Big Beautiful Walls and Bad Hombres?
Mother did it need to be so high
You’ve probably heard by now that Substack has a Nazi problem. As Substack author Jonathan M. Katz explains in a November 28, 2023 Atlantic article :
An informal search of the Substack website and of extremist Telegram channels that circulate Substack posts turns up scores of white-supremacist, neo-Confederate, and explicitly Nazi newsletters on Substack—many of them apparently started in the past year.
These are, to be sure, a tiny fraction of the newsletters on a site that had more than 17,000 paid writers as of March, according to Axios, and has many other writers who do not charge for their work. But to overlook white-nationalist newsletters on Substack as marginal or harmless would be a mistake.
To give Katz due credit, he acknowledges that Substack’s Mighty Whitey contingent is small. He goes on to note that his search revealed 16 Substacks that were openly “National Socialist” or that used images of swastikas, sonnenrads, or other imagery commonly associated with Uncle Adolf and Pals. But, to also give Katz due chastisement, he then plays fast and loose with the definition of “Nazi.”
Katz is a political writer, so persuading people is part of his job description. “Nazi” still carries the power to shock, so he uses an expanded definition to get people riled up. Mr. Katz is not alone in his misuse of the term. “Nazi” has become what S.I. Hayakawa called a “snarl word.” At this point it generally means nothing save “I dislike this very much.”
Trump supporters are Nazis who, for reasons which remain unclear, support a strongly pro-Israel guy with a Jewish daughter and son-in-law. Liberals are Nazis who want to shut down free speech. And lately, a lot of people are insisting Israelis are the real Nazis.
So how do we define “Nazi?”
According to Arcticia Frost, a 23-year-old trans woman from Great Britain:
A nazi is someone who uses hateful rhetoric to demonise minority groups.
Spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories, linking criminality to race, accuse LGBTQ+ people of being groomers.
This is usually with the intent to mislead others, or in some cases to encourage hateful conduct towards affected groups to make their lives worth or eradicate them from society.
Arcticia blocked me without answering the questions raised by his definitions. So I’ll raise them here in the hopes that others will be more forthcoming with explanations.
Back in the day, being a Nazi meant you did things like gassing Jews or invading Poland. Today, you simply have to use “hateful rhetoric.” But let’s see where Arcticia’s suggestions lead us.
Is complaining about pornography anti-Semitic? What about criticizing George Soros for breaking the Bank of England? Or to focus on a current sore spot: is it anti-Semitic to criticize Israel for human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip and West Bank? Anti-Semites have certainly used these and other issues as cudgels and selling points. But is everybody who brings up these topics a de facto anti-Semite?
If so, then what do we make of Jonathan M. Katz (yes, that Jonathan M. Katz), who has written some heartfelt and excellent pieces about the current Israel conflict? In fact, Katz has even written a piece that asks some pointed questions about the purported widespread anti-Semitic attacks on American college campuses. And as Deborah Lipstadt never tires of reminding us, to deny atrocities is to participate in them.
Just as some bigots use unflattering news about individual Jews to promote anti-Semitism, some large Jewish organizations use accusations of anti-Semitism to discourage conversation about embarrassing or inconvenient facts. Personally, I’d rather learn about those facts even if it means tolerating an occasional Clarence Wilhelm Spangle.
In 2019, the FBI found that Black Americans, who make up between 13% and 14% of the population, committed 51.2% of American homicides. That year, 2,906 Black Americans were murdered in single-victim/single-offender homicides. 2,546 of those murders were committed by another Black American, with just 246 White offenders killing Black victims.
The data I’m stating may make you uncomfortable, and you may want to plug your ears and call me a racist. But your virtue signals will do nothing to raise those dead Black victims, nor to bring down this year’s death toll. Silence is complicity and all that. If you can’t talk about a problem, or if you can only respond with slogans and platitudes, you have no chance of fixing it.
Many Black Americans have dedicated their lives to bringing down the elevated violence rates within their community. Most White liberals will mouth platitudes about “white supremacy” and “not all Blacks are like that,” then quickly change the subject. This may save them social embarrassment, but it does about as much to solve the issue as putting a BLACK LIVES MATTER picture on your Facebook profile.
Does talking about William and Zachary Zulock, the Georgia couple who used their adopted sons to make child pornography, make one a Nazi? Or should we sweep their case under the table because it might give people the idea that gay men are groomers and pedophiles?
Speaking as a Catholic, I know all too well the dangers of covering up sex crimes against children to preserve a group’s reputation. I also know that the blowback when your cover-up inevitably fails is considerably worse than anything that will result from calling out your offenders and taking steps to keep them out in the future.
