Alex, I fully understand where you and so many other Substackers are coming from. But the issue isn't cut-and-dried. I can't help but think that Twitter's simply letting users link to a new competitor would be akin to an established town newspaper letting readers write letters to the editor promoting the articles published on a newly founded newspaper in the same town.
Everything seemed to be fine so long as Substack remained a conceptually different platform (e.g., long-form newsletter type). The change was when Substack introduced Notes, which definitely appears to emulate the Twitter model and puts that company in direct competition with Twitter.
FWIW, I find it a nightmare to try to read Twitter discussions and I wish that the whole asinine concept would go the way of 8-track tapes. But I can't say I blame Elon/Twitter for being reluctant to allow free publicity for the competition on their own platform.
I only started logging into Twitter when musk bought it. I am unable to make much sense of it or understand what all the excitement is about. As you say, I find trying to read any good discussion impossible to follow due to the constant bickering from those who appears to only want to disrupt with ugly comments and unrelated nonsense. I’ve stopped paying much attention to it. I’m getting most of what I’m interested here from a variety of writers
Ditto. I like Substack but ignore Twitter. Apparently there aren't enough people out there who like Twitter enough to pay for it, so I suspect Musk's investment won't pay off financially. The corporate advertisers surely won't bail him out - they are too busy pushing transgenderism.
Does anybody understand how substack notes even works? I sure as hell don’t. Also isn’t it just redundant to comments on long form articles? One solution would be for Elon to buy substack. Twitter needs a long form component and substack needs a billboard.
I've said for years that Elon Musk is this generation's Howard Hughes: so brilliant that he's sometimes totally nuts.
I don't use Twitter; I'm agnostic about joining in the Substack Notes.
At this point, I just want to know what other secrets there are in the Twitter Files. I want to know MORE of the lies and obfuscation and manipulation that victimized all of us.
Right now, I think Elon is being pissy. I hope he's not too big for his britches that he won't come around and play nicely with all the other kiddos.
I just want to know WTF is in all those Twitter Files!
I was watching the DarkHorse podcast today and Dr Heying had started out talking about the issue with Substack, but when she attempted to log in to show the audience how it was being blocked, to her surprise everything worked and all of her links to substack from Twitter now worked. This was at approximately 1330 -1400 PST. Perhaps calmer heads prevailed over a Twitter after all?
Is it actually a spat, though? I got an email from Taibbi saying he was leaving Twitter in favor of Substack Notes, but this post from Alex is the first indication that there was a spat. (There definitely was one between Taibbi and that so-called journalist Mehdi Hassan.)
I think Elon quietly reversed the decision to shadow ban Substack links. Elon claims it was some sort of technical glitch, algo, or something. I think he had a temper tantrum and just like a two-year-old, he got over it.
I am going to update this comment now that I have gained better insight into what was going on behind the scenes. Elon did apparently reverse his decision on Substack but apparently he first took this action bc Substack is introducing Notes, directly competing with Twitter (I think that is fine) but Elon was upset bc he alleged that Substack was stealing data from Twitter to enhance its new feature (or something like that). I couldn't understand though why he turned on Taibbi (falsely calling Taibbi an employee of Substack, etc) but reading between the lines, I think he believed that Taibbi was supplying the Substack with Twitter's proprietary data. If that turns out to be true, then it is a double whammy to the trust I have in both Elon and Matt.
Interesting...I was wondering because I am a fairly active reader of Substack (I have multiple paid subscriptions that I like to keep up with), and I was lost as to what they were referring to because I have not encountered issues with Twitter/substack links.
Shellenberger openly said on Rogan that no one has looked into Fauci yet…
I don’t understand this correlation between Elon and the Twitter Files. Elon didn’t buy Twitter for the Twitter files. Elon bought Twitter because it’s a business he thought was important and that he could make it profitable. This isn’t some crazy idea.
Why we all project what WE want onto what Elon is doing I’ll never understand but I know for sure it isn’t elons doing.
And the clearest sign that The Twitter Files aren’t being driven by Elon is that the Fauci discovery hasn’t happened because the libs looking into it don’t care. He’s going to have to have an actual conservative - Kanekoa the Great for instance - get involved before someone really goes deep on Fauci - and yet he keeps letting the same people investigate whatever they’d like.
