Unfettered...

I moved my blog to Substack

Here I am on Substack; the place where people can finally write consequence free. Stand by for content unfettered by the meddlesome thumb of editorial control or cancel culture. 

Or maybe something else. 

Like most promises of a rules free utopia of free flowing ideas and boundless innovation, I’m not that sure that’s the sort of thing you’re going to find on this platform. Or anywhere really. As a hypothetical, it’s a strong branding message. In practice, it’s self-selecting. When you find yourself in a room full of people who are in the room because there’s no rules, you start to miss the rules a bit. 

There’s little risk of that on this platform though. Because of course there’s going to be rules. There are always rule. One way or another. 

Truth be told, I’ve always been out from under the thumb of the sort of direct editorial control that comes from publishing in the staples of the main stream media. I started a blog years ago on Wordpress as a hobby and wrote on it off and on through some pretty tumultuous times. I never heard once from Wordpress that what I was writing was not to their standards. I never heard from Facebook or Twitter, where the majority of my content was distributed, either. I didn’t have to follow any rules with my content decisions. I did though. And so I kept on writing and making my arguments and reaching more readers than I ever would have imagined. Had I decided early on that I would simply say whatever I wanted about whoever I wanted, it’s not likely I would have kept it up for very long. 

We have rules. We have Stubborn Attachments as Tyler Cowen would say. 

It helps that I don’t have too many horrible ideas about people. That I’m an optimist. That I’m not confused by the purpose of hypocrisy. That I’m bound legally to not talk about a few things. And that I’ve been to a few wars and seen what happens when there are really no rules. My truly unpopular opinion is that I like most of the rules. If applied appropriately they allow for a better discourse. If too rigid, it’s right to push back. There’s no shortage of people taking up the mantle to push back. And so I’m happy to let them keep the pressure on to keep the rules where they ought to be. Those folks often have the sorts of jobs and sorts of lives where it’s easier for them to push the boundaries and find the edges of the canvas.  

My other unpopular opinion is that if you want to distribute deeply controversial content, there’s some jobs you might not be able to have. Life’s about choices after all. 

Substack isn’t an innovation in independence, despite the tagline urging you to “Take your mind back.” That’s not new. It may brand itself as a new sort of decentralized content. But that’s how branding works. The reality is less important than the feeling. And it’s a good feeling; urging us all come over and have that decentralized feeling together. 

Substack is still a company that is here to make a profit. And one day someone is going to write something terrible on its platform. And Substack is going to have to tell a bunch of employees, some of whom that terrible thing may be about, that they have to enable that something’s distribution in the name of profit. And they’re going to tell a whole bunch of popular authors who are linked to the Substack brand that that’s what Substack is all about. And then we’ll re-learn a few lessons again about the rules.  

The dream of anonymity or consequence free access to the masses is something brought to us by the relatively late development of the information age. For most of history I could not do anything anonymously that involved another human. And I could not reach more than the people within earshot. If I wanted to do more, I needed other people. And with that came some form of editorial control.

I embrace the limits. The canvas has an edge. The sonnet only has 14 lines. And the opera must be sung live. So much of art and beauty is what bleeds through the seams of those sorts constraints. 

So, if it’s not to take back my mind, or at least give a different part of it to the world than I would on another platform, why am I here now instead of at the other place? 

I’m clearly still quite fettered. So it’s not that.

The real reason is not so interesting. The old platform I worked with has degraded substantially in functionality and support over the last few years. And it’s increased in cost. And I’ve reached the level of distribution where I’m less comfortable ignoring the income potential of my writing. Substack offers a different monetization strategy. So I thought I’d give it a whirl. 

It’s a little bit about the money. And a little bit that I was ready for a change. And I bet most everyone else here would tell you the same if they had an honest moment.

Now you’ve been let in on the true editorial power of what I write; thoughtful honesty. I’m blissfully constrained by it through the lens of the norms of our modern times. And I always will be.

The newsletter/blog is called Reasonable Essays. And I hope you enjoy it enough to subscribe.