Count me in. There is no room in any civilized space for virulent haters. There is no ambiguity about who they are. They ANNOUNCE who they are. They’re loud and proud.
I haven’t seen a single argument that would make me change my mind: I want them gone.
Yep. However, I'm moving things off of Substack. I deleted my fiction Substack, though then the motivation was simply that I wasn't seeing sell-through of related work or the final version, and I was concerned about A.I. scraping. Since then...yeah.
I can't afford to have my author newsletter associated with this place, due to the political nature of my fiction. I'd already started seeing trends that reminded me of Medium and worried me, including a proliferation of bots and trolls on Notes. The founders' reaction to Substackers Against Nazis just confirmed it for me...and I am withdrawing from depending heavily on this forum as a result. Just started making lists and thinking it through today, sigh.
It's true aspirations and values are different than I originally thought they would be. The non-answer answer by Substack leadership was sadly an insult to injury. I'm also part German - some of my family was murdered by the SS - and I feel a special responsibility to try to make the motto: "Never Again" a reality.
Here's the profound poem by Martin Niemöller, which expresses the result of inaction, neutrality or taking a "hands-off" approach towards a murderous ideology:
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me..."
Thanks for writing this, Jackie. I’ll gladly support your thorniness as co-founder of Fictionistas, but if I’m being honest, I’m working on moving my new main newsletter to another service. It hurts on a number of levels, but I don’t want to bring more people into this ecosystem until things get better.
Dec 31, 2023·edited Dec 31, 2023Liked by Jackie Dana
Glad I found @Geoffrey Golden so I could find you, as well 👏🏼 Happy to contribute to the bramble, and also encouraging folks to divest from payments here and pick them up elsewhere. More than our words, our marching dollars will get their attention.
Count me in. There is no room in any civilized space for virulent haters. There is no ambiguity about who they are. They ANNOUNCE who they are. They’re loud and proud.
I haven’t seen a single argument that would make me change my mind: I want them gone.
Yep. However, I'm moving things off of Substack. I deleted my fiction Substack, though then the motivation was simply that I wasn't seeing sell-through of related work or the final version, and I was concerned about A.I. scraping. Since then...yeah.
I can't afford to have my author newsletter associated with this place, due to the political nature of my fiction. I'd already started seeing trends that reminded me of Medium and worried me, including a proliferation of bots and trolls on Notes. The founders' reaction to Substackers Against Nazis just confirmed it for me...and I am withdrawing from depending heavily on this forum as a result. Just started making lists and thinking it through today, sigh.
This is precisely why I haven't started publishing on Substack. There is a lot that makes me uncomfortable.
I'm Leaving Substack. This Is Why...
It's true aspirations and values are different than I originally thought they would be. The non-answer answer by Substack leadership was sadly an insult to injury. I'm also part German - some of my family was murdered by the SS - and I feel a special responsibility to try to make the motto: "Never Again" a reality.
Here's the profound poem by Martin Niemöller, which expresses the result of inaction, neutrality or taking a "hands-off" approach towards a murderous ideology:
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me..."
-----
Thanks for writing this, Jackie. I’ll gladly support your thorniness as co-founder of Fictionistas, but if I’m being honest, I’m working on moving my new main newsletter to another service. It hurts on a number of levels, but I don’t want to bring more people into this ecosystem until things get better.
Glad I found @Geoffrey Golden so I could find you, as well 👏🏼 Happy to contribute to the bramble, and also encouraging folks to divest from payments here and pick them up elsewhere. More than our words, our marching dollars will get their attention.