TL;DR: Nazis. Also I wrote this originally on Substack.
The older I get, the more I realize that “principleism,” i.e. doing something “on principle,”1 is a tricky road. More often than not, either the principle is flawed, or the principle is trivial, like a non-lethal version of the Trolley Problem that we all know and love:
For example, I play a lot of video games. Too many, one might say. I have a Steam account and an Epic Games account. Sometimes, games are released “exclusively” on Epic Games, meaning you can’t purchase it on your Steam account. But Epic Games also has a free game that you can download every Thursday.
I have a friend who refuses to use Epic Games “on principle” because of the exclusivity. I, on the other hand, don’t give a shit, because I currently have 133 games on that app and I think 98% of them were given to me for free.
In this instance, is refusing to use a gaming service “on principle” worth it? I don’t think so. This is the Trolley Problem, but one track is Steam and the other is Epic Games. I guess. It feels trivial and arbitrary, and likely a symptom of a larger issue (coughcoughcapitalismcough). But if you gave me a slice of Pizza Hut pizza and a slice of Dominoes pizza, I’d eat both.
My point is this: some principles are not worth the effort, and some are.
One of my principles that I feel strongly about and feel is worth the effort it: I don’t think Nazis are good people. There, I’ve said it, real weight off my chest. Substack, on the other hand, seems to disagree: Substack says it will not remove or demonetize Nazi content on their site.
Their argument is basically as follows: If we censor Nazi voices (including demonetizing them), then they’ll find another way to spread their vile ideology. I think that’s the gist of it.2 And yeah that sounds bad, I guess, except that Substack and all other websites on the internet are hosted on professional, high-end servers, which require exorbitant funds to operate, and UX/UI designers to create, etc etc. What Substack, then, is offering to Nazi and other far-right voices is a clean, easy-to-use place to disseminate their dangerous opinions.
In other words—imagine if it was, say, 1942, and the New York Times printed opinion articles by Nazis,3 and those articles were then sent through their fancy, enormous printing press to millions of subscribers across the United States.
Now, imagine if the NYT and all other publications were like, “Fuck that,” and banned printing Nazi articles, and the Nazis were forced to find their own way of printing their opinions. Instead of the big, fancy NYT printing presses, they instead printed on mimeographed pamphlets that they had to hand out on street corners.
Which of these two options would disseminate Nazi voices faster?
In short: banning Nazi opinions from Substack would, yes, force them “underground,” where they would struggle to find server space and designers, thus crippling their ability to disseminate information.
Instead, Substack not only allows Nazi/far-right voices, they allow them to profit from their newsletters.
That’s why I’m leaving Substack, and why I’m highly encouraging you to leave as well.
But I understand if you don’t. Truly! It’s hard to find an audience, and it’s hard to get and keep a subscriber base, if you’re trying to make money. I don’t begrudge artists from staying on X/Twitter either. Like I said, some principles aren’t worth the effort, and there is an argument to be made for smaller creators/writers/artists in maintaining their space in order to succeed.
For me, it’s the principle of the thing. This is just a life update blog, it’s ephemeral, it’s nothing. And it’s free. So, I’m outta here. Don’t worry, you’ll hear from me via WordPress soon enough. I’m just posting this here until … Christmas? Sure, Christmas. Merry Christmas.