Tech Bros Are the Reason We Can’t Have Nice Things
On today's technology platforms, you can run from Nazis and white supremacists, but you can’t hide
Tech Bro: An educated male lacking in social skills who also happens to work in tech. Many of them are libertarians who simp for Elon Musk, and/or people trying to reinvent the wheel with some dumb new technology.
~Urban Dictionary
Last December, I, and over two hundred of Substack’s publishers (i.e., its customers) signed a letter voicing our concern over the presence of Nazis and white supremacists publishing, and in some cases monetizing their newsletters on the platform.
I’m not talking about your garden variety right-wingers, but publications spewing overt racism and antisemitism, many of which featured Nazi symbology or topics such as “markets and the Jewish question.” As Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale noted at the time, the content in question was a clear violation of Substack's terms of service.
According to a piece The Atlantic published a month earlier, Substack even shares in the profits of white supremacist and antisemitic publications with paying subscribers, which in and of itself is pretty stunning. As a longtime publisher on Substack's platform and an avid user of Notes, the company's Twitter/X knockoff, I was floored by this revelation.
Now I get that businesses exist to make money and, like most young technology companies, Substack probably isn't profitable. But one line most businesses never cross is doing direct business with Nazis—let alone sharing in their profits. So, I asked myself, was management so strapped for cash they needed Nazi money? Surely not.
I expected the whole sorry episode to be over by now, especially since the platform’s biggest publisher left. Substack would respond with one of two solutions. Either they would let Nazis stay but disallow them from monetizing their newsletters (less than optimal, whatever), or they’d banish them from the platform (perfect!).
A person loudly preaching a sermon in Starbucks, or a shirtless person in Applebee’s can be asked to leave. Similarly, Substack can rid their platform of Nazis and white nationalists. They can, that is, if they want to. Evidently, they do not. You see, I overlooked a crucial factor in my assessment of the Nazis situation. Three tech bros run Substack. And that is not how they roll.
“I’m not aware of any major US consumer internet platform that does not explicitly ban praise for Nazi hate speech, much less one that welcomes them to set up shop and start selling subscriptions.” ~Casey Newton, founder of Platformer
I could go on about how the tech bros who run Substack responded by shoehorning “free speech” into their response to our letter, but anyone who’s passed seventh-grade civics already knows that argument is a red herring. Or I could point out how, they relied on Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi, the same bad-faith shills Elon Musk used for his “Twitter Files” fiasco, to tell us why taking Nazis money is okay. I could go into the silly statement from the company’s CEO defending their decision.
But a lot of people much closer to the situation have weighed in on this debacle already. So instead, I’ll use a few firsthand experiences to make my point because, well, that's, you know, how I roll.
It’s just how I was raised
When I was a youngster, occasionally, one of the “bad boys” in our neighborhood ventured into my backyard yard while I played. You know the type: always getting sent home from school, caught stealing or picking fights. Whenever one of these rowdy little hooligans arrived on the scene, my heart sank. I knew from experience what came next. Be it a snatched football or some other form of disruption, the primary objective of these ruffians was to ruin my day.
Fortunately, there were two people, namely our parents, who moderated everything that went on in our backyard. When troublemakers showed up, my folks sent them packing, usually with an admonishment to the effect of, “You ain’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here.”
That childhood experience informs how I expect civilized society to operate, including tech companies like Substack. When bad actors enter their proverbial backyard, they are dealt with accordingly. It’s that easy.
The Wire strikes again*
After leaving finance, I started consulting for a capital markets research firm. Most of my work was as a fintech subject matter expert, but as anyone who has done this sort of thing knows, you need multiple hustles to keep the lights on. Pretty soon, I was doing a lot of social media management. The money was good, and it was more fun than authoring white papers on fintech for global investment banks.
One of my top social media clients was a local real estate company. The fellow who owned the business went out of his way to befriend me when I moved to town. But our relationship soured when he accidentally included me in a business email featuring the n-word and a bunch of other racist comments.
Finding out that a client who I also considered a friend was a closet racist was seriously unsettling. In all my years in business, nothing quite like this had ever happened to me. I had a decision to make. Did I really do I want to do business—let alone be friends with—a person I know is a racist? I could continue to take his money, and he would never know I was onto him. But I would know.
Back in the day, I had to overlook a lot of racism in my professional life. But as Slim Charles, the fictional drug dealer from HBO’s The Wire, said, “The thing about the old days, they the old days.” Since the old days are in my rear view mirror, I decided no business of mine would ever do work for known racists, no matter how much I needed the money.
*h/t Hawai’i Supreme Court
One more thing…
At this point, you might wonder why I still publish on Substack. Well, the irony of the Nazi shitshow is that Substack is a wonderful platform for writer’s like me. The platform facilitates connections with other great writers, expanding the way I see the world. Why Substack’s management would sacrifice what it has built over a few Nazis is still a mystery to me.
But suppose I left Substack, then what? Where would I go? I don't own a typewriter, and stamps would cost me a fortune, so snail mail is out of the question. I’ve already stopped using Facebook because it facilitates violent extremism, and disinformation is part of its business model. I barely use Twitter since that “free speech absolutist” bought it and burned it to the ground. The racists on Medium, where I also publish, aren’t quite as bad as Twitter, but it's not built for newsletters. And honestly, LinkedIn just sucks.
I’m reminded of The Godfather, Part II, one of the few instances in cinema where the sequel is better than the original. A scene from the film has repeatedly come to mind as I pondered my future on Substack.
It comes when Hyman Roth, the thinly veiled version of real-life gangster, Meyer Lansky, confronts Michael Corleone, who has just backed out of a Cuban deal, shaken by a recent mob assassination. In a climactic moment, Roth chastises Corleone saying, “This is the business we've chosen.” In a way, Roth’s admonition applies to writers, especially those of us who choose to opine on the many ways society falls short. This has always been a risky choice. We open ourselves up, not only to criticism but in some cases, to real-life consequences.
But here’s the thing. I don’t have the luxury of quitting Substack. As I posted on Notes a few weeks ago, I don't have the manpower, the time, or the desire, to cut and run every time a platform I use doesn’t live up to its own standards.
At this point, pulling up stakes on Substack makes about as much sense to me as moving from my neighborhood because the house down the street is flying a Confederate flag. More than likely, someone else is flying one just like it wherever I might choose to go.
Nazis may be on Substack, but thanks to tech bros, they are everywhere. Fortunately, so are people who think like me. So, I’ll stay right where I am. To channel Hyman Roth, this is the business I’ve chosen.
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