310 Comments

Why on earth would you brag to your users that you've partnered with a bunch of protofascists? You want us all to leave or what?

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Integrity is in increasingly short supply, and many forget that when you "water down the broth" of an award-winning soup, your restaurant closes.

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With regard to your cooperation with Barry Weiss - I'm Jewish and like many other Jews I also reject zionist terrorism and neo-nazi ideology. We reject Zionism's God-ignorant tribalist supremacist ideology and its ruthless merciless heartless abuse, terror, torture, rape, land theft, dispossesion and DE-HUMANIZATION of the indigenous people of west Asia (presenting them as dangerous savage terrorists in the zionist propaganda channels and especially in the zionist-owned hollywood and netflix productions). Zionism is a supremacist neo-Nazi humanity-dividing ideology that views ONLY certain people as having any worth or value (only those who had the "correct" religious label placed on us at birth).

Zionism is also profoundly short-sighted and unwise in that it brings about INSECURITY for everyone (including jews) rather than the so-called security that the zionist billionaires claim to bring for jews, and ONLY jews (I explained exactly why it brings about insecurity in the first post on my substack account).

We therefore also reject Barry Weiss' sectarian propaganda and urge you to please not cooperate with her Godless humanity-destroying ideology of supremacist tribalism.

Please don't give her or other exclucivist zionist supremacists any say whatsoever about anything that could influence content on substack or that could influence whose voice gets amplified and whose doesn't. Supremacist zionist tribalists are already employing their censorship, "visibality filtering" and algorithm manipulation (to supress certain voices and amplify others) on several other social media platforms and search engines, please don't let them manipulate the content on this platform as well (by structural means or through any other means)

PS. If one wishes to understand the reason for my saying these things, kindly see the post on my account titled 'my view on the conflict in palestine-israel, as someone who was born and grew up in israel" (i have only two posts on my account so it's easy to find)

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Thanks for your humanity.

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where did your ancestors come from? do you wish Israel hadn't existed then, so that they may have drowned in boats, or been shot escaping whatever place they were being terrorized?

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Thank you Nicky. As I mentioned above, if you'd like to understand why I said the things I did and to find answers to your questions then kindly read the post I made about it. I will link it here for your convenience https://open.substack.com/pub/headandheart1/p/my-perspective-on-the-conflict-in My only humble request is that, if you can, please read it WITHOUT wearing any pre-established ideological or sectarian glasses/filters, the filters of "I already know all there is to know", the filters that might distort and prevent you from really hearing what is being said.

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Bro, do you understand what the word fascist means? I don't think you do.

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The word used was the compound ’proto-fascist’, which I think is neither hyperbolic nor inappropriate. Assuming that the reference was to Zionism, the action of that group to deny freedom of speech, cause the destruction of neighboring cultures, and control their own country through apartheid and murder, makes the use of the term proto-fascist seem generous. The founder of Free Press, Bari Weiss, is an enthusiastic defender of the censorship practices of the Israeli government, which spends uncounted millions to control the US congress. What else would you call it?

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Thanks, thought it was obvious but perhaps not.

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Nope, Sasha - they have no clue LOL

I am not even a big fan of The Free Press, but 'protofascists?" Ridiculous...

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Due to the risks involved, I’ve always respected foreign correspondents and especially admired those covering active war zones. But I still feel that too much of contemporary ‘journalism’ is motivated more by a paycheck and publication (‘a buck and a byline’) than a genuine strive to expose thus challenge the corrupt powerful who abuse/exploit those with the least in this increasingly unjust global existence.

Also, while journalism’s traditional fundamental function is/was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” to a noticeable degree there seems to have been a redefining, or even a reversal, as to what/who constitutes an “afflicted” and “the comfortable”.

Journalists with genuine integrity should and would tender their resignations and even publicly proclaim they can no longer help propagate their employer’s corrupted/sleazy media product.

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There are various definitions of fascist. The more colloquial one is simply “an intolerant or oppressive person.”

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Oh, you mean a 2024 US "democrat" ?

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For example!

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You do not understand the word fascist. It is not a synonym for crap you do not like. Like hate speech means speech you hate to hear.

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Sasha I don’t want to go there, it’s a mixture of bedroom secrets and a confession to a pedofilie or a in disguise married priest. I have family members who don’t even know they’re fascists of CIA mouthpieces, I myself are in love with Russia and the Russian Soul, but same family members think I am a Russian Spy. Very very slippery ice we’re gliding over not?