Alex’s bug up his but is a reminder that he’s exactly what he pretends to dislike - a guy for whom more than half his crusade isn’t actually about free speech - it’s about his personal feelings being hurt
This seems too harsh. No doubt Elon, like many geniuses, is on the spectrum. He is self-aware of it. That certainly accounts for some of his inconsistencies. I do wish he would stop tweeting except for clear CEO/owner news. He is a celebrity and celebrities need to do their main business and then stay as quiet as possible.
As to his respect for the First Amendment, I don't think that has changed. However, he has so many initially loyal so quickly turn against him at the slightest word or action that triggered them, I think he just expects it now.
Musk is a very difficult and flawed personality with a brilliant mind and a righteous moral compass. Hanging with requires accepting the flawed personality... and the volatility that comes with it.
If we are to throw our champions under the bus because they lack a perfect track record meeting our expectations, then we are going to have no champions.
I do understand why Alex wanted to get back on Twitter: it was a means to disseminate his research.
Plus, when Elon Musk put Twitter under new management, most of us were hopeful that the Dark Ages had ended.
Perhaps we're being naive about "business sense." I do get that--that Musk paid way too much for Twitter, and now he's trying to recoup his money. Buying Twitter was not a philanthropic exercise.
Just as supermarkets stock many kinds of laundry detergent, there must be a market for more than one online soap box.
Taibbi did post much on Twitter but in order to make sense of it you had to use the thread-ripper. It's near impossible to create long form writing a hunk at a time. I doubt that the money issue means as much.
Substack seems to be the most open and uncensored content widely available. Writers like Doomberg, Matt Taibbi and others are given a platform with little outside interference. As Doomberg often says, it is the work of his life (and he gets paid for it). It seems the best we have these days.
It’s hard to see how supporting links to competing platforms helps Twitter be more successful. In the old Internet days business development teams would seek out a partnership of some kind. Twitter has the reach while Substack delivers subscription revenue to content creators. I may be too old now but it seems like there is something there...
I hope you and the others will all stay on Substack which is the only platform I think to be reliable. Even Gab and Gettr are not the same, I tried a few and did not like any of them
Some points- never liked Twitter, been saying "Only Twits Tweet" for more than a decade. I am too long winded for Twitter but whether I am or not, it was and is not conducive to serious discussion. Look at the comments below and above. Most exceed the character limit for Twitter now and then. In that sense it is in league with the worst of modern TV news/opinion. Short bursts of non-serious discussion. Or at the very least underdeveloped discussion. It also reduces the discussion to hurling of half-truths, lies, or ad hominem attacks among other things. My old boss was someone who used to get invited on TV but no more, he was boring- he tried to see other people's points or at least answer them politely even if he disagreed. No more invites for him! Every time I look at Twitter it seems the comments rapidly devolve into psychotic attacks filled with profanity. Are there diamonds in that ruff? Could be but who wants to sort through the insanity?
Twitter has long been propped up by a lazy media and lazy press people who didn't want to do the actual work of tracking down stories or pitching them (or sending blast faxes or emails to a list of people you cultivated over the years). After a period of time, as Matt and others have exposed, the DC/Wall Street/Academic/Globalist machine realized they could control information and stories (I refuse to call it narrative even though much of it is fiction). With the bulk of information being disseminated through Twitter and other social media to corporate media and then the public, the message that gets to the broader public could be controlled. By the way, I scoff when I hear particularly someone on the right say "everyone knows XY or Z." Actually, no, they don't. Not if they are watching MSNBC or some network affiliate TV or radio station. You'll even hear nonsense on talk radio station news. And worse, the government/corporate propaganda commercials. I just heard a ton of them in upstate NY pushing me to get a COVID booster and telling me how effective it is! I have heard Alex on the shows on this very station more than once. On the positive side, at least some of my tax dollars are being spent on a station I support!
So it was great when Musk bought Twitter because it blew things up a bit but far less dramatically than what I think many thought (akin to the old 1984 like Apple commercial). Musk will have to pull off a miracle to make it worth what he paid. I thought the media would jump from it immediately but their own laziness has gotten in the way and they really just want Twitter to be what it was, a way to spoon feed and eat up the approved party line. Musk is a hero for blowing all that money on it. Maybe he should just suck it up and try to make enough money to keep it going rather than recoup his investment. He could treat it like a utility or something and it would also build good will. It could be his version of a Carnegie Library or something.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Like I said, never liked Twitter anyway and I much happier supporting journalists here and writing long winded comments that the vast majority of my fellow commenters treat respectfully even if they disagree.
