Dear subscribers,
Substack’s leadership has made clear that they are happy to allow Nazis to use the Substack platform to coordinate and monetize their hate campaigns. Here is Hamish McKenzie’s justification. Here is Chris Best’s justification. They rest their position on the view that to deplatform Nazis from Substack is to practice censorship. This is simply a confusion.
Substack censors no one by refusing to provide a platform for hate speech. Governments censor speech. Substack is not a government branch, agency, or tribunal; it does not wield the power of the state to suppress speech. Its decisions do not carry the force of law; in banning hate speech it violates no law. The First Amendment prohibits government abridgment of speech. By invoking the notion of censorship, Substack’s leaders show a grossly inflated sense of their own importance. They are feckless, cowardly, and greedy. At best.
I have struggled for a while with remaining on Substack. I have felt duty-bound to honor your commitments to me with a commitment to you. But the situation is now untenable: we see clearly what this platform’s leadership believes, and because I can continue my work elsewhere, I will.
I have moved This Is Not A Legal Record to a different newsletter platform, Buttondown. Because Buttondown allows me to import my Substack subscriber list and previously published posts, and handles subscription payments via Stripe (like Substack), the result is that you should see no interruption of your subscription.
One major difference between the platforms, as of this writing, is that Substack permits subscriber comments, and Buttondown does not. Justin Duke, Buttondown's founder, has assured me that commenting will be enabled by the end of next month. Had there been no plan to enable commenting, I would not have chosen the platform. In the meantime, I welcome direct communication at my personal email: corsent@gmail.com.
I understand that by detaching my newsletter from Substack, I leave behind its social ecosystem of "notes" and "restacks." Though these features are intriguing, I prefer to focus on essay-length writing. My eventual goal is to shape the material in my newsletters into a longer work: possibly a monograph, but more likely a collection of essays. I treasure reader feedback--which is why I am counting on Buttondown to deliver on Justin's promise to enable commenting.
I have heard from people who are interested in reading my work but refuse to subscribe to Substack newsletters. My decision to switch platforms is wholly personal, and I do not judge anyone who remains there. In fact, I will not be canceling any of my current Substack subscriptions. I have moved my own newsletter because, and only because, Buttondown looks like a workable alternative.
I am deeply grateful to each of you for subscribing to my newsletter. I am grateful to those of you who have supported my work with paid subscriptions. I am hoping for a smooth transition to this new platform, with minimal inconvenience for you.
Best wishes for what will prove to be an interesting 2024!
Tony Corsentino