What the fuck, Subtack, and other thoughts

I...I learned some shit about Substack today.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

It’s Friday!

We have reached the end of the week. It was long and short at the same damn time.

I would just like to make note of the fact that this is the 10th day in a row of me posting.

I am really sticking to my new habit of posting new content daily.

To be honest, it’s been an easy habit to fall into, and I rather enjoy it, so it’s a labor of love.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

unplug

I’m learning to unplug a lot as of late. I know I’m doing it right because my Samsung phone keeps telling me that I spent way less time on my phone each week (I like that little update by the way).

The real world is fun. It’s immersive. Sunlight is good. Fresh air is good. Touching grass is good. I recommend everyone try it.

---

---

Substack = OnlyFans?

When I first started my Substack, I called it a text-based OnlyFans.

---

There are two different legal systems in America

There are two different legal systems in America, and that much is obvious from the fact that Donald Trump is still running for president even though he is a 34-time convicted felon and a sexual offender.

If Kamala Harris was a convict and a sexual offender, she would not even be a part of this current presidential election conversation.

We know what this is. People can try to deny it all they want, but we know what this is.

---

The WNBA, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Racism

Clark’s presence has been a ratings and revenue boon for the WNBA. Her natural popularity among fans was always going to make that the case. She is a singular figure in the history of the league for that reason. But the benefits of ratings and revenue should not come at the expense of players’ well-being. That’s something WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert failed to realize when she commented on the harassment players were receiving weeks ago: “But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry,” she said. “That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”

This isn’t simply about rivalries and revenue. It’s about a league that has worked hard to create a safe space for a community that is often unsafe in far too many spaces in this country. And that safe space has become volatile because far too many people have seen and used Clark as an entryway to invade that space with bigotry. 

In this piece for Andscape, David Dennis manages to encapsulates how racism and bigotry marred what should have been one of the WNBA’s best seasons.

Caitlin Clark was named Rookie of the Year Thursday, and while she earned this achievement, it is surely to be overshadowed by racist talk that pits her against Angel Reese, a player who many feel was also qualified for the ROTY star.

Bigots have used Clark as their white hype hero

Reese was picked for the All Rookie Team, but again, that’s an achievement that will likely be devalued by bigots. As Dennis points out in his column, Reese has been repeatedly targeted by bigots “in the name of” Caitlin Clark, and neither of these young women asked for this.

The WNBA needs to do better by both of these women next season.

---

Sneaky sales subscription

I subscribed to someone’s Substack because the topic they are writing on is of interest to me. Somehow, that led to be being subscribed to an outside mailing list they have where they are selling a course, and those emails come every single day, and I was wondering what the heck was going on because I wasn’t seeing these posts in my Substack app, and then I realized that they had simply added me to another mailing list without my permission.

That seems unethical.

I mean, I get it. You want to sell your course. You are passionate about this thing you are doing, and you want people to learn about it so they can potentially become new clients, but this sneaky sales pitch was way more than I signed up for.

I’m not naming them on purpose.

This isn’t me trying to shame anyone. This is just an observation.

---

what the fuck, Substack?

I was all excited to be on Substack and discovering and playing with all its features, and then two things happened today to make me side eye this whole shit.

First of all, I was replying to a thread on Threads today about how much I love Substack and how I’m slowly moving all my content creation here when I saw this:

My mouth was still wide open from reading that, and I was still trying to process it when I saw what Substack recommended as the No. 1 post in Culture today:

I am not linking to it, but you can search that person’s name, find the post, and then read the fucking comments. I was praying it was a troll, but it isn’t. They are super fucking serious, and so are the people in the comments, who are praising JD Vance for being so brave and standing up to Tim Walz.

Oh my god.

---

I’m going to leave it at that, because I get it’s a lot to process.

None of these platforms are without some amount of blood on their hands, so I am not here to judge anyone for using any of them (unless you are on Truth Social, and if you are, please delete yourself from my life).

It gives us all something to think about, though.

---