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Ricochet Membership Week: Paul Rahe
All of our content at Ricochet, from the posts to the podcasts, is ultimately dependent on you, the reader. The revenue that we receive from people who sign up for a Ricochet membership allows us to keep this place humming — and to provide a forum for civil conversation unlike any other on the web. Making sure that these memberships continue to grow is a vital part of keeping Ricochet vibrant and healthy. All this week, we’ll be publishing testimonials about the site’s value from some of our most respected contributors (and — this being Ricochet — we invite our members to start similar threads on the Member Feed) to tell you why you should be a member if you’re not already (and why you should upgrade your membership if you already are). We begin this week with this note from Paul Rahe, Professor of History at Hillsdale College and longtime Ricochet contributor:
I have been writing now for Ricochet for something like four years. I do so because there is nothing quite like it. Ricochet allows me to think out loud, to try out arguments. The worst that can happen to me is that I learn something that I did not know. The Code of Conduct and the simple fact that one must pay a monthly pittance to join eliminates comments that are vile and reduces enormously the number that are merely insulting. What remains is argument — more often than not interesting argument. The community of members is large. It includes Americans (and non-Americans) from every walk of life. They frequently know things that I do not know — things that confirm the hunch that caused me to write in the first place or that disprove my point. In short, when I write a post, I initiate a conversation. When I comment on someone else’s post, I join a conversation — and the conversation is frequently informative and entertaining. Sometimes it is downright hilarious — and I often find that I want to meet my fellow members, which I have done in Manhattan, in Silicon Valley, in Los Angeles, and right here in Hillsdale, Michigan, where everyone shows up sooner or later.
That sense of community is exactly what we’re trying to foster on the site. And we want you to be a part of it. Why wait? Sign up and join Ricochet today!
Published in General
I think every membership pitch should include the words “monthly pittance”.
God bless Paul Rahe. I mean that. Really. God bless him. No one else combines such erudition with such elegance of thought and prose with such largeness of heart.
Thanks for being in the mix, Paul
Always enjoy a Prof. Rahe post or pod appearance. One knows he’ll engage the Ricochetti in the comments, so it’s a double-dip treat.
Cheers!
[Redacted for CoC]
Speaking of the merely insulting…
Dr. Rahe brought me to Ricochet in the first place. I am looking forward to meeting him in person some time.
As far as I am concerned, Ricochet is ALL good.
Constructive criticism is what I prefer to call it. Not the same thing as insult, not by far. But of course, that’s all relative to one’s tolerance to criticism.
I don’t know. He is saying nice things, but he sure doesn’t look happy.
Please Dr. Rahe, would you invite,
“Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.”
http://www.seraphicpress.com/
You would thoroughly appreciate his article today:
When HomoFascists Meet IslamoNazis
We’re so glad you’re here. I always appreciate your thoughtful posts and the news about Hillsdale.
I disagree with this redaction. The comment was impolite and pointed, but AIG’s point was aimed at Prof. Rahe’s expertise.
He’s not trying to look happy; that’s his “erudite” look. I like it, and I also automatically read everything he posts on this fine site.
Thanks for being here, Paul. I do enjoy your writing and the discussions your engender. Perhaps one day I’ll finish reading that book you have in your lap.
A constructive critique includes an actual correction, not simply a declaration that someone is unreliable when it comes to a certain subject.
The actual corrections are left for the actual posts made on the topic, which I have made. I never said anything about him being “unreliable”. Mine was a rather much simpler point than that.
Either way, no problem.
Good. I’m glad it’s not a problem.
Paul Rahe is a national treasure.
Just having him on the team makes me (feel) smarter.