Table of Contents
*And Not on Substack, Where the Nazis Are Still Getting Published
n.b. This post was originally on Substack; moving it to a more permanent home here.
// I’ve spent a few weeks moving my archive of newsletters to a new platform. You can now find my transport dispatches at www.straphanger.blog , and my food history dispatches at www.lostsupper.blog (If you’ve already subscribed, you’ll automatically get the weekly dispatches from the new platform, so you don’t need to change anything.)
I’ve had discussions with other writers recently, some of whom are about to join Substack, or are remaining on the site. Most justify their decisions with classic freedom of expression arguments. (The argument sometimes goes: “You’re still on the Internet right? But there’s all kinds of people spewing hate on the Internet! I don’t see you about to quit the Internet.” I don’t even know where to start with that one…) I’m of the view that Substack is a publisher, if a particularly negligent one, and it’s my choice not to be published by a platform that publishes hate speech.
There have been a few times that I’ve asked myself whether I’ve over-reacted. So I spent a little time going down the rabbit-hole today, starting with a visit to the Substacks of Neo-Nazi Richard B. Spencer (Alexandria) and white supremacist Patrick Casey (Restoring Order), and then checking out what they recommend. That led me to Substacks like the White-Papers, Morgoth’s Review, Brandon’s Great Reset Letter, The Forbidden Texts, Turning Point Stocks, and many more. Lots of discussion of the “Great Reset,” “Zioworld,” Taylor Swift psy-ops—and so much hatred of people of color and transgender people. Most of these Substacks have removed the swastikas, sonnenbands, and more overt symbols of Fascism, presumably to escape removal after the Jonathan Katz article in The Atlantic that took Substack’s founders to task for doing nothing about de-platforming Fascist and white-supremacist newsletters. But they’re still there, still spewing hate. And some of them have 1000s of followers.
To tell you the truth, I’m feeling a bit sick to my stomach, and like I need to give my eyeballs a good washing. Wading through the convoluted discourse of hate is hard on the system.
So, as of this date, Feb. 18, 2024, Substack remains the home of Fascists, Nazis, and white supremacists. (It’s also the home of lots of people on the Left with ridiculously extreme views. Few of them, though, are as obsessed with promoting the removal or extermination of other people as their alt-right counterparts.)
That said, remaining on Substack, or leaving, is a personal choice. I write a newsletter about transportation, and another on food history, but I’m also the author of a book about the anti-Fascist resistance in 1920s Italy. During the research, I spent enough time in the state archives in Rome (and on the streets of contemporary Rome, where Fascist symbolism has never been removed) to know
There are a lot of people on Substack whom I respect, among them Timothy Snyder (the anti-Fascist historian) and the wonderful author George Saunders. Patti Smith remains on Substack; so does Margaret Atwood; as does Chuck Palahniuk. That’s their decision. There are a lot of advantages to remaining on this platform: it’s easy to use, and offers lots of network advantages for boosting readership through its Notes and recommendations features.
I’m happy that I went through the Substack experience, especially at a time when it’s getting so hard for writers to make a living from er, legacy media. But learning to Substack was basically the process of learning how to create a blog with subscribers, some of them paying. That taught me that it’s become a pretty easy thing to do—no special coding knowledge required. (For what it’s worth, the people over at Ghost, which hosts my blogs, are very helpful when it comes to migrating subscribers and making sure paid accounts follow. Patreon is another popular choice for writers, as is Buttondown; I found Wordpress’s learning curve a little too steep.)
That said, it has still eaten up about a week—there were glitches in the transfer, some of which I’m still working out, apologies for the rough edges—so for those considering making the switch, know that it doesn’t take a lot of time, but it does take some time.
I’m happy to be where I am now. Mostly because I’m getting sick of seeing platforms taken over by trolls and hate-mongers, feeling like I’m contributing to the problem by providing content for them, and then wondering when it’s going to get too disgusting to handle. If you see me posting on this platform in the future, it will only be in this form: telling you where I’ve gone, not providing new content on subjects that are close to my heart.
Autonomy requires more effort to get to—always has. But it’s a good place to be.
