Remember how I made a post a while back saying I was going to keep this blog site but would also be moving to Substack? But also they’d previously platformed Nazis (as well as COVID deniers and QAnon types) so maybe I wouldn’t be there that long? That’d be keeping an eye on it to see if they refused to clamp down on those kinds of blogs and making a decision about whether I’d stay accordingly?
Yeah, they started promoting Nazis.
This is just a little something to say that I’m no longer there, and if you are, it’s not a great idea to stick around.
Being aware that companies and people we support are doing bad things takes work, and thus takes energy. In the case of Substack, I didn’t do that work as diligently as I should have, and I was made a fool as a result.
I know there are a lot of folks who have blogs on there that are brilliant that you probably enjoy, and I know I have a lot of friends who are also writing incredible work on there too. I also know that if you read anything I write, you’re probably not real keen on supporting a company that is making money off platforming and now promoting Nazi blogs.
If you have a Substack account, consider joining me in deleting it. You can still read the free blogs without an account, and if a writer is savvy, they’ll also have a tip jar available for you to drop cash into if you’re so inclined.
Contact your favourite writers and tell them the low down on how Substack has dropped the mask on how rotten it is. Suggest they join a different platform – my favourite former Substacker David Farrier’s Webworm uses Ghost now, and as far as I know, WordPress hasn’t been too gross in their own dealings. (Though if they have, I’d very much like to know.) If you’re a writer yourself, take a look at your other options – there’s plenty around – and consider starting up a newsletter through other means so folks can still follow your work without using socials. If you have a blog on an unpaid platform, set up a tip jar so that folks can contribute without subscribing.
There are some reports that Disney has lost over a billion dollars this week for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel over the tamest of jokes at the expense of Trump. (Some other sources dispute the number and the cause, but the boycott is definitely underway.) If you feel like that it’s justified to boycott an international conglomerate of that size with such a stranglehold over our cultural lives over one show, then I’d expect you’d feel that it’s reasonable to cancel an account with a website that hosts multiple Nazi blogs, and has previously refused to de-platform them under the excuse of “free speech”.
But that excuse? It’s bullshit.
No-one’s saying that Nazis have no right to speak — but you can say, “They can’t speak in my living room. This is my house and I can decide.”
-Mike Masnick, founder of Techdirt
Substack isn’t just letting Nazis come and speak in their living room. They’re giving them a cup of tea and a megaphone.
I don’t make much money. I have bugger all reach. But I can still say something.
Today, that something is: Fuck Substack. Fuck Nazis. And fuck anyone who thinks they have a right to be heard.





