Editor's note: this article is reprinted (with minor edits) from ninaillingworth.com and is primarily posted here to introduce new readers to me, my writing and my website. You'll be able to find previews and links to my website here but you'll have to visit the site itself to read the full stories in the future - NI
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
"Who am I? You sure you wanna know?" - Peter Parker
I am an independent writer and currently the primary force behind the website ninaillingworth.com; I write the articles, I do about 75% of the editing and I handle almost all of the advertising or promoting of the site that gets done. I would describe the vast majority of the things I write as op-ed pieces because I typically rely on drawing opinions or larger conclusions from the work of journalists, reporters and news anchors; you can learn slightly more about me by reading this Contact Page I threw together in a few minutes while drunk because the site had to have one.
If you're interested in taking a quick look at the kind of work I do, I've included a small sampling of some of my favorite pieces spread across a number of genres:
“Life is what happens to us while we’re making other plans” – Allen Saunders
Today, five month later and through the lens of hindsight I’ve come to realize a little more about what readers want as well as what I’m capable of and will enjoy delivering; with a lot of trial and error along the way. Unfortunately, there’s also a goddamn massive list of what a more self-aware person might call regrets; stories I never found time to write, issues I wish I’d written more about and ideas I never quite found time to implement here on the website.
In light of both what I've learned and what I still hope ninaillingworth.com will become; I've thrown together a rough monthly (and tentative) schedule of posts you can hopefully expect to see on this website. Admittedly, it's an ambitious schedule based on my previous five months worth of output - but if I want the website to grow with the audience, I'd like to keep adding new things to the experience as often as I possibly can:
2-4 "deep dive" op-ed essays - these are the bread and butter of this website and without a doubt my favorite type of article to write. Whether we're talking about Hillary Clinton's long history of openly breaking the law, why Trump should have lost the GOP nomination back in March or toxic corruption in the US Justice Department; these essays are where you'll find heavily-sourced, verifiable information about horrifying evil and corruption in the United States and abroad. From time to time I'll also include in-depth film studies and reviews that try to go beyond just the production on screen and dig deeper into the background sources touched on during the film or documentary.
4x Info Meme of the Week posts - this is a new feature on the site; I actually just posted our first info meme earlier today, "When Pena Met Trump." The idea here is to present one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. These memes are designed to be informative rather than funny, but represent an ideal way to learn about the news quickly and efficiently - without being exposed to bullshit corporate lies.
1x Observations from Outside the Death Star post - when I originally started this website, it had always been my intention to write about the catastrophic damage caused by American imperialism, US foreign policy and the nation's military doctrine on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately, the most terrifying and simultaneously maddening election in US history seems to have gotten in the way and I've only just recently posted our first OODS article. This is an unforgivable oversight on my part and I've decided to strongly recommit to examining the evil the US government condones, supports and commits abroad more regularly.
1x Tales from the American DMZ post - any serious study of lies, evil and corruption in America must by it's nature include continued examination of the injustice, violence and open violation of civil liberties inflicted by various state-backed authorities on the US populace and in particular, vulnerable minorities within that populace. Until now, I have been largely derelict in that duty with the exception of a single post on the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando that touched on overvaluing gun rights and two paragraphs about police violence against and summary executions of black men in a news summary post. By scheduling a monthly post, I hope to correctly this problem definitively.
1x Wall of Shame Update - one of the most popular features on ninaillingworth.com is the beloved Wall of Shame; a stunning collection of mendacious media morons openly lying, shilling and shitposting on behalf of their favorite political parties on social media. In the past, I've released Wall of Shame updates haphazardly and with more than one new "honoree" each time and many people have told me this leaves them wanting more frequent updates. From now on, I'll commit to at least one new addition to the glorious Wall each month and since I've hardly even touched on the notably dishonest neocon and objectively fucking insane alt-right media - I should be in no danger of running out of targets anytime soon.
1x Fantastic Lies post - the final truly "new" section I'd like to introduce on the site is an ongoing criticism of the lies politicians, the media and powerful corporations tell regular people in order to cover up corruption or openly influence our thoughts and behaviors. While the Wall of Shame is great for showing the sheer volume of bullshit media personalities are prepared to spew in pursuit of their political causes; sometimes it's necessary to break the specific lies elites tell us down more thoroughly and I think the Fantastic Lies section will allow me to do that better from here on out.
1x Rant, Takedown or Comedy Meme Collection - although it was never really my intention to have ninaillingworth.com become well-known for savage takedowns of frothing neoliberals and highly controversial rants; these types of posts have been wildly popular here on the site and I'm legitimately far too shitty of a person to not enjoy creating them. Although there is an inherent sort of randomness involved in cataloguing social media meltdowns and ideas so infuriatingly wrongheaded they required a written trip behind the woodshed for a savage beating; so far I've had no trouble averaging at least one such post a month. If all else fails and nothing worthwhile comes up; I'll just throw together a comedy meme collection for that month - it's never a good idea to schedule your "fun" too rigidly my friends.
