Many years ago I was talking to a magazine writer about a news story I was working on, and he asked me this: “Who are your characters?” That’s the MFA in Creative Nonfiction approach, in which journalism is storytelling and narrative construction.
I don’t know how I would have made it through these past two years without you and all of the other Substack writers I follow, almost all of whom have been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and any mainstream news outlet for supposedly reporting “misinformation”. When you know deep in your soul that what you’re witnessing isn’t right, it makes you appreciate all the more that there is still at least one outlet that allows people to actually speak freely. I have found a community on here of people that I appreciate and trust, more so than I do some in my own family and circles of friends. Thank you, Chris.
I'm the same. I don't agree with all the substack writers I follow all the time, a few I mostly disagree with, but I get to disagree and when that happens it just happens.
Sounds like Erdely graduated from the Malcolm Gladwell school of journalism. I like Gladwell's storytelling, but his takes, while interesting, are definitely not the objective descriptions of who, what, when, where, and how that count as "reporting." But given his immense popularity, he seems to have spawned a bunch of less talented and less insightful copycats who have destroyed whatever objectivity was left in the journalism profession. That and the need for clicks and the complete ideological capture of the academy by committed Marxists, and now we have news that functions as wannabe storytelling and political activism, instead of the honest journalism our culture needs.
Anyway, thanks for adding your voice (and humor) to the conversation! Your substack is definitely one of the best!
Did you have any leaders in the military that were Malcolm Gladwell fanboys? Nothing is more depressing than finding out your boss is enamored with the broad category of what I like to call "fascinating bullshit"
I probably would have never found Substack if not for GG on Tucker. Then I would excellent thinkers like Chris (Tucker again). Found Eugyppius from Alex Berenson( Tucker). All came from his hour long interviews on Fox Nation.
I also found Substack after Berenson mentioned it on Tucker's show a couple of times in 2020. Alex had been banned on twitter, had published his book Pandemia, and I was starved for better information and insight. Too much dishonesty, contradiction and obfuscation from radio, tv, books, publications corporate and political figures. Even my family made no sense to me defending mask mandates and other nonsense. Glad and grateful to the many talented and principled writers on this platform, thank you, thank you.
Well said, Chris! I "left" society about a year ago. I couldn't take it, anymore. I had been a vocal vaccine safety advocate for several years, and upon seeing that I couldn't save anyone, I waved my white flag and retreated into self-preservation mode. Reading this article reminds me of how simple things like lively discussions with diverse perspectives seem to have disappeared down a black hole. Like the rest of your commenters, I am crazy grateful for the perspectives I find on Substack. Keep on keepin' on! Also....where's the best place to find all the Emily Oster commenters? Now I'm intrigued.
I saw Emily Burns' article, yesterday, and was cheering from behind my screen. All of these articles are food for a vilified conspiracy theorists' soul. Thank you! I appreciate your dedication to replying to your readers. :)
In 2020, starting to read the writing of El Gato and Eugyppius, it felt like reading anonymous pamphlets circulated during the Revolution and early days in the US. Somehow felt that momentous and important. Substack was (and is) a lifeline.
For people who don’t read Coffee & Covid by Jeff Childers, it’s a super fun one to read, as well. Another great human pulling off really amazing things - with a hefty amount of snark thrown in.
My love for the written word has been rekindled (words matter!!), and you’re at the top of my list of favorites, Chris. Thank you for sharing your talent with all of us.
I’m glad I found Substack. I would venture to say that most of us civilians of a certain age who don’t write for fun and profit came to it a bit later than the insiders. But I think it’s much closer to fulfilling the internet’s promise of intelligent public discourse than the more popular social media sites. Name calling, people ranting jnside their cars, and cat videos are fun, but not exactly enlightening.
I still can’t seem to shake the surreal feeling that I’m living in a very bad, very annoying dream and when I wake up all the social polarization, paranoia, endless rapid fire crises, lies, censorship, sanitized COVID mass murder( Yes, call it what it is.), surrender of our national sovereignty, and other assorted serious dystopian threats to civilization, brought to us by the Billionaire-Bolshevik axis, will be poof! gone, and life will return to normalcy. But alas, that’s not the case. In the meantime, it’s gratifying to find like minded people of good will who share a point of view or two. Cheers. Vote, everybody.
