As stated at the end of last week’s blog, this is my last week on the current site. Next week, the NoTread Network website should be up and running and I’ll be on there for good.
For those of you who don’t know, the NoTread Network is an entertainment media platform I’m starting with two other friends from Auburn: Troy Beckham and Nathan Southerland. Initially, it will host blogs and podcasts about topics ranging from politics to entertainment, culture and perhaps even sports.
I’ve been spending so much time trying to get this website set up that I probably haven’t promoted it as much as I should have.
Too, what I have in mind for NoTread is more than 280 character’s worth. Twitter’s just a hard place to talk about it like I want to.
So I thought it’d be appropriate, being my last week on the Wix site, to finally give more detail about what exactly I want NoTread to become.
Starting Small, But Growing
It is going to start out small. When we first get started, it'll just be featuring the Drunk Rothbard Blog and Troy’s new podcast, HateWatch.
HateWatch will premier later this summer and follows Troy as he views various content throughout the internet, media and television. It’s not all about politics, so if your head’s spinning after reading Drunk Rothbard, that might be a good thing to check out. Troy’s a funny guy, so definitely give it a listen if you’re looking for an entertaining podcast.
Of course, we’ll hopefully have contributors writing for us every now and then. If you like to write, and like what we’re doing, keep an eye out for the contributions page on the new website next week. I’d particularly like articles about topics like sports, music, culture and crypto so if you’re into that stuff, please send something my way.
NoTread could just end up being a place for the three of us (me, Troy and Nathan) to post our content. If it doesn’t become anything more than that, so be it.
However, I’d like to expand throughout the course of the next few months. I’m looking to bring on new content curators – a number of consistent contributors and maybe another featured blogger and/or podcaster.
Contributing to the Movement
With NoTread, I’m trying to do more than make a profit (though, as a staunch Capitalist, a profit would obviously be nice). I want to contribute to this movement.
Unfortunately, however, I’m 22 years old, fresh out of college and aspiring to go to law school. I can’t afford to have my name publicly tied to opinions that some people are so hostile to, particularly those who tend to be in charge of law schools.
Nevertheless, my life has been changed by the liberty movement. For me, it was not just a political realization. It came hand-in-hand, as I’ve written about before, with lessons about character, reality, knowledge and morals. That triggered an all-in-all thirst for truth that lead me to thinkers from Aristotle to Ayn Rand to Murray Rothbard.
I will have a family one day and will require a means to care for them. I want to give the best life to my offspring and my wife in the future. That role isn’t outweighed by the calling I feel toward this movement. I hate to bum any of you out, but if it were one or the other, I’d have to choose my family. I think most men would.
I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case. I’m just describing the limits of what I can do for the movement in my present situation. And I’m describing my limits because, ultimately, Drunk Rothbard and NoTread are me doing the best I can do within those limits.
Building a Culture
I believe with the Drunk Rothbard Blog, I can distill philosophical ideas down in a way that makes them easy to understand, but also entertaining. These may be the ideas of someone else or they may be my own.
But with NoTread, I want to provide an outlet for us not to expand the echo-chamber of liberty Twitter but rather to build a culture. Because it’s culture where we’re lacking.
We can’t just all be nerds who sit around and read dense econ books all day. I know. I love reading too. And I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t. You definitely should. I’m telling you that there needs to be more to your life than that. There needs to be more to the movement than that.
Our movement is defined by ideas, but we can't let those ideas just be about politics or economics. Ideas promoting sound economics and criticising politics, of course, are good. I'm not arguing that we should get rid of them.
I am arguing that we should expand on them. Ideas about living a good life, treating your fellow man with respect, seeking logically sound conclusions, building families, etc. must be elaborated on and promoted because, as I've heard it said before, liberty is not enough.
Yes, me must be free. But freedom will only degrade back to tyranny if our culture is built on false, nihilistic and degenerate sentiments. We must be libertarians. Not libertines.
But we can't just believe in these ideas. We must live by them. We must be the examples. We must have character.
Our character, at the end of the day, will speak for our ideas before our ideas can speak for themselves.
Just because we don’t believe in aggression, doesn’t mean we can’t prefer the company of those individuals who are neat, decent, polite, honest and well-structured over those who aren’t. It doesn’t mean we can’t expect that behavior from those within our movement.
We don't need to have a stick up our ass. We can have fun and make mistakes.
We can, and should, accompany outstanding character with the relentless humor that so many of us already possess. We must have fun. Afterall, this is Drunk Rothbard speaking. Don't you forget. We must enjoy being good and free and others will want to follow.
And when we do make mistakes, we learn from them. And when we're faced with the same situation, we act differently. We never allow ourselves to give up on our principles.
With a strong culture, held up by strong ideas, spoken for first by character and then with reason, our movement would be all-the-more powerful.
And out of these strong ideas, we'd create art that reflects our principles – beautiful music, novels, television and film that promotes the values of personal responsibility and individual liberty.
No, the NoTread Network isn’t here to make this art and strictly define this culture. We don’t have the skill, money and time to record albums and shoot film. And a culture isn’t defined by one person. It’s something we all must contribute to.
And that’s what I want the NoTread Network to do: contribute to a culture by creating a source of entertainment that’s not infested with left-wing propaganda. And only with your help can we build this culture to its entirety.
Finishing Up for the Week
This is going to be short this week, folks, but I just wanted to share with you my vision for this website and my vision for the movement. Like I said, maybe it won’t get there. Ultimately, that’s up to you whether it will or not. Keep reading and start sharing our stuff and maybe it will.
Next Wednesday, I’m going to give my blog a little bit more definition and narrow down my scope. I intend to talk about what that’s going to look like then, on the first official post on the NoTread Network website.
In the meantime, make sure you follow the NoTread Network Twitter (NotreadThe) as well as Troy (@rowdyandrandy), HateWatch (@HateWatchShow) our friend CatoTheMostHigh, who will be doing a lot with us in the future (@CatoMost) and, of course, myself (@drunkrothbard).
Tear it up this weekend,
DR.