John Gruber covers Anil Dash’s Don’t call it a Substack, and starts echoing a very important point for all writers, big or small: you should own your content and brand it with your own brand, not the brand of a multimillion corporation.

But then Anil gets to the biggest point of his column:

Substack is, just as a reminder, a political project made by extremists with a goal of normalizing a radical, hateful agenda by co-opting well-intentioned creators’ work in service of cross-promoting attacks on the vulnerable. You don’t have to take my word for it; Substack’s CEO explicitly said they won’t ban someone who is explicitly spouting hate

And Gruber decides to express his disagreement with this position:

I know quite a few people whose opinions I admire who feel the same way as Dash here. I’ll disagree. I think Substack sees itself as a publishing tool and platform. They’re not here to promote any particular side. […] I read and pay for several publications on Substack, and for the last few weeks I’ve tried using their iOS app (more on this in a moment), and I’ve never once seen a whiff of anything even vaguely right-wing, let alone hateful. Not a whiff. If it’s there, I never see it. If I never see it, I don’t care.1

And this last part is where I feel Gruber is wrong. Just because you don’t see the evil, it doesn’t mean it’s not there doing harm.

I immediately thought of Logic’s “Obediently Yours” track. It samples multiple Orson Welles columns, many apt answers for people who think like Gruber.

To be born free is to be born in debt: to live in freedom without fighting slavery is to profiteer.

— “Moral Indebtedness” by Orson Welles Free World, October, 1943 (via wellesnet.com)

The times urge new militancy upon the democratic attitude. Tomorrow’s democracy discriminates against discrimination; its charter won’t include the freedom to end freedom.

— “Race Hate Must Be Outlawed’ by Orson Welles Free World, October, 1944 (via wellesnet.com)

And finally (read them fully though, really):

There are laws against peddling dope; there can be laws against peddling race hate.

That every man has a right to his own opinion is an American boast. But race hate isn’t an opinion; it’s a phobia. It isn’t a viewpoint; race hate is a disease.

— “Race Hate Must Be Outlawed’ by Orson Welles Free World, October, 1944 (via wellesnet.com)