I will apologize in advance for the length of this post, this particular controversy has quite a few layers to unpack and I have strong opinions on all of them. Over the past week, there has been a fair amount of grousing from progressive writers over their newfound knowledge that certain writers got financial deals from Substack to start their newsletters. Most of the complaints were sour grapes dressed up as outrage, ranging anywhere from “why is Substack paying THOSE writers and not me?” to “why is Substack giving THOSE writers a platform at all?” This whole sour grapes/outrage cycle seemed to be based on an assumption that every big-name writer that has joined Substack recently -- Andrew Sullivan, Matt Yglesias, Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, et al -- received financial compensation from the platform to do so. To respond to the rumors Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack, released a post
Great write up. The fact so many so-called "progressives" reveal themselves to be bullies and liars--or cowards who won't stand up against them--is deeply depressing. I've been a leftist all my life, but this Thing that Now Calls Itself the Left routinely betrays core values I've always associated with "my side." As a result I feel politically homeless, surrounded by authoritarians on the left and the right. Thanks for speaking out against this madness, Jen. I look forward to reading more of what you write.
This situation is a perfect example of what I am tentatively calling "The Reason and the Excuse". Corporate media has a vendetta against Substack, because it is unmoderated and not under their control (that's the reason), they are now in search of an excuse to get people to 'cancel' it. Expect more spaghetti on the wall until something sticks.
We have a couple of individuals that do the same garbage in the libertarian community, and it feels like they don’t get called out on it like they should
Great write up. The fact so many so-called "progressives" reveal themselves to be bullies and liars--or cowards who won't stand up against them--is deeply depressing. I've been a leftist all my life, but this Thing that Now Calls Itself the Left routinely betrays core values I've always associated with "my side." As a result I feel politically homeless, surrounded by authoritarians on the left and the right. Thanks for speaking out against this madness, Jen. I look forward to reading more of what you write.
This situation is a perfect example of what I am tentatively calling "The Reason and the Excuse". Corporate media has a vendetta against Substack, because it is unmoderated and not under their control (that's the reason), they are now in search of an excuse to get people to 'cancel' it. Expect more spaghetti on the wall until something sticks.
We have a couple of individuals that do the same garbage in the libertarian community, and it feels like they don’t get called out on it like they should
FYI you typoed Singal's name as "Signal" a few times here.
Just ridiculous.