200 articles: a note of gratitude

It’s official – we’re at article no. 200!

I hope you won’t mind if I take some time to share personal reflections about this journey.

Given that my work usually makes for grim reading, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to write about the things I’m grateful for within the context of this project.

As difficult as it is to sustain my independence while attempting to escape the influence of predatory commercial and government interests, I feel like the quality of my work has improved dramatically since I started this project. I research, write, and edit my own stories from start to finish. I use my own photography whenever possible, and I produce the featured photos you see in my articles too.

At first, it was intimidating. Trying to produce quality work that at least matches what an entire newsroom can produce is no small feat, let alone publishing the kind of work that can really compete on an oversaturated market. Over time, I grew to love it.

Up until this point in my career, I always had to depend on an editor’s approval for my work to make its way to the front page. You could submit your work knowing that, generally speaking, a second pair of eyes ensured you didn’t do anything stupid.

While I learned a lot from being grilled by skilled editors in the past, eventually, it started feeling like a straitjacket. After learning the rules of what a ‘standard’ news story should look like, I wanted to find new, creative ways of doing things. Like any other young, aspiring individual learning the ins and outs of a craft, I began seeing what could be improved and wanted the space to do it.

So, in spite of all the long, long days spent worrying about how in the hell this project is going to become a viable prospect, I’m happy my journey brought me here, and I am grateful I got to learn so much along the way. The price of freedom is always worth paying, whatever the cost may be. While I generally seek feedback and advice from peers whose knowledge grants them credibility, I now speak with others as equals, not as a subordinate.

Obviously, I am very grateful towards all the people who follow, support, and donate to The Critical Angle project. People’s response to my work has consistently surprised me. What could have very well turned out to be an embarrassing failure instead continues to grow into a platform that began as an act of rebellion and is now on the cusp of becoming something greater.

Anytime one of my articles strikes a chord with at least one individual, it’s a win in my books. When considering how we are all bombarded with information on a daily basis, somehow managing to cut through all the sponsored, monetised bullshit and the web of algorithms that manages it is an achievement in its own right. To think that since our launch in October last year, we’ve gotten a cumulative total of over 127,000 views is just outright wild.

A screenshot of this website’s Google Analytics (as of 15 August, 2024).

I am also grateful for the ongoing collaborations I have with Michael Kaden, a fellow freelancer with whom I am working on multiple projects, some of which we are yet to announce. We have matching skill sets and share similar views about what makes for quality journalism, and I am eager to see what else this fruitful partnership may bring in the future.

On a very personal note, there are several people in my life to whom I owe a great deal. In particular, I would like to thank the small circle of individuals who stuck by me throughout the very best and the very worst parts of this whole affair, and even the ones who did not. So many people gave me so much, expecting nothing in return, simply because they believed that what I am doing matters. For that, I can never adequately repay you, though I promise I will do my best to turn this project into something we can all be proud of.

In the interest of pulling the pin on this whole piece before it turns into an outright snog fest, I’d like to reserve one last shout out to everyone who had to endure hardship at the hands of our corrupt political class.

I am no hero and I am in no position to save you from your distress – nobody is. We’re all up shit’s creek with teaspoons for paddles, and everybody’s just trying to figure out how to survive. But I am in a position to speak up against powerful individuals who would very much prefer if I shut the fuck up, and I can promise that as long as this community-powered website receives enough support, I am definitely not shutting up anytime soon.

Thank you all for resisting, in spite of just how easy it would be to simply give up.