What an arrogant individual she is. Cries racism and bigotry whilst denigrating every other non white ethnic group by implying they are less than capable of defending themselves and lack the level of intellect she does. Another Useful idiot sock puppet of the neo marxist Left that infests this planet right now.
My jaw dropped when I realised that she was not talking about any specific attack on her - just a general hypothetical position. And I agree - this may be the thin end of the wedge trying to introduce the same censorship ("content moderation") on Substack as has infected every single other platform.
Racism is a particularly insidious way to do it, because as we are seeing in other public forums, accusations of racism can get thrown around for all sorts of unwitting comments: for example, back in 2020 people who mentioned that an infectious virus originated in China were labelled "racist". (I well remember someone trying to start a campaign in Australia to support Chinese restaurants, because their normal Chinese clientele were all staying at home, and how unfair this was.)
And nobody wants to be called "racist"!
Watch out for the "public safety" one to be called next... re "disinformation".
As long we can network and communicate we will always beat them in tbe end. Thats why free speech is so important. I see her point. I don't like to see racism in notes either but the community has to sort it out. And people need to grow a thicker skin. The few really radical racists are misguided and stupid but in the end these are just words. Just block them, I say. Better than real public places. Nasty, unpleasant, hurtful but censorship is never the answer in my opinion.
But were there actually any abusive racist comments? I was looking to see what might have triggered all this, and from your post, got the impression that it was mostly hypothetical, not actual. I would be interested to see what exactly she has been complaining about... because of course we don't want to allow abuse.
Then there is the issue of how to deal with abuse when it happens, and whether it is enough to leave it to individuals to block people.
I'm on the side of free speech, of course. And very aware of the dangers of having a "democratic" ruling, or worse, an autocratic one.
But to start with, I am wondering about what exactly is the extent of the problem!
I guess you have sieve through all the comments on notes. I saw some angry comments directed towards her but that was a reaction to her original general request for censorship based on some people texting her lamentung that Substack doesnt have a policy in place. I didn't check all messages but I am sure we would have heard from her if there was a direct targeted racial attack against her. In a later post she said that n word was floated around. The only n word I found was actually in a note in support of her in the sense: don't use it. Maybe there is more but nothing specific was shown.
I am in conversation with her on her Substack. I acknowledged her for her important anti-racism work but asked her to abstain from censorship and focus on racist system rather then racist people. People come and go. Systems stay. I also said the community will deal with extreme racists. Censoring them just drives them underground and they pop more viciously somewhere else. Thats what I believe. She hasn't responded yet. If she is a genuine anti-racist activist she might engage constructively. If she is a planted extreme left activist, like Molly Knight appears to be,she won't. We will see.
Several are gleefully taking examples of obvious obnoxious and personal slurs and expanding that universe to encompass all white, male, cis-gender, racist, transphobic, misogynist, “FaCIsT” boogeymen. Even if your not male, black, cis-gender, etc.
If their attackers weren’t real, they’d have to invent them.
Thank you for sharing this with all of us. I agree with you 100%. Your last paragraph about the love song says it best. Long Live Substack Notes.👏👏👏
Pure adolescent nonsense. Dangerous entitled women.
What an arrogant individual she is. Cries racism and bigotry whilst denigrating every other non white ethnic group by implying they are less than capable of defending themselves and lack the level of intellect she does. Another Useful idiot sock puppet of the neo marxist Left that infests this planet right now.
Thanks for writing about this.
My jaw dropped when I realised that she was not talking about any specific attack on her - just a general hypothetical position. And I agree - this may be the thin end of the wedge trying to introduce the same censorship ("content moderation") on Substack as has infected every single other platform.
Racism is a particularly insidious way to do it, because as we are seeing in other public forums, accusations of racism can get thrown around for all sorts of unwitting comments: for example, back in 2020 people who mentioned that an infectious virus originated in China were labelled "racist". (I well remember someone trying to start a campaign in Australia to support Chinese restaurants, because their normal Chinese clientele were all staying at home, and how unfair this was.)
And nobody wants to be called "racist"!
Watch out for the "public safety" one to be called next... re "disinformation".
We all know how that plays out.
As long we can network and communicate we will always beat them in tbe end. Thats why free speech is so important. I see her point. I don't like to see racism in notes either but the community has to sort it out. And people need to grow a thicker skin. The few really radical racists are misguided and stupid but in the end these are just words. Just block them, I say. Better than real public places. Nasty, unpleasant, hurtful but censorship is never the answer in my opinion.
But were there actually any abusive racist comments? I was looking to see what might have triggered all this, and from your post, got the impression that it was mostly hypothetical, not actual. I would be interested to see what exactly she has been complaining about... because of course we don't want to allow abuse.
Then there is the issue of how to deal with abuse when it happens, and whether it is enough to leave it to individuals to block people.
I'm on the side of free speech, of course. And very aware of the dangers of having a "democratic" ruling, or worse, an autocratic one.
But to start with, I am wondering about what exactly is the extent of the problem!
I guess you have sieve through all the comments on notes. I saw some angry comments directed towards her but that was a reaction to her original general request for censorship based on some people texting her lamentung that Substack doesnt have a policy in place. I didn't check all messages but I am sure we would have heard from her if there was a direct targeted racial attack against her. In a later post she said that n word was floated around. The only n word I found was actually in a note in support of her in the sense: don't use it. Maybe there is more but nothing specific was shown.
I am in conversation with her on her Substack. I acknowledged her for her important anti-racism work but asked her to abstain from censorship and focus on racist system rather then racist people. People come and go. Systems stay. I also said the community will deal with extreme racists. Censoring them just drives them underground and they pop more viciously somewhere else. Thats what I believe. She hasn't responded yet. If she is a genuine anti-racist activist she might engage constructively. If she is a planted extreme left activist, like Molly Knight appears to be,she won't. We will see.
A lot of it is pure Cluster B dynamics.
https://disaffectedpod.substack.com/p/this-is-cluster-b-on-substack
Nice to see there are more people *not* in support
She has company.
Several are gleefully taking examples of obvious obnoxious and personal slurs and expanding that universe to encompass all white, male, cis-gender, racist, transphobic, misogynist, “FaCIsT” boogeymen. Even if your not male, black, cis-gender, etc.
If their attackers weren’t real, they’d have to invent them.