I have read, in part (pay-walled), about Substack having a Nazi problem and have read, in full, Substack’s free speech absolutist response. A younger me would appreciate the desire for a truly open platform. But Substack is explicitly stating that they allow Nazi publications to make money off of subscribers through Substack. An absolutely wild stance. If you would like an example of how great free speech is, you need not look further than Twitter/X. A place so toxic that it’s many brilliant (and not so brilliant) users fail to ever escape its grasp. The toxicity on Twitter could not be more apparent and stands a prime example that sunlight is not always the best disinfectant.
Substack’s Notes page with the default “Explore” option is also truly awful and very reminiscent of a Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook experience. I don’t use it. Ever. But if I go there right now, as I’m writing this I might see it pushing…
weird anti-vax adjacent rhetoric (“fired over mandate”),
transphobia from a man who was once considered a great evolutionary biologist communicator (something the world could have actually benefited from), and…
a horror film-worthy chant about Jesus in relation to St. Patrick’s day (which was three days ago). I’m not saying Substack shouldn’t allow one to write out The Prayer of St. Patrick or any of the other posts for that matter. But it is actively pushing weird radicalizing garbage at it’s users.
No doubt these posts are all from people who have already had their minds poisoned by the “free speech” well that is X (one of them literally being a screenshot from X). And now it seems Substack wants to join in on the fun.
All that being said, the way I use Substack is a great experience. It’s a place where people can write things worth reading. It’s not uncommon to see people actually have interesting conversations in the comments. I’ve truly been enjoying publications like Casey Muratori’s Computer Enhance or Ryan Fleury’s Hidden Grove. And articles of their quality simply aren’t accessible or easy to find on other platforms.
If the bar wasn’t soooo low right now, I would heavily consider abandoning this platform. But, outside of the Notes page, I believe Substack is less responsible for radicalizing people than places like X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube or Reddit. The internet as a whole has truly been a radicalization machine these past many years and, aside from Substack’s Notes section, I believe it’s currently a net positive on the internet.
I will continue to assess on how this platform ages and act accordingly. I really appreciate Ken White’s post “Substack Has A Nazi Opportunity” and find myself agreeing entirely with his position. I hope the creators/maintainers of Substack can prevent it from becoming what all other platforms already are. I also really appreciate Casey Newton’s Why Platformer Is Leaving Substack.
For now, I will post here and mirror relevant articles on my personal website.