The Guardian has published an article about Substack profiting from far right and Nazi posts.
Let’s be clear, THERE IS NO PLACE ON SUBSTACK OR THE PLANET FOR FASCISM.
I write military history because I don’t want to see history repeated over and over. I want people to remember, not deny, our terrible past. The Holocaust happened. It was one of the most heinous things ever to have happened in our existence. Hatred of Jews, women, LGBTQ+, people of colour, Gypsy-Roma people, disabled people… frankly, anyone the Fascists decide isn’t like them (straight, white males) will be targeted. It’s their ideology and tarting it up as freedom of speech is abdicating moral responsibility.
Substack owners and investors, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide whether you’re happy making money from any Substack that profits from this hatred.
If you are, you’ll see this platform collapse.
The people here have come for intelligent content, creative thoughts, supportive communities. The minute you hide behind the freedom of speech excuse, you’ve lost your core contributors.
Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that there is any social media platform capable of escaping the insidious reach of extreme and dangerous rhetoric. It’s like rising damp – hard to get rid of and always leaves a bad smell. Preventing it from seeping up through the foundations as soon as you spot it is the only way to prevent the whole house tumbling down.
I’ve interviewed veterans in their twenties, veterans over one hundred years old. I’ve researched war and conflict in many places, at many points in history. It always starts in the same way. Hatred. Small acts of hatred against people who are deemed to be wrong, flawed, less than human. Acts of hatred that aren’t challenged.
This is your chance, Substack. Do better than the likes of X and FaceBook. Do better than the multi-billionaires making guest appearances in the Epstein files. Do better than so many other people in history who have looked the other way.
Just do better. We’re tired of a few people harming many, many people. Wherever I look, people are disengaging from the news, big corporations (particularly American ones), and looking for community, care, and compassion. Substack could be part of that new culture of intelligent, supportive conversation.
But not if it continues to profit from hatred.
Do better, Substack. Do better.
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