I’d rather

More random pointless thoughts.

Before the web, newspapers were divided into Serious Publications and Tabloids.

Serious Publications had pictures of Serious Men Doing Serious Things, which was usually a meeting to conjure up a new unjustified war.

Tabloids had pictures of pretty girls.

The same division happens in the web, with one addition.

Serious Publications like Substack have pictures of Modern Serious Men, PLUS paintings of Ancient Serious Men like Aristotle and Cicero, PLUS pictures of Semi-Ancient Serious Men like JRRRR Tolkien and CSSSSS Lewis and GKKKKK Chesterton and Von Mises and Von Rothbard and Von Marx and a dozen other grumpy old Vons.

Instagram and Tiktok have pictures of pretty girls.

I’d rather see pretty girls.

Smart serious media in the old days recognized what people wanted. Newsreels and training films usually started with pretty girls, then slipped in some real news and real education after you were locked in by the pretty girls.

Nature is a Tabloid. Pretty flowers and fruits with nice smells and tastes entice birds and bees to carry the message of pollen and seeds.

If nature was a Serious Publication, pollen would be contained in thorns, and apples would look like leafless rotten trees.