Read Why Reason Consumers Have Donated to Our Almost-Over Webathon!
We apparently kept you sane, tickled your earholes, and led you to agree to disagree with us.
So why, exactly, are you wonderful readers/listeners/viewers of Reason-generated product making this annual webathon the second-biggest and possibly even the biggest haul in our 14 years of conducting an online fundraising drive, already blasting through not one but TWO ambitious fundraising targets (later days, $420,000!)? Let's hear from you in your own words. But first, a reminder:
WON'T YOU PRETTY PLEASE WITH NONTARIFFED IMPORT SUGAR ON TOP DONATE TO REASON RIGHT THE HELL NOW? Thank you.
The webathon donation form, as more than a thousand of you know already, has a little "comment" box in which you can write your suggestions, zingers, and various bon mots. They make for marvelous reading.
More than a dozen of you credit Reason with helping keep you "sane" in these unhinged times; there's lots of oh don't bother with the swag, just keep on keeping on; and holy COW did about 7,000 percent more of you have nice words to say about The Reason Roundtable this year. Thanks, fellow kids!
We'll start here with a nice conversion story, and then move on to our five main categories of listener-generated comment, which are: You Get Us, You Really Do; Agree to Disagree; Nick Gillespie Appreciation Society; Spreading the Love; and Limericks. BUT FIRST!
For most of my adult life I felt politically abandoned. Neither the left or right's dogma appealed to me. And then around 2016 I found out about Reason magazine. It may have been a tweet from Katherine Mangu-Ward about private space exploration or something from Matt Welch about baseball or some rock band or school choice. I don't remember exactly how I came across Reason but when I did it was like a light was turned on and I could see that I wasn't alone in the political wilds. Thank you, Reason and Reason staffers, for all you do to carve out a sane space in an insane world.
No, thank YOU! Moving on:
1) You Get Us, You Really Do
I also donated through my donor advised fund but wanted lunch with KMW so badly that I donated here as well. Nick's somewhat random and nearly never appropriate comments give me great hope for whatever medical condition the two of us share. Yes, I do pay my wife for sex, mostly because she does NOT need the money and it makes her happy. In all seriousness, I find a great deal of value in what you guys do for me and the world.
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I love calm rational thought that can separate liking or disliking the outcome from discussing if the rules/process is correct. Thank you for what you do
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You're a shower of robot fucking drug pigs. That would be enough to warrant a few quid in itself but you're also one of the few places left that supports wholehearted debate.
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BOOG POWELL
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Keep up the good work Round Table! Your humor and insights are very engaging. Though at a political level being libertarian can be discouraging, listening to the podcast keeps me optimistic and inspired about the beauty of human expression and possibility, thanks!
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Sexbots for everyone.
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Poor in 2021 but I love you guys, especially the roundtable assholes, oops I meant hosts who I adore more than anything. More next year I promise so just hang in there. Please no shout-outs! I'm a govt. contractor for god's sake :). I should have more money??? I'm livin off the largess. Must question life choices…
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Listen to the Reason Roundtable weekly to get a different perspective on world events and ideas. Came for the conversation, stay for the bad puns and jokes.
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Please get Matt Welch a pronunciation [ pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn ] guide.
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My absolute favorite place to stay up to date on the internet. You represent what is possible in reporting and opinion, reason, a nice breadth of viewpoints and most of all, zero sensationalism!
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Thank you for not just being a blast for the like-minded, but also for the approachable, fun, informative, diverse content that can connect to folks of all stripes. Here's to fun, occasionally jostling content and conversations being the gateway drug to a more-free, dynamic world where we are all free to pursue the freak-flags, cocktails, rocketships, slash-fiction, doses, and sports of our choosing.
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Thanks. Hope this helps with Nick's shroom stash, Katherine's brownie bakes, or anything else that passes as "coffee". You guys are the best.
2) Agree to Disagree (this one's Katherine's favorite)
I primarily listen to the Roundtable, and you guys drive me bananas with how wrong you are about nearly everything, from what government can do for us to whatever the fuck the MCU is. BUT….I value the balance the Roundtable gives me in comparison to the rest of my media bubble. And, occasionally KMW says the smartest thing I've heard in months. Keep it up!
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Thanks for keeping me sharp, both in my agreement and my disagreements with you. Kudos generally on the Kindle edition of the mag.
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I just heard about this on the Reason Roundtable and wanted to support what you are doing at reason.com. While I don't agree with everything, I really appreciate the perspectives and the disagreements even within the Roundtable editors. Keep up the great work!
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I don't agree with everything you say, but I love that you are not afraid to say it.
3) Nick Gillespie Appreciation Society
love the reason roundtable every week; love nick's reason interviews—well, most of nick's interviews
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Nick is the only one who likes my tweets. Keep on fighting!!
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I know this isn't enough of a donation to make personal requests, but could someone, anyone, grab Nick "Dr. Grump" Gillespie and reenact that scene in Good Will Hunting, where they keep telling him it's not his fault until he breaks down in tears?
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I don't need any schwag. Save the $$ and just keep up the good work…and by "good work" busting Gillespie's balls on The Reason Roundtable is at the top of the list.
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I enjoy the Reason Roundtable podcast. I don't have $1000 to give, but I'd still like to have lunch with Nick someday.
4) Spreading the Love
Gillespie, Soave, Welch, and KMW are national treasures, albeit for different reasons. Keep getting placed in the podcasts, interviews, and contributor slots that matter. Fifth Columnists Kmele and Moyn could write a column every fifth day…
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Keep up your great work. I think that Eric Boehm is the best journalist in America. You are extremely lucky to have him on board.
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I love listening to the Reason Roundtable! I also greatly appreciate that Reason is focusing on the fall of the Soviet Union; my mother and her family fled Latvia in late 1944 (came to US in 1949) but I have other family members still over there. I love all of the great articles on immigration and the Baltic States that Fiona Harrigan is writing for Reason. And I'm curious whether Peter Suderman has ever tried Riga Black Balsam in any of his cocktails.
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I appreciate all the great reporting guys do. Reason is probably my biggest source for news and if I could afford to donate more I would. Keep up the great work!
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Upon the event of my death I wish to donate my body to Katherine Mangu-Ward.
5) Limericks
I love your work, especially the Reason Roundtable podcast — it's a little burst of sanity I look forward to each week. Thanks for all you do! Also, because Matt asked, here's one of my favourite limericks:
There was an old man
from Peru, whose lim'ricks all
looked like haiku. He
said with a laugh, "I
cuts 'em in half — the pay is
much better for two."
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There once were two men, now at large,
But now, thankfully Katherine's in charge,
But a 4th man, a nerd,
Who likes cocktails, I've heard,
Is loud as a Florida barge.
(I'm sorry, but clean limericks are hard.)
Look, some of these webathon donors may be wrong (especially about poetry), but all of 'em? C'mon, man! Join the bad-pronunciation parade, and help us do more and better libertarian journalism and commentary.