The fact that Lulu Cheng Meservey, the vice president of communications for Substack is a member of Razib Khan's clubhouse as well as a member of the clubhouse of the anti-CRT grifting, IDW-riddled, far-right leaning FAIR, (update: and as I know now, FAIR was dreamed up by Bari Weiss and her IDW stooges and funded by Harlan Crow) does not help dissuade me from the suspicion that Substack is simply a high-tech Donor's Trust.
Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie has a Thiel connection. Thiel was an investor in PandoDaily, which McKenzie worked for.
Another Substack co-founder, Chris Best, appeared on a podcast for the race pseudoscience promoting, Thiel-funded Quillette. According to a description of the interview on Padverb, "Tech entrepreneur Chris Best talks about Substack, his self-publishing platform that is attracting journalists like Andrew Sullivan, Jesse Singal and Jen Gerson."The Substack gang apparently has no problem with promoters of race pseudoscience, at the very least.
- Andrew Sullivan is famous for his promotion of the race pseudoscience of racist Charles Murray.
- Jesse Singal is best known for his antagonism against trans people. He's a defender of the race pseudoscience-friendly Steven Pinker. He also has a Quillette connection and a Koch connection.
- Jen Gerson has written for Quillette.
The fact that Substack founders had so many connections to right-wing hawkers of race pseudoscience was a huge red flag.
Then in July of this year Jonathan Katz wrote about Substack promoting Richard Hanania and I wrote:
With all the racists (Substack) is platforming (Hanania, Kirkegaard, Bo Winegard, Razib Khan, Indian Bronson - undoubtedly many more, those are just off the top of my head) and now promoting, it sure looks like Substack is going the way of Twitter - and if it's less obvious than with Twitter, that's probably because Peter Thiel is stealthier than Elon Musk.
It's certainly no stretch at all to connect the "Intellectual Dark Web" (Peter Thiel is alleged to fund the IDW mouthpiece Quillette) with the far-right racism of Richard Hanania - Steven Pinker, identified by Bari Weiss as the most mainstream of those associated with the IDW is a firm supporter of white supremacist Richard Hanania. And of course Peter Thiel blurbed Hanania's book with the most blatantly fascist statement this side of Donald Trump.
And lo and behold, I see a Katz piece in The Atlantic from last month, in which Katz notes that Substack is infested with Nazis, including those being promoted by Substack:
In (Hamish) McKenzie’s recent post about “leaning into politics,” the Substack co-founder enthusiastically and prominently recommended a lesser-known Substacker, Darryl Cooper, as among the “up-and-comers” in political writing. Cooper’s podcast featured a complimentary interview with the white-nationalist magazine editor Greg Johnson—who, incidentally, published some of Hanania’s pseudonymous, more explicitly racist writings. Cooper has also used his personal Twitter account to claim that “FDR chose the wrong side in WW2.” (That tweet and the interview with Johnson were subsequently deleted.)
Substack's founders are race pseudoscience-loving Nazi-platforming ghouls.
I guessed it almost two years ago.
I also guessed in July that Katz would eventually get sick of Substack. Now in this Atlantic article he writes:
The question is what kind of community Substack is actually cultivating. How long will writers such as Bari Weiss, Patti Smith, and George Saunders—and, for that matter, me—be willing to stake our reputations on, and share a cut of our revenue with, a company that can’t decide if Nazi blogs count as hate speech?
Although I find it bizarre that he thinks that Bari "Harlan Crow is my sugar daddy" Weiss would ever have any moral qualms about anything.
Now Katz has drafted an open letter to the Substack ghouls, entitled Substackers against Nazis that I doubt will impress the Substack ghouls and their bosses, a category that I am willing to bet includes Peter Thiel.
Just quit Substack already, Jonathan Katz - months ago I guessed you were going to do it, sooner or later.
