I’ve been a fan of Rebekah King’s writing on Substack since I first joined the platform. I don’t know what the first of her articles I read was, but I do remember how discovering Dr King's Curiosities reminded me that the internet was still a place filled with wonderful conversations about the things I love. While I have been blogging, podcasting, and posting on Twitter for quite some time, prior to starting my Substack I had begun to wonder if the rage and anger that commonly dominates the popular culture space was all that remained of fandom. Rebekah’s writing, and that of so many other Substack newsletters, let me see that the spirit of the heyday of blogcircles still remained. There were still people writing and saying interesting things about interesting subjects.
I study political polarization and am in the final stages of my dissertation writing, one of the reasons I’ve been posting less of late is that I’ve sequestered myself in my office late at night to write about how parents transmit negative political affect to their children. It’s not a happy subject, but it’s one I am passionate about. I study polarization not because I like it, but because I hate it. I am, at the core, an Enlightenment Liberal who loves humanity, but laments when I see the worst of it.
Thankfully, there are spaces like Critical Hit Parader, Dr King's Curiosities, The Soloist - an indie RPG newsletter, Rogue Games, Mortal Cinema, Joel J Miller’s Miller’s Book Review, Rediscovered Realms, The North Texas Apocalypse Bunker Weekly Report, and so many more (all of whom I hope to chat with on Geekerati at some point). I don’t always agree with the authors assessments, but all of these people write out of love for the things they admire rather than as a means to vent and spread anger.
I never imagined I would be able to live in a world where I could chat with people I admire and find interesting who live thousands of miles away as if they were neighbors, but that is what Geek Chats are about and it was a privilege to talk with Rebekah.
