And Yes, I Checked the Actual Day Count

Posted on January 10, 2021    Posted by      102 Comments

A picture of me giving a thumbs up and the words "I'm John Scalzi and I have been sedition-free for 18,873 consecutive days!"

It’s true! And if we’re being honest about it, it wasn’t that difficult — sure, some bad days when the seditious urge really got going, but one a day-to-day basis it was manageable. It’s not that hard not to be seditious! And yet. Let’s just say there’s a fair number of people out there right now, from the White House on down, who have far fewer consecutive sedition-free days. Some of them, alas, are in the single digits even as we speak. This is, shall we say, a problem.

How many sedition-free days do you have? Here’s a site that might help you get started in figuring out the number. If you’re a Republican congressperson, however, it’s possible you can just use your fingers.

— JS

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102 Comments on “And Yes, I Checked the Actual Day Count”

  2. I actually share the same amount of days, but we do share a birthday, May 10, 1969

  4. As I’m a casual seditionist in the same manner I’m a cigar smoker, I really can’t recall.

  7. We’re watching in horror from Canada as things get ever more surreal in the US but my day is always brightened when a post from you or your daughter shows up in my inbox. It’s easy to start regarding the lunatic fringe as more representative than they really are due to their current prominence but your voice and those of others is reassuring. Thanks and I love your books! (Btw I share your daughter’s phone issues and am now training my daughters how to deal on the phone.)

  10. 21857 days without one drop of the stuff. Lips that touch sedition shall never touch mine.

  13. 21,669 days! (And “how many days since mm/did/yyyy” also works.) And I’m not in jeopardy of being called back to US armed forces service and being subject to courts marshal … unlike some who visited the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021.

  16. @ Kevin, same number of non-seditious days as Scalzi and you share a birthday?? What a weird coincidence!

    Sounds a little suspicious to me.

  20. I confess there was a time in my life, back in the days when Flower Power vied with People’s Park, when I wanted the ‘regime’ to fall. But… I never did more to bring that about than put out water and rags for tear-gassed protestors running down the sidewalk.

    And I further confess that while I haven’t lusted in my heart for sedition since then, I still think People’s Park was a Bad Thing that CA did to Berkeley.

  23. Your streak of days is particularly impressive given the pressures to just declare the Scalzi lawn an independent country.

    20,746 days. And some of those were spent in Berkeley.

  28. 24,506 days, some of them highly critical, but not a one seditious. To tell the truth, it hasn’t been that hard, but maybe I’m, just a wimp.

  30. 19,372. I think I’ll start counting my age in 1,000’s of days rather than years from now on.

  31. Are you talking just against the government, or also against parents, some acquaintances, and a few former employers? Because if it’s the latter, I’ve got some ciphering’ to do.

  35. 24K plus days without actual sedition. But my congressman is working on day 4, unless he does something else stupid today.

  36. Not really wanting to reveal my actual date of birth in a public forum, but I am happy to confirm that I am at well over 23,000 consecutive sedition-free days right now.

    One of the senators from my state, on the other hand, is at a whopping four – count ’em, FOUR – sedition-free days at the moment. No bets on whether he’ll make it to double digits before he f’s up again, either.

  37. It’s been a long, hard road, but I’m proud to say that I am exactly13, 140 days sedition free.

  38. If we are talking about the Marriam Webster dictionary definition of sedition:

    “: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority”

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sedition

    Then… I cannot count all the way back to my birth, as I have incited resistance against lawful authority in both high school and, at times, against my parents.

    However, against my State or Federal authority? I have not taken any action against them. Thought about it over the years, yes, but that’s not a crime.

  42. Congratulations, Mr. Scalzi! I’m sedition-free since 1953, though I’ve been witness to a few… Just, not on native soil… unless you count 1963…

  44. I’m a buttload of days old. but I had suspected that already. How many stamps on my card do I need to get my free sedition?

  46. 23,481 days. One of my senators is stuck at zero because he’s still saying he didn’t do anything wrong and complaining that everyone’s being mean to him.

