What we are looking at: I'm not asking for my money back.
Substack hosts Nazis and makes money off them and now a bunch of great newsletters are leaving.
A few weeks ago Marisa Kabas figured out substack publishes and monetized Nazis. Not maybe Nazis, but full on, “I love Hitler” Nazis. She started a campaign to have them dealt with the same way they deal with pornography. I like Substack. I like it because it is not a porn site. I like it because it is not a white supremist authoritarian site. It’s a problem on the internet. It’s why I (mostly) quit Twitter. Like they said in Lost Boys, “Too Many Vampires” (or porn, or Nazis, or whatever else sucks life and joy out of a social media site.
As a result of Marisa’s campaign, a bunch of the people I pay to subscribe to, choose to leave substack. When I pay them via substack, the writers get a big chunk (80%?) and then substack and the credit card companies get the rest. I own a small business, and I know that just a basic online credit card processing company gets 5%. Sometimes more.
I don’t want substack to get money that I paid to the writers I like. But I don’t want Substack to take back the 80%. The people I pay are regular people who spent that 80% on rent and groceries and kids tuition.
I cannot risk harm to the writers I like to cause harm to the platform that they are leaving because they host Nazis.
So I am not asking for my money back.
I’m not happy about it. But I feel like if anyone can bear the cost of finding a new platform, it’s me. And the millions of small subscribers who power the site. Am I mad that Substack “benefit” from me not cancelling? Yes. But I’m not taking 80% from the writers I like to get the 10-15% that substack gets.
And to my 80 free subscribers, I might move to a new platform. I really hope that the work being done by writers with clout, will make it so I don’t have to, but if it comes to posting on a Nazi loving website or some new site that bans nazis (and porn, and AI produced bit coin bots, and AI produced ‘free games’ that will make someone rich without costing anything) I will move to the new site.
I mean I have a wordpress, a some other site I can’t remember, I have at least 2 websites with writing that disappeared because I didn’t pay to renew my hosting fee. As they say, Substack come and Substack go, what’re you gonna do about it, that’s whay I want to know.”
I’ll let you all know if I move. Thanks for the support.