If Someone Asks, This Is Where I'll Be

Well, here we go.

This is my first post using Beehiiv, and to be completely honest, I see why so many people were reluctant to leave Substack, despite all the Nazis. This interface is terrible. I mean truly awful. If tinyletter weren’t going out of business, I would go back to that.

But you have to make some sacrifices if you want to find a new bar after skinheads show up at your old place. Sure, they don’t have your favorite beer on tap, and sure, they don’t have the same songs playing.

Still beats the hell out of hanging out with Nazis.

I want to be clear that I don’t think everyone should leave Substack, and I don’t have any moral indignation about those who choose to stay. I don’t make any money off my newsletter. Other writers do, and it’s tough enough making a living in this job without dumping your entire platform. You have to draw your own lines, and even if you’re someone like Doug Forcett, you still have to cross them occasionally. Take an airline flight to see your mom and you’re contributing to global warming. Every hamburger you eat kills a cow. Vegetarians depend on exploited migrant labor to get their hummus and tomatoes. It is impossible to be pure in this world. It doesn’t mean you stop trying, but it does mean you cut people some slack so they can survive. Look, I have taken money from Rupert Murdoch. It helped pay my mortgage and send my kids to school. If a bunch of other writers want to stay on Substack because that’s their business, then that’s their business. I’m not going to judge them for it.

But I do judge the people who build the systems like Substack for not doing the bare minimum to keep their platforms relatively Nazi-free. Again, I am not talking about people who have disagreements over tax policies. When I say “Nazi,” I am talking about people who say the Holocaust never happened and they’d really like to make sure it happens again. I’m aware that Substack has now removed five Nazi publications. They’ve left many more. I don’t trust them to do the right thing in the future. That’s why I left.

Hopefully, this won’t be too weird for any of us. I don’t make any money off this newsletter. It’s just a way to talk about what interests me and stay in touch with the people I’m lucky enough to have as readers. I am not particularly interested in arguing or fighting anymore. I did enough of that as a high school debater, and if you don’t learn to let that stuff go, you turn into someone like Ted Cruz. (I would ordinarily include a whole aside in the footnotes here, but guess what? Beehiiv doesn’t do footnotes. Heavy sigh.)

This newsletter is what they call Charlie Work on the comedy “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” — which is to say, the scut work someone has to do even though it’s no fun. I know you don’t necessarily want to hear my complaints about fonts and lack of footnotes (seriously, I am having a hard time getting over how ugly this interface is; it makes MS Word look elegant) but I have just a few quick notes before we go back to our regular programming.

• If you did not sign up for this newsletter, or you unsubscribed a while ago and you’re receiving it again, I’m sorry. I did my best to cull my subscriber list when I migrated here. Please hit the unsubscribe button below with my sincere apologies.

• If you are wondering where my old newsletters went on the archive — including the first couple chapters of the new Cade novel in progress — I am working to import them to Beehiiv now.

• If you want to refer someone to the newsletter now, or view it on the web, use this link.

• No, I don’t know when that Cade novel will be done. And yes, I am sorry. As I’ve said in the past, Cade now has to take a backseat to my other work that pays up front.

• I just finished a new manuscript and turned it into my publisher. I will announce that book as soon as I can.

• I’m always looking for books to review. If you have suggestions, send them my way.

That’s it for this week. Thank you, as always, for reading.