I see so many people using excuses for why they use #Substack and none of them hold up.
The reasons people use boil down to
- Free: yeah, no. You're paying at the cost of your own dignity for this one, to say the least. And there *are* other options. Some paid. Some free.
- Algorithm: I get it. But honestly, even other platforms that *host* nazis, like posts on Bluesky or even videos on YouTube or ebooks on Amazon don't necessarily *platform* them the same way. I'm not making excuses for those platforms, but even now, they're not doing the same thing as Substack. And in the cases of those, it's really difficult to back out of those ecosystems because they've monopolized those economies, which is not the case with Substack where there are quite a few alternatives.
I have seen people bend themselves over backward to defend their use of Substack for reasons that just don't cut it. People who are not ignorant to these issues. People who have written extensively with excuses. Even people who are marginalized, have money, and have an audience that would be happy to support the change financially.
I'm not about to name anyone (please don't reply by naming anyone) because I'm not going to die on this hill of all hills, and there are people I like and otherwise respect who still haven't switched, but goddamn it's really fucking frustrating and disappointing.