Author: Justin DaMetz

Father of Julian and Evelyn, Husband of Tabitha, Christian theologian, writer, 5th grade teacher, book addict, displaced Middle-Earth resident

censorship and truth

“Censors have a fantasy that if they get rid of all the Berensons and Mercolas and Malones, and rein in people like Joe Rogan, that all the holdouts will suddenly rush to get vaccinated. The opposite is true. If you wipe out critics, people will immediately default to higher levels of suspicion. They will now be sure there’s something wrong with the vaccine. If you want to convince audiences, you have to allow everyone to talk, even the ones you disagree with. You have to make a better case. The Substack people, thank God, still get this, but the censor’s disease of thinking there are shortcuts to trust is spreading.”

Matt Taibbi, “The Folly of Pandemic Censorship”

Taibbi is aboslutely right. I’m not a fan of Joe Rogan, or anti-vaccine people, or Covid deniers. I think they are wrong and dangerous in their wrongness. I also think censoring them is wrong, and counterproductive. You don’t sway those who have (real, legitimate) concerns by telling them they can’t listen to certain voices, that we need to censor those who seem to make sense to them. Free speech means we believe in the power of truth over lies, and we don’t fear the conflict between the two.

blogging and newsletter update

Last I posted here, I announced that I was putting the blog on hiatus in lieu of another stab at a newsletter. And, I mostly did that, for a while at least. As I documented in the newsletter earlier this week, I kind of fell off a cliff in December with writing, and I am picking up the pieces now with different goals in mind.

Part of that is that I am going to try to use this blog space again, albeit in different ways. Often times, I come across passages in books or articles that I want to highlight, and maybe lightly comment upon, but not go in depth into. Often, this is a way for me to craft and play with ideas, and also bookmark things for later use. So, to that end, I will be posting shorter items here, often with quotes or selections from things I’m reading, and some small comments to go with. I’m also going to try to streamline my categories and tags, in an effort to make things easier to find and file together, in a sense.

Also, as I detailed in my newsletter (which you should subscribe to; its free!), I am trying to shift my writing back to being more focused on theology than on politics (although those things will often intersect.) So expect to see that here.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck around here, and please subscribe here and to the newsletter if you like what you see!

Trying the Newsletter….Again

I’ve been intending and trying to start a newsletter for a couple of years ago. And, well, here I am trying to get back on that horse. I’ve rebranded it, as The Compendium. Here is a little bit about it that I wrote up recently:

The Compendium is a collection of thoughts, on a variety of subjects. Writing is a cathartic process for me, an opportunity to work through and think about any number of things that interest or perplex me. Writing in public is even more so, as I gain the advantage of having other amazing humans to bounce these ideas off of.

So why a newsletter? For several years now, I’ve run a small blog, with a bit of success. But, that format seems to be running its course for me, in terms of being a place I can be creative and original. I’m an avid reader of a variety of Substack newsletters, so it seems natural to be trying this format out.

Why should you subscribe? If you are interested in thinking, reading, and conversing about theology, books, culture, politics, history, philosophy, or sport, at a minimum, then this will be a space to explore those things. I look to create a community of thinkers; I hope you’ll want to be a part of that.

Anyways, I hope you’ll subscribe. Just click the link below.

Click here to subscribe to The Compendium.