I just see the swarms arrive on every conservative Twitter post. Back in Usenet days it was called "shoving them out" because post retention was limited by storage. Flame wars often created unusable threads. Obviously on Twitter, you scroll and scroll prolonging your visit to see if anybody supported the original post. While good for the platform, dwell time, it makes the thread impossible. Substack's threading model often goes in that direction as a side conversation eats away the space, but the scrolling can be faster by tracking the left lines.
Thanks for the honest reporting. It is terribly sad, however, to see the few champions of free speech and anti-wokeness begin to turn their guns on each other. I hope they/you get back (to back) on the same page.
I'm still glad Elon Musk bought Twitter and is exposing the propaganda machine it turned into. I wouldn't be surprised if Jack Dorsey told him about all the back channel crap that our government was involved in
Just so much uneasy chaos and perpetual finger pointing now. The vortex of ego's on all side grows. Just where does it all lead as the real threats of the WEF 2030 plan executes with each passing day
Thanks Alex, a very enlightening and interesting expose. I always thought that Mr Musk had ventured outside his wheelhouse taking over a corrupt Leftist social media, propaganda company, (some redundancy irony in that string of words). His genius is in innovation, creativity and calculated risk assessment of new scientific ventures, along with a talent for gaining government approval and making a pile of money. The Twit adventure, (fiasco), seems to be a misguided effort at satisfying his inner social justice warrior needs??? As an aside, with so many ingots in the fire I believe it highly improbable that Mr Musk can keep up with all the shenanigans (evil) going on in our current world and it seems he does not have many (any) trusted lieutenants too help him sort out the truth This leaves him vulnerable to normal human failures in judgment.
This is my thoughts about Matt, I don't know him Personally he seems to be genuinely great Man. I have seen since he has done some work with Twitter Legacy media has been really mean sometimes even Nasty. As a Professional person you say what you have to say and move on. With Legacy media they keep bugging Matt and to me this makes them look bad and Guilty as sin Elite media. Again my opinion Matt is innocent low hanging fruit so Legacy media government leaders think by berating Matt it's all better it's not. Just like Legacy media going after orange Man Please don't eat any during Passover this type of diversity and inclusion is against my doctrine. Getting back to Orange man Elite media is using Orange man for what they done and continue to do with their handling of Viral pneumonia what they use to scare you is Covid-19. Wear a Mask even when you have Viral pneumonia make it harder more difficult to breathe. As someone like Berenson who has been in Pulmonary for 25 Plus years only Satan would tell you to wear face mask when you can't breathe. The difference between was and is God was Jewish ✡ or God is Jewish ✡ this was set in stone 2,000 years ago God is Jewish ✡ and is for Pro recreation only. A woman is to wear a vail because she is the giver of life. Those low life's picking on Matt , won't dear to try Alex Berenson because he is was the only one honest and knew what was going on day to day. Musk has far too many Bootlicker friends and this is not good this is not a true friend a honest man one that loves you as friend will challenge you always. For me I love a challenge it keeps me on my toes and not afraid to learn something new and I can share what I know best for others. All this nonsense going on Should be on Fauci Slavitt Broula Gottlieb for starters. Then let the chip fall from this and the people will have redemption and Peace.
Alex, I fully understand where you and so many other Substackers are coming from. But the issue isn't cut-and-dried. I can't help but think that Twitter's simply letting users link to a new competitor would be akin to an established town newspaper letting readers write letters to the editor promoting the articles published on a newly founded newspaper in the same town.
Everything seemed to be fine so long as Substack remained a conceptually different platform (e.g., long-form newsletter type). The change was when Substack introduced Notes, which definitely appears to emulate the Twitter model and puts that company in direct competition with Twitter.
FWIW, I find it a nightmare to try to read Twitter discussions and I wish that the whole asinine concept would go the way of 8-track tapes. But I can't say I blame Elon/Twitter for being reluctant to allow free publicity for the competition on their own platform.
I feel like the child of a broken marriage. Can't you all PLEAS, PLEASE try to get along, because the other side is galvanized against us.
