Moving On

Friends:

For decades, I’ve watched my liberal artist peers talk casually and constantly about their beliefs in public, on social media, and to their audiences, without repercussions… and as a conservative art-maker, I have envied them, and wished that similar actions on my part wouldn’t invite my cancellation. But I have been silent, because silence was safer.

But the world has changed, and silence is no longer safer. Silence is a path to an Othering so complete there will be no return from it, for any of us. The path we’re on now, as a people, will lead nowhere good. And I cannot participate in it.

From now on, I will do—must do—as my peers do (in my own way, because I don’t enjoy dismissing, mocking, or insulting half my audience). But I won’t hide anymore. There’s too much at stake, and the pain of silence, and its cost, is too personal. It took almost four months of nearly no progress on any of my projects to teach me that.

Granted these things, I have re-assessed my career and developed the following plan:

• People who wish only to receive my art/writing-related news can sign up/stay signed up for my free newsletter. This is the best choice for people who want only to hear from me when I have a book release, or other big news. If you’re not signed up for my newsletter, go to http://mcahogarth.org/newsletter.
• For now, people who wish to receive my art/writing-related news and see my art can stay on my Patreon which I will use to send twice-monthly posts to paying subscribers. Patreon is your best bet if you want to tip me and see my art, but without community or artist interaction. (I am investigating other options for this purpose; if I choose one, I will give you plenty of warning).
• My Discord server will be discontinued at the end of the month; I do not feel comfortable relying on a platform with capricious moderating activity for income (I don’t anticipate staying on Discord personally, either). Some of my Discord users have created a new server to stay in touch. This server is not associated with me in any way, and I’m not on it. It’s a completely separate venture started by people who want a social hang-out.
• My new platform for interaction will be Locals, at https://studiomcah.locals.com. This platform is explicitly designed for community interaction. Community members can make posts to my feed and follow one another; as the community moderator, I can not only make various kinds of posts (video, audio, image, text), but I can turn on livechat for any of those posts so we have a chance to interact in realtime. Livestreaming support is also on the way. Locals requires a paid membership and offers only one tier of support, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of the situation. It also allows people to gift one another community memberships, which means we won’t need a separate grant fund.

On the Locals platform, I’ll be debuting my new subscriber-only content: short audio segments about my experiences as a countercultural artist. These will not be rants, lectures, or debates; I am not interested in changing your mind, or making you agree with my worldview. My goal is to share in a spirit of open heartedness, not harangue. These segments will be the beginning of my commitment to honesty about my beliefs. I also intend to duplicate the Patreon content on Locals, so those of you interested in the interactive community aspects of Locals needn’t feel obliged to choose between the platforms if your budget is limited.

If you are interested in switching from Patreon to Locals, be sure to sign up via the website rather than the app; the app is required to give a cut to the app stores, so it charges the user more.

I know for some people, my “coming out” will be a deal-breaker, and if so I wish you well and thank you for your support in the past. But I hope the majority of you will be interested in joining us on Locals, to continue your witness and participation in my artistic journey. In the spirit of that, I am giving away my first audio segment to everyone: “I Built an Unsustainable Career.” I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for everything, aletsen.