Welcome to Deimos Station
New Gonzostan awaits...
Ever since I started TCWNF back in September ‘22, I’ve been promising my paid subscribers some special perks and goodies. This is one of them.
I’m not doing it alone. It was a collaboration, and one that (hopefully) includes you. Consider this both an announcement and an invitation…
Just what in the Kentucky Fried Hell is this madness?
Odds are that many of you already know.
And the fact that you do explains a lot of what it is.
Or, more to the point, what it can be, if enough of us climb aboard. If you know, that’s because you’ve already received something like this post in your feed or email.
But on the off chance you didn’t, I’m gonna do my part.
I’m a busy man/woman/robot, Bisone. Spit it out.
Okay, okay.
But first, let me ask you something.
Did you ever notice how a bunch of us are all reading each other’s stuff?
I’m not just talking about posted articles, but also their unique and intellectually stimulating comment threads, many of which will branch off into intriguing posts of their own.
Did you ever click on some of these authors and/or commenters, check out their subscriptions and say, “I’m reading most of that stuff too. Weird.”
I bet you have. Because there’s a certain phenomenon that’s becoming undeniable. A momentum that’s almost tactile. I could wax poetic about strange attractors and egregore formations and psychomagnatheric confluences and such all day long (Hell, sometimes I do). But there’s also a much simpler explanation.
We are becoming a tribe.
Or a band.
An army?
A something, in any case. And I gotta admit, the something we’re becoming is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or felt before. Leaderless and fearless, hilarious and sincere, comprised of polymaths, poets, dream warriors, cyber-rōnin, memelords and more, hailing from every field, philosophy and walk-of-life.
The sheer amount of gonzo wit, insight and energy I’ve encountered over the past six months has been almost overwhelming at times. You people are like a host of beautiful and dangerous angels. I want us to hang out more, and get to know each other better.
Moreover, we live in desperate times. Redundancy via back channels and alternative communications networks will be key to building the parallel systems that we’ll need to survive and thrive, once the Enemy’s Big Stupid Evil Plan goes to shit.
So a few of us got together, and built a thing. I’m guessing you know at least one of them:
Grant “Wolverine-squared” Smith [link]
John “Ares & Electuaries” Carter [link]
L.P “Voice of Reason” Koch [link]
Jay “Tango Assassin” Rollins [link]
Harrison “The Devil Dissecter” Koehli [link]
Doc “Basically Hephaestus” Hammer [link]
Daniel “Totally not Daniel D(ay-Lewis)” D [link]
Some guy named Mark.
We’re all hanging out at Deimos Station now. And we’ll be hanging out there for the foreseeable future, no matter what.
There are already many others there with us, who I’m guessing many of you/we know too. For example, perhaps you’ve been escaping mass psychosis with Winston Smith, or re-spherizing the planet with Mathew Crawford. Maybe you’re spellbound by William Hunter Duncan’s exotic blend of paleoconservative/neopagan punditry, or prefer to drill down into the latest conspiracy theory analysis with Jerome V. These and other writers and commenters are already here. And many more like them are coming.
Or rather, many more like us are coming. Because we’ve all found each other, somehow, through the smoke and flame.
On to business.
Some of the people, Martians and/or unfathomable cosmic entities above have already given their takes on what it is we’re building. Here’s my own.
What is Deimos Station?
Deimos Station is a newly formed Slack.
What’s a Slack?
A lot of people will describe it as a kind of private chatroom. It’s often used for business communications, or as a shared portal for online “community building.” It offers real-time, multi-threaded conversations and direct messaging, as well as some other bells and whistles. You can read all about it here (if you’re into that sort of thing).
What makes your Slack so dang special?
For Deimos Station, a more apt description would be a secluded chat-mansion equipped with many rooms, and with new additions being constructed over time (personally, I’m lobbying hard for a pool and a hot tub). In these various dens, garages, parlors and hot tubs, we can congregate to share our latest thoughts, ideas, writings, projects, memes, jokes, zany plans, wacky schemes and more. And because it’s a mansion/lair/secret headquarters built especially for awesome freaks like us, we can do all this while fearlessly speaking the contents of our minds and hearts1.
It’s also a clubhouse where we can just relax and shoot the breeze. Current members are already getting to know each other more intimately there, strengthening our bonds of fellowship and camaraderie. Plus you’ll probably ROFL LMFAO a whole bunch. There are some seriously funny motherfuckers who run in our circles, and Deimos enables the kind of spontaneity and live riffing you can’t really get on a typical Substack thread. As citizens of Deimos, we are free to bust chops, break balls, and crack the kinds of spicy, sanity-inducing jokes we’ll need to survive this Insane Clown Dimension we've been somehow transported to2.
But wait! There’s more!
Life on Deimos Station offers several amenities found nowhere else, including:
Performance optimization tips from Real American Hero, Major Grant Smith (#ape);
Deep, deep, deep thoughts with Cardinal Koch (#enlightenment-in-dark-times);
Evil, evil and more evil with Harrison
EvilKoehl (#ponerology)Slick social moves and grooves with resident terpsichorean psychometrician, Jay Rollins (#the-big-rollins-machine)
Martian alethiology with John “No, not that JC” Carter (#wyrding)
Roboticidal martial arts training with Sensei Mark (#zero-bit-computing);
Musical discussions and listening parties (#breaking-eardums);
Other things and stuff.
But this is only the beginning, my friends.
Roleplaying games! Comedy clubs! Hot tub parties! Viking mead halls! Interdimensional gateways! Starships cresting over the shoulder of Orion!
Sorry. Getting ahead of myself.
Anyway, it’s a pretty cool spot, and would be even cooler with y’all cool cats aboard. If you’re already a paid subscriber, you’ll see the invitation link (and some other stuff) under the cut.
If not, you can always…