  53. Dear John,

    Hmmm, by strict dictionary definition, I only make it to 6,506, as I was one of the protestors who forced the shut-down the Federal Bldg in San Francisco when Iraq II started.

    Not making any firm promises about the next 6,506, either.

    pax / Ctein

  54. 26,312.

    But I think you should add a day for every day you were in National Service of some sort . . .

  55. 22038 days in my case.

    A friend sent me a parody article “TWO doses of Impeachment needed to make America fully Trump-Immune.

    This pustule on the body politic has become a suppurating boil and now we’ve progressed to dangerous sepsis.

  56. I would like to refute our gracious hosts’ statement by referring him to the Sedition Act of 1798.

    However, seeing as it’s expired, and that everyone convicted under it was pardoned, and had their fines paid and that it resulted in the First Amendment, and, not least, that I lack ready access to a reliable time machine, I am not probably going to be able to make the charges stick.

    Still, it might be in the best interests of John Scalzi to clear his website from the cache of his laptop the next time he finds himself in Philadelphia in the very late 1700s

  59. 22,436 days, unless you count being arrested protesting weapons manufacture.
    As a side note it seems some of these seditionists are now on no fly lists. All I saw was a tip too of a guy crying because he was labelled a terrorist. So take that for what it’s worth.

  60. John Scalzi, I was more concerned about your commenters who don’t have Wikipedia pages.

    Anyways, everyone’s a responsible adult here, so share what thou whilst. (Though I would round to the nearest 100 days instead of being precise.)

  61. I just watched The Bears “suppurate” all over the field for 60 minutes!

    Thanks for new word Matthew!

  62. “All I saw was a tip too of a guy crying because he was labelled a terrorist.”

    This makes me smile. Thank you.

  66. Too many elected-official members of the GOP can’t count above two with their fingers because they’re too busy giving the middle finger to the Constitution. Almost constantly.

    When they’re not sticking them in their ears to keep from hearing inconvenient facts, that is.

  67. 23603, I think. Those teenage years might have been close to seditious, but not on the scale we are dealing with.

  68. 25372 here. Of course Trumpholio would consider me seditious because I’ve been preaching for his removal since before his inauguration.

  69. surprised so many trusting readers wanna share their date of birth, um, on the internets??

  70. Almost 11 years since I “gave comfort” to an insurrectionist – but she had only been throwing snowballs at Parliament. And they were crooks. And you’ll never take me alive. Thank you for your excellent posts – a ray of light in these dark times.

  73. most generous host -> a big ask, i know, but promise 20 up votes if your comment section(s) supported Like buttons? regardless, thanks for the site, umm, and all the stories.

  76. And I was today years old when I found out I could ask Siri: “How many days ago was -insert birthday-“ also works with seconds and hours and months! Cool. Now I’d only worry if I asked it “how many days have I been sedition-free” and it knew. :)

  77. LOL!

    Look, ma. No brains!

    What these dim bulbs aren’t getting (though they soon will, I’m afraid) is that they’re tools and nothing more.

    I’d love to be a fly on the walls of the ones who realize that no, Trump is not going to make the charges go away.

    Guess they haven’t heard how Trump treats the help.

  78. @Just Sayin’:

    The period is a decimal point. I keep forgetting that other countries use different notation for decimals.

    My oldest son is named after Connor MacLeod, however.

  79. Sedition is a wide range of crimes; I haven’t tried to overthrow the US in decades, at least, but speaking against its activities? The kind of stuff that got Eugene Debs thrown in jail and got some more appalling Supreme Court decisions saying the First Amendment didn’t cover it?

    I probably haven’t advocated getting rid of our current president and his cronies in hours. At least one or two. Maybe even days. Certainly not more than weeks. Recommending that Speaker Pelosi impeach Trump so hard he doesn’t stop bouncing until he lands in the Potomac? (Ok, I didn’t use that exact phrase it my letter to my Congressmember, nor did she (well, her staff) use it in her thank you note, but nudge nudge wink wink we both know it was there, and if the details work out that he lands in Rock Creek instead, I’m ok with that. At least if it’s one of the deep parts.)