Every time some genderspecial trannyfur defends a sexual abuser with "Yeah, now talk about straight child molesters/Catholic priests/etc." what I hear is "Everybody else covers up for their child molesters, so we need to cover up for ours too!" And after a while, I start thinking everyone in that community is a child molester or an enabler until proven otherwise.
Arcticia also believes people are led into Nazism through “a pipeline that filters people through moderate seeming content with dog whistles to straight up white nationalist rhetoric.” When asked for an example of a pipeline, he explained on Notes:
As an example for what pipelines there are, they come in many forms.
It can be articles, YouTube videos, on television news (think Fox News, GB News, etc.) that encourage scrutiny towards minority groups under the facade of “just asking questions”. This leads people to becoming concerned about fabricated issues (actual moral panics) that encourage them to seek out more on the topic.
These sources may point people towards slightly more radical figures, say Prager University and such who will go further in radicalising people and push them in the direction of people who push more conspiratorial thinking.
Using his standard, Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro would be “Nazis” who work to radicalize young people. And if we’re going to deplatform “Nazis” on Substack, why shouldn’t we put even more effort into taking down powerful Nazi organizations like Fox News?
(Think there’s no way that anybody would seriously go after Fox? Think again, and then look up the Media and Democracy Project).
You could say that Arcticia is a marginalized fringe character with one subscriber and little actual political clout. (I certainly would, anyway.) But you could also say that about “Nazi” substacks with a handful of readers, and yet we’ve been told they pose a real danger. I hope you will forgive me if, like Mr. Katz, I use an easy target to point to real vulnerabilities.
I’ve yet to see a Substack Nazi Hunter who was willing to set boundaries as to where permissible debate ends. If Substack deplatforms Holocaust deniers, will they also be pressured to eliminate Jewish “genocide deniers” who question the Gaza death tolls? If we get rid of “white replacement” discussions, how long before we see requests to ban Substacks that support “Zionist colonialism and apartheid?”
Arcticia is an example of where these deplatforming campaigns can lead if these campaigners have their way. No matter how long this war continues, there will always be other “Nazis” to target. And when they run out of Nazis, they will start purging the impure from amongst their own. (Don’t believe me? Spend 30 minutes on Mastodon and you will).
If any of the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set himself on Sauron's throne, and yet another Dark Lord would appear.
And that is another reason why the Ring should be destroyed: as long as it is in the world it will be a danger even to the Wise. For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. I fear to take the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring to wield it.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
It’s no coincidence that the most ardent cancel culture warriors frequently come from among the most marginal and disenfranchised. When you have little control in your daily life and live at the mercy of others, be they your parents or your social worker, you want desperately to feel like you’re in charge of something.
Cancel culture gives the powerless power. They may not be able to find a job, but they can get Nazi bigots fired. They may not have friends, but they can participate in mass ostracisms. They can lose the self they hate amidst a mob of voices screaming for righteous revenge.
Most who picked up the Ring became Gollums reveling in the power to hurt smaller targets. Some who were stronger used its power until they could no longer hide their corruption. Others who were mightier still used it to shape opinions and elections, only to discover that casting illusions and changing reality are two very different things.
I have heard the lies they whisper and I have seen the truths that they have silenced. I have dreamed of tearing out their tongues as they would tear out mine. But I know that we will not fight darkness by becoming darkness. If evil men are speaking on Substack, let us battle them in the light. And let those who would protect us with shadows skulk away into the shadows they love.
I fear to take the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring to wield it.
This quote nails it:
"Cancel culture gives the powerless power. They may not be able to find a job but they can get Nazi bigots fired. They may not have friends but they can participate in mass ostracisms. They can lose the self they hate amidst a mob of voices screaming for righteous revenge."
When all power is placed into a few hierarchies, office politics dominates.
And this is why I have gravitated from pure libertarianism to something which includes progressive taxation and antitrust measures. (Along with radical cuts in the federal bureaucracy, simplifying the tax code, making it easier to start a business, etc.)
This is a fantastic article!
If I may be forgiven the solecism, I have written on this topic as well (including a One Ring analogy haha), and I think you may get a kick out of it. Be curious your thoughts, if you're so inclined: https://honestlyre.substack.com/p/enlightened-gatekeeping-and-elon-756
But regardless, great piece; it is inspiring to see so many people here on Substack making such substantive and impassioned defenses of free speech while calling out these word-warping authoritarians.
I look forward to reading more and keep it up, good sir!