Nag-Swarming Substack

So you want to stop the Nazis?

A specter is haunting Substack- the specter of DEI. Yes, the HR ladies of the internet have received their latest NPC programming update from The Atlantic and are coming in hot (well, mid) to do something about the thing they’re supposed to be mad about this week. Substack, it seems, is chock full of ACTUAL NAZIS and someone needs to say something to the manager. Leaning in to this challenge is

Marisa Kabas

, who I was pleased to discover is not Greek.

The Atlantic article she references is a silly mix of motte-and-bailey smears, innuendo, and citing the Southern Poverty Law Center and Rolling Stone as credible sources. It notes that virtually none of the people described as Nazis identify as such, and in a world in which one can be a cat if one feels it hard enough it seems a bit old-fashioned to insist that any form of hard definitions apply in the realm of identity. The whole piece begs a lot of questions. Perhaps the people with the sonnenrads in their banners are just The Atlantic and

Alexander Vindman

‘s friends from Azov? Is ethnonationalism bad on its face or just for politically marginalized white people, half of whom are probably feds? And exactly how expansive is the definition of Nazi, which properly belongs to a particular species of radical German nationalist advocating expansionist and exterminationist policies along racial lines, understood in biological terms?

Check out this story about this totally real movement which is real. Also, fun fact, the guy on the right got there by pretending to have fought in Ukraine for Azov. In other words, this particular Nazi larper got street cred by claiming to have served the cause of the rules-based liberal world order. Why isn’t he writing for the Atlantic? I’m guessing his current job for the government pays better.

I’m not a Nazi, but I suspect I would fall under that heading nonetheless in Miss Kabas’ proposed proscription. I am what nearly anyone would call far right, a reactionary to be precise (for my part, I view myself as a reasonable and broadminded person in a sea of unhinged lunatics). I do not believe in democracy, secularism, liberalism (of any kind), equality- really any of the Enlightenment degeneracy sampler. My values, like those of Evola, are “only those that, before the French Revolution, every well-born person considered sane and normal.” I am a Christian and a monarchist, and the great work of my life is to become worthy of living in a world order governed by those principles. To be clear, I don’t really believe in free speech as such. I think that a well-ordered polity should work to prevent the spread of calls for mass-murder and terrorism, which is why in my perfect world proven destructive ideologies like communism would be wholly banned and their persistent advocates be subject to exile . . .

. . . so to speak.

But as to the main question raised in the original post- why Substack leadership platforms Nazis- I think I may be able to offer some insight.

When I log into Substack and check my feed, I’m certain to get a broad and interesting array of short and long-form writing from a range of perspectives. Naturally, being broad-minded, I read outside of the right-wing sphere; I particularly enjoy

Lee Fang

Glenn Greenwald

Freddie deBoer

(his book on education is great)

Seymour Hersh

Charles Eisenstein

Rachel Haywire

, and

Matt Taibbi

, among others. But also naturally, I tend to gravitate to people who share my views. I got my start as a writer commenting on a piece by

John Carter

. With his encouragement I started writing my own essays and commenting on the work of others. His praise meant something because John Carter is a great writer. He is interesting; his work is insightful, thought-provoking, and above all, brave. He says things one is not supposed to say and goes places one is not supposed to go. So too do the other writers to whom I subscribe. I regularly engage with the Alexes (

Alexandru Constantin

and

Alexander Hellene

), with

Daniel D

, with

Yuri Bezmenov

-

William Briggs

,

Neoliberal Feudalism

Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

Kenaz Filan

Phisto Sobanii

Peebo Preboskenes

The Lake of Lerna

and many others (forgive me if I didn’t mention you, or for mentioning you, as the case may be). For my part, I write on a wide range of subjects- education policy, physical fitness, military history, biography, medieval literature, mythology, popular culture, philosophy, film, animals (my most viewed post was a philosophical look at coyotes), fiction, and some poetry. I correspond with

The Brothers Krynn

in French and discuss Latin and Greek with

Peregrinus

. My views, here and elsewhere, are sui generis, the result of years of mostly self-study and the practical work of teaching. I suspect that many of the people I listed would disagree with me about a number of things, political, religious, etc. That’s fine by me, as we are all our own men. What unites us, and why I drag their names into this, is that from the perspective of Miss Kabas, we are all “Nazis.”

As a thought experiment, I think it would be instructive to see what she and the other common scolds would replace all of us with, were they given the chance. Going over to her page, The Handbasket, I see that she too has a broad range of topics that she covers. They generally range from Republicans are bad to Republicans are Nazis- also, Elon Musk is a Nazi and also RFK Jr. There’s a good bit about women in journalism, trans-inclusion- and you can pretty much predict everything else. I mean that quite literally. Miss Kabas is a central-casting urban neoliberal white Jewish Millennial woman from New York. Her prose is what you would get if a fair-trade pumpkin-spice latte could type.

