I’m still wondering where Substack is going. Some of their hidden purpose is starting to show up with a focus on becoming the new mass media, led by Bari Weiss.
This will inevitably lead right back to censorship. The same thing already happened with Bari Weiss’s other push, the “free university”. They’re still waiting for accreditation, and show no signs of rejecting tenure.
The basic rule is much deeper than politics.
Big media and big academia require loans, licenses, and lawyers. Big organizations must conform to the standards of Wall Street and Deepstate. No choice.
It’s possible that Substack will maintain a ‘back room’ without censorship, but a more subtle trend points toward gradual fading of the ‘back room’. Substack’s appeal to writers is strongly monetary. They are effectively promising that a new writer who follows the principles and suggestions will make money. This simply isn’t true, and many comments show frustration by writers who have been following the suggestions and still not catching on.
Another basic rule applies here.
Only attractiveness and popularity can be monetized. Writers who know how to appear or sound attractive will become popular for a while, but in the end only innately attractive and popular people win.
Writers who want to remain truly independent can’t be aiming for money. You have to be doing it for the intrinsic pleasure of making art and truth.
Polistra's Mill 