December 27, 2023

programming update

hey so Substack likes profiting off of Nazis

Hello everyone,

It’s pretty silly to even make a point of this, since I do not regularly leverage my blog relative to the whole ass website I write for, but I like this little corner for the things I can’t fit elsewhere. For example, I’m currently finalizing the 2023 entry of “The Games of” which is always fun to do and judging by stats, the thing the handful of folks who read here also like.

That’ll still come out, I just don’t know exactly when, because I got thrown a bit of a curveball thanks to this very platform. In case you missed it, when asked by a collation of Substack writers a pretty straight forward question (Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis?1), Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie responded with what I’m just going to all some brain dead tech start up bullshit.2

A part of me is inclined to try to engage with Mr. McKenzie’s logic, to try to make the clear cut argument that Substack is not an arbiter of free speech, nor is it obligated to pretend to be, and that if he really wishes that no one held Nazi views it would behoove him not hand deliver a way for those views to spread, but that part of me is an idiot who gets to sleep outside tonight. There is no point in rationalizing with someone who has access to the numbers and frankly at this stage the damage is done.

Substack is, and will forever be, the place that Nazis get to build mailing lists. We’ve seen this with enough online platforms at this point to understand that on their enshitification3 journey: a bad actor will get just enough following to push the limits of both the platform’s terms of service and good taste only for that platform to choose to wither in the face of that enough following because they let their brains be poisoned by libertarian but not actually libertarian ideas that really only work in their heads because they don’t want their success being taxed or regulated. They’re willing to compromise any credibility the thing they own (but didn’t create much less maintain) over the fart sniffing feeling of being a “free speech defender.”

The end result, every time, is a platform that is a shell of its former self. Facebook used to be the place to maintain your relationships, but now it exists as bottomless pit of paranoia and copypasta, with a reputation of being the place everyone’s racist uncle lives because he has no friends. YouTube, for all of its use, will continue to be the den of everything from grifters to monsters, because it failed to moderate when it did. I don’t need to recount the fall of Twitter, do I? If we even survive to have history books about this moment in time, not a single one of these will be seen as a net positive on our species.

Substack chose to join these, which is not surprising, their CEO signaled similar a while back too with what I can only call a very bad interview with The Verge.4 This move is expected but disappointing, as places to write anything continue to dwindle and at least Substack had a recognizable name. But, as I said at the top, I don’t use this that much, I’m not dependent on it, so it’s very easy for me to apply the da share z0ne logic:

I don’t know exactly what the game plan is yet, because right now the plan is “fuck this place” and I think it’s funny to make Substack send out that exact message to the very small amount of people who will hear it. But you will hear from me again, hopefully soon, once I do get migrated to whatever I do end up using.

Until then, please check out all the coverage I’ve been part of over at InBetweenDrafts. I’m back reviewing Doctor Who, which has been fun; and we just put out all our year in review content, which I’m very proud of being a part of.

Thank you all and just in case I don’t get things out on time…god, let next year be better.