NIMBY, or the age of micro-communities (total population: one)

Breaking news: looking away never removes a problem, only allows it to make more damages, undisturbed.

I’m currently in Florence, as I enrolled in a four-days masterclass on Giovanni Battista Lulli and French baroque music at the Institut Français that begins tomorrow morning — that might sound like WTF?!? to you, but that's my birthday present to myself.

So at the moment I'm sitting in my B&B room, listening to some Lulli and writing — I was supposed to write about the book fair, but this past week saw me busy missing my sister even more than usual, and also trying to understand what to make of my publications on Substack.

I like the platform because it’s easy to use and because so far I’ve had the chance to “meet” quite a few nice and interesting people also running their equally interesting publications on Substack. Unfortunately, though, I’ve also bumped into several white supremacists (which I blocked, but I do know they’re there) and noticed they monetise their publications.

I was also planning to monetise some content in 2024, but now I’m unsure if I’ll be using Substack at all come January.

You see, despite everything, despite the fact we do indeed live in a capitalist world, capitalism still doesn’t rule my life, nor overrule my ethics. And being part of a platform that promotes Nazis doesn’t sit well with me, at all.

A couple of months ago my Substack account got suspended for about a day. I panicked thinking it was because of something I had written, but couldn’t think of what it could’ve been (the last thing I’d been able to post on Notes was something about Italo Calvino…). I was given zero explanations before the suspension, and also after my account was eventually reactivated — some nice guy called Andrew from Substack Trust & Safety wrote back vaguely claiming that “one of our platform safety detection mechanisms erroneously flagged your profile as spam”, he apologised for the inconvenience, and that was all. No mention of what exactly made their “mechanism” decide I was a spammer. I would’ve loved to know, to avoid repeating the experience in the future, but no further info was given. My account had been reactivated, that was it, ciao.

How come their “safety detection mechanism” can’t detect Nazis, then?

This past week, a letter by

Jonathan M. Katz

(who wrote that article for The Atlantic that unveiled the Nazis-on-Substack issue) circulated not just on his publication, but on multiple other Substacks: people sharing that letter are asking the upper echelons of Substack to please explain how to reconcile their content guidelines (“Substack cannot be used to publish content or fund initiatives that incite violence based on protected classes. Offending behavior includes credible threats of physical harm to people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability or medical condition…”) with allowing Nazis making money by publishing white supremacist propaganda on the platform:

As Patrick Casey, a leader of a now-defunct neo-Nazi group who is banned on nearly every other social platform except Substack, wrote on here in 2021: “I’m able to live comfortably doing something I find enjoyable and fulfilling. The cause isn’t going anywhere.” Several Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer not only have paid subscriptions turned on but have received Substack “Bestseller” badges, indicating that they are making at a minimum thousands of dollars a year.

Someone replied that Substack shouldn’t decide what we read, claiming that 96% of their subscribers read their publication via email, therefore there’s no chance they can be fed Nazi propaganda — so why worry about them? If you don’t see them they basically don’t exist, right?

Wrong.

Subscribers who read Substack publications via email periodically also get “suggestions” from the platform in that same inbox, promoting other publications… which may or may not include the ones in question here — after all their “safety detection mechanism” doesn’t think they’re dangerous, or at least not as much as me mentioning Italo Calvino, apparently.

Italo Calvino is not impressed.

Here’s how someone subscribing to a lovely, harmless publication about, say, the joys of crocheting could also unwillingly come across hateful content on Substack.

That's not nice, is it?

Just because it doesn’t happen in your backyard, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening at all, and claiming that ignoring Nazis as you would ignore the average troll is enough to solve the problem doesn't help either, as there's a difference between trolls and Nazis: the former are an online annoyance that indeed fades off when ignored, the latter exist and operate offline too, spreading hate (not “just” hateful speech, but also hateful conduct, hateful and harmful actions) and causing damage — perhaps not in your backyard, but in your neighbour’s one, and no, that is not acceptable nor tolerable.