I'm so glad I found substack! I have to thank Darren Beattie, founder of revolver.news, for linking so many great posts from substack. It's become part of my daily reading and you're one of my favorites Chris! I feel bad I'm not a paid subscriber yet, but hopefully soon that will change! Thank you for all you do to inform us and to remind us that we're not alone in these crazy times! God bless you and your family.
After realizing the predatory shadow-banning happening to me routinely on Twatter and FaceCrack, I hung it up. A few months later--and still dealing with the endorphin withdrawals--living the Covid shutdowns was even tougher. Especially being in a small town with people parroting the CDC/FDA and acting as if they were authorities. Knowing everything about it was wrong, I was locked out meaningful discourse and, now, prohibited to connect with others who felt similarly. I got introduced to Substack through Berenson--and because of the commenters, became hooked on this "diversity of perspectives" that I had been deprived of through censorship in the accepted social media channels. If you did not keep the spin going left (a very hard left at that, constantly), you just got shut out.
I, for one, am so grateful to Substack and the people who make it a great place to learn what's really going on. At one time, Twatter was the online "town square." IMHO--and again, just me--the writers and followers on Substack are THE true town square. I'll never go back to FB and even under Elon, doubt I'd ever fly the lil' blue bird again. I cannot "unsee" the fakeness of it all.*
*As I was typing "fakeness" in that last sentence, auto-correct tried 3 times to change it to "fairness." Even Substack pushes "correctness" and "change the narrative." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Translated: "a belly laugh where a stupid LOL just won't do.")
I wouldn't have found substack if twitter hadn't started permanently suspending people from it's platform LOL! Thanks, feds and twitter board....I think I followed Alex Berenson first then the bad cat. I do wish there were more British voices on here. The 3 I read most consistently are yours, the Cat and Mark Changizi. You all bring different perspectives but I do love your special brand of what I call righteous sarcasm.
"So imagine the last two-plus years without alternatives, without Substack and other ways to speak around the increasingly tedious gatekeepers." Every now and then, even an avowed agnostic such as I begins to conclude that there must be some kind of benevolent divine being watching out for us because, Joseph H. Christ, I have literally *no* idea how I would have survived the last three years without the few sane voices on Twitter (before they were kicked off) and then Substack, where I found them, and so many more, again, and that is an understatement. I don't even want to contemplate it too hard because my stomach just sinks from the idea that had someone not developed Substack, how much crazier and more soul-crushing the whole experience would have been. And thank you for being one of those sane voices.
What's great about Substack? I think it's the business model. They turn a profit! And they do so by connecting writers with people who are willing to pay for writing. No ads needed. And that's huge, because advertiser-funded media has always and everywhere gradually devolved into mediocre cheerleading for the status quo, as it scales up. The incentives are wrong.
I will spare you a rant about startups that never make a profit and remain forever beholden to venture capitalists and shadow subsidies: suffice to say that their incentives are even wronger.
Others have tried and (to my mind) failed at this simple model. (Looking at you, Medium!)
But Substack has proven that it works. So if they falter in their support for freedom of speech, others are sure to spring up.
Another good thing: by defaulting to email delivery, they pre-empt revisionism and similar crimes against the historical record. You don't need anything very fancy to be resilient to censorship: just spread that information far and wide. They've been successful enough at this to highlight for many the shady filtering policies at big email apps (whose names start with G).
I don’t know how I would have made it through these past two years without you and all of the other Substack writers I follow, almost all of whom have been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and any mainstream news outlet for supposedly reporting “misinformation”. When you know deep in your soul that what you’re witnessing isn’t right, it makes you appreciate all the more that there is still at least one outlet that allows people to actually speak freely. I have found a community on here of people that I appreciate and trust, more so than I do some in my own family and circles of friends. Thank you, Chris.
I'm the same. I don't agree with all the substack writers I follow all the time, a few I mostly disagree with, but I get to disagree and when that happens it just happens.
☝️what she said!
