In today's article, I made the point that Paul Krugman's huge early influx of subscribers is, perhaps, understandable as he came over to Substack with a large following of nut-cases - who no doubt wanted to support him in his new venture.
So to do an apples-to-apples comparison of Krugman's huge subscriber numbers we'd have to find a "conservative" writer who is just as well-known and had as many readers as Krugman ... and then see if this person also added 130,000 subscribers in six weeks.
The only comparison I can think of is Ann Coutler, who was (once) one of the most-famous conservative writers in the world. Ms. Coulter started a Substack many months ago. Alas, Substack doesn't publish her subscriber numbers. She does have a big orange check that signifies she has "thousands" of paid subscribers. However, I doubt she has 130,000 total subscribers. Or, if she does, it took her much longer than Krugman to reach this figure.
It seems to me that Coulter fell off the face of the earth when she got sideways with the Trump supporters a couple of years ago (because she argued Trump wasn't making enough progress building his wall). For example, she used to be a regular on Fox and all kinds of alternative media news outlets and then, all of a sudden, you don't see her anywhere.
Coulter hasn't gone "all in" on being a "Covid Contrarian" although a couple of weeks ago she did pen one of her signature acerbic and biting pieces that ridiculed the Fauci's of the world.
If she keeps doing this, she might rally on Substack.
One note about Fox News: in the emails used as evidence during the then Rupert Murdoch-owned network, he sent an email to his staff stating something along the lines of “Trump must be made a non-person.” President Trump was not interviewed one time in a year and a half. While we greatly reduced FNC viewing after Brett Baier announced “Biden’s win” in AZ (while polls were still open I might add), we stopped watching entirely when Tucker was fired. I honestly believe the channel captures a tiny percentage of MAGA viewers, there are so many more choices now.
That early call in Arizona is about the same time I cut the chord completely on Fox News. And then firing Tucker - the No. 1 talk show host in the world - was another "tell."
I had a short conversation with a leftist progressive communist once on a plane a few months ago. When I offered some mild comments, besides the standard leftist disdain he made the common leftist attack, "you're watching fox news" I laughed and said I haven't had a TV or watched TV for twenty years. He then dismissed me as one of the ignorant unwashed masses .
Malone and Berenson et al. took their Twitter followers when Twitter shot them out they benefitted by joining stack and asking people to find them there...they are all waning now. I gain subscribers daily and followers...point is substack is silencing us now...I see it. we will find another medium, we may start our own...
There is a need for the freedom movement to make use of Mastodon on the Fediverse. It is populated by many woke sorts that have absolutely no back pressure and they think the world is like their self censored corner on Mastodon,
I think every freedom writer should cross post there and make some noise. It is possible to set up your own servers still (UK wants to make it hard for the small guys to host social media) with no censorship.
If the top 137 covid contrarians were to all create an user account on Mastodon and post about it I think the platform could be swung round to progressive topics in a few weeks and it has no adverts and cannot easily be fully censored.
I post a little there and the most common comments are negative so I know the sort of people there.
Coulter is controlled opposition, in my opinion. The entire media universe is only in the beginning stages of complete overhaul and change. Long overdue since many were just paid shills for the government anyway. The truth comes out eventually.
Yes, and more. I also suspect thousands of paid subscribers are funded by the billion$ dark money laundering operations like Arabella Advisors and their web