2017 blew through with the energized, concentrated malice of a year that knew it had big, “2016”-labeled shoes to fill and the certainty that it could still be so much worse for so many more people. It was amazing, at least to me, how many were quick to celebrate the end of last year and cheer on the new one even as the United States was preparing to swap out its administration for what can best be described as a pack of Fallout-style feral ghouls, only with less impulse control and extra rot.
Preliator-wise, 2017 only began halfway though the year, so I don’t have quite a year’s worth of posts to look back on. But I’m not about to do a year’s-end retrospective each June 23rd, so just-over-six months’ worth of blogging is what we’re going with here. So without further ado, I give you the obligatory Top 10 Posts of 2017, as ranked by unique page views (which counts only individual sessions and not repeat page loads).
10) Atheists tour Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter
Published: September 15 | Unique views: 8
YouTube atheists Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty visited Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter and filmed their tour, complete with narration.
Creationism: Magical sky-fairies, dinosaurs, incest and geologically impossible events all wrapped up in a lie told to children.
9) PETA doesn’t want you to see this video
Published: November 16 | Unique views: 9
Months ago: Cracked.com releases a video criticizing PETA’s massive hypocrisy. PETA forces them to take it down. Today: Rinse and repeat.
On top of all their other sins, they’re also censorious cowards who issue bogus takedown requests to silence criticism. Unfortunately for them, the Internet doesn’t forget, so you can watch that video they hate right here. (The above-linked post also has a full transcript, courtesy of yours truly.)
8) Breitbart: Kick out 800,000 DACA recipients because we found 25 (allegedly) bad ones [updated]
Published: September 05 | Unique views: 9
The alt-Right rag argues that deporting nearly a million law-abiding immigrants is okay because 0.003% (update: or 0.3%) of them may have committed crimes.
If we were truly concerned with expelling ethnic groups that commit the most crimes, native-born White Americans would be the first to go.
7) “But what about White pride?”
Published: August 18 | Unique views: 9
The next time someone asks why “White pride” is considered superfluous (if not downright racist), point them to this explainer.
Read this again once in a while.
6) The Trump Agenda Survey: Fun with an insane money-beg
Published: August 27 | Unique views: 10
A friend sends me a “Trump Agenda Survey” their household received from the RNC. It’s nothing but leading questions with a side of donation-begging.
The part where they force respondents to choose between a) giving money now, b) giving slightly less money now and c) fuck Trump is my favorite.
5) An hour at the Montréal Biodome
Published: August 24 | Unique views: 10
Photos from my visit to the Montréal Biodome, an interior zoo featuring hundreds of animal species.
It only took an hour to traverse the exhibits, but that was enough for me to snap a hundred pics and publish them here. Penguins!
4) Trumpy Bear will haunt your dreams
Published: July 31 | Unique views: 11
Let’s play a game: Satire or legit? With the Trumpy Bear game, you lose either way.
Months later and I still scarcely have the words.
3) Another journalist assaulted by idiot protestor
Published: September 16 | Unique views: 11
A college journalist covering a pro-immigration protest was punched by a protestor who mistook him for a Right-wing activist. Cue the terrible excuses.
Punching Nazis sounds like a fine idea until innocent people get caught in the crossfire. Or, why free speech must be (quasi-)absolute, even for the detestable dregs of society.
2) This Week in Puppycide: 08/05/17
Published: August 05 | Unique views: 12
A roundup of 5 news reports involving police shootings of pets, particularly dogs, collected during the week of July 30–August 05, 2017.
Puppycide posts routinely get the most views, and this one got the most of all.
1) Isn’t it the thought that counts?
Published: August 17 | Unique views: 26
A cute comic by Lunarbaboon about the difficulty of putting thoughts into words.
I debated including this post at all, since it’s kinda cheating; at least half the views came from a technical support forum in which I asked for help regarding some esoteric bug and linked to this post as an example. I still get the occasional straggler even now. Still, unique views are unique views, so in it goes at the #1 spot.
— 2017 Statistics —
Total page views: 4,038 (+4,038 this year)
Unique page views: 3,457 (+3,457 this year)
Total visitors: 547 (+547 this year)
Total posts: 343 (+343 this year)
Total comments: 2 (+2 this year)
Total commenters: 2 (+2 this year)
It’s easy for me to feel bummed when I compare the above stats to my old blog, which averaged 100+ visits per day and raked in over 100,000 hits in just four years of existence. But the way I choose to see it: About 500 people (give or take a few dozen to account for tracking errors) thought I may have something worthwhile to say, and they visited this blog, either individual posts or the main page, a few thousand times overall. Thank you all. I will always write for myself first, but knowing some people out there may be interested in what I have to say … it’s nice.
Onwards to 2018. Stay vigilant.
— Sarah Andersen (@SarahCAndersen) December 30, 2017
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