A New Era: Important Announcements
No.164: June 16, 2023
Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This publication is free for now, but please consider clicking on the button at the bottom to become a paid subscriber to enjoy this along with Monday’s “Off The Shelf” feature about books and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.
Dear Friends,
Do you want to hear something amazing? It is amazing to me, at least.
Mark Halperin is a well-known journalist and pundit. Three years ago he set off on an independent career with a Substack newsletter about news and current events. After three years of writing a “tiered” newsletter with paid and free versions, he suddenly decided to overhaul the whole thing. No more free newsletter. Instead, he offers a “concierge” service with two paid options. It is a bold move.
But that is not the amazing part. Here is the amazing part: the cheapest of his two paid options is $280 per month. The top level subscription is $400 per month. That’s like … a car payment.
Now, I’ve been considering this for awhile and if Mark Halperin can do it …
Just kidding. Sort of. You see, I too began writing a Substack newsletter over three years ago and the Friday edition has always been free. And I have lately been considering that a pricing change is overdue for The Square Inch Newsletter. Everything in the world has become more expensive—gasoline, eggs, coffee, bagels, you name it. Everything except this newsletter. People barely bat an eye when Netflix jacks up their monthly fee a few bucks a couple of times a year or Amazon Prime is suddenly $150 instead of $99. But I haven’t been nearly as confident in my “pricing power” as the executives of streaming services. And I’d never, ever be as confident in my pricing power as Mark Halperin seems to be in his!
Nevertheless, this is the first announcement: for new subscribers, as of today the price of The Square Inch Newsletter will increase to $7.95 per month. It’s not Halperin’s $280, so you’re welcome! I’ve always said that purchasing a subscription is the equivalent of buying me a Starbucks latte in exchange for about a dozen essays a month. Now it is still quite a bit less than buying me a 16-ounce beverage at an airport bar (I know, I know; unfair comparison because airports bars are outrageous). I’d like to think if we met in an airport, friend, you’d buy me a drink. Why not get some decent cultural writing in exchange?
The second announcement is harder to make. Back when I started offering a paid subscription model Jake Meador shared with me a very romantic concept that I loved. Wouldn’t it be great if people willingly paid for a subscription in order to keep all of the content free for everyone? I still love that concept, but I’ve come to accept that that isn’t how the world works (yet). You can get a small sliver of a population to buy in to that kind of altruism, but I am doubtful that sliver will ever quite be enough to truly subsidize the free content for everyone. And, truthfully, when the divergence between groups is large enough it can feel pretty inequitable. A small group of people pay me for writing, much of which I just give away to everybody else for free—and I am not saying that they should feel grieved about that (see the idea above). But, honestly, I feel like I am being unfair to them.
The time has come: as of July 1st, 2023—just over two weeks from now—there will no longer be a free edition of The Square Inch Newsletter. If you are not already a paid subscriber and would like to continue receiving it, along with other features, you will need to upgrade your subscription by clicking the button below.
To make this clear: if you do not upgrade your subscription, the June 30th edition will be the last you receive from me. As much as I would like everybody—each and every one of you I call “friend” at the beginning of these letters—to join me in the journey ahead, I am realistic enough to know that this might be goodbye to some of you. If you decide not to upgrade, please know this: it is has been a great privilege for me to write for you and I’m beyond grateful for your attention these past few years.
But I am also hopeful that a great many of you will hit that button and join me for the journey ahead. Our culture and society is headed for some choppy waters, and your support will make The Square Inch’s role in providing commentary and analysis a more sustainable one.
To summarize: as of TODAY new subscriptions to The Square Inch are $7.95 per month. Annual subscriptions are still discounted at a relative scale: $79.95.
If you are already a paid subscriber, this does not affect you and you do not need to do anything. Unless you let your subscription lapse, your current rate will remain locked in.
If you are a Founding Member you do not need to do anything.
If you have a “comped” membership for a period of time, you do not need to do anything. You will be prompted to upgrade at your renewal date.
If you would like to cancel your subscription, you may do so through your Substack account.
If you would like to continue receiving this newsletter, please upgrade before July 1st. Anyone can, of course, subscribe at any time after that. But you won’t be getting emails from me to remind you. And we might drift apart forever! Don’t let it happen.
Thank you friends, for subscribing to, reading, and sharing this newsletter. I look forward to having you along for the years to come!
Rather than leave you with just a sales pitch, I want to make a brief commentary. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has been a stalwart in speaking out against transgender ideology, and the other day he questioned a medical expert. Please watch it (and please ignore the sensationalized headline):
Well, he did leave her fairly speechless, I admit. I just hate the gaudy “dunking” people do to get clicks.
We are going to win this ideological and cultural battle. The Alphabet Brigade will not prevail in their aims to sow gender confusion among children—and I cannot think of a more wicked aim. Jesus says it would be better for these folks to have millstones tied around their necks and be thrown into the sea (Matthew 18:6). The most chilling part of that video is when the witness says that her views are held with deep conviction and honesty. I think that’s true, and it is the scariest thing of all.
Another thing I often say is that these are precedented times. This is not the first time that Science™ has settled upon some grotesque experimental idea and procedure. In the early 20th century Science™ settled on the idea that we could purify the human race from disease or mental health problems if we weeded out the “feeble-minded” and “lower” races. These “eugenics” led to forced sterilizations perpetrated by those waving the flag of Science™. So much was this idea ultimately rejected by our society that when Charles Murray published his book, The Bell Curve—which was simply a descriptive analysis of sociological data about IQ levels among various groups—he was anathematized for even hinting that there could possibly be a correlation between race and IQ. The “lower races” thing was thrown into the dustbin of history. (It’s back with the resurgence of race-based nationalism—and some forms of so-called Christian nationalism—but that’s another conversation.)
In the 1930s Science™ made another discovery. We could fix psychiatric problems by severing the brain’s connection to the pre-frontal cortex! The “lobotomy” became a popular, go-to, and lucrative procedure for many doctors and surgeons. The Science™ was settled! What kind of backward Neanderthal would stand in the way of Progress™? Well, how’s this for a rebuke to the arrogant Western, modern Science™ industry? The first country to ban the practice was the Soviet Union in 1950. Soviet doctors objected that the procedure was "contrary to the principles of humanity."
Just so. The procedure turned tens of thousands of people into, to use the Soviet word to describe it, “idiots.” The rest of the world shamefully and belatedly caught up with them.
And now countries around the world are putting a stop to gender reassignment surgeries for minors (a good start), but the medical establishment in America just keeps shouting “SCIENCE™!” As Rep. Crenshaw effectively demonstrates, they do not have any actual science. It’s all ideology and propaganda, and an agenda that can only succeed by making everyone deny the evidence of their own eyes and common sense is destined for failure.
“Gender reassignment” will go the way of forced sterilization and the lobotomy. Stand your ground, stand for real science and not Science™, and keep up the good fight so we can make it happen sooner rather than later.
Thank you for reading The Square Inch Newsletter. Time is of the essence to upgrade your subscription. Just hit the button!
A bargain at any price. Once again I found myself reading your thoughts to my wife. Thanks for putting into words (again) so clearly and boldly what needs to be said