I only started logging into Twitter when musk bought it. I am unable to make much sense of it or understand what all the excitement is about. As you say, I find trying to read any good discussion impossible to follow due to the constant bickering from those who appears to only want to disrupt with ugly comments and unrelated nonsense. I’ve stopped paying much attention to it. I’m getting most of what I’m interested here from a variety of writers
Ditto. I like Substack but ignore Twitter. Apparently there aren't enough people out there who like Twitter enough to pay for it, so I suspect Musk's investment won't pay off financially. The corporate advertisers surely won't bail him out - they are too busy pushing transgenderism.
Quote the title and mention Substack as the essay (or whatever it is) publisher. We all looked up articles for decades without hotlinks.
Does anybody understand how substack notes even works? I sure as hell don’t. Also isn’t it just redundant to comments on long form articles? One solution would be for Elon to buy substack. Twitter needs a long form component and substack needs a billboard.
I've said for years that Elon Musk is this generation's Howard Hughes: so brilliant that he's sometimes totally nuts.
I don't use Twitter; I'm agnostic about joining in the Substack Notes.
At this point, I just want to know what other secrets there are in the Twitter Files. I want to know MORE of the lies and obfuscation and manipulation that victimized all of us.
Right now, I think Elon is being pissy. I hope he's not too big for his britches that he won't come around and play nicely with all the other kiddos.
I just want to know WTF is in all those Twitter Files!
I was watching the DarkHorse podcast today and Dr Heying had started out talking about the issue with Substack, but when she attempted to log in to show the audience how it was being blocked, to her surprise everything worked and all of her links to substack from Twitter now worked. This was at approximately 1330 -1400 PST. Perhaps calmer heads prevailed over a Twitter after all?
I saw it! I just watched the Dark Horse podcast.
Perhaps Joe Rogan could referee this spat between Matt Taibbi & Elon Musk. Y'know? Fill a peace pipe with pot, and everyone calm down?
OMG! Cultural appropriation!
Alex, it's unlikely you'd be invited to join them--given the contents of the peace pipe.
Is it actually a spat, though? I got an email from Taibbi saying he was leaving Twitter in favor of Substack Notes, but this post from Alex is the first indication that there was a spat. (There definitely was one between Taibbi and that so-called journalist Mehdi Hassan.)
I saw the same message from Taibbi. And I understand it. I also understand Alex's post.
I just can't help but think there's room for everyone--for other platforms. I don't think Twitter & Substack Notes are mutually exclusive.
Totally agree.
I think Elon quietly reversed the decision to shadow ban Substack links. Elon claims it was some sort of technical glitch, algo, or something. I think he had a temper tantrum and just like a two-year-old, he got over it.
I am going to update this comment now that I have gained better insight into what was going on behind the scenes. Elon did apparently reverse his decision on Substack but apparently he first took this action bc Substack is introducing Notes, directly competing with Twitter (I think that is fine) but Elon was upset bc he alleged that Substack was stealing data from Twitter to enhance its new feature (or something like that). I couldn't understand though why he turned on Taibbi (falsely calling Taibbi an employee of Substack, etc) but reading between the lines, I think he believed that Taibbi was supplying the Substack with Twitter's proprietary data. If that turns out to be true, then it is a double whammy to the trust I have in both Elon and Matt.
It does appear that Twitter reconsidered. Maybe our complaints worked.
Interesting...I was wondering because I am a fairly active reader of Substack (I have multiple paid subscriptions that I like to keep up with), and I was lost as to what they were referring to because I have not encountered issues with Twitter/substack links.
Shellenberger openly said on Rogan that no one has looked into Fauci yet…
I don’t understand this correlation between Elon and the Twitter Files. Elon didn’t buy Twitter for the Twitter files. Elon bought Twitter because it’s a business he thought was important and that he could make it profitable. This isn’t some crazy idea.
Why we all project what WE want onto what Elon is doing I’ll never understand but I know for sure it isn’t elons doing.
And the clearest sign that The Twitter Files aren’t being driven by Elon is that the Fauci discovery hasn’t happened because the libs looking into it don’t care. He’s going to have to have an actual conservative - Kanekoa the Great for instance - get involved before someone really goes deep on Fauci - and yet he keeps letting the same people investigate whatever they’d like.
