Some Good & Some (Very) Bad News
Happy Holidays & Nazis on Substack
First, before I begin my un-holiday like rant, let me wish all of my Christian friends and readers a belated Merry Christmas. Even though I identify as unambivalently Jewish, I had a really nice Christmas day.
I spent the latter part of the day with my girlfriend and several other kind souls at a cozy holiday gathering in an unpretentious but totally charming pre-war apartment home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The heartfelt mutual warmth and equally stimulating conversation was restorative in a much needed way.
In fact, I had a most pleasant and restful entire holiday weekend, save for one extremely disturbing email I received from the “well-meaning” folks at Substack on Sunday. The message informed me that a particular reader of mine had unsubscribed from this newsletter. This particular subscriber is someone with whom I have enjoyed numerous long-distance discussions over the past couple of years, all characterized by nothing but mutual goodwill and respect. I highly value our friendship, and I am both confident and relieved to believe, after all, that this person feels the same.
But it was not the fact that this friend of mine no longer wished to receive my newsletter that I found upsetting. I’ve been at this sort of thing long enough to not take things like that personally. No, what I found so incredibly upsetting was the reason they gave for canceling their subscription. Try to imagine how shocked and aghast I felt upon receiving the following:
Nazi postings??!! In my immediate and flabbergasted state of puzzled shock, I dashed off a desperate email to my friend and former subscriber, pleading for some sort of explanation. Before they had a chance to respond, a quick Google search cleared up the misunderstanding. If you have not read it already, I urge everyone to read the December 22nd NY Times article by investigative journalist Eduardo Medina. The headline of the piece reads: Substack Says It Will Not Ban Nazis or Extremist Speech. I have included a link to the full article at the bottom of this newsletter.
The gist of the article reports how, as of this writing, Substack refuses to remove a number of very profitable Nazi and white supremacist newsletters from its hosting platform. To understand the nature and complexity of the problem, you need to understand the basic business model on which Substack operates.
Unlike Facebook, Instagram or Google, the Substack company makes money not from advertising revenue, but by taking a ten percent cut of all subscriber subscription fees. This is why Substack pushes its newsletter publishers relentlessly to monetize their newsletter blogs through paid subscriptions.
And indeed, the most successful Substack newsletter publishers are able to generate hefty six-figure annual incomes. According to reports, a handful even generate seven-figure incomes.
Without taking the time to engage in good-faith arguments about what constitutes censorship and conversely “freedom of speech” , Substack’s morally confused rationalization of its position is beyond the pale in any sane world. But what to do?
My friend, who canceled their paid subscription to this newsletter, has decided to cancel all their paid Substack subscriptions for now.
As for myself, I am in the ironically fortunate position of not earning enough from paid subscriptions for its absence to make even the slightest dent in my overall income. So for the present, I have indefinitely paused all subscription charges. This is because for me, it is a no-brainer to refuse to subsidize, in even the smallest amount, Nazi hate speech.
But after giving the matter more thought, I would urge my friend and other Substack subscribers NOT to cancel their paid subscriptions, at least not yet. This is for the simple reason that canceling paid subscriptions punishes the previously unaware newsletter bloggers far more than it influences or pressures Substack’s management and owners to change their policy and boot the Nazis off the platform.
Many of these newsletter writers depend on their Substack incomes to feed their families and pay their bills. Like me, I am confident they had no previous awareness of the presence of these hateful publications on the platform.
I believe, and time will tell, that certain influential Substack newsletter publishers will use their clout to convince Substack to reverse this particular policy and permanently banish the Nazi newsletters. In the meantime, I urge all Substack subscribers to sit tight, without canceling paid subscriptions.
A couple of newsletters ago, I invoked the name of Nelson Mandela. In that particular instance, I described him as a ‘transcendent hero’ for his visionary achievement of initiating at least a semblance of racial harmony in South Africa after the horrors of Apartheid. As I write this, I stand by what I still consider to be a well deserved designation.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about Abraham Lincoln, having recently read George Saunders‘ experimental historical fiction work, “Lincoln in the Bardo”. Personally, I found the book a difficult read, but more than worth the effort.
From what I have gathered, historians by and large agree that Lincoln justly deserves the accolade as America's greatest president. Yet ironically, by today's standards, Lincoln would be considered an unrepentant racist. Go figure.
I think of Lincoln in a similar vein as Mandela, specifically regarding Mandela’s approach to healing his nation through his Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Like Mandela, Lincoln sought reconciliation with, rather than retribution toward, his former enemy. Lincoln apparently came to this realization as the unprecedented bloodshed of the Civil War was coming to a close. He then articulated this vision in his magnificent Second Inaugural Address, delivered on March 4, 1865. Tragically, much like Martin Luther King one hundred years later, Lincoln was assassinated on April 15 of that same year, unable to further contribute, or bear witness, to the fruits of this vision.
Like Abraham Lincoln’s thankfully outdated views on race, many contemporary readers may understandably cringe at Lincoln’s liberal and anachronistic use of religious Christian language in the Second Inaugural Address. To me, however, that is analogous to criticizing a fish for being unable to see beyond the water in which it swims. I can’t take credit for being the first to make that analogy.
Personally, my favorite parts of this speech are the beginning and ending of the last paragraph, which I have edited below. I quote:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all…let us strive…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Today, as so many of us desperately understand, the world finds itself in a dangerously out of control and increasingly polarized political climate. To add more fuel to this potentially catastrophic fire, this polarization has only been inflamed by a continuous and rapid descent into self-defeating, vitriolic hateful shouting.
Somehow, and against all odds, may we instead, with renewed strength and resolve, strive to approach the coming New Year, like Lincoln, with “malice toward none, with charity for all … to achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Wishing all of you strength, hope, health and happiness in the New Year.
I 'd just heard the distressing news about Substack from a friend. I'm now in a quandary.
Thank you for the thoughtful post...I’m a new Substack writer and am now very conflicted about this issue and how to address it. My goal in coming to the platform was to simplify my life and build a community, but the context in which that happens is important to me.