63 Comments

Good post Yuri. Yes, Substack has the chance to be fundamentally different than any other tech company because it's revenue model is based on user subscriptions and not advertisements, so subscribers are the customer and not megacorps. The right stance is to be (very) skeptical, but to hold out hope.

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Elon really ended up disappointing me. It’s clear that Substack is now the true free speech platform.

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When you wrote "At some point, the deep state censorship octopus and its commissars may come knocking on your door." did you consider that Substack may well be owned and funded by the very topmost occulted of the fat controllers? The mysterious nobility, way above "the deep state", may have provided us with our very own corral, gulag or echo chamber where we are easily identified and closely monitored.

The free speech of Chairman Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign began at the end of 1956 with encouragement to criticise the Chinese government and status quo, but on "June 8, 1957, Chairman Mao called a halt to the Hundred Flowers Campaign. He announced that it was time to pluck the "poisonous weeds" from the bed of flowers. Hundreds of intellectuals and students were rounded up, including pro-democracy activists Luo Longqi and Zhang Bojun, and were forced to publicly confess that they had organized a secret conspiracy against socialism. The crackdown sent hundreds of leading Chinese thinkers to labor camps for "re-education" or to prison. The brief experiment with freedom of speech was over." ~ https://www.thoughtco.com/hundred-flowers-campaign-195610

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Free speech absolutism or GTFO. Simple as that.

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I agree, the ONLY reason I came to Substack was prior to starting a blog I did a cursory search on which blog platforms support deplatformization and censorship. Found that Wordpress etc all regularly deplatformed and Substack was the only one I could find whose founder specifically addressed it being a free speech platform. If that changes then it would undo the only reason that many of us even gave this place a chance, so I really hope they stay the course.

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Apr 16, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

as soon as I has finally gotten rid of Social Media and reduced my screen time down 70%...along comes Substack...

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Awesome post Yuri! You're correct. The avalanche of complaints from the anti-free-speech crowd is going to come down on Substack.

After all, as we have more open discussions -- about anything, the more angry those who worship censorship become.

It’s not about "hate speech" because there is no solid definition by which to judge hate speech. Hate speech is phrase with about as much meaning as “racist,” it has devolved into a buzz word, a kind of nonsense term. Most people roll their eyes when they hear racism, because they know that it’s more than likely going to be applied out of context.

Racism is so rare now, that the people claiming it’s a systemic problem have to make it up, like Jussie Smollett. People are tired of hearing nonsense and being expected to play along with it.

Where are all these racist comments anyway? Who on here is trying to whip anyone into a frenzy about “hate?” Perhaps there is a hidden “secret” part of Substack I’ve yet to see.

Or, perhaps, those rambling on about hate and racism and the need for censorship, are just making stuff up as usual.

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Apr 16, 2023·edited Apr 16, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

Substack is teetering on the rails with its Notes feature but it is Twitter-like and thus will bring a horde of comments. I. e., The Mob.

Get rid of Notes unless you want to be buried with accusations racism, sexism, trans hysteria, etc.; the demands for censorship will not end. Those Writers who live in fear will demand censorship. If the Substack powers fear the mob or its investors fear that Mob, that’s end game.

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Apr 17, 2023·edited Apr 17, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

As a free speech-er, I try not to get too attached to any one thing. The reason is money....many will (did) sell their soul to the corporate overseers. Substack sadly could be one. I keep the old websites of many of my fav blogger(s) tabbed....just in case. It is a sad statement when many of the more sucessful substack-ers want to be authoritarian pansies. It is a sign of our times...it will be darkest right before dawn......

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Apr 16, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

It's long been true that "freedom of speech belongs to the publisher." IMHO, the goal of our First Amendment is not so much to create a single publisher or platform that allows full free speech. It is Instead to create an *ecosystem* of publishers and platforms that allow full free speech.

I don't expect to find reality well represented by one newspaper or one media organization, but by all of them combined. If Substack falls, other platforms will rise and fill the void.

As readers we must commit to reading content from a broad swath of sources, even ones that are denigrated with the worst labels.

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Apr 16, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

- Federico Fellini

All serious censorship in the end comes from the government. They are the only ones who can blanket society and snuff out freedom of speech. They are the ultimate enforcer. Otherwise it’s an argument between different points of view for the most part. We are seeing the government reach into the internet related tech companies, the universities, the medical boards, the media, to shape opinion and silence dissent. Most of the time, they are paying people off directly. If not directly, it’s indirectly via NGO money. It’s bribery. Everybody at the top of these efforts is getting bought off to stifle free speech. You can call yourself whatever you like, and virtue signal, but when you start taking money to silence the free speech guaranteed under the Constitution, then you’re just a whore for fascists. Keep Substack free from censorship.

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No moderation is the key

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Here's another way to make Substack great: "Dear Substack: Please Fix Your Search Engine": https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/dear-substack-please-fix-your-search

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Apr 16, 2023Liked by Yuri Bezmenov

I would only add (to Substack), "and write your own code." I have been an open-source proponent forever, and it was never about taking someone else's fully-formed code wholesale and then using it to compete against them.

They had a chance to be different. Outright copying Twitter code is not being different. I have to admit I am having serious reservations because of this issue. I really wanted to like Substack, but integrity matters.

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Yes Yuri... Words are indeed magic... that's why it's called spelling.

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Just a comment for impoverished substackers to ponder on... many avid readers, and even substackers, are homeless age pensioners like me, facing the threat of pension cancellation if we refuse the jab, and having our pensions cancelled if we accept substack contributions. Paying for information is . like nutritious food, simply not within our budget. Please keep this in mind when you lock out the "tight-arses". We ain't necessarily how you think we are.

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