  80. Well John, you’ve played a good game, but I’ve beaten you this time. It was close, but I’ve been sedition free 18998 days. Perhaps you could call somebody to find you the 125 days you’d need to beat me, but I wouldn’t count on it.

  82. Who’d have guessed? I’m a mere 24,629, and more sedulous than seditious with each day.

    A suggestion – multiply your days by 24. Think you’ll make it to one million hours? Savour every moment. .

  83. Does ceremonially spitting at the front door of Trump Tower in New York City in December 2018 count as sedition? Because that’ll determine whether my sedition-free-days count numbers in the hundreds or in the tens of thousands.

  84. I’m in with 22,439. Had to wait to comment until a) I could use a real computer and b) older folks commented.

    More than half of those days I was, and still am, under oath to “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States”, I think that’s it’s a good guess that it’s become a habit.

  85. I’m not doing that math. Math is hard. But definitions of ‘sedition’ I found said “two or more people”. I am sedition-free by virtue of being antisocial? But I would think you’d NEED to be antisocial to be seditious. Well now I’m confused.

  86. 20305 days sedition free! Granted, just over 2,900 of those I was under oath but still, sedition free!

  87. I have been sedition free for an infinite # of days.

    Y’all must have been some bad bad babies.

  88. Sarah Marie, thanks for the video. Made my day. And the comments are brilliant.

    “THEY CALLED ME A TERRORIST! Bwaaaaaaaaaa!”

  89. Because I live in the UK, I couldn’t be seditious even if I were to feel the urge.

    It’s rather curious, given that we invented the legal concept of sedition in the first place. Or maybe it makes sense that, just like we were the first to invent it, we were also the first to abolish the relevant laws.

  90. As for days of service, I attend an outdoor country music festival near Phoenix where it is part of the culture to support our troops and first responders. Every year a middle aged man wears a T-shirt that repeats his oath of service to the constitution and reminds people that he is still feels bound by that oath.

  91. 22,218 days for me. I am reminded of the song “22,000 days” by the Moody Blues:

    22,000 days represents the average life expectancy of a human: 60 years, 115 days (counting leap years). This was accurate in 1973, and was a bit higher when the song was written. Over the next few decades, life expectancy increased rapidly, to 71 in 2015. – songfacts.com

    Life expectancy when I was 0 days old was 69.77 years which is about 25,483 days. I still have a ways to go to beat odds.

    Bringing this back to topic, another 3,265 days to go before I am sedition free longer than my life expectancy,

  93. I’ve managed to resist the urge to go all seditious on Congress’ ass for 20,782 days now. It’s been pretty rough on some days, but I managed to take a deep breath and set the urge aside. I am hopeful that things will improve in another week or so and we’ll finally get a Congress that is going to do its %#@!-ing job for the first time in four decades.

  94. I am 18652 days sedition free.

    However, there is a rumor I tried to overthrow my parents during the terrible-twos. They won’t talk about it. So, grain of salt.

  96. @Jeff M:

    No worries. :)

    I love how they were ruining his life and how something was being done to him.

    He’s the victim in all this, you see.

    I don’t know if I want to pat him on his empty little pinhead or point and laugh.

    Like Elizabeth from Knoxville, this one seems genuinely shocked and perplexed that there are serious consequences for participating in an armed insurrection in which capital police were killed and seriously injured.

    I’m sure I don’t have to speculate on why that is.

    At any rate, I hope this ridiculous creature goes as viral as Liz has and that he spends the last days or weeks of his freedom being thrown out of and trespassed from businesses.

    In other news, the firings have started; I hope being part of the MAGA horde was worth it.

  98. Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been approximately 19,000 days since my last confession, and these are my sins. Umm, I had impure thoughts once. But I never committed sedition, at least in its proper definition as conduct or language inciting rebellion against the state. I have spoken out against immoral actions by the state, but that is our right, nay our obligation, as Americans.

  100. Indeed, some Republicans may not be able to figure the number without using their fingers!

WHATEVER


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