Let's figure out loneliness before it breaks the world.

Welcome!

My name is Vegas and I’m a journalist. I wrote a book and was nominated for an Emmy. I’ve spent my entire career covering some of the angriest, most paranoid, racist folks in America. I’ve been to every skinhead rally and nazi march you can imagine. My brain is filled with useless knowledge such as secret KKK handshakes (basically you just twist your wrist when you shake your fellow klansman’s hand. Clever right?) and neo-nazi codes (there was a brief time when the bran Helly Hansen was popular among nazis because Helly Hansen=HH. Geddit? The popularity ended when they realized how much the average jacket costs.) I was the first person pepper sprayed by protestors in Charlottesville, which is something that happens a lot when you’re a bald, white guy covering skinheads. I bear no grudge.

I’ve realized that what I’ve really been covering is American loneliness. This isn’t to make excuses for the far-right—most people are quite capable of being lonely without blaming it on a Jewish conspiracy—but to say that loneliness has gotten us into a pretty bad spot. When you have nothing, anything becomes a tempting alternative. I was once at a skinhead rally where a ridiculous looking leader in a viking helmet told the crowd that the white race needed them. He needed them. Everyone in that field (it’s always in a field) was needed. All around me huge beefy guys with less than great tattoos were weeping openly. If it weren’t for the genocidal hatred it would almost have been a touching moment.

The former surgeon general says that a lot of us are lonely. Maybe the surgeon general is lonely. I know I am. Not lonely enough to become a nazi, because fuck those guys, but I wouldn’t put it past myself to join a church or some kind of cult.

Maybe this could be my church or cult. I’ll write a newsletter to figure out why we’re all so lonely, and a lot of us so angry, and in the process I’ll make some friends. I’m pretty sure that what I’m going through isn’t unique to me, so let’s try to work this out together. I plan on interviewing good people who can help me understand why guys are lonely, why right-wing populism is thriving, why grifters are grifting, but also how we can come together and do cool things even as the world seems to be burning. There might be a podcast, and there will definitely be a video series. Whatever form it takes, it will hopefully be a community.

Also, I realize that the name of this newsletter makes it seem like it’s about my journey with IBS. Maybe it can be?