Tuesday, October 25, 2016

R.I.P. Steven Den Beste

He was one of the first blogs that I followed.  I've been around a lot of smart people in my life, but he set that bar high.  Very occasionally, his style inspired some of my posts.  It was quite a thrill when he stopped by and left a comment to this one.

Rest in peace, Steven.

5 comments:

zuk said...

Can you link to where you learned this? I confess I don't check Chizumatic very often any more, but it's still up and the last post is 10 days old.

He was one of the original bloggers to rise to prominence and was always one of the most interesting 'thinkers' in the "thinkers, linkers, and stinkers" taxonomy.

z

perfidy said...

Zuk, I saw it on Isegoria first, linked to this: http://brickmuppet.mee.nu/steven_denbeste_1952-2016

I remember my first clueless-lanche of traffic when he linked my space war post back at perfidy. He occasionally commented there, even after he stopped blogging at USS Clueless. Definitely one of the best people from the early days, not just one of the best bloggers.

God grant him peace and comfort to his family.

Guffaw in AZ said...

I did not know the man, nor his blog, but he sounds like a pioneer and an inspiration.
I am sorry for your loss...

gfa

zuk said...

I see it now in the comment thread of his last post.

I've been binge reading back thru his posts, skipping the anime and finding the political. He posted quite a bit more political than he had been, I guess the current mess was irresistible. His observations about Trump and the RINO establishment have proven to be right on the mark, as usual.

Anyone who doesn't know him, he wrote USS Clueless back in the early days of political blogging, and was an insightful thinker and commentor. When he couldn't take the incessant nit picking and internet 'gotchas' and unending (and inane) suggestions, he mostly abandoned political blogging in favor of an obsessive dive into the most trivial subject he could imagine, Japanese Anime. He kept it up, and became what was clearly a vital and engaged part of that community too.

From time to time he did political posts mixed with his anime content, and he was still sharp. He suffered a stroke and poor health in his retirement some time ago, and a recent post spoke about his terror at the thought of entering a nursing home.

He was a pioneer in a form of speech we now take for granted.

May he rest in peace, and may his family find solace...

zuk

Old NFO said...

That's a loss... May he rest in peace. We are diminished.