One of my favourite authors, Talia Lavin, has moved her blog, “The Sword and the Sandwich,” from Substack to the Buttondown platform.
That’s because [Substack] founders stated, in no uncertain terms, that they’re not just OK with, but in principle supportive of, having loads of out-and-out Nazis on their platform. …
I must admit that there’s a fair amount of anger and resentment that comes along with this decision—anger at feckless rich crypto-fascists like Hamish McKenzie of Substack, and his many Silicon Valley peers, who all seem to subscribe to the notion that race-based hatred is just a simple quirk of the marketplace of ideas. …
Being an out-and-out antifascist for a long time, I’ve given up a lot for that cause—my safety, and the safety of my family, and the ability to do things like sign up to vote without fear without worrying I’ll be doxxed, and not receiving ominous packages, and not having accrued half a decade’s worth of psychic damage about my Judaism, my body, my ability, my worth, the value of my life. Now I’ve had to give up a platform I worked for years to build, and dive into uncertain waters. …
But I am … excited about the possibility of navigating these new waters with you and feel a certain flush of pride in having made a difficult and frankly terrifying gamble with my primary source of income, with the idea that no marketplace I belong to ought to include Nazis in it.
Another favourite writer of mine, Lux Alptraum, wrote in a post today that she “is hoping to transition away from Substack.” I asked her why. Her reply:
This has always been a problematic platform for me — even before the Nazi stuff they platformed transphobes — but it was easy and I just told myself I would never charge for the newsletter anyway so it did not matter. But the Nazi stuff… makes me feel even worse and more than that I know a lot of readers don’t want to support the platform so yeah, just getting other options up and running.
[From Jan 3:]
I’m currently in the process of building up the whole archive on my own little website — remember personal websites? — but for now, if you feel icky about supporting Substack, all posts that appear here also appear on my Patreon. They are available for free, but I wouldn’t be mad if you gave me $1 (or more!) a month. When I have a critical mass of people on Patreon I will likely wind down operations here, FYI.
