The Catch Will Not Support Nazis
Shocking that it's come to this
As many of you know, I was on vacation last week. From December 10-20, I was in Cuba. There, we bounced between the home base resort we had booked and excursions into the countryside, museums, factories and the towns and cities of the country. During that time, a campaign was fielded by those who wrote on Substack, demanding an answer as to why the platform not only allowed Nazis and white supremacists to write their hateful bullshit, but why Substack felt it was acceptable to profit from their writing too. I found it through an article posted by Jeremy Appel at The Orchard. You can read it here.
Then, on December 21, co-founder Hamish McKenzie posted a note responding to this call. In short, his answer consisted of “If we banned Nazis, we’d be the real Nazis, so we won’t. Also we like their money.” This is, of course, not literally what McKenzie said, but it would have been more honest.
On November 13, inside the birthday announcement of The Catch celebrating the work I’ve done over this past year, I said that the publication would move off of Substack when I finished school. Here’s what I wrote:
I have recently explored other, non-Substack platforms, to move this newsletter to in the future, but that won’t happen until (at the very least) I finish with school. The reason for this is that Substack, as a company, makes its living off of transphobes and bigots like Bari Weiss and Jesse Singal. No shade to any journalist who stays, or makes a living here, but I am luckily in a position where I could transfer to a different service without losing anything financially, since I have yet to turn on paid options. Regardless, whenever that happens, I will migrate everything on the backend, so you won’t have to change anything.
This newest revelation has changed that time frame. The Catch will not be hosted on a service that profits and gains by proudly hosting fascists and blatant transphobes. Indeed, the move should have been made earlier. The platform has loudly telegraphed that they will allow racism and bigotry. CEO Chris Best refused to “speculate” about taking down posts that called for the expulsion of brown people. Their history of transphobia is well-known. These were motivators for getting off the platform, to be sure, but as a writer who doesn’t use Substack’s subscription model, I felt that more time could be taken.
That simply isn’t an excuse anymore. Substack has telegraphed that they approve of Nazis and, in fact, are encouraging them to move to their services. I opened this Substack to escape Twitter, when the fascist Musk sunk his claws into it. I refuse to stay on another service that hides behind “free speech” to profit from Nazis.
As of now, there is one more planned post for The Catch on Substack. This will be the awards to the worst journalism of 2023. Though it needs some tweaking, that’s largely been done. After that, there will be no regular analysis or news round-up of The Catch posted on Substack. The Catch will continue, but it will continue on another service. At most, I will send an email reminding subscribers of this change once it’s decided on. Even if my work doesn’t directly provide financing to Substack, it drives traffic to them. I simply can’t justify that any longer.
The service I’m selecting is still up in the air. As a relatively cash-strapped student, I prefer a free option. That being said, longevity is also a concern, as I hope to turn The Catch into some sort of revenue stream at a certain point. I’d really rather not have to switch services again when I decide to implement that, so that factor also needs to be considered. Due to the holidays, I will be delayed in actually selecting a new service. But like I said, in 2024, the first regular article by The Catch will not be on Substack. Here are some of the alternatives I’m currently exploring:
I’m not sure which of these I’ll go with, as many have their ups and downs, but I will let my subscribers know as soon as I can. I urge my fellow writers to do the same. Make the jump.
And, as always, Nazi Punks Fuck Off.