We have entered the Substack era
Twenty years ago, Craigslist captured the classified ads that were the lifeblood of the newspaper business model. Ten years ago social media captured the remaining corporate ads that newspapers relied on. Newspapers shrunk, consolidated, and went bankrupt. They tried to move online, first as a free offering for paid print subscribers and then as an online only subscription model. But only a few newspapers are making it financially. Owning a newspaper is now like owning an NFL team or a racehorse — a hobby for billionaires like Jeff Bezos or Carlos Slim.
Cable news profited from the chaos of the Trump era but now that the Orange Man is gone, their fortunes are slumping as well. CNN and MSNBC no longer report the news, instead they just have a host plus a few guests discussing the reporting done by the NY Times. Television news is now wholly dependent on advertising from the pharmaceutical industry and their coverage reflects that.
So for the last two years the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, the Atlantic, the Economist, New Yorker, etc. have lied to us every single day about the coronavirus pandemic. They committed mass murder by denigrating treatments that are safe, inexpensive, and effective. And they exaggerated the benefits and minimized the harms from coronavirus vaccines. The entire bourgeois news industry now works directly for the cartel.
For a while Twitter hosted a thriving conversation where a wide range of critical thinkers posted data and analysis that were better than anything in the mainstream press. But then Jack Dorsey went full Nazi and deplatformed anyone who questioned the Pharma narrative. And Zuckerberg gleefully implemented Stasi-like censorship on Facebook and Instagram because it fulfilled his totalitarian fantasies.
Now the conversation has moved over to Substack and it is extraordinary. The combination of no censorship plus a way for the best writers to monetize their work has led to a flourishing of original reporting and brilliant critique. I am grateful to everyone who has subscribed to my account since I launched a month ago and I am enjoying the intellectual freedom of writing on this site.
I subscribe to 25 accounts. Substack reader (still in beta) organizes posts chronologically in a newsfeed so that one can read them like a newspaper. I want to direct your attention to a handful of accounts that are better than anything in the mainstream press. One literally cannot understand the coronavirus pandemic unless one is reading their work right now:
Alex Berenson should win a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting:
I’m envious of the scholarly accounts that were smart enough to make themselves anonymous from the beginning. Eugyppius is amazing:
El Gato Malo was one of my favorite accounts on Twitter (he’s a genius and hilarious too) and I’m so glad that his writing has found a home on Substack:
Aaron Siri just joined Substack. He’s one of the finest attorneys in the country. He will make a great Attorney General one day:
Steve Kirsch just launched a week ago and he is doing brilliant work:
The original reporting by James Lyons-Weiler is extraordinary:
I highly recommend these accounts as well:
The market for independent truth telling is massive and the market for Pharma lies shrinks by the day.
In the comments, please let me know who you are reading and what accounts you would recommend! 🙌
You called out every brilliant writer I am following. I am thrilled to have found substack, it is like a whoosh of fresh air of real thoughtful and thought provoking journalism.
Just when I thought journalism was dead, I found a glimmer of hope!
OMG Substack reader is going to revolutionize my life.