Amanda's Schustack Will Become The Schudown
Gotta move. Gotta get out.
I’m not leaving the city! I’m just switching platforms.
Hi, readers. Some news.
I’ve hinted at this possibility before, but I have finally decided the time has come to migrate Amanda’s Schustack off of this platform and onto Buttondown. Afterwards, this newsletter will be known as The Schudown.
I will still be writing a newsletter, and if you are a subscriber, you don’t have to do anything! Your subscription will make the digital journey along with my content, but you just won’t be paying Substack anymore. I hope you stay. My hope is to continue providing you with a worthy refuge from the outside noise.
I plan to make this move early next week. I’m telling you about it now because I don’t think it’s good practice to make the switch and just make everyone deal with it.
Please allow me to explain my decision to move ahead.
A year ago I created Schustack with the hopes and dreams I share with many other creatives for a platform that allows me to write from the heart, publishing stories and observations I don’t have a chance to convey in standard editorial outlets. Substack is alternative journalism in a world where media is shrinking, writers are adrift, and compensation is often paltry at best. It seemed like a way to stay in touch with an existing fanbase and nurture a larger audience while connecting with new creative communities. In the process, thanks to loyal paid subscribers (really, thank you!), I could also afford part of my grocery bill. Or the occasional flat white. Not much else, mind, but at least it helps a bit.
However, while all of these things are still true—Substack is a hub for creativity and I have met some wonderful people through it—something always felt a bit off.
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed an emphasis on following vs. subscribing, as though instead of working as a host for writing or other media, it became yet another social media platform, thus encouraging less support of independent expression and more for Substack deep pocket commerce itself. As we all know, the problem with social media is that hardly anyone actually reads anything beyond a headline, so it becomes more like a junkfood algorithm to digest, with little time for real nutritious engagement.
Buttondown isn’t set up like that, it’s just a newsletter generator. That’s more my speed.
But the other, way more alarming bit, and the main reason I’m moving this newsletter off this platform, is that—along with insightful and entertaining discourse, recipes, thoughtful playlists, like-minded communities, etc.—there is a growing presence of far right extremist clickbait.
It’s been pointed out to me that in the name of free speech, it should not be expected of Substack administrators to cancel forums just because they use language that can be construed as hate speech.
Yeah, but they also don’t seem to have a problem taking money from thousands of subscribers to those content creators, and worse, have begun encouraging more of that content. Because unfortunately, it sells. In this climate, there will be more of it. It is accepted with open arms, and those held at—what one creator on this platform thought was important to analyze and distinguish so people do it “correctly”—the right angle.
Every time I published a new post, afterwards, a part of me felt like I was stepping on something cold and slimy.
I don’t want to be like Sally Bowles singing “Wilkommen” like a broken windup doll at the eerie end of Cabaret, pretending everything is fine when reality is distorted. I want to be Amanda Schuster writing for what I believe in with my parts intact, having more faith in who I’m writing to and why, and at least in this (albeit) small way, not contributing to the problem.
I completely understand and sympathize with my fellow creators who decide to stay here. You’re part of something you believe is good that like everything else on the internet, unfortunately and inescapably, also has bad parts. You’re the HDL to the LDL. And because you’re the good cholesterol, so to speak, I’ll continue to support you. At least for now.
And yes, speaking of cholesterol, I am well aware this choice seems rich coming from someone who still engages on other social media platforms where we know for a fact things are going in a scary direction. While I have greatly reduced my presence on Threads and Facebook of late, I am still actively engaged on Instagram, which for now is an unfortunate career necessity and means of communication. If it can ever be meaningfully replaced altogether, I’m all for it. I’m also on Bluesky and plan to be more active there moving forward.
Thank you, everyone. I hope you stick with me as I continue my journey.