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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1463 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How strict are the owners of substack in regards to culture war? I'm thinking about starting a blog for reviewing videogames as a hobby and curious exactly where the line is between "spicy" and "permanent ban". I used to do these kinds of reviews on /r/patientgamers but reddit has turned to absolute shit the last few years.
Edit: Consider this question answered, thanks lads 👍

You're fine.

Back in 2023 Jonathan Katz wrote in The Atlantic about Substack's supposed "Nazi Problem". Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack, responded.

I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse.

We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts.

Even defending having Hanania, fresh off the Hoste reveal, on his podcast.

While it has been uncomfortable and I probably would have done things differently with all the information in front of me, I ultimately don’t regret having him on the podcast.

It's a free speech zone I think. KulakRevolt lives there. So they'll tolerate worse stuff than we will.

It's a very open platform. Unless you're openly a Nazi, you won't be banned, and even then I see some Nazi substacks floating around.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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