10 of AlterNet's Most Popular Writers of 2012

AlterNet publishes articles by thousands of authors each year, on almost every topic and news item under the sun. Some of our more frequent contributors, including our in-house writers and many of our best known authors, routinely gain audiences in the tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands, and are spread further by blog links, Facebook, reposting and beyond. The following is a list of 10 of AlterNet's most popular authors with a link to their author archives and their most-widely read articles of the year. 

As I mentioned before, we are not going to have a traditional fundraising campaign this fall. We are guessing that you are probably weary of the ubiquitous fundraising campaigns that relentlessly send pitches until a goal is reached, often turning off people who may say, "Enough already."

We are doing something different, which we hope will be more fun and less intrusive. We'd like to bring you more of our most popular writers with top articles like these:

1. Noam Chomsky
   Chomsky: How the Young Are Indoctrinated to Obey
   Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience. Since then, many measures have been taken to restore discipline. 
    
2. Bill Moyers, who often co-authors his articles with Michael Winship and videos from his show at BillMoyers.com.
   Moyers: Meet the Shameless Plutocrats Choking What's Left of Our Democracy
   The race for the White House may cost more than two billion dollars. What’s getting trampled into dust are the voices of people who aren't rich. 
    
3. Paul Armentano
   Five Scientific Conclusions About Cannabis That The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You To Know
   The government and mainstream media like to push studies touting the purported dangers of marijuana, while ignoring scientific evidence that demonstrates the opposite. 
    
4. Joshua Holland, AlterNet Senior Writer and Editor
   The 10 Most Hilariously Unhinged Right-Wing Reactions to the Obamacare Ruling
   Over-the-top? You betcha!
    
5. Greta Christina
   Why Is an Atheist High School Student Getting Vicious Death Threats?
   Her state representative has called the student "evil" and she has been threatened with violence, rape and death. What gives?
    
6. Sara Robinson
   Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control -- And Why We'll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now
   Conservative bishops and Congressmen are fighting a rear-guard action against one of the most revolutionary changes in human history. 
    
7. Democracy Now's  Amy Goodman
   Matt Taibbi Reveals How Romney Made His Fortune -- It Ain't Pretty, and He Shouldn't Be Proud of It
   "Earned" is a very generous way to put it. 
    
8. Tie: Lynn Parramore & Sarah Seltzer
   The 8-Hour Sleep Myth: How I Learned That Everything I Knew About Sleep Was Wrong by Lynn Parramore
   The 11 Dumbest Things Conservatives Have Said About Women by Sarah Seltzer
    
9. Valerie Tarico
   Captive Virgins, Polygamy, Sex Slaves: What Marriage Would Look Like if We Actually Followed the Bible
   How many so-called Biblical literalists have actually read the whole Bible? Let's see what God really has to say about marriage.
    
10. Les Leopold
    What If the Greedy Rich Paid Their Share? 8 Things to Know About Wealth and Poverty in the US
    We're far from poor -- we just have a wildly lopsided distribution of wealth that makes us seem poor.

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