4x NFL Picks Columns (football season only) - while it may be hard for some of you to believe; prior to setting up this website, I was working on a now-defunct, Detroit-focused, sports comedy page called SportsballChic. Unfortunately however, a serious long-term illness last fall forced me to abandon the site and by the time I'd recovered enough to write again, American politics had gone so completely bloody insane that it just didn't seem all that worthwhile to write about sports for people slightly right of Vladimir Putin on the political spectrum. Although I am still extremely proud of some of the work I did writing about sports; I'm also aware that my writing career has largely moved past that point and on to more important subjects like Nate Silver diss-rap filks. I have however been asked repeatedly over the summer by a number of my old readers to once again undertake a weekly NFL picks column and I've agreed to do so because I find them somewhat therapeutic. Although I'm aware that many regular readers of this site likely hate sports, please allow me to assure you these posts will only come out once a week for roughly twenty two weeks and I've established a scaled back outline for each column that will ensure they don't take much time away from my regular writing. Besides, you might actually enjoy them; each column begins with a (fictional) interconnected story about the depraved adventures of a Hunter S Thompson-esque gambling junkie who (theoretically) "writes" the picks article each week - last year, a few people who don't care about sports at all told me they read the articles just for the little story at the beginning of each one.
1x Fiction - in what may perhaps be another surprise to regular readers of this website, I also enjoy writing fiction; primarily short stories and confusing, highly-personal poetry, but I've also got a few good ideas for a novel or two kicking around in my head - and a plan to release them chapter by chapter on ninaillingworth.com, if time ever permits. Although I have no intention to prioritize writing fiction in the near future, I would very much like to write more fiction than I am writing at the moment. For the time being, these pieces will almost certainly be single scenes, extremely short stories and poems - although I have begun scrawling out pages for a novel-length story intermittently and with a little luck, I might even publish a chapter in a few months; once I adapt to the heavier workload this entire schedule provides.
Overall, each of the items on this new schedule are prioritized roughly in the same order of this list and while I concede that it's a heavy workload; I can always skip posts closer to the bottom if illness, burnout or outside/personal problems interfere with my work. This epic schedule update isn't cast in stone; it's more an attempt to firmly define what this website is about, what I'm trying to accomplish here and provide the best possible experience for readers - both new and old alike.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
After talking the matter over for some time with a friend and follower on social media, I've decided to open a bunch of new accounts on different services to both promote this website and to help ensure that my voice isn't silenced unfairly; either by error or by corporate, media and governmental powers that be. So far it's been slow going; I only have an account on Twitter, GooglePlus, Medium and Blogger but as more are added, they'll be posted up on the Contact page of this website.
Please be advised that many of these social media accounts will contain very little content native only to that site; there is after all only one of me and I'm already quite busy producing content for a website and my Twitter account. Primarily, posts on these other sites will consist of an image, a brief preview and a link back towards an article on this site; the purpose here is to allow people to get updates on new content from more than one source and give me a platform to speak with readers if Twitter decides to fiddle around with my account settings again.
Alternately, regular readers can sign up to automatically receive email updates using the bar on the right side of the screen at ninaillingworth.com; under the paypal donation button.
Finally, as a further protection; please allow me to implore all of you who enjoy the content here on this site to retweet and share links to articles on this site liberally in your own social media circles. You can find tips for how to help me reach more readers by checking out the Spread the Word Page here, but the basic idea is to help by sharing my work with people on other social media sites like Facebook and popular forums you might visit. As an independent writer operating a small website like this by myself; I am utterly dependent on and eternally grateful towards those kind souls who share my articles with a larger audience - frankly, I am by no means joking when I say I need your links more than I need your donations at this point in my "career" folks.
“I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” - H. Thompson
Jokes aside, ninaillingworth.com is a completely free-to-read website with no paywall that will never feature outside advertisements of any kind, or even monthly charity drives because I hate these things with the passion of a thousand dying suns; just like you do. The website and my labor are funded entirely by reader donations through Paypal, Patreon or even bitcoins; you can read more about how to donate to the cause on the Tip Jar page here or simply use the helpful donation buttons provided at the bottom of every article on ninaillingworth.com.
With that having been noted however, the work I do here represents my only source of income and as a result I ask that if you can afford to and feel inspired to donated to keeping this website up and running, I would be extremely grateful if you did so. By that same measure, if you cannot afford to donate; please don't feel guilty about reading my work without contributing - the monetization of truth and knowledge actually represents one of the more sinister forces I'm trying to fight by writing here.
Well friends, there you have it; the long version of who I am, how my website works and what sort of articles you can expect to find there each month. Thank you for bearing with me through such dry material and hopefully I'll see you on ninaillingworth.com this September and beyond. Until then; keep your eyes open and share the truth with anyone who'll listen. Thanks and goodnight.
- Nina Illingworth
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