A Way to Help Me Keep Doing This
How independent work continues — and what makes it possible
The last few days have been busy for a lot of people. Travel, family, and conversations that stretch longer than expected. Now that things have slowed down a bit, I wanted to follow up quietly with some context about what this Substack actually is, and how it continues.
Over Christmas, I published both parts of One Nation Under Fraud. That series is a good example of what this work is meant to be: long-form, documented, and written for people who want to understand how systems actually function, not just how they’re described in headlines or argued on television.
The modern information economy rewards speed. It rewards whatever is most straightforward to consume, easiest to share, and most straightforward to repeat. Accuracy does not travel as quickly, and context is almost always the first casualty. That is why so many arguments today are won in the moment and collapse the minute you ask for specifics.
Long-form writing is slow for a reason. You are not just writing an opinion. You are stitching together incentives, timelines, and consequences. You are asking basic questions that most people avoid because the answers are inconvenient. What changed? When did it change? Who benefits? What is the measurable outcome?
That is the kind of work I’m trying to do here.
It also explains why a piece like the Fraud series takes real time. There is reading. There is cross-checking. There is a decision to be made about what is strong enough to say plainly and what is still speculation. There is the discipline of not overstating the case, because once you do that, your opponents stop engaging with the argument and start attacking the exaggeration.
There is no institution behind this. No media company. No foundation. No sponsors. There isn’t even a nonprofit structure in place yet. The work continues because readers decide it should. That is not a metaphor. It is the literal model.
Paid subscriptions cover the unglamorous parts of independent work: time, basic expenses, and the ability to keep producing work like the Fraud series without turning everything into reaction or performance. They buy breathing room. They allow focus. They keep the work from being forced into the same incentives that flatten everything else.
Paid subscriptions also affect reach. Substack’s “Rising” lists are primarily driven by paid subscriber growth. That means every new paid subscription does more than fund the work. It helps other readers find it. Staying in the Top 100 Rising in U.S. Politics keeps this Substack visible to people who would otherwise never encounter it.
At the moment, this work is already showing up alongside far larger political publications. That visibility is not a reward for saying the right things. It is simply how Substack’s internal discovery works, and paid growth is what keeps the work discoverable in that space.
I also want to pause and say thank you to everyone who already supports this work as a paid subscriber. You are not just funding writing. You are underwriting time, independence, and the ability to follow arguments through to their conclusions without softening them to keep anyone comfortable. This does not work without you, and I do not take that lightly.
I’ve also been open that none of this is abstract for me. I live in the same real world as everyone else. Bills exist. Rent exists. Uncertainty exists. Independence always carries a cost. That is not an appeal. It is simply context.
If this Substack has helped you think more clearly, argue more precisely, or articulate things you already sensed but could not quite put into words, paid subscriptions are how that value becomes a continuous experience.
And if you’ve been wondering what comes next, it is more of the same in the best sense: deeper documentation, more durable arguments, and more pieces built to be referenced rather than merely reacted to.
If becoming a paid subscriber makes sense for you, I am grateful. If it does not, I still appreciate you being here and reading carefully.
Either way, thank you for taking the work seriously.
Best regards,
Chris
Become a paid subscriber: https://mrchr.is/help