Is Substack still a “smart” place? I’m not a frequent reader of the site.
Usually these blogging platforms go through a process where they are unpopular, so the only people using them are the ones that are actually doing interesting things in a space, which makes them popular, and causes a bunch of hangers-on who are “interested” and maybe even well read in topics, but not actually practitioners, to show up. Of course non-practitioners naturally have an advantage when blogging, because they don’t have to waste time actually doing things, and their opinions can be as contrarian and exciting as necessary, since they aren’t based on reality.
Anyway, politics discourse is in a pretty dumb spot nowadays, so it couldn’t really hurt for Substack to take a swing at it. But where’s Substack on that treadmill? If it is still near the beginning, it could be good. If it has been endumbified, eh, ok.
Usually these blogging platforms go through a process where they are unpopular, so the only people using them are the ones that are actually doing interesting things in a space, which makes them popular, and causes a bunch of hangers-on who are “interested” and maybe even well read in topics, but not actually practitioners, to show up. Of course non-practitioners naturally have an advantage when blogging, because they don’t have to waste time actually doing things, and their opinions can be as contrarian and exciting as necessary, since they aren’t based on reality.
Anyway, politics discourse is in a pretty dumb spot nowadays, so it couldn’t really hurt for Substack to take a swing at it. But where’s Substack on that treadmill? If it is still near the beginning, it could be good. If it has been endumbified, eh, ok.