this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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Substack sent a push alert encouraging users to subscribe to a Nazi newsletter that claimed Jewish people are a sickness and that we must eradicate minorities to build a “White homeland.”

This has been a problem for years: Substack has a Nazi problem - The Atlantic

Substack won’t commit to removing Nazi content - TechCrunch

I don’t think this can be ignored anymore. If you’re on Substack, please consider one of its many fine alternatives. Wired wrote about a few last year.

Plus, it’s quite easy to move a newsletter these days.

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[–] glorkon@lemmy.world 64 points 3 days ago (6 children)

As a German it's completely mind boggling to me that some societies tolerate an ideology that is responsible for plunging the world into its biggest humane catastrophe (so far), for the sake of free speech. Nazi ideology wants to kill free speech. If you truly want to protect free speech, you have to at least limit it to all the things that do not threaten it.

[–] Maroon@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Note that the largest Nazi groups today are in the "allied" nations that "won" WW2.

I read a piece (can't find the source now, sorry) that blamed this squarely on the lack of education and remorse given to the colonial backdrop in which WW2 was fought.

Most parts of the world view WW2 as very much a European war that was imposed on unwilling global participants. The axis powers lost and Germany has since tried its best to reinvent itself while acknowledging its chequered past (check out: Vergangenheitsbewältigung), but the allied powers failed to recognise their colonial atrocities. For example, British history textbooks will loosely allude to the British empire saying that they were once a dominating global entity, but will make absolutely no mention of the numerous massacres and genocides for which they were responsible.

When wars are framed as competitions rather than tragedies, you will see the emergence of false victors instead of acknowledging lost generations. This directly results in a poor public understanding of how bad ideas can fester and hollow out any society.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Over the decades since WW2, the popular culture of the allied countries has typically portrayed Nazis as caricatured crazy monsters. They are treated as strange, other, and non-human. This seems to have thoroughly undermined people's ability to recognize Nazism as a destructive force that lurks in people, whether they're German or American or any other nationality. Any society has the potential to fall into this. The unreflective complacency of the WW2 victors after defeating Nazis once has led to a complete lack of awareness that it's an ongoing job to keep your society from falling prey to fascists.

For a while the collective memory of those who lived through the war protected us, but when that generation died off the lessons were forgotten. Some fell into fascism without realizing it because they assumed they were by nature better than Nazis, while others failed to notice the threat until dangerously late.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you successfully gut public education.

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[–] simsalabim@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And Nazis still get free public promotion via ARD Sommertalk 😔

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Hey, at least the music was good.

[–] goatmeal@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

if we are being completely honest with ourselves, most people believe in free speech only in moderation. nazism is most certainly not the only ideology that sharply reduces free speech.

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[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 125 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I cringe everytime someone's like "subscribe to my Substack". No, fuck off with your substack, everyone knows they're nazi supporters, you're complicit.

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 55 points 3 days ago

No such thing as a Nazi supporter, my friend. That's just a Nazi.

[–] RagingSnarkasm@lemmy.world 101 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"I'm not a Nazi, but twenty bucks is twenty bucks."

--Substack, probably

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 22 points 3 days ago

"I'm also not not a Nazi"- Substack founders, definitely

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Wtf even is substack anyways?

[–] InfiniteHench@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately popular newsletter service that also puts your issues online to look like a blog. Has a lot of startup capital behind it so they've been paying some of their largest writers on top of subscriber revenue.

Big "marketplace of ideas" idiots who have allowed a lot of white supremacist and - as this and other situations exemplify - straight up Nazi content.

[–] _thisdot@infosec.pub 15 points 2 days ago

Kinda like Medium or WordPress (the .com variant). Gives you your own subdomain and lets you blog. Their policy is that they absolutely will not editorialise anything. It's used by a lot of reputable good bloggers too

[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 47 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There is a deep irony covering this by writing about it.. on Substack

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 35 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In fairness, what better place is there for Substack users to see it and consider leaving the platform?

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Funnily enough, they might also get censored on many other platforms if they linked or even pointed at an existing nazi blog/site/platform.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Centrists: "Oh so everyone you disagree with is a nazi?"

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[–] Bubbey@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

My only cursory knowledge about substack is that if someone has one they're insufferable. Have yet to be wrong.

[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 27 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Substack just annoying as can be anyway, with the constant spammy pop-ups about subscribed to my newsletter and whatever the hell else. Absolutely atrocious blogging platform

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[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I deleted substack back when I randomly got porn in a push notification. You'd think they would address this - I'm no expert, but this doesn't seem good for them.

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[–] obbeel@mander.xyz 14 points 3 days ago

I see a pattern here...

[–] heliophane@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

It's a shame there are some people I like on there. I can live perfectly fine without ettingermentum though.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

if i had a nickel for every time substack promoted a nazi blog.......

... i'd have a shitload of nickels.

[–] xinit@lemmy.coffee 5 points 2 days ago

Enough to put them all in the toe of a sock and swing it at some Nazis.

[–] individual@toast.ooo 7 points 3 days ago (4 children)

what are the fine alternatives?

[–] teolan@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've heard good things about ghost.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 9 points 3 days ago
[–] InfiniteHench@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I ended the post with a link to Wired about alternatives

[–] forrcaho@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago
[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Hey look at that... actual bad socialists. (As if they're actual socialists)

[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Is there a substack self-hosted replacement

[–] InfiniteHench@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Ghost can be self-hosted. Even WordPress these days has newsletter and payment systems that sound fairly easy to drop in.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The main benefit of having a substack vs just running some blog software is that substack manages monetization/subscriptions for you. Hosting text-based content is very easy, but getting paid for it isn't.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Yeah, and you just have to sell your soul to the Nazi platform so you can get paid easy.

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is substack a list of blog website ?

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago

Substack is a blog host.

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