Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

And if you like my Twitter feed, you'll love my newsletter. Try this one, for example: claireberlinski.substack.com/p/it-is-time-f…. Or this one: claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-sick-man… Or this one: claireberlinski.substack.com/p/incompetence… claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-media-is… Or this: claireberlinski.substack.com/p/incompetence… Best thing about it? It's FREE.

https://twitter.com/Kemal_P/status/1247472934865625091

Why, you might ask, would I give this away for free?

I'm not sure, actually. I wasn't really thinking about the business model when I started it. I just had some thoughts I wanted to share.

But now that a lot of people are reading it, and now that I can't leave my apartment and the newsletter is my only source of income, I wish I'd given more thought to the business model.

Still: Even though it's free, many of my readers have been just extraordinary:

Many have paid to subscribe, even though it's free--
And many have contributed to my GoFundMe account: gofundme.com/f/braveoldworld
Or become my patrons on Patreon: patreon.com/ClaireBerlinsk…

And I can't begin to express how grateful I am to the people who've done that, because now, very literally, they're keeping me from being evicted and living on the streets--during a global pandemic.

So--to everyone who's ever contributed, any amount, or bought one of my books,

or subscribed to a magazine for which I've written an article, or forwarded a link to something I've written to a friend--

Thank you.
Without you, I would be unable to feed myself, or my cats.
I'd be on the streets.

I would be a burden to others, at a time when the world truly doesn't need another burden.

And without you, my life would be meaningless.

I would have no reason to get out of bed in the morning if I thought, "No one will ever read, enjoy, learn, or benefit from a word I write."

I don't know how to build a ventilator. I don't know to make a vaccine.

I can't even get basil to grow in my windowsill, no less figure out how to keep the food supply chain working--or participate in the chain.

I don't know how to build a bridge, command a nuclear-powered Nimitz class aircraft carrier, or code in Python.

The only thing that keeps me from feeling that I'm the most useless example of H. Sapiens on the planet--so useless that during a global pandemic, the only way I could *help* other people was to sit in my apartment, where at least I wouldn't do any harm--

--is the knowledge that while I sit here (and while better people save lives, find cures, fight fires, pick crops, and watch over the nuclear reactor on the USS Teddy Roosevelt), I'm at least keeping some of you entertained.

Or informed. Or aggravated, but in a way you enjoy so much that you pay me to do it.

That means everything to me. (Or almost everything. I'd throw you all overboard in a split second for my family.)

But apart from that: Your generosity--and your willingness to be amused by me--means everything.

Thank you.