Substack
When Substack first came out, I felt it was not a sustainable model for reimbursing writers. Paying an amount of dollars per month to each writer I wanted to read felt like it couldn't scale up. Why wouldn't I rather subscribe to a monthly periodical that contains lots of different writers, with quality editing?
But almost everybody posting on Substack offers a free level subscription, and many of them let you read everything they post for free, so I'm able to view a lot of interesting stuff for free on Substack. And then I end up paying a handful of people because I like them the best. Yeah, I'm currently paying only three, whereas I'm following 45.
Substack offers me what I demand from any online content aggregator, that I can view a chronological list of everything posted by those I follow, without any meddling. Twitter allows this, as does Reddit, as does LJ, as does Dreamwidth. I don't use an online content aggregator if the available feeds don't include a "clean" chronological feed.
Substack also offers an algorithm-based feed by default. Sometimes I find this feed interesting and it sometimes introduces me to people I want to follow. But like any algorithm-based feed it tends toward the stuff that riles people up. And right now on Substack people are riled up by a debate over whether Substack should kick out "Nazis".
Substack can kick out whomever they want; for example, they don't allow porn. Nobody seems to be arguing over whether Substack should allow porn, but they are arguing over Nazis.
This seems to be another manifestation of the US Left's current obsession with calling its opponents "fascists" without correctly observing the historical definitions of fascism. For example, lots of people who don't like Trump call him a fascist, but as I've studied the history of fascism I don't think Trump is one. Instead Trump shows significantly less respect for the rule of law and the truth than has been the norm for US Presidents.
US Presidents in general are not the most truthful and law-abiding people, but Trump seems to be an outlier even among US Presidents. This doesn't mean he's a fascist. Trying to overturn an election result isn't solely a feature of fascism. Trying to ensure that everybody in your party or your administration is loyal to you, personally, isn't solely a feature of fascism. A reckless disregard for the law isn't even a feature of fascism.
Anyway, I don't follow any Nazis on Substack. I do wonder why Nazis are being singled out for desired censorship, and I also wonder whether those wanting to censor Nazis even know what Nazism really is. In the US imagination Nazism is indelibly mashed together with the Holocaust of WW2 and the murder of millions of Jews. So Nazism = Anti-Semitism. But there are currently arguments in the US over how to define anti-semitism and how to define genocide, especially as Hamas and Israel fight each other and both claim the other is committing genocide.
So, I presume this fight over supposed Nazis on Substack is fueled by the Hamas/Israel war.
But I have no interest in trying to adjudicate whether a particular writer is indeed a Nazi and then whether they should be banned from Substack. That people have the time to fight over this stuff -- I'm envious of that much free time. I wish I had the free time to judge everybody posting to the Internet and to advocate for banning this person or that person.
OK, I don't have time to write about THIS anymore either. Gotta go.
But almost everybody posting on Substack offers a free level subscription, and many of them let you read everything they post for free, so I'm able to view a lot of interesting stuff for free on Substack. And then I end up paying a handful of people because I like them the best. Yeah, I'm currently paying only three, whereas I'm following 45.
Substack offers me what I demand from any online content aggregator, that I can view a chronological list of everything posted by those I follow, without any meddling. Twitter allows this, as does Reddit, as does LJ, as does Dreamwidth. I don't use an online content aggregator if the available feeds don't include a "clean" chronological feed.
Substack also offers an algorithm-based feed by default. Sometimes I find this feed interesting and it sometimes introduces me to people I want to follow. But like any algorithm-based feed it tends toward the stuff that riles people up. And right now on Substack people are riled up by a debate over whether Substack should kick out "Nazis".
Substack can kick out whomever they want; for example, they don't allow porn. Nobody seems to be arguing over whether Substack should allow porn, but they are arguing over Nazis.
This seems to be another manifestation of the US Left's current obsession with calling its opponents "fascists" without correctly observing the historical definitions of fascism. For example, lots of people who don't like Trump call him a fascist, but as I've studied the history of fascism I don't think Trump is one. Instead Trump shows significantly less respect for the rule of law and the truth than has been the norm for US Presidents.
US Presidents in general are not the most truthful and law-abiding people, but Trump seems to be an outlier even among US Presidents. This doesn't mean he's a fascist. Trying to overturn an election result isn't solely a feature of fascism. Trying to ensure that everybody in your party or your administration is loyal to you, personally, isn't solely a feature of fascism. A reckless disregard for the law isn't even a feature of fascism.
Anyway, I don't follow any Nazis on Substack. I do wonder why Nazis are being singled out for desired censorship, and I also wonder whether those wanting to censor Nazis even know what Nazism really is. In the US imagination Nazism is indelibly mashed together with the Holocaust of WW2 and the murder of millions of Jews. So Nazism = Anti-Semitism. But there are currently arguments in the US over how to define anti-semitism and how to define genocide, especially as Hamas and Israel fight each other and both claim the other is committing genocide.
So, I presume this fight over supposed Nazis on Substack is fueled by the Hamas/Israel war.
But I have no interest in trying to adjudicate whether a particular writer is indeed a Nazi and then whether they should be banned from Substack. That people have the time to fight over this stuff -- I'm envious of that much free time. I wish I had the free time to judge everybody posting to the Internet and to advocate for banning this person or that person.
OK, I don't have time to write about THIS anymore either. Gotta go.