Substack is a Dangerous Trap

Right now what is happening is that most creators are abandoning their blogs and other platforms and moving to Substack because it pays well.

I don’t use Substack and I don’t intend to use it as my primary platform, ever.

I might in the future have a Substack run parallelly with the blog (could be a mirror of the same content, or could host some technical topics not suitable to LMM), but it will never become my “main” platform.

Why You SHOULD Use Substack

You make a recurring income because people pay every month or every year. It’s actually a really good model for both the writers and their readers.

They also have good discovery and network (you can grow pretty fast if you know how to build business relationships).

If you are a new creator, it definitely makes sense to have at least some of your content on Substack just for the discovery benefits alone. Eyes on your content by a relevant audience is almost always a good thing.

However, do NOT turn it into your main income stream if your content is “problematic”.

The Present State of Free Speech on Substack

Substack is “free speech” to a large extent, although they will ban you if they consider you a “Nazi”.

If and when we become aware of other content that violates our guidelines, we will take appropriate action. 

– Substack Founders

Nazi is a term that has no meaning in the modern day, and can just be considered to be a placeholder for “disliked by the left wing”.

If the left wing starts to dislike you, they will say you’re a Nazi as well. The fact that you are not a member of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party will have no relevance to them.

If the left wing does not like you, you are a Nazi as far as they are concerned.

And yes, getting called a Nazi by the left wing is not a joke.

You WILL get fired from your job, lose your career, lose your reputation, and more if you start getting called a nazi by the left wing.

Less than a year ago, a very well connected person (Charlie Kirk) was shot and killed in public like a dog after he was deemed a Nazi.

So the current status right now on Substack is that “You cannot publish here if you are deemed a Nazi.”

The Future of Substack (Why Substack is More Dangerous Than it Looks)

Substack will eventually be purchased by an activist VC firm who will start censoring writers by threatening to pause their payments (or suspend their accounts) if they express certain viewpoints.

The writers will be unwilling to switch platforms because they will lose a large chunk of their revenues (as many paying subscribers will not cross over to a different platform).

End users are too lazy and apathetic to switch platforms on principle. This is why alternative platforms never grow big. Gab, Truth social, Voat, etc. are good ideas but they never get anywhere.

If someone is making $50k from Substack, they will not switch over to a different platform and lose half their existing subscriber base/revenue.

They will simply comply and self-censor themselves to keep the money coming in. This is how they get turned into slaves.

In other words, the people making money from substack right now will eventually comply with the wishes of their future masters.

The fact that people do not see this shows that they lack long term thinking.

The only time I’ve seen a platform acquisition that increased freedom of speech was Elon Musk buying Twitter. It was an exceptional situation.

In all other cases, the VCs that purchase these platforms enforce their viewpoints on everyone by outlawing people from contradicting them.

For example, right now on Instagram, saying “men and women are not equal” is HATE SPEECH and will get your account a strike.

Substack is basically a well laid out trap for anyone who creates content that is not “approved by those in charge”.

If it’s your main platform, you will make money RIGHT NOW under the present administration.

Eventually the platform will be acquired by an activist firm, and they will use your dependence on their platform and its network to control you and force you to self-censor your content.

There are very few who can say “I will lose half my income and switch to a different platform”.

There are many who can make do with not speaking about certain topics.

Monitoring your speech to the will of those in power in history is the norm, not the exception.

You have been warned.

– Harsh Strongman