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The No. 1 History Substack is a Holocaust denier. That ship sailed a long time ago.

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Oh look - Jonny's back. I thought you scurried off to your safe-space so that the very scary words here on Substack wouldn't hurt your tender feels LOL

BTW - I am still waiting for that Nazi-uprising you claimed was here. I see plenty of Leftists like yourself in my suggestions, see the occasional conservative and/or libertarian missive, but not a single Nazi.

Either you scared them away with your manly-manliness... or you made them up in your head for The Atlantic. Call it a hunch, but I am going with the latter...

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Trumpty the felon mobster is not in power yet. With their bunch of addicts planning to raid our federal monies, stealing everything not nailed down. We will fight for ourselves when the time is right.

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DID YOU COUNT THE 4 TRILLION SINCE 2020 SPENT AND FOUR WARS? HIPOCRASY MUCH?

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You are speaking to the choir. Biden has always been a Hawk. Trumpty will have us look like Russia, if the dems. don’t win some of the fights. Read how Russia was divided up with Putin in charge as Russian oligarchs, (richy riches) stole everything from the people of Russia- here’s candy for you, here’s candy for you, richy rich.

US politicians need a dumping. Folks running publicly funded campaigns with platforms argued need to become available. Most of Congress, especially the Red states are there to get rich and block “US common good” . I agree it is a sh-tshow.

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It's a rich vs poor, a class issue, not a left vs right issue.

(As many comments of DailyWire Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro videos about people's reactions to the murder of a healthcare insurance company CEO stated.)

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WTF does Trump have to do this? You all filter everything through him - the obsession is disturbing...

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Stone, do you know how to do anything besides hit a finger in a keyboard? You brought up the Nazi uprising. It is coming and we will be ready

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Your boot-licking is cringe AF

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False

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It's the money they love.

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If you believe they are protofascists then, yes, the rest of us want you to leave.

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any adult who uses “proactive” as an actual word, as in the pretentious fugue of your bio, is someone whose opinions are of dubious value.

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Do not the door hit you on the way out. Make haste.

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Nora Loreto 4h

Why on earth would you brag to your users that you've partnered with a bunch of protofascists? You want us all to leave or what?

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*****

Nora, Nora, Nora,

You can't leave Substack Nora, that's why you're still here, where would you go?

https://vigilantnews.com/post/liberals-leave-x-for-bluesky-only-to-overwhelm-site-with-mass-censorship-demands

Your only current alternative is BlueSky, and as you can see, you guys' constant need to silence any opinion you do not share makes it impossible for you to form a community, not to mention your insatiable appetite for ratting/reporting one another, no matter how milquetoast you might try to write, one of your own will always find something to object to, and soon you also find yourself cancelled.

You'll only last a few months at best, always cowering, always trying in vain to fly under the radar.

Embrace Substack while it's still an open platform, before you manage to suppress this platform as well, and then you'll find yourself in BlueSky hell with nowhere left to go to air ideas and opinions.

Enjoy Substack while it lasts!

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Can it - not a single person beleives your vitriol.

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The irony here is something else.

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Thanks Nora.

I didn't know.

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There is probably a useful answer to your rhetorical question (some possibilities have been suggested here). I don't know it, but it cannot be "good news".

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I am a free speech fundamentalist. I wade through acres of obloquy and nonsense without complaint. I almost never block commenters. I read the ‘Free Press’, occasionally, despite the absurdity of the name.

However, I would prefer that the platform did not ‘partner’ with people who support genocide and defend the wanton killing of oppressed people in occupied lands, in contravention of international law and human decency.

This isn’t a quibble or a partisan gripe. The ongoing destruction of the Middle East by Israel puts the whole world in danger, and it has nothing to do with politics, or with religion, or with opinion. Racist murder must not be countenanced. Those who commit and defend mass murder may speak freely, but I am disappointed that Substack finds them to be suitable ‘partners’.

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Thank you. I was not aware of who these Weisses are. I certainly see no good in "partnering" with such narrow focused people. Let them start their own Substack and see who their subscribers turn out to be.

Substack is a platform, a model for the future of communication. It should stay that way. Individuals on Stack can do their own partnering.

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I agree

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Who are these Weisses you ask?