But the real issue is that Substack also makes money from those publications, because when you monetise there’s a 10% fee that goes to the platform.

Pecunia non olet, money doesn’t stink, right?

Wrong, again.

So what I've been asking myself is: do I want to monetise, i.e. earn something from my writing? Of course I do. But do I feel comfortable knowing people who perhaps wouldn't see me as a target of their hatred and violent behaviour just because I happen to be white (or should I say “I am accepted as white by WASP standards”?) are given the same chance on the platform we're both using? Nope. No. Nein.

In my book, my ethical principles are more valuable than monetisation of my writing — moreover, there are other ways to monetise, so if Substack's powers that be do nothing about the Nazi issue, I'll just go somewhere else, most probably back to blogging on my own domain and perhaps I'll even give self-publishing a try. Or I'll think of something else, I'm resourceful enough to invent a solution for myself. And Substack won’t die if I leave, I’m sure I’m not even on their radar, it won’t make a difference if I stay or I go.

But what about everyone else? Or rather, what about communities that are targeted by those publications (and their authors, ça va sans dire) that fuel misinformation, fear of anyone and anything that's other from ourselves? As I said, I might not be directly affected by those, so I could easily mind my own business and go on with my life plans, unbothered by what happens to someone else, but… I really can't, menefreghismo is not my thing.

I didn't live under a dictatorship, but my parents were born while Mussolini was still in charge. You know the guy, the one who created Fascism, which is basically just Nazism with pummaròla ’ngòppa. 🍕

After WWII, when people voted for a democratic republic to replace the monarchy, a Constituent Assembly put together our beautiful Constitution of the Italian Republic — and oh, I do love article #2:

Tutti i cittadini hanno pari dignità sociale e sono eguali davanti alla legge, senza distinzione di sesso, di razza, di lingua, di religione, di opinioni politiche, di condizioni personali e sociali. È compito della Repubblica rimuovere gli ostacoli di ordine economico e sociale, che, limitando di fatto la libertà e l'eguaglianza dei cittadini, impediscono il pieno sviluppo della persona umana e l'effettiva partecipazione di tutti i lavoratori all'organizzazione politica, economica e sociale del Paese.

In short: the Italian Republic recognises and guarantees the inviolable rights of its citizens, both as individuals and as members of the social groups in which their personality finds expression, including their participation in political, economic, and social duties.

The 12th final provision of the Constitution of the Italian Republic says:

È vietata la riorganizzazione, sotto qualsiasi forma, del disciolto partito fascista.

(“the reorganisation of the dissolved Fascist Party, under any form whatsoever, is forbidden.”)

What does that mean? It means people have the right to express their political ideas, whatever they are, and in fact we still do have right wing parties (see our current prime minister’s…), because it is a democracy, but the Constitution is written in a way it can’t really be changed to make room for dictatorship. We’ve been through that, we know the damage it’s done, and even if certain people seem to have a short memory and periodically try and push a revisionist agenda, luckily enough most people don’t want to repeat the Mussolini experience.

I know that the Italian Constitution doesn’t apply to Substack, after all it’s an American publishing platform so I’m well aware it follows American rules, and of course I know that “freedom of speech” is one of the fundamental rights the U.S. Constitution is founded upon. I’m all for freedom of speech, first and foremost because that’s what all democracies are based upon, and also because it lets me know whom I’m dealing with.

But freedom of speech doesn’t mean one can say whatever they want to no consequence, it means one can say whatever they want AND face the consequences — that’s the responsibility for words and actions that comes with freedom. Freedom without responsibility attached to it means anarchy, no rules whatsoever, which is the preferred environment for present days Nazis.

In my view, by letting Nazis monetise their publications on the platform, and by actively promoting said publications, Substack is basically relieving them from any responsibility just to bank their 10% fee — and that is 100% menefreghismo, ladies and jellyspoons.

I can't decide if this is more depressing or infuriating…