Admin Updates on Substack

My thoughts on the current Substack issues

Hey all!

Just touching base to say that I’m aware of the current issues with Substack. Tl;dr is I’m keeping an eye on it and will keep you posted. Longer thoughts below.

For those out of the loop, the short version is that Substack gave what amounted to paid advances to certain authors to help get the platform off the ground. The list of authors is secret, but the names which have come out are notable conservative voices who are especially known for their transphobic beliefs.

It’s an evolving story so as of me writing this (and as far as I’m aware) information is still coming out about who got paid, what is Substack’s stance on keeping those transphobic assholes on the site, and so on.

There’s been some debate about is it better to stay on a site which was originally built up by marginalized voices and fight for that space or is it better to move elsewhere. I can see valid arguments on both sides.

For me personally, I absolutely do not stand with asshole conservatives or their transphobia. So if it turns out that staying on this site means I am in any way providing tacit approval of them, I will dump Substack in a heartbeat. I cannot stress enough: FUCK TRANSPHOBES.

The only thing staying my hand from taking any kind of action is that I’m still trying to learn about what is going on and thus what is the best action to take.

To that end, I’m going to publish what articles I have planned for the immediate future on here. The key reasoning behind this decision is that I don’t want to lose the momentum which increases the odds of the useful information I’m posting here about things such as disabilities to reach the people who might benefit from it.

Also I make no money from this newsletter, so the current balance right now is that Substack is doing far more for me than I’m doing for it. I am but one tiny voice, and their platform amplifies me more than I could do in a random blog on my own.

(If it helps show my point of view, if this was a paid newsletter I would try to find some way to put a hold on that money until I felt comfortable letting Substack draw an income from my efforts. But this is free so that’s a moot point.)

As I said at the start, I’m keeping an eye on the situation. It only just bubbled up so my hope is that it doesn’t take more than a week or so to have an idea of the best course of action. The plus side is that in my research I’ve found that most sites of this type make it very easy to bring your readers with you, so if I do end up changing there should be minimal work required on your part to follow where I go.

But I will keep you posted. I just didn’t want too much time to pass without mentioning it since silence = consent.

Thanks for listening, thanks for your patience, and see you tomorrow when I plan to talk about my reactions to the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Such as that there is easily one too many “the”s in that name.

Bye for now!