Sounds like Erdely graduated from the Malcolm Gladwell school of journalism. I like Gladwell's storytelling, but his takes, while interesting, are definitely not the objective descriptions of who, what, when, where, and how that count as "reporting." But given his immense popularity, he seems to have spawned a bunch of less talented and less insightful copycats who have destroyed whatever objectivity was left in the journalism profession. That and the need for clicks and the complete ideological capture of the academy by committed Marxists, and now we have news that functions as wannabe storytelling and political activism, instead of the honest journalism our culture needs.
Anyway, thanks for adding your voice (and humor) to the conversation! Your substack is definitely one of the best!
Did you have any leaders in the military that were Malcolm Gladwell fanboys? Nothing is more depressing than finding out your boss is enamored with the broad category of what I like to call "fascinating bullshit"
I probably would have never found Substack if not for GG on Tucker. Then I would excellent thinkers like Chris (Tucker again). Found Eugyppius from Alex Berenson( Tucker). All came from his hour long interviews on Fox Nation.
I also found Substack after Berenson mentioned it on Tucker's show a couple of times in 2020. Alex had been banned on twitter, had published his book Pandemia, and I was starved for better information and insight. Too much dishonesty, contradiction and obfuscation from radio, tv, books, publications corporate and political figures. Even my family made no sense to me defending mask mandates and other nonsense. Glad and grateful to the many talented and principled writers on this platform, thank you, thank you.
RealClearPolitics regularly links to Substack in addition to MSM and conservative news sites.
Substack is the only newspaper I read.
Yup. I "unplugged" 8 months ago (except Tucker) and get all my "channels" here.
Much more efficient and cost less.
Well said, Chris! I "left" society about a year ago. I couldn't take it, anymore. I had been a vocal vaccine safety advocate for several years, and upon seeing that I couldn't save anyone, I waved my white flag and retreated into self-preservation mode. Reading this article reminds me of how simple things like lively discussions with diverse perspectives seem to have disappeared down a black hole. Like the rest of your commenters, I am crazy grateful for the perspectives I find on Substack. Keep on keepin' on! Also....where's the best place to find all the Emily Oster commenters? Now I'm intrigued.
Partial list:
https://emilyburns.substack.com/p/with-whom-does-emily-oster-want-an
https://sarahreynolds.substack.com/p/everyone-is-talking-about-emily-oster
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/the-atlantic-is-asking-for-pandemic
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/emily-osters-no-good-really-bad-terrible
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/emily-oster-proposes-a-pandemic-amnesty
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/once-more-on-renowned-fool-emily
I saw Emily Burns' article, yesterday, and was cheering from behind my screen. All of these articles are food for a vilified conspiracy theorists' soul. Thank you! I appreciate your dedication to replying to your readers. :)
https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/democrats-want-amnesty-for-the-covid
https://michaelhuggins50.substack.com/p/why-dont-we-just-make-murder-legal
In 2020, starting to read the writing of El Gato and Eugyppius, it felt like reading anonymous pamphlets circulated during the Revolution and early days in the US. Somehow felt that momentous and important. Substack was (and is) a lifeline.
For people who don’t read Coffee & Covid by Jeff Childers, it’s a super fun one to read, as well. Another great human pulling off really amazing things - with a hefty amount of snark thrown in.
My love for the written word has been rekindled (words matter!!), and you’re at the top of my list of favorites, Chris. Thank you for sharing your talent with all of us.
I’m glad I found Substack. I would venture to say that most of us civilians of a certain age who don’t write for fun and profit came to it a bit later than the insiders. But I think it’s much closer to fulfilling the internet’s promise of intelligent public discourse than the more popular social media sites. Name calling, people ranting jnside their cars, and cat videos are fun, but not exactly enlightening.
I still can’t seem to shake the surreal feeling that I’m living in a very bad, very annoying dream and when I wake up all the social polarization, paranoia, endless rapid fire crises, lies, censorship, sanitized COVID mass murder( Yes, call it what it is.), surrender of our national sovereignty, and other assorted serious dystopian threats to civilization, brought to us by the Billionaire-Bolshevik axis, will be poof! gone, and life will return to normalcy. But alas, that’s not the case. In the meantime, it’s gratifying to find like minded people of good will who share a point of view or two. Cheers. Vote, everybody.