You tell me who/what you think these Weisses are? Don't waste any time looking for intellect I warn you in advance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-sxJFn6O0

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Totally agree, you made the points better than me.

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And of course the threat of extermination of the Jews can be conveniently overlooked? Particularly when you don’t care if they are or are not decimated. Iran launched the first weapon when it threatened the existence of Israel. The Jews have every right to defend their own existence. Particularly when the Muslims will push further until they reach their goal.

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Tell that to all the Jewish people who are protesting the Palestinian Genocide. To paraphrase Matt Lieb, saying every Jewish person is a Zionist, is like saying every turtle is also a mutant ninja.

I also love how Weiss and her ilk call themselves Free Speach absolutists but of course, are always silencing and dismissing any speech critical of Israel (or pro-trans speech for that matter). I always find it so ridiculously disingenuous whenever she rails against "cancel culture" when she literally started her career by canceling professors during her time at Columbia. But hey, cancel culture is cool when you only cancel the "bad" people right? And of course they get to define who's bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Unbecoming_controversy

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Bari Weiss is not part of my comment. My point is the fact that the radical Muslims don't differentiate between Jews and Zionist Jews. In their effort to blow Israel off the map, I doubt that they will tell the non-Zionists that they will be safe. It doesn't work that way. It just shocks me that when Iran made its intentions clear, the Jews are not entitled to defend themselves. My niece lives in Jerusalem. She has many Palestinian friends. But she also understands what needs to happen to guarantee safety for her country.

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Opposing the Zionists who control Israel is not the same as "hating" Jews. When was the last time you checked a map of Palestine? The Zionists never had no desire for a 2-State agreement and I doubt very much they would return Palestinian territory they have occupied since Israel was imposed on the Palestinians.

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??? ...

{...The Jews have every right to defend their own existence...} BINGO !!! 👍👍👍

But not their existence on stolen Palestinian Lands as a settler-, colonial-, apartheid-, genocidal entity ...

Btw: No real, self-respecting people of Jewish faith and Semitic origins currently over there. Even their beloved "Bibi" uses an artist's name to lead genocidal tactics: His real name is Mileikowsky of Polish, Ashkenazi origin. The only real Semites are the Palestinians themselves, dead or alive.

Local Muslims have intl. Law behind them but unfortunately, only dirty money speaks in media and politics and leads to despicable double-standards and hypocrisy.

Have a nice time !!!

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Yes the Israelis have every right to defend their borders and their people. However they have no right, under international law, to cross those borders in order to do so.

If they were concerned with their security, how do you explain the invasion of 10/7 by lightly armed militants on motor scooters? Think about it.

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20mEdited

they totally missed the mark on 10/7, that's a no-brainer. Regarding crossing international borders, that is exactly what Hamas did. "Lightly armed militants on motor scooters" is bait that I won't take. These militants were armed but more so, they were supported by rockets and armed drones. Not to mention what they did to women and children. Stop fooling yourself. 1200 people were brutally attacked, some kidnapped and/or killed.

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As far as I know they are not supporters of either Iran or Assad or Russia and oppose the genocide by Turkey of the Kurds

Am I missing anything

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one of the things Israel has destroyed is Hezbollah, which has now led to the fall of the TRULY genocidal Assad regime. i don't think it's true that the middle east is more dangerous. i think you want to find reasons to hate Israel. not very sophisticated.

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Please… spare us

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I was already concerned about the owners / management / leadership of Substack and their ability to turn the dials on certain content but I appreciated the platform and the many different contributors. This "partner" announcement is very troubling for my trust level w Substack going forward. This screams to me as a move toward partnering with a Zuckerburg, or an Elon Musk and X. Yes, I'm calling a shot here - and yes, it's pure speculation on my part.

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Don’t be a Hamastitute.

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Bari Weiss? No.

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She's disingenuous and pushes the "anti-woke" nonsense. She whines about cancel culture from her national platform after SHE quit her job. She's right there with Ben Shapiro.

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makes sense, looks like shes a zionist

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She is, and she says 'unashamedly so'.

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What's wrong with that exactly?

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Let’s stone her…

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SHE quit her job because of the way the woke NYT treated her. And it seems that perhaps you would prefer to cancel her as well. My sense is that anything to do with an expansion of the more centrist/ conservative media is a threat, something well echoed in these comments.

