Oysters
I have decided to open this post up to all, even though it’s a Saturday post normally reserved for paid subscribers, for two reasons:
Because it regards an analogy that has been helping me in a hard time, and I thought perhaps it might help others as well.
So I can draw your attention to THIS OPEN LETTER, co-signed by a number of Substackers (and also reprinted in full, below), who are angry with the tolerance of unabashed Nazi and extremist newsletters currently monetizing on the Substack platform, despite direct language against such behavior in their terms of service. I don’t want to leave Substack, but if this is not changed, I will have to.
Thanks to
for bringing it to my attention. Now on to Oysters…I’ve been thinking a lot about fish and bivalves lately. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how a fish in poisoned water, no matter how aware of the poison they may be, still has to live and swim in that water. They can have all the awareness in the world, but they still must live their fish life, passing that water through their gills, and that is a hard thing to endure. But they go about it because they desire to exist. They feed, and find shelter, and mate, and go about their fishness, and maybe even have moments of joy.
In that same water are oysters.
Oysters share the same space, but they are able to interact with the poison; they are filters. They take in the harmful water and do what they can to clarify the tiny area around them. And that work is not without gain! There is nourishment in their labor. It’s what they’re on the planet to do.
There are a great number of us humans on the planet right now, living in countries run by governments currently engaging in, complicit with, and/or are actively funding actions and policies we find deplorable, both within the made-up boundaries of our own seas, and across various ponds. Beyond just government, we may be aware that our entire aquaculture is blooming with harmful food, but that there’s nothing else to eat. What is particularly heartbreaking is that this is Home. No matter how poisoned our surrounding may be, we still live here, we must go about our little lives caught in a churning ebb and flow of ongoing reality and desperate desire for something else.
The only way I have found moments of peace in this endless storm of human incarnation, is to try my best to be an oyster. I try to take the space around me, and see what I can do to filter it from within - sometimes I see progress, sometimes it feels failed, insufficient, or futile. But I keep going because I’m pretty sure it’s what I’m here to do. I desire to exist, and the work offers me nourishment in return: the tiny plankton of service, built one small moment upon another.
In researching this drawing and thinking about oysters, I learned something about them that I found quite poignant in the context of this analogy: Oysters regularly go into prolonged resting states, following circatidal and circadian patterns. We, too, must go into prolonged resting states to resource ourselves for the work at hand. And your resting states, your filtration outputs, your rhythms will not look like anyone else’s.
As we all navigate poisoned water, may we have grace with ourselves and others whose tides may differ. It may look like someone’s shell is closed, or you may feel you are not engaging in the filtration you intend to, but keep in mind the absolute necessity of rest. Sometimes you may need to simply Be in the current, acknowledging the toxicity, but enjoying the waves.
Lastly, oysters are never alone. They occupy enormous reefs or beds, working in tandem with one another, and increasing the surface area of a flat space by up to 50 times, creating homes and safe places for thousands of other life forms, simply by nature of staying put. Even as they rest, they help.
We must live in this water. We must be present with how far from healthy we are. But may we also be nourished by the tasks at hand, anchored to the substrate of all the other oysters in our reef. Thanks for being part of mine.
Headline: Substackers Against Nazis
Subhed: A collective letter to Substack leadership
Hi readers—Below is a letter to the Substack founders that I helped draft as part of a group of publishers seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis. We are all publishing the letter on our own individual Substacks today for visibility, and to make our readers aware of our asks and concerns. Thanks for reading.
Dear Chris, Hamish & Jairaj:
We’re asking a very simple question that has somehow been made complicated: Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis?
According to a piece written by Substack publisher Jonathan M. Katz and published by The Atlantic on November 28, this platform has a Nazi problem:
“Some Substack newsletters by Nazis and white nationalists have thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers, making the platform a new and valuable tool for creating mailing lists for the far right. And many accept paid subscriptions through Substack, seemingly flouting terms of service that ban attempts to ‘publish content or fund initiatives that incite violence based on protected classes’...Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, makes money when readers pay for Nazi newsletters.”
As Patrick Casey, a leader of a now-defunct neo-Nazi group who is banned on nearly every other social platform except Substack, wrote on here in 2021: “I’m able to live comfortably doing something I find enjoyable and fulfilling. The cause isn’t going anywhere.” Several Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer not only have paid subscriptions turned on but have received Substack “Bestseller” badges, indicating that they are making at a minimum thousands of dollars a year.
From our perspective as Substack publishers, it is unfathomable that someone with a swastika avatar, who writes about “The Jewish question,” or who promotes Great Replacement Theory, could be given the tools to succeed on your platform. And yet you’ve been unable to adequately explain your position.
In the past you have defended your decision to platform bigotry by saying you “make decisions based on principles not PR” and “will stick to our hands-off approach to content moderation.” But there’s a difference between a hands-off approach and putting your thumb on the scale. We know you moderate some content, including spam sites and newsletters written by sex workers. Why do you choose to promote and allow the monetization of sites that traffic in white nationalism?
Your unwillingness to play by your own rules on this issue has already led to the announced departures of several prominent Substackers, including Rusty Foster and Helena Fitzgerald. They follow previous exoduses of writers, including Substack Pro recipient Grace Lavery and Jude Ellison S. Doyle, who left with similar concerns.
As journalist Casey Newton told his more than 166,000 Substack subscribers after Katz’s piece came out: “The correct number of newsletters using Nazi symbols that you host and profit from on your platform is zero.”
We, your publishers, want to hear from you on the official Substack newsletter. Is platforming Nazis part of your vision of success? Let us know—from there we can each decide if this is still where we want to be.
Signed,
Substackers Against Nazis
Thanks for reading. If this letter resonates, please share this post with others. If you’re a publisher who would like to join this collective effort, we encourage you to repost the letter on your own Substack.