#133 - Au Revoir, Substack!
or: ew, who invites Nazi's to their dinner parties?
“If you have 10 people and one Nazi sitting at a dinner table and willingly eating together, you have 11 Nazis.”
The quote above has no source. I definitely read it on Twitter first, but digging around the internet it gets attributed to being a “German saying” and uh, this reddit thread would beg to differ.
But! I like the quote. Because the quote is simple. It explains why, when it comes to hate groups, passive association is a huge boon for their legitimacy.
(Now, do I think that rehabilitation for all via love & community is the true way to the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible? Oh, you betcha! But this isn’t the time or place for that discussion. This is about associations with outside parties and keeping clarity around my own morals.)
I don’t associate with hate groups. At all. Ever!
Supremacy of any kind really goes against my fundamental beliefs and understanding of the symbiotic nature humans have with each other. It’s great to be able to catch the fish, and it’s equally great to be able to cook the fish. Both tasks need to happen to create a meal, there is no “better” there is just “together”. Race is a concept, hate is antithetical to survival, and love is exponential.
Anyway, I’m leaving Substack because uh, there are Nazi’s at this dinner party y’all!
And look, I don’t make money off of Substack, so they don’t make money off of me. I have not contributed to their economy, in fact, I am just a little drain on their resources, sucking up bandwith and memory space over here! But, Substack’s founders and CEO’s have made it abundantly clear that they’re okay making money—lots of money—off of white supremacists.
In their response to an article in The Atlantic, aplty named, Substack Has a Nazi Problem the leaders of Substack had this to say:
I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse.
Hamish McKenzie, Substack co-founder, in a fucking note published on his own newsletter platform
Personally, if I was giving a statement after being accused of making money off of Nazi content, I wouldn’t do so in a hard-to-search note with no title. But that’s just me!
To be clear, this isn’t a matter of “free speech” because that freedom, as defined in the Bill Of Rights, only protects us from governmental censorship and retaliation.
This situation is a private business making the decision to lean into the alt-right grifterdom because they see hate as profitable. They are setting the stage for Substack to become and continue to be THE welcoming platform for hatred and bigotry.
And like, to make things even more untenable for those writers who do wish to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the other parts of this website, Substack, like so many other platforms before it, is trying to become social media.
Their way of doing that has been to collate all of their writers together in the dreaded “notes” part of the “reader app” which makes it abundantly apparent who is saying what on this website and who Substack is highlighting as it’s Rising Stars.
Since beginning this draft and moving over to the new platform (more on that in a minute!) Substack has semi-reversed their original statement in response to pressure from some of the largest writers/money-makers on their Substack. It turns out some of the Nazi’s were in fact breaking the terms of service, and therefore they’re removing five whole publications that have “crossed the line”.
Now, while I appreciate that they moved…at all – this is lame. This is weak shit. In a world being rapidly swallowed by fascism, we have to suss it out and call it out and move away from rapidly when it becomes apparent.
(Oh, by the way, I’m making it a mini-mission of mine this year to get everyone to read The Communist Manifesto. It’s short, I know a lot of people feel like they missed their chance to read it but actually the fact that so few of us were ever assigned such a revolutionary text in an academic setting should further radicalize us as the working class. It’s a pamphlet, it’s a banger, and I promise it’s worth your time! This link is to a free PDF of it that has a bunch of intro essays but just the original text is all I’m encouraging!)
I’m glad Substack has recognized that their original statement was poor. I’m still not comfortable staying at this dinner party. Because it kind of feels like they kicked out the guys who were saying the slurs, but let all the dudes passively nodding along stay for the rest of the meal. And like, no, sorry. Not good enough babe!
Byeeee Substack, g’bye!
I have been researching where to move to for a while now, and landed on Ghost.org — the direct website is https://smokeshow.ghost.io and looks…remarkably similar to this little ‘ol web layout that most readers have never even seen because most people read these in their inboxes!
So! If you’re on the list, you will stay on the list but you’ll get emails from me at Ghost rather than from me at Substack. The entire archive is over there and this publication is remaining entirely free.
(If you want to be a monthly supporter for no additional benefits you’re more than welcome to be! Ghost is a paid service which is the only reason I turned it on. It’s not because I have any expectations or want anyone to feel pressure/guilt/anything re: paid subscriptions. That’s also why there’s no benefits! I’m not gonna tell you how to spend your money, I’m just relaying that there is yet another option for how to spend it if you so choose!
If you want to triple make sure that you’ll get the new newsletters, free free to add noreply@smoke-show.ghost.io to your contacts on your email. It should work regardless, but it never hurts to help tech out when we can.
Anyway, it’s been a pleasure to have you all reading these emails as supported by this unfortunately managed morally bankrupt company, and I hope we’ll have a seamless experience in transitioning the same writing to a slightly different platform.
See you cats on the flip flop laaater ✌️ 🩵 👻
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