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Barry Weiss cited a fake Twitter account in an opinion piece for the New York Times and wasn't even suspended for what is a fireable offense for most journalists. She "othered" an American figure skater, and instead of owning up to her prejudice, she blamed cancel culture. Still wasn't fired. She's a lazy journalist who uses "woke" without any regard for the origins of that term.

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Does her post about the figure skater make her racist, as some claim? I don't think so. It does speak to how lazy she is. The fake Twitter account and the skater's nationality are easy to check. But Weiss is privileged and gets away with lazy journalism. Again, a simple "my bad" and all is forgiven. But she went on Bill Maher to complain about wokeness and cancel culture instead of owning up to her mistake. https://www.gq.com/story/perpetual-foreigners

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She isn't a journalist.

Bari Weiss is a fascist apologist.

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A pretzel doesn’t know it’s a pretzel.

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I've never tried to cancel Bari. I'm a black woman in America; we get canceled. If a black woman had included a fake Twitter account in a New York Times column as the basis for her editorial, that black woman would have been canceled, at least suspended. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bari-weiss-new-york-times-fake-twitter_n_5aa100a0e4b0d4f5b66d9ba3

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As opposed to Bari who started her career trying to cancel her professors at Columbia...

Frankly, this whole "cancelation" thing is meaningless. 99% of the time, it's invoked by people who are upset that others think their views make them jerks. Just own up to your own controversial opinions (especially if you mean to work as a pundit) and accept that some people are not going to like you.

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How is she cancelled?

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she monetizes grievance.

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thats like most white people though.

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Dark money billionaires back her brand of toxic contrarianism to flood the zone with crap. Honestly, getting a substack advantage is tone-deaf. They tried doing a fake school called the "University of Austin"

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It's only "fake" because you can't stand it being a rare exception in having politics you dislike.

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LOL. Bothsidesism and straw-manning are known ways to poison the well.

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wow, weird.

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“The Free Press is old school in the best way, with meticulous editorial standards that it upholds through in-depth reporting, fact-checking, editing, original photography, and more.”

Look, partner with them because they have a large audience and traffic. But don’t try to lie to us. Their commitment to “fact-checking” is easily debunked by a little bit of, um, fact-checking.

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This. They are a laughingstock among actual journalists. It's all personal grievance and right-leaning op-eds.

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Bad choice with Bari Weiss.

The articles on The Free Press are biased and misleading. I subscribed for a year by mistake and was glad when it ended.

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It does seem weird and tone-deaf to laud a pro-Zionist site/owners which defend Israel's war crimes/apartheid/ongoing genocide. I say that as a staunch Jewish Voice for Peace supporter and interfaith officer. https://kdgreenparty.substack.com/p/wisdom-from-my-jewish-friends

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What is exactly wrong with Zionism Karl? Do you question all countries "right to exist"? Or just Israel's?

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We can argue about when settlers become natives, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say all countries/entities committing genocide shouldn't exist. I don't believe this should be a controversial statement at all.

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So you'd solve "genocide" (your baseless, false definition) by committing genocide?

I would consider that quite controversial, Abraham. You should as well.

You know, the holocaust, pogroms, Armenia, Eritrea, those are genocides. The historical amnesia needs to stop from your tribe.

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Germany still exist friend, but Nazi Germany does not. Ditto South Africa. You can destroy the genocidal entity but leave the people and cities. Not saying it's easy, but it can be done.

Also, yes the polgroms, Holocaust, Armenian genocide where all real and very very bad. Where did I say otherwise?

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This is a terrible decision, for the simple reason that it looks like Substack is playing ideological favourites, and selectively boosting some ideas over others.

I left X because it was absolutely clear that the ownership was using algorithms to throttle speech they didn't want, and boosting speech that they did. There was no point in being there.

I want to operate and publish in good faith, and that doesn't work when the platform is operating in bad faith - which this decision represents.

There are lots of reasons people of good faith would disagree with the claim that the Free Press is scrupulous and fact-based, when a glance at its front page shows that it's yet another far-right propaganda outlet with double moral standards, like the New York Post or the Daily Mail.

Opinions are still supposed to be informed by, and hemmed in by facts.

The biggest problem with speech and publishing isn't a lack of freedom. Never before in history have people been able to share their views on a greater stage. The problem is the lack of accountability and accuracy, and the lack of editorial judgment and fairness on the part of platforms.

This is a bullshit announcement for a bullshit publication.

