That's disingenuous. They are aggressively content neutral and therefore do not remove people for having views they may find abhorrent. That's not the same as being a far right platform. There is a lot of progressive content on substack.
Replies
If they're aggressively content neutral that why did they partner with Bari Weiss to give her outlet preferential treatment?
jun 15, 2025, 3:48 pm • 11 0 • view
A bar that doesn’t remove nazis becomes a nazi bar.
jun 15, 2025, 2:59 pm • 17 0 • view
That is a self fulfilling prophecy though. We cause that by ceding those spaces to them, and by castigating folks who choose to stay and make sure other points of view are represented.
jun 15, 2025, 3:14 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s not a commons. It’s not a marketplace of ideas. It’s a for-profit business that you’re continuing to patronize when there are functionally identical services available that don’t platform nazis.
jun 15, 2025, 3:30 pm • 5 0 • view
Do you have friends who are openly fascist
jun 15, 2025, 3:32 pm • 6 0 • view
Not the way I would define friends, but I do know people who I would argue support fascist ideas. But I'm not arguing we should be friends here, I'm arguing we should cede public spaces or accuse people of guilt by association just for using a common software tool.
jun 15, 2025, 4:31 pm • 0 0 • view
You’re making a fundamental error: We should defend public spaces, but Substack is not a public space
jun 15, 2025, 4:44 pm • 4 0 • view
True, in the sense of public ownership. I'm meaning a space open to the public, like the theoretical "bar" mentioned in this discussion. I don't see it as fundamentally different than that.
jun 15, 2025, 4:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Why won't you have only friends who are fascists, invite them at home, that way you could really keep an eye on them
jun 15, 2025, 5:52 pm • 2 0 • view
This is a serious question. What is your reasoning for not having only fascist friends
jun 15, 2025, 5:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Because friendship requires genuine affection built around trust. I could build that kind of connection with someone so diametrically opposed to me, who would actively want to hurt people I care about.
jun 16, 2025, 3:46 am • 0 0 • view
But I'm not asking anyone to befriend or even read the people on substack. I'm just saying maybe we shouldn't tear down those who are allied with us because they view the ethics of this differently and choose to keep their content on substack or to subscribe to people who do.
jun 16, 2025, 3:46 am • 0 0 • view
Lol who's tearing these people down for having a substack? All I've seen is people saying they aren't going to the nazi bar to read their stuff My philosophy is no tolerance for the intolerant. No one gets a pass for denying anyone their right to exist
jun 16, 2025, 1:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Look at the kind of things that have been said to me here for saying that people should be able to make different ethical choices wrt using substack or subscribing to one without being constantly dragged for it. Even the original comment I replied to that started this.
jun 17, 2025, 12:18 am • 0 0 • view
I understand your point of view, but there is an argument to be made that forcing these views underground hasn't helped. Having it out in the open where we can respond to it and expose its intellectual bankruptcy might be better.
jun 15, 2025, 3:04 pm • 1 0 • view
You have a dogs brain
jun 15, 2025, 4:41 pm • 3 0 • view
When someone gets pipelined into those dark corners they only get the propaganda. Nobody is engaging with them, and with the data we have on the level of literacy in this country too many don't have the tools to see through it on their own.
jun 15, 2025, 3:04 pm • 1 0 • view
And the perceived "oppression" of those views by the elusive "they" only adds weight to those arguments for those folks.
jun 15, 2025, 3:04 pm • 0 0 • view
That was the argument back in 2012. It just legitimized nazi beliefs and got us here.
jun 16, 2025, 4:00 am • 2 0 • view
Both-Sidesing never works. Deplatforming works Where is Milo Where is Tucker Carlson Deplatforming works
jun 15, 2025, 3:29 pm • 5 0 • view
I'm not arguing for bothsidesing. I'm not even arguing deplatforming is a bad idea. I'm arguing that this kind of "purity test" mentality where we demonize people for not making the exact same ethical decisions we do as the enemy isn't productive. And mayben either is leaving those spaces sometimes.
jun 15, 2025, 4:44 pm • 0 0 • view