Comment on There is a federation problem on Programming.dev
PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 3 weeks agofrom content on their site, that they full control
They don't. Or, rather, to exactly the degree that Google "controls" the mail servers that forwarded the spam email to you.
Anyway, you seem to be grasping the point I was making now, so great. Anyway, to me, the bottom line is:
It's better to let people talk. I federated with Hexbear and lemmy.ml, too (or did, back when I had a server of my own, sniff), for exactly the same reason. It's not Substack's fault that there are Nazis in the world, and in this particular case and framing, I don't think moving them to some other segregated platform does anyone any good. I actually think it helps the Nazis a lot to separate them from the main flow of information exchange. I realize I'm in the minority in thinking all of this.
The best way to combat that is not having Nazi shit.
Banning Nazi shit, especially if you are now taking a ton of money from standard silicon valley VCs, is the first step towards banning all "antisemitic" shit. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I think I actually had this exact conversation specifically about Substack with someone, at great length, a few years ago, and they were pointing to Germany as an example of how it should work (banning Nazi shit), and I pointed out that the same laws could easily be used against pro-Palestinians, and they all told me I was crazy.
AND OH, LOOK WHAT HAPPENED IN GERMANY
We're probably not going to see eye to eye on it. Whatever. Anyway: I'm not in favor of Nazis. I'm in favor of left-wing platforms. I'm noticing that you are not taking the standpoint "We need to get the Nazis off Substack, because it's a good thing, but the Nazis are horrifying." That would actually be totally reasonable to me even though it's not my opinion. You're taking the standpoint "Fuck Substack all the homies hate Substack," apparently, which I have a problem with. Or that seems to be your stance. Am I wrong? Maybe so, if so tell me.
I don't like policing people's speech, even when literal Nazis are involved. I'm probably in the minority on that. But I just don't like all the disingenuous ways of attacking Substack that all seem to boil down to some pretty dishonest framings... everything you're saying now, I think is more or less reasonable, we just don't agree on it. As long as you're not saying "SUBSTACK IS PROMOTING NAZI BLOGS ON PURPOSE BECAUSE THEY'RE NAZIS," as some people seem to be, I think we good.
rainwall@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Your gmail notification point doesn't track, but its the most minimal point so i'll drop it.
I dont think Substack is specially just a Nazi platform. I think they are Capitalists that will use any kind of speech to make money. While bootstrapping, they found a niche in leftist independent journalism. Now, they view far right hate as profitable, both directly with Nazi commentors are being paid large sums to enshittify the platform from far right figures.
They dont care about racism or hate because they are rich and it makes them money. That does make them bad people, no matter how many leftist they also profit from. I absolutely expect they will follow a Twitter style path from here on out, with or without Musk at the helm. Once you let the Nazi's into the bar, they take over by driving everyone else out. Thats what they have done, and will keep doing.
I expect you make some kind of living off Substack? Maybe look into Ghost as an option. They take way, way less money even when fully hosted.