Three Months
What does “three months” mean? That’s how long I’ve been on Substack. It’s probably the shortest time I’ve been on a social media platform before I’ve had to quit it, due to the CEO announcing that hate speech is a lucrative business model.
Fucking Hamish McKenzie. He just released a statement announcing that Nazis are far too profitable to ban from Substack. Like Elon Musk, he professes an unevolved, uninformed free speech absolutism, where everyone should be given a microphone. He points out that there are extreme people on the left and the right, who’s to say who’s right, and people are into Nazi rhetoric so what right does he have to ban it?
The extreme leftists are suggesting we tax the rich and stop blaming the poor for the moral crime of running afoul of a predatory system of mandatory vehicles, unreasonable penalty fees, and privatized prisons. They suggest that police shouldn’t be militarized, that every person deserves basic dignity and support services, and that all babies should be fed.
The extreme right says that POC aren’t human, women are special animals they’re allowed to fuck but otherwise have no rights, property is worth more than human life, [X] issues are immoral and should be outlawed except when they do them because their circumstances are unique, Jesus would’ve favored the Bushmaster XM-15, and that free speech should be quashed for anyone who isn’t a white male—indeed, if you can’t outlaw Constitutionally protected political protests, legalize driving cars into them.
And says he just can’t tell the difference between these two political positions, but to preserve free speech the anti-free-speechers must have their microphone. He’s also saying that bigots like Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, Andrew Sullivan, and Graham Lineman are far too lucrative for Substack to ever view askance.
Free speech absolutism is a childish, uninformed position. If you ever find yourself in conversation with someone who promotes “the marketplace of the minds,” walk away. Just walk the fuck away from them because nothing healthful or uplifting will come out of their mouth. The idea is an incredibly naive forum where every person has equal say. If two people disagree, they can reason away their conflict with mature, intellectual discourse.
The reality is a forum where every person has a chance to speak, alt-right mobs harass and dox anyone who disagrees with them, and they promote the same propaganda and disinformation repeatedly, regardless of how many times it’s been disproven. There is no rational discourse, that’s not what they’re here for. They know their ideas are bad: that’s why they have to wear masks/hoods and change their names; regardless, they want power, and a foot in the door like Hamish provides is a fantastic opportunity.
There are many great and important publications on Substack, like Popular Information, Badreads, HEATED, and The Audacity. I’ve only been here three months, building another unwanted product, but other professional writers have invested years in cultivating a following. And now? They’re still hanging out in the same bar, but now you have to avert your eyes from the swastika in the window to visit them.
I’m small potatoes, writing about pervy shit for a few friends (until I get booted, because the giantess fetish is so much worse than, say, ethnic cleansing). No one noticed my arrival, as the fable goes, and no one will notice my departure. But all the same, do I want to share the stink of Substack’s open-door policy on bigotry and fascism?
I’m looking at other newsletter options. WordPress offers a newsletter, but I can’t use it because the transactions are managed through Stripe, who has already suspended my account because I write erotica. And as I’ll tell anyone at the drop of a hat, Stripe had no problem brokering the transaction of $7000 in Twitter ad revenue to avowed white supremacist and misogynist DC_Draino, but lovemaking ist streng verboten. I want to write about playful sexytimes, and I don’t have a lot of options.
This Substack will be dismantled by the weekend. Please follow my blog until I figure out what’s next… if anything.
In Her Shadow,
Aborigen
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