Alex’s bug up his but is a reminder that he’s exactly what he pretends to dislike - a guy for whom more than half his crusade isn’t actually about free speech - it’s about his personal feelings being hurt
Absolutely!
Competitive Interdependence v. Competitive Independence. It’s arguable the former net net is better business.
This seems too harsh. No doubt Elon, like many geniuses, is on the spectrum. He is self-aware of it. That certainly accounts for some of his inconsistencies. I do wish he would stop tweeting except for clear CEO/owner news. He is a celebrity and celebrities need to do their main business and then stay as quiet as possible.
As to his respect for the First Amendment, I don't think that has changed. However, he has so many initially loyal so quickly turn against him at the slightest word or action that triggered them, I think he just expects it now.
Musk is a very difficult and flawed personality with a brilliant mind and a righteous moral compass. Hanging with requires accepting the flawed personality... and the volatility that comes with it.
If we are to throw our champions under the bus because they lack a perfect track record meeting our expectations, then we are going to have no champions.
I really wouldn’t want Musk to quit tweeting. Way too entertaining!
I always wondered why you were so excited to go back on there, especially knowing what we know through the Twitter Files.
The upside is that Notes seems like it can fill Twitter's role extremely easily.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/the-streisand-effect-is-alive-and
I do understand why Alex wanted to get back on Twitter: it was a means to disseminate his research.
Plus, when Elon Musk put Twitter under new management, most of us were hopeful that the Dark Ages had ended.
Perhaps we're being naive about "business sense." I do get that--that Musk paid way too much for Twitter, and now he's trying to recoup his money. Buying Twitter was not a philanthropic exercise.
Just as supermarkets stock many kinds of laundry detergent, there must be a market for more than one online soap box.
“In 48 hours, Musk has burned up what’s left of his credibility as a free speech champion.”
Actually no - he offered Taibbi the chance to write his Substack content on Twitter. Taibbi refused because he can make more money with Substack.
Taibbi did post much on Twitter but in order to make sense of it you had to use the thread-ripper. It's near impossible to create long form writing a hunk at a time. I doubt that the money issue means as much.
No need for the word “more”. And he IS a journalist & Substack his workplace. Oh and the principles thing.
Substack seems to be the most open and uncensored content widely available. Writers like Doomberg, Matt Taibbi and others are given a platform with little outside interference. As Doomberg often says, it is the work of his life (and he gets paid for it). It seems the best we have these days.
It’s hard to see how supporting links to competing platforms helps Twitter be more successful. In the old Internet days business development teams would seek out a partnership of some kind. Twitter has the reach while Substack delivers subscription revenue to content creators. I may be too old now but it seems like there is something there...
I hope you and the others will all stay on Substack which is the only platform I think to be reliable. Even Gab and Gettr are not the same, I tried a few and did not like any of them
Some points- never liked Twitter, been saying "Only Twits Tweet" for more than a decade. I am too long winded for Twitter but whether I am or not, it was and is not conducive to serious discussion. Look at the comments below and above. Most exceed the character limit for Twitter now and then. In that sense it is in league with the worst of modern TV news/opinion. Short bursts of non-serious discussion. Or at the very least underdeveloped discussion. It also reduces the discussion to hurling of half-truths, lies, or ad hominem attacks among other things. My old boss was someone who used to get invited on TV but no more, he was boring- he tried to see other people's points or at least answer them politely even if he disagreed. No more invites for him! Every time I look at Twitter it seems the comments rapidly devolve into psychotic attacks filled with profanity. Are there diamonds in that ruff? Could be but who wants to sort through the insanity?
Twitter has long been propped up by a lazy media and lazy press people who didn't want to do the actual work of tracking down stories or pitching them (or sending blast faxes or emails to a list of people you cultivated over the years). After a period of time, as Matt and others have exposed, the DC/Wall Street/Academic/Globalist machine realized they could control information and stories (I refuse to call it narrative even though much of it is fiction). With the bulk of information being disseminated through Twitter and other social media to corporate media and then the public, the message that gets to the broader public could be controlled. By the way, I scoff when I hear particularly someone on the right say "everyone knows XY or Z." Actually, no, they don't. Not if they are watching MSNBC or some network affiliate TV or radio station. You'll even hear nonsense on talk radio station news. And worse, the government/corporate propaganda commercials. I just heard a ton of them in upstate NY pushing me to get a COVID booster and telling me how effective it is! I have heard Alex on the shows on this very station more than once. On the positive side, at least some of my tax dollars are being spent on a station I support!
