2018 New Year’s Resolution

While I have some friends who dislike New Year’s Resolutions, I find them useful because I spend a lot of time around the end of each year reflecting on my work and my goals.

Here’s my 2019 New Year’s Resolution:

Stay consistent

As far as this website goes, my biggest regret of 2018 is allowing myself to get knocked off course by movement drama in March and effectively ceasing to write here until July. It’s a shame because we got off to such a strong start in January and February. Anyway, I am determined to not let that happen again.

Avoid movement drama

I’m not going to get sucked back into that black hole. I’ve learned my lesson. I see it playing out day in and day out on Facebook and nothing positive ever comes of it.

Avoid Antifa

In 2018, I think I spent far too much time on these losers. While I don’t have any regrets about doxing them, I would have been better off writing about the subjects that interest me than feeding trolls. There isn’t much of interest to our readers either in unraveling their pathetic, boring lives. It just isn’t worth the investment of time to figure out that some Antifa is a drug addict.

Pass on activism

In 2018, I wanted to take a big step back from public activism. I think that was the right move. Over the past five years, I’ve been to dozens of rallies and demonstrations. I’ve grown tired of them. I enjoyed participating in the Hurricane Michael relief effort. I enjoyed the real world meetups. I would still like to do things of that nature in the real world.

The Yellow Vests movement in France shows how protests and rallies have to emerge organically from public outrage. We’ve spent years trying to accelerate this process while absorbing the costs. Most of Donald Trump’s supporters are satisfied with his presidency and there is nothing we can do to force the issue. Maybe the Democrat House will impeach Trump and spark a backlash in the streets?

Book reviews

I wrote a couple of these between March and June when I wasn’t updating the site much. I plan to do more of them in 2019 while keeping the site updated with news.

Punditry

We will continue to follow and analyze Trump’s erratic and disappointing administration although I think most people now agree we won the argument. We’ve been following Trump for four years now. The novelty has long since worn off. Hopefully, we can dial this back and focus more on other topics now that most people in our movement have become disillusioned with Trump.

History

The Black History Month 2018 series was one of things I enjoyed doing most this year. In February, we will pick up where we off and further explore black history in Africa and the Caribbean.

Social Networks

In 2018, I made good on my promise to rebuild my network on Gab. I took a break from that in November. OD will be returning in some form to Gab, Facebook and Twitter.

Rebuild my finances

In 2018, we raised $5,000 to respond to one of the ridiculous Charlottesville lawsuits. I’m hoping that will be over soon and that I can finally move on from that experience.

Finish my book

I abruptly ceased working on this project after getting served with the Charlottesville lawsuit this summer. I resumed working on it in November and hope to finish it some time this year.

The South

I’m knee deep in exploring European intellectual history in the Early Modern Era at the moment, but I would like to return to focusing on the South at some point in 2019. We will start by exploring how these intellectual trends going on in 17th and 18th century Britain carried over into the colonial South.