Technology

I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either

Actions speak louder than words. Fuck Substack and fuck any platform that offers a safe haven for nazis.

If there are 10 nazis at a table and you decide to sit among them, there are 11 nazis sitting at that table.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean that you are obligated to host a platform so shitty people can use it to share shitty ideals. It simply means that you won't get arrested on a federal level.

Websites can do whatever they want, including deciding that they don't want to be a platform for hate speech. If people are seeking a place for this conversation genre to happen, and they want it enough, they can run their own website.

Imagine if you invited a friend of a friend over, and they were sharing nasty ideals at your Christmas party. And they brought their friends. Are you just going to sit there and let them turn your dinner into a political rally? No, you're going to kick them out. It's your dinner, like it is your website. If you don't kick them out, then at some level, you're aligning with them.

Do not tolerate the intolerant.

Yea... Meta took the same "free peaches" approach and the entire fucking globe is now dealing with various versions of white nationalism. So like, can we actually give censorship of hate a fucking try for once? I'm willing to go down that road.

To be clear — what McKenzie is saying here is that Substack will continue to pay Nazis to write Nazi essays. Not just that they will host Nazi essays (at Substack's cost), but they will pay for them.

They are, in effect, hiring Nazis to compose Nazi essays.

“we don’t like or condone bigotry in any form.” I mean they are litterally Condoning bigotry.

"His response similarly doesn’t engage other questions from the Substackers Against Nazis authors, like why these policies allow it to moderate spam and newsletters from sex workers but not Nazis."

Doesn't seem very consistent.

So substack is a pro-nazi platform run by Nazi enablers, got it.

This would be silly even if they didn’t moderate at all but they do. They don’t allow sex workers use their service. And we aren’t talking about “Nazis” as a code word for the far right. The complaint letter cited literal Nazis with swastika logos.

Plus, how grand are his delusions of grandeur if he thinks his fucking glorified email blast manager is the one true hope for free speech? Let the Nazis self-host an open source solution (like Ghost).

Nazism doesn't deserve tolerance, any person who doesn't punch it in the face is equal or worse.

So they are a Nazi platform. End of.

So they're Nazis

"Let's tolerate the people that say they want to genocide entire ethnic groups" Surely nothing bad is gonna happen /s

Goodbye substack.

So let me get this straight... They don't like Nazis, but Nazis not making money is worse than Nazis making money?

Being a Nazi isn't a "view." It is a political movement guided by the principles of hate, violence, and genocide.

Tolerating Naziism and allowing it to use social tools to spread its hate is what makes it worse.

McKenzie followed up later with a similar statement to the one today, saying “we don’t like or condone bigotry in any form.

Condone:

verb accept and allow (behavior that is considered morally wrong or offensive) to continue

"We don't like or condone bigotry in any form."

...But we are happy to financially support bigotry and directly profit from it.

Facebook just shrugs off the rampant white supremacist content on its platform with great success, you can literally put up a profile photo with an "It's OK to be white" frame, or "white power" supplied by Facebook. I guess Substack thinks that if it works for Facebook it should be fine for them.

Incidentally Reddit banned me for posting pictures of Nazis on r/beholdthemasterrace, a subreddit for mocking white supremacy, when some Nazis went and complained to Reddit admins I was doing it. Reddit also sides with Nazis, they're just quieter about it.

Okay fine, I'm never clicking on a substack link again.

And after say a grace period of about 6 months to move elsewhere, I'm going to assume anyone associating with the service is at best a nazi sympathiser

Go ahead, be a Nazi bar, I'm sure their money is worth it

Is substack used in the EU? They might want to rethink their stance then...

What does Substack plan to do with the profits that it makes from hosting Nazi content?

On one hand, Substack is in it's rights and as a journalistic organization, they are in the right.

The issue is: Once you serve a Nazi in your bar, you become a Nazi bar. This is no longer a marginalized viewpoint you can ignore. Its actively recruiting and frightening. Inaction is enabling. Substack is going to become shitty, and fast. They will lose high engagement users, first when the ones who protested pile out for another platform and then quickly when the quality dips.

Also, their cavalier attitude will change when Stripe steps in.

this is enablement

So they have no rules, any content is acceptable?

Anything less is "censorship" after all

No, it does not “make it worse”.

In fact, stamping out dissent and controlling people is incredibly effective. Ask any dictator.

Control is effective and necessary when it comes to people actively trying to damage society. No, I’m not supporting dictatorship or authoritarianism, just pointing out that control is effective.

Being a sect of destructive assholes doesn’t mean you should get a platform.

Mckenzie needs to read that Reddit story about the bartender who kicked out a guy with the Third Reich eagle ensign on his shirt despite him quietly minding his own business. I really don't want Substack to "suddenly become a Nazi bar." I'm just a reader, but if I ever start a newsletter I may reconsider my platform. I am on a basic free plan for all Substack channels I read. I've thought about upgrading my subscription to some, but now I will hesitate.