It’s taken me a long time to compose this blog post, in part because I don’t have the free time to devote to this blog and its related social media platforms anymore, and in part because I was dreading what is essentially an act of finality, closing the door on something that has been a large part of my life.
But I’m going to just say it: this is the end of MattForney.com, at least as you know it.
I’m not going away and I’m not going to stop writing; you’ll always be able to visit this site and get the latest updates on what I’m doing. However, this site, my YouTube channel, and related platforms are going dormant for the foreseeable future, and my online work will focus exclusively on Terror House Press, my publishing company. As part of this, I’ve deleted almost all of my YouTube videos and streams, as well as all of my Anchor podcasts and the vast majority of articles on this site. I’ve also removed all of my self-published books from sale; I had already closed down MattForneyBooks.com, my online store, a year ago.
My reasons for doing this are varied, but the catalyst is that I have a new full-time job. As I’ve discussed in the past, my online income fell through the floor back in 2017 due to deplatforming and Google search algorithm changes, and since then, I’ve made a living from freelance writing and editing. As it turns out, my journey to success operated in reverse: rather than using a real job to learn how to make money online, making money online gave me the skills to get a high-paying job.
I have true financial security for the first time in years, and I’m also training for a “recession-proof” career as a backup. I don’t want to jeopardize what I’ve achieved because of things I said or did when I was in my twenties. While my employer doesn’t care about my political views, I don’t see the point in making trouble for them, particularly given that my non-Terror House audience has shrunk to a fraction of what it was years ago.
Another motivation I have for removing much of my older content is concerns over further deplatforming. I’ve already been banned from Twitter and Facebook, and I’m hanging on by a bare thread on YouTube, having had many of my videos removed for violating TOS and even having my channel banned outright for a short time. I was even censored by my previous web host for satirical articles I’d written nearly a decade ago. I’m not interested in dying on the hill for things I wrote when I was younger, dumber, and more hot-headed, particularly when nobody is reading those old articles or watching those old videos anyway, aside from hall monitors looking to catalogue every mean thing I’ve ever said so they can fuck me over.
Some people might propose alt-tech as a solution to deplatforming, but alt-tech is a grift designed to fleece money from censored people. I’ve already written about how Gab is a scam, and I recently deleted my BitChute account after discovering that they had teamed up with Hope Not Hate to censor content on their site. I’m not wasting any more time on these bullshit “alternative” sites because they all end up burning their users on the free speech issue while failing to provide a functional user experience.
Finally, I’ve either lost interest in the subjects I’ve written about in the past or, in some cases, I no longer hold the political/religious views I once did. I’m tired of being stereotyped based on things I said ages ago when I was a different man, and I’m especially tired of being smeared for things I never did or identified as. I’ve been continuously accused of being a “PUA,” an “MRA,” a “white nationalist,” a “leader” of the “alt-right,” or a ton of other ideologies/groups I’ve never identified with and in many cases have vociferously attacked. That, and frankly, a lot of my older writing makes me cringe in embarrassment.
I am not going to turn to the left or apologize for anything I’ve ever said; an apology is an admission of guilt, and writing edgy things online is not a crime. I know that the mere act of hitting the delete key on thousands of articles, podcasts, videos, and streams isn’t going to keep the really obnoxious wokescolds from harassing me. I also realize that the Internet is forever and at least some of my deleted content will be archived somewhere online.
But I don’t care anymore. I’m cleaning house for a fresh start. If bums want to pick through my garbage, I can’t stop them. But they’re still bums. If you enjoyed my older writing, I appreciate that, but it’s time for me to move on. At this point in my life, I’m perfectly happy to fade into the background and have my past forgotten.
My future work will be of a literary bent and will be published by Terror House Press or other literary magazines/presses. Terror House Press has been immensely successful financially and Terror House Magazine exceeded MattForney.com in traffic a long time ago. As I’ve said in the past, my ambition when I began writing was to write stories and novels, and after more than a decade of writing online, that dream is becoming reality. Plus, from a cost/benefit perspective, it makes sense to focus my time and energy on projects that are actually paying off.
I’ll continue to post updates on this site, as well as my Telegram channel and Discord server, but I suggest you follow Terror House Press directly:
You can also subscribe to my mailing list: link is at the bottom of this page.
I’ve been working on a volume of poetry for the past year that may soon see the light of day at Terror House, and I’m also hoping to return to writing book reviews on a regular basis. I may also be doing a new video project that is non-political and related to my Terror House work; I’ll update you if/when that comes to fruition.
I’d like to thank those of you who’ve followed my work throughout the years. I’m humbled by the fact that I’ve had a strong readership throughout the years, with some of you having been here since I first started blogging in 2009. I hope you stick around for my future projects, no matter what form they take.