> "Anti-censorship" is hugely unpopular with the mainstream intellectual community these days. I'd disagree. It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences , but among intellectuals who write for a living, I imagine that extra assurances of not getting kicked off the platform are rather attractive.
>It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences It is truly wild how HN often frames censorship as something coming purely from the left while ignoring the laws coming out of conservative state legislatures across the country. There is a wide spectrum of people both pushing for censorship and pushing against it.
Not to mention the censorship pressure exerted by family values groups’ complaints to the FCC. Those are generally very conservative groups who want to protect children from seeing a breast.
> "Anti-censorship" is hugely unpopular with the mainstream intellectual community these days. I'd disagree. It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences , but among intellectuals who write for a living, I imagine that extra assurances of not getting kicked off the platform are rather attractive.
>It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences It is truly wild how HN often frames censorship as something coming purely from the left while ignoring the laws coming out of conservative state legislatures across the country. There is a wide spectrum of people both pushing for censorship and pushing against it.
What is insane is when people frame anti-censorship as an alt-right value. That offends people like me who are staunchly liberal but completely anti-censorship to my core.
I realize that Substack is popular but I've never encountered a writer whose work I was so interested in that I was willing to pay them individually.
A key part of the value I get out of other subscriptions is aggregation.
I've backed lots of projects via Kickstarter etc - I'm down for supporting things and people that tick my boxes. Maybe I'm just allergic to the idea of paying for emails. I didn't sign up when the NYTimes tried to productize their newsletters either.
> "Anti-censorship" is hugely unpopular with the mainstream intellectual community these days. I'd disagree. It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences , but among intellectuals who write for a living, I imagine that extra assurances of not getting kicked off the platform are rather attractive.
>It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences It is truly wild how HN often frames censorship as something coming purely from the left while ignoring the laws coming out of conservative state legislatures across the country. There is a wide spectrum of people both pushing for censorship and pushing against it.
Oh, I guess I was thinking mainly about online censorship by tech platforms. I think most censorship from the right nowadays is about public schools?
Many writers like them because they seem to have made both costly and cheap signals to show that they are on the side of writers: (1) they say they are "anti-censorship" and won't evict writers from their "private platform" (2) they let the writer own their audience / mailing list (so they can leave with their audience, if they want to) (3) they advanced money to popular writers These things with the addition of a si…
Everyone who is responding doesn’t understand the core benefit of Substack: the writer owns the relationship between them and their subscribers.
Substack has no such ownership. Substack doesn’t take payments from the subscribers and then pay the writer. The subscribers directly pay the writer and the writer is charged a fee by Substack.
It is VERY easy for writers to drop off Substack. They own their subscription lists and if they want to move to Patreon they can. But Substack’s incentive is to make their product so good that the writers stay. That is how the company is set up. They could have created a moat where Substack owns the subscribers but they chose to flip it so that it is very easy for writers to leave. Literally writers can leave Substack with the click of the button and they can take their subscribers with them, and that’s a core value of the company.
I think the company values are amazing and new and something you don’t see anymore. I actually applied to the company last year but didn’t pass the interview which was very disappointing but I plan on trying again this year. It’s a company I firmly believe in and I love the mission.
> "Anti-censorship" is hugely unpopular with the mainstream intellectual community these days. I'd disagree. It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences , but among intellectuals who write for a living, I imagine that extra assurances of not getting kicked off the platform are rather attractive.
>It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences It is truly wild how HN often frames censorship as something coming purely from the left while ignoring the laws coming out of conservative state legislatures across the country. There is a wide spectrum of people both pushing for censorship and pushing against it.
Left and right censorship are applied to very different media. In the case of online platforms, the most visible attempts of censorship are coming from the left. At least I haven't heard of any opposite examples.
> "Anti-censorship" is hugely unpopular with the mainstream intellectual community these days. I'd disagree. It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences , but among intellectuals who write for a living, I imagine that extra assurances of not getting kicked off the platform are rather attractive.
>It's unpopular with left-leaning mainstream audiences It is truly wild how HN often frames censorship as something coming purely from the left while ignoring the laws coming out of conservative state legislatures across the country. There is a wide spectrum of people both pushing for censorship and pushing against it.
Name a single such law passed in the past 4 years in the US? (Laws regulating the curricula of state-funded public schools don't count. Not using taxpayer money to support a view ≠ impinging on the right of private citizens and organizations to express that view with their own resources and funds)