Editorial
Editor & Publisher
Jon Ajinga — hello@thefreethinkingtimes.com
Letters Editor
hello@thefreethinkingtimes.com
Contributors
The Freethinking Times publishes work from independent contributors on a regular basis. Contributor bios appear alongside their work. We are currently accepting pitches.
A Note on Transparency
We believe mastheads should be honest about who is making editorial decisions and what their interests are. This page will be updated as the publication grows and its structure changes.
The Freethinking Times has no institutional investors, no parent company, and no advertising relationships. It is currently funded entirely by its founder. We will disclose any change to this arrangement prominently.
Our Symbol
The pansy is not an arbitrary choice. The English word pansy comes from the French pensée — meaning thought. The flower has carried that meaning for centuries.
Shakespeare's Ophelia distributes pansies with the line: "There's pansies, that's for thoughts." The Victorians used it in the language of flowers to signify remembrance and meditation. Philosophers of the Enlightenment era — the period whose spirit most informs this publication — were often depicted surrounded by the flower in allegorical portraiture.
The pansy's distinctive "face" — the dark radiating markings on its lower petals — has long been interpreted as the flower looking inward. It is a fitting image for a publication committed to the examined life: scrutiny of power, interrogation of received ideas, and the willingness to follow an argument wherever it leads.
The violet and purple of the pansy carry their own history: the colors of wisdom, independence, and intellectual courage. They are not the red of revolution or the blue of established order — they occupy a considered space between.
We chose the pansy because it is small, overlooked, and persistent. It grows in difficult conditions. It has been a symbol of free thought in periods when free thought was dangerous. That lineage suits us.