So it was great when Musk bought Twitter because it blew things up a bit but far less dramatically than what I think many thought (akin to the old 1984 like Apple commercial). Musk will have to pull off a miracle to make it worth what he paid. I thought the media would jump from it immediately but their own laziness has gotten in the way and they really just want Twitter to be what it was, a way to spoon feed and eat up the approved party line. Musk is a hero for blowing all that money on it. Maybe he should just suck it up and try to make enough money to keep it going rather than recoup his investment. He could treat it like a utility or something and it would also build good will. It could be his version of a Carnegie Library or something.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Like I said, never liked Twitter anyway and I much happier supporting journalists here and writing long winded comments that the vast majority of my fellow commenters treat respectfully even if they disagree.
I just see the swarms arrive on every conservative Twitter post. Back in Usenet days it was called "shoving them out" because post retention was limited by storage. Flame wars often created unusable threads. Obviously on Twitter, you scroll and scroll prolonging your visit to see if anybody supported the original post. While good for the platform, dwell time, it makes the thread impossible. Substack's threading model often goes in that direction as a side conversation eats away the space, but the scrolling can be faster by tracking the left lines.
Thanks for the honest reporting. It is terribly sad, however, to see the few champions of free speech and anti-wokeness begin to turn their guns on each other. I hope they/you get back (to back) on the same page.
I'm still glad Elon Musk bought Twitter and is exposing the propaganda machine it turned into. I wouldn't be surprised if Jack Dorsey told him about all the back channel crap that our government was involved in
Just so much uneasy chaos and perpetual finger pointing now. The vortex of ego's on all side grows. Just where does it all lead as the real threats of the WEF 2030 plan executes with each passing day
Thanks Alex, a very enlightening and interesting expose. I always thought that Mr Musk had ventured outside his wheelhouse taking over a corrupt Leftist social media, propaganda company, (some redundancy irony in that string of words). His genius is in innovation, creativity and calculated risk assessment of new scientific ventures, along with a talent for gaining government approval and making a pile of money. The Twit adventure, (fiasco), seems to be a misguided effort at satisfying his inner social justice warrior needs??? As an aside, with so many ingots in the fire I believe it highly improbable that Mr Musk can keep up with all the shenanigans (evil) going on in our current world and it seems he does not have many (any) trusted lieutenants too help him sort out the truth This leaves him vulnerable to normal human failures in judgment.
This is my thoughts about Matt, I don't know him Personally he seems to be genuinely great Man. I have seen since he has done some work with Twitter Legacy media has been really mean sometimes even Nasty. As a Professional person you say what you have to say and move on. With Legacy media they keep bugging Matt and to me this makes them look bad and Guilty as sin Elite media. Again my opinion Matt is innocent low hanging fruit so Legacy media government leaders think by berating Matt it's all better it's not. Just like Legacy media going after orange Man Please don't eat any during Passover this type of diversity and inclusion is against my doctrine. Getting back to Orange man Elite media is using Orange man for what they done and continue to do with their handling of Viral pneumonia what they use to scare you is Covid-19. Wear a Mask even when you have Viral pneumonia make it harder more difficult to breathe. As someone like Berenson who has been in Pulmonary for 25 Plus years only Satan would tell you to wear face mask when you can't breathe. The difference between was and is God was Jewish ✡ or God is Jewish ✡ this was set in stone 2,000 years ago God is Jewish ✡ and is for Pro recreation only. A woman is to wear a vail because she is the giver of life. Those low life's picking on Matt , won't dear to try Alex Berenson because he is was the only one honest and knew what was going on day to day. Musk has far too many Bootlicker friends and this is not good this is not a true friend a honest man one that loves you as friend will challenge you always. For me I love a challenge it keeps me on my toes and not afraid to learn something new and I can share what I know best for others. All this nonsense going on Should be on Fauci Slavitt Broula Gottlieb for starters. Then let the chip fall from this and the people will have redemption and Peace.
It's funny how much Alex likes Substack when he's having a Twitter problem.