that a lot of very significant activism will be taking place at the city and state level, especially on NDAA, drones, Obamacare, the 2nd amendment and more. Therefore, I would want a drop down tab showing all 50 states with the ultimate goal of having a state coordinator to inform folks at the state level and organize activism. Each state should really have its own liberty blog/blogger(s) to keeps folks informed on what is happening in their state, city or geographic area.
The primary purpose of creating a powerhouse of a liberty website is to showcase the work of liberty activists and create a strong alternative media that's got just about everything and anything that liberty activists need in the way of news, information, education and activism.
One of my problems is that I'm not a video person because I prefer to read and believe that a lot of videos are nonsense. Still, I believe there is a place for high quality video and there are indeed folks who prefer video to text. Quality video is a void that must be filled.
What I don't want is a website that will focus on non-stop conspiracy theories. There are just folks who are obsessed with narrow conspiracy theory views like "It's the Zionists, it's the Illuminati, it's the Pope, it's the Jews, it's Israel, it's the Muslim etc.". There are also folks whose own obsessions have churned them into hatemongers of sorts. There is no place for intolerant hatemongers in the free and tolerant world of liberty.
I want a liberty website to deal with credible and documented facts, as well as valid history. The other day, I got a Facebook message telling me that Obama was indicted and would be resigning. The link provided was clearly not credible. They may be a place for utter nonsense in the whacky world of the Internet but certainly not on a high quality liberty website.
Above all, I want a website that will have first class, reliable, important and factual information that will appeal to the young, to liberty activists, to independents, to Libertarians and to disaffected Republicans and Democrats who are not happy with establishment R and D propaganda. A liberty website that is ideologically anchored in the core principles of liberty should absolutely appeal to a very wide range of folks.
It's also critically important that a liberty website not only maintain exceptionally high standards of information quality but also civility in discourse. There is nothing worse than a Facebook post degenerating into "you effing moron..." and worse. Precisely because a liberty website will be designed to appeal to a broad range of folks with different ideas of liberty, religious and cultural issues, it is imperative that folks be respectful. Disagreement will always occur but they should be civil and respectful because the purpose of any discourse should be to advance a solution to a problem and not pulverize, humiliate and degrade anybody who disagrees with you.
Moving forward, the challenges of building a powerful liberty website include:
Naming the website
Ascertaining the cost of creating the website
Maintaining the website
Marketing the website
Making the website a high volume 'go-to' site
Successfully monetizing the website
I'm throwing these ideas out there because I'm looking for help, ideas and input on how best to serve and market the cause of liberty on a very grand scale.
I believe that we need to bring the big world of liberty under a very large and effective liberty umbrella. Some of my favorite websites include:
Environment
Junk Science
Watts Up With That?
Financial
Economic Harmonies
Future of Capitalism
International Liberty
Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis
Testosterone Pit
The Burning Platform
The Coming Depression
The Independent Institute
Zero Hedge
Health
Green Med Info.
Natural News
Liberty/General
A Lightening War for Liberty
Activist Post
Bastiat Institute
Black Listed News
Cato Institute
ChrisInMaryville’s Blog
Classic Liberal Blog
Economic Policy Journal
Foundation for Economic Education
Freedom’s Phoenix
Glenn Greenwald
Global Research
Globalist Report
Jonathan Turley
Karen de Coster
Lew Rockwell
Libertarian Christians
Liberty Crier
Rational Review News Digest
Reason
Spread Liberty News
The American Dream
The Daily Bell
The New American
Wired
Legal Defense of Liberty
The Institute for Justice
The Rutherford Institute
Technology
Tech Dirt
Technology Liberation Front
I don't doubt that the above list of liberty links could be significantly expanded but it's a good starting point.
Finally, I absolutely believe that the liberty movement is growing leaps and bounds but that liberty's presence and power on the Internet is lacking. If we are going to be a formidable force in the battle for liberty, the Internet is the battleground to win the only war that I personally support. Small low volume sites, even if they are high quality, get lost. We need to bring the power of our resources together for maximum effectiveness and showcase our talent, determination and hardworking liberty activists.
We need to assemble our own liberty think tank to advance the project.
Any ideas?
This is a great idea. I'd love to join an extended conversation about this.
ReplyDelete