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In recent weeks, elitist Substack is sending more and more relevant conversations down the alley. This is part of their strategy to shut folks down. Well, substack , maybe you will go ‘down the alley’ as you learn that some of us have standards and unpopular truths. Don’t want your $$$$ grubbing , ways.

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Well said.

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Wow, Chris. Thanks for screwing over all of us independent writers here who will now have a big spike of unsubscribes from readers who don’t want to fund yet more rightwing “journalism” here.

This is not why I left corporate media.

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THIS. Substack is screwing over all of us for the sake of rightwing nonsense.

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Bad idea. Very, very bad idea. As a Substack creator I'm way beyond disappointed, I'm currently passing through 'appalled' en route to 'sickened and revolted'.

You can better support media organisations without partnering with the worst of them.

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Just saw their site last night and thought, “Wait, this site with this design is on Substack? But how?” This explains that. Looking forward to some of these design options becoming available to everyone.

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Great reminder to get off this platform

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Good idea. Maintain the quality for those of us staying.

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Bye

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And go where? These POS penetrator of all good things with their evil agendas.

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4hEdited

https://ghost.org/docs/migration/substack/ (open source & self hostable blog site and newsletter service!)

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There are alternative platforms, Ryan Broderick from Garbage Day has written about how much of the traffic this org touts is falsified and designed to keep creators here.

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dont you think that the fragile reactions like this, without double checking, is part of the stupidity that is eroding society?

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Nope. It''s called integrity.

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you either dont know the definition of integrity or are willfully misusing that word.

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Suzy Weiss ≠ Susie Wiles. Different person entirely.

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In the unforgettable words of Emily Literal, "NEVERMIND".

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That should read Emily Litella - ie. Gilda Radner.

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Autocorrect.... :-D

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Molly, Trump’s campaign manager is Susie Wiles

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Counterpoint:

The Free Press is bullshit, Bari Weiss is a fraud, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for partnering with them.

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Fraud?

-the crime of getting money by deceiving people:

- someone who deceives people by saying that they are someone or something that they are not:

How does fraud come into it?

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Bari Weiss and The Free Press are nothing but controlled opposition folks. She took start up money from big tech so they own her. She talks to talk but rarely walks the talk. They censor comments of the paid subscribers. There is not a single true conservative on staff. It’s packed full of ex NYT and Columbia educated journalists. Their entire world view is shaped by the NYC Washington DC media bubble where they all pretend that they had no idea Biden had dementia until the debate in June.

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The NYC/DC group are propagandists now. Threatening students using their first amendment rights to protest killing an entire people. After our healthcare martyr shot an oligarch,the NY Times printed a shameless article about how much Americans love their healthcare except @1% of folk.

We need Richy Rich and the Corporations to truly start paying the price of violating US citizens by stealing all the monies, all regulations to their advantage for the past 45 years. As Trumpty the felon takes office, we will fight them, tooth and nail.

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This really sucks. Bari Weiss is the worst of the worst in terms of disguising disinformation and hatred as neutral news. I have defended substack against people saying Weiss shouldn't even be allowed to have an account, but this kind of explicit partnership is really really bad. Might as well be partnership with Infowars.

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I fear that - while I like Substack - this is the unspoken secret. As a platform they also promote a lot of people whose lame ideas aren't worth promoting (such as Bari Weiss, et. al.) Because at her level of fame/infamy, her success is Substack's success.

What other godawful writers pushing the same "Woke is bad!" and "I got canceled therefore I'm worth listening to!" ideas are out there with their success attached to Substack?

Though Weiss and others like her in the Cancel Culture Complainers Club are weak, it's not a bridge too far for me. I can still support Substack despite her woke-is-bad genre. But... I wonder, where is the too far bridge? I feel it's out there lurking, waiting to be discovered.

But anyway. Have a nice day, everyone.

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It's well known how easily you can game bestseller algorithms - like the once meaningful NY Times Bestseller list - by having your right-wing backers purchase a bunch of books at the start. So - just speculating here - but what's to deny Bari and her Woke-Is-Bad newsletter aren't doing the same? I mean really, who pays to read Bari Weiss?

Similarly, that's why Elon bought X. Because he's too much a baby to admit his ideas stink and no one likes him, so he had to claim it was censorship. The entire right-wing-tech-o-sphere exists to give the appearance that RW ideas are more popular than they really are.

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I see

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We’ll follow you wherever you go.

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