One could argue that after January 6, 2021, the halls of Congress would never be the same. [I would say it’s the same percentage of Boomers, considerably fewer Proud Boys] With the insurrection, a piece of the institution died—and along with it went any modicum of faux-respect many congressional Republicans showed towards their workplace [If only they treated Congress with the respect Bill Clinton showed the Oval Office]. If that awful day was the culmination of how Trump fundamentally changed voters, this past Tuesday was the culmination of how he’s fundamentally changed the way lawmakers comport themselves. [Does this lady not know that lawmakers used to spit tobacco on the floor and cane each other?]

There have been plenty of examples of heinous behavior in the House and Senate [Code Pink?]—lest we forget Marjorie Taylor Green calling Lauren Boebert a “little bitch” on the House floor— [I mean, we could stop electing women, JS] but the total sum of Tuesday’s events made it feel like we are headed straight to hell…in a handbasket. [THAT’S HER TITLE SHE SAID THE THING!!!]

All of this tame and banal. You can almost hear the programmed laughter of the in-house audience for an unwatchable late-night comedy show- “Yeah, give those antivaxxer Nazis hell Stephen Colbert!” I’m not entirely convinced this text isn’t the product of an AI trained on John Oliver and NPR. And to be clear, she does this for a living. Miss Kabas is featured on MSNBC and writes as an independent journalist. She is the proud recipient of an orange check mark, signifying that she has hundreds of paid subscribers on Substack and something over 6,000 regular subs. And even with that . . . no one seems that interested.

The piece I quoted above, “Are Congressional Republicans OK?,” got 61 likes, 12 comments and 5 restacks. Hundreds of people paid to read it and hardly anyone did.

Chris Bray

, with far fewer subscribers, clocked in with 227, 149, and 26 on one of his latest. One can see similar stats with a number of other “Nazis-” I have yet to see a John Carter piece that doesn’t have over 100 comments. I have far fewer subscribers than any of these people and my most recent post got 80, 33, and 28. My essay on Georges Dumezil, sent out to around 300 people, got 34, 12, and 9, and someone just restacked it again today.

I’m not bragging by any means; I’m extremely honored by the support I’ve received. I simply want to point out the fundamental reason that Substack platforms “Nazis.” “Nazis” are interesting and their opponents are not. “Nazis” think for themselves, write interesting, original, and contrarian works informed by deep study and reflection (check out

Kruptos

and

Johann Kurtz

) and the schoolmarms who want to shut us down just regurgitate Tumblr-tier twaddle about how the collapse of Jezebel represents the systematic silencing of women’s voices (I mean, if women had given a crap about it, it would have done fine). People like Miss Kabas can bring in legacy audiences from the echo chamber-swamps they emerged from, but Substack will always be where original voices thrive.

The future belongs to whoever controls the helicopters.

If you are reading this and you don’t know me, keep this in mind. I’m a schoolteacher. I’m typing this in a single rush before my classes for the day begin. I started as a nobody with not a single subscriber. I write about things most people think are boring or weird and do so in a way that references esoteric philosophies that the great mass of my fellow citizens would consider appallingly radical. I write under a pseudonym to avoid attention from the sort of unhinged communist lunatics Miss Kabas no doubts thinks are wholesome activists. And yet, I’m on track to have 1,000 subscribers after only six months of writing. Fourteen people are paid subscribers despite me never charging for my work- fourteen people believe in me enough to patronize me essentially for nothing but the edification my work brings them. I cannot put into words the joy that gives me, of being a paid writer and still somehow not having to sell my writing, of having that independence and that recognition at the same time. Substack means the world to me, and for anyone reading this who is considering becoming a writer, even if you hate me and everything I stand for, I encourage you as well.

I have never written a piece so directly hostile before, but as this woman means to drive me and my friends from this platform, I saw writing this as the only appropriate outlet. People like this are simply an irritating menace, and their longing for purpose, authority, and the moral formation of obedient inferiors would better be served through raising children, or failing that, some sort of small animal. I suspect their numbers will only multiply here given that outlets like Jezebel are no longer a thing (hat tip, Miss Kabas, I had no idea it still existed). Be mindful and be warned, for while they are not especially formidable as individuals, collectively, they are relentless. After all, what else do they have?

As a final reminder, the left side of the chart is the demographic seeking to police your opinions.