Dear Deep State: Please leave Substack alone.

In a world where every truth-seeking organization is now captured, Substack is our side’s best hope.

My last seven stories produced three new subscribers. Six of these stories produced zero new subscribers. In November 2024, I added only 40 new (total) subscribers, the worst figure of my 29 months as a Substack author. In my first six months as a Substack author, I added an average of 535 new subscribers every month. Metrics like these prompt me to conclude: “Something has changed on Substack.”

By the Numbers - Substack’s Liberal All-Stars vs. Bill Rice

201,000+ - Number of new Substack subscribers generated by Robert Reich in the past 36 days (from 517.9K to 718.9K) - an average of 5,743 new subscribers/day.

82,900+ Number of new subscribers generated by Paul Krugman in past 19 days (from 119K to 201.9+K) - an average of 4,363/day.

10,000 - Number of new subscribers generated by Your Local Epidemiologist in the past eight days (from 321.9K to 331.9K) - an average of 1,250/day.

3 - Number of new subscribers generated by Bill Rice Jr. in past six days (with seven new articles) - an average of 0.5/day.

***

Me (Our side): “Somehow the messages of our side have to reach far more people.”

Them (Their side): “We will not let your messages reach enough people to make a difference.”

__________________________________________________

Tomorrow I plan to present findings from the most comprehensive analysis I’ve performed of Substack metrics, a dispatch that will support my hypothesis that “something changed” on Substack in the past six to 12 months.

Per my hypothesis, it’s very possible a multi-faceted program is being implemented to suppress the reach of authors who routinely challenge dubious or false narratives.

If, somehow, this hypothesis was “confirmed,” this result would mean that Substack is unlikely to be a major media force in exposing myriad scandals as such scandals require sufficient numbers of global citizens who’d come to understand the scale of these untruths.

That is, reaching enough citizens to change conventional wisdom - a project which would require circumventing the captured MSM - might not be possible … at least via this writers’ platform.

The independent writers on Substack are NOT the Bad Guys …

Substack was created to benefit independent writers, citizens who care deeply about the future of their families and our nation and world.

Collectively, the goal of this cohort of writers is to produce original journalism, research and commentary that might lead to a significant purge of world leaders who acquire power, wealth and control by creating and then defending dubious “Fear Narratives.”

In my opinion, this project/goal requires authentic journalism that debunks the atrocious “mainstream” journalism that created so many fraudulent and harmful narratives.

For years, I’ve viewed Substack as the writers’ platform with the greatest potential to achieve these goals. However, if “something has changed” on Substack, reforms that would improve the quality of life of billions of world inhabitants would be less likely to occur.

Substack has made a positive difference …

Substack has already made a difference and caused countless citizens to question dubious Status-Quo narratives. The invention and popularity of Substack also undoubtedly saved many lives (for example, by massively increasing the number of people who are now “vaccine hesitant.”)

As such, the founders of Substack have performed a vital public service and deserve praise for bucking alarming, Orwellian Censorship trends.

In my opinion, sinister actors fully realize the potential of Substack’s “Contrarian” authors to debunk false narratives. Recognizing this, it seems likely or possible the same individuals might have created and implemented a program to neutralize or suppress this threat to their continued control.

Is it time to think about work-arounds for Substack?

If Substack has also now effectively been “captured,” highly-intelligent writers who are not afraid of challenging those with absolute power will need to find or create another speech platform that will allow them to reach large number of citizens, citizens who still don’t fully understand the evil scale of their leaders’ corruption.

My hypothesis …

My hypothesis is “something changed” on Substack and these changes would have been implemented for specific reason(s).

IMO, this goal would have been to suppress the reach (and thus the potential influence) of writers who are seeking to expose crimes, misdemeanors or scandals the Establishment classes would not want to be widely exposed.

In the macro view, the goal of any possible reach-suppression programs is to protect false narratives and the policies (and mandates) that emanate from these spurious narratives.

At some point, the same reasons that led to the erection of a vast Censorship Industrial Complex would, one assumes, also apply to Substack - which has more than 35 million “users” (a dated figure that’s undoubtedly grown).

At the micro level, aggressive censorship programs would result in dissident authors reaching fewer subscribers and readers than these authors would have cultivated otherwise.

Such a program would violate tenets designed to protect genuine freedom of speech and, by suppressing subscriptions, would cause financial harm to authors by reducing the revenue writers might have expected to generate if their number of subscribers had not been suppressed.

That is, such a program would produce economic harm by targeting and discriminating against writers seeking to present an alternative view of reality.

The tenets of free speech and free trade would both be violated via such a program.

Members of society would be harmed because citizens would be far less likely to know that “truths” they’ve accepted as iron-clad and infallible were, in fact, the products of serial lies and a massive disinformation program (“propaganda.”)

If the policies flowing from these false narratives actually cause death, injuries and misery on a shocking scale, an egregious tort has been perpetrated against innocent citizens - citizens who trusted the wrong authorities and experts.

*** (Writers defending freedom often use the Share Button to increase the reach of our superior and far-more-compelling message.) ***

The vital role of genuine ‘watchdog’ journalists …

For those who may have forgotten this maxim, absolute power does corrupt absolutely.

Members of the ever-expanding State - and the shadowy figures pulling the levers behind the curtains - have no motivation to expose themselves, a result that would cause them to forfeit their control, power, status and the myriad perks which accrue to those in these protected ranks.

For the individuals and organizations that rule the world, the greatest threat to their continued rule is being exposed as villains, liars, scam-artists, criminals, frauds … and/or as hopelessly incompetent or obtuse.

As every truth-seeking organization is now captured - and its members clearly benefit from the Status Quo - the only profession with the potential to expose this corrupt rot would be authentic investigative journalists and “dissident” or skeptical researchers.

Since the mainstream press is also 100-percent captured, the subset of society most likely to perform this vital task is “citizen” or independent journalists using “reach” platforms like Substack.

But if “something has changed” on Substack, the probability the public will learn they’ve been duped would diminish significantly.

The most important conspiracy …

In a previous essay, I volunteered that not only do I see conspiracies everywhere; I’m now convinced these dark conspiracies work.

In my opinion, the most important conspiracy has been the program to thwart and suppress content produced by people who are not “disinformation super spreaders” but brave heroes trying to save the world.

All this cadres of writers and thinkers is trying to do is identify the world’s real villains.

For reasons that aren’t difficult to understand, the majority of these writers ended up creating newsletters on Substack.

And, for reasons that also aren’t hard to understand, the world’s real rulers do not want the reach and ideas of these “adults in the room” to influence their fellow citizens.

***

In my view, the pivotal battle for the hearts and minds of global citizens is occurring right here on Substack.

If the arguments and evidence presented by the “Substack contrarians” don’t reach enough people to make a difference, it’s very possible the creators and protectors of an odious Status Quo will prevail in this battle.

The Statists will win and achieve their objective, which is even more control … which will result in less freedom for citizens forced to comply with their dictates.

In the last five years, the most significant push-back against the New Abnormal and the litany of Covid lies came from citizen writers publishing on Substack.

Per my hypothesis, the forces aligned with evil know this and are now trying to suppress the number of people who are exposed to these ideas.

If the reach of Substack’s “dissident” authors is being suppressed, this program needs to be exposed and stopped.

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