I felt like that when I woke up after Election Day in 2020. Have been shaking my head ever since and wondering when the madness will stop.
Substack has been a real lifesaver. Probably literally for many people. Thanks for doing so much to keep us all sane, Chris!
"They" did not understand when the internet came into widespread use what would happen to their narrative.
Thank you Chris! Great article. May I also suggest a very erudite and nuanced addition? A Midwestern Doctor. This substack is gold.
I'm so glad I found substack! I have to thank Darren Beattie, founder of revolver.news, for linking so many great posts from substack. It's become part of my daily reading and you're one of my favorites Chris! I feel bad I'm not a paid subscriber yet, but hopefully soon that will change! Thank you for all you do to inform us and to remind us that we're not alone in these crazy times! God bless you and your family.
There's a new book, Seduced by Story, that approaches this topic from more of a literary perspective. It's written by a Yale professor, Peter Brooks.
Interesting.
After realizing the predatory shadow-banning happening to me routinely on Twatter and FaceCrack, I hung it up. A few months later--and still dealing with the endorphin withdrawals--living the Covid shutdowns was even tougher. Especially being in a small town with people parroting the CDC/FDA and acting as if they were authorities. Knowing everything about it was wrong, I was locked out meaningful discourse and, now, prohibited to connect with others who felt similarly. I got introduced to Substack through Berenson--and because of the commenters, became hooked on this "diversity of perspectives" that I had been deprived of through censorship in the accepted social media channels. If you did not keep the spin going left (a very hard left at that, constantly), you just got shut out.
I, for one, am so grateful to Substack and the people who make it a great place to learn what's really going on. At one time, Twatter was the online "town square." IMHO--and again, just me--the writers and followers on Substack are THE true town square. I'll never go back to FB and even under Elon, doubt I'd ever fly the lil' blue bird again. I cannot "unsee" the fakeness of it all.*
*As I was typing "fakeness" in that last sentence, auto-correct tried 3 times to change it to "fairness." Even Substack pushes "correctness" and "change the narrative." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Translated: "a belly laugh where a stupid LOL just won't do.")
That's not Substack "correcting" your spelling, that's your operating system. You can turn off autocorrect in the settings if you look for it.
OK, so it was Apple "correcting" it. Whatever. I "shared" it because it was "amusing in this context." But thanks for the tip!
I wouldn't have found substack if twitter hadn't started permanently suspending people from it's platform LOL! Thanks, feds and twitter board....I think I followed Alex Berenson first then the bad cat. I do wish there were more British voices on here. The 3 I read most consistently are yours, the Cat and Mark Changizi. You all bring different perspectives but I do love your special brand of what I call righteous sarcasm.
"So imagine the last two-plus years without alternatives, without Substack and other ways to speak around the increasingly tedious gatekeepers." Every now and then, even an avowed agnostic such as I begins to conclude that there must be some kind of benevolent divine being watching out for us because, Joseph H. Christ, I have literally *no* idea how I would have survived the last three years without the few sane voices on Twitter (before they were kicked off) and then Substack, where I found them, and so many more, again, and that is an understatement. I don't even want to contemplate it too hard because my stomach just sinks from the idea that had someone not developed Substack, how much crazier and more soul-crushing the whole experience would have been. And thank you for being one of those sane voices.
What's great about Substack? I think it's the business model. They turn a profit! And they do so by connecting writers with people who are willing to pay for writing. No ads needed. And that's huge, because advertiser-funded media has always and everywhere gradually devolved into mediocre cheerleading for the status quo, as it scales up. The incentives are wrong.
I will spare you a rant about startups that never make a profit and remain forever beholden to venture capitalists and shadow subsidies: suffice to say that their incentives are even wronger.
Others have tried and (to my mind) failed at this simple model. (Looking at you, Medium!)
But Substack has proven that it works. So if they falter in their support for freedom of speech, others are sure to spring up.
Another good thing: by defaulting to email delivery, they pre-empt revisionism and similar crimes against the historical record. You don't need anything very fancy to be resilient to censorship: just spread that information far and wide. They've been successful enough at this to highlight for many the shady filtering policies at big email apps (whose names start with G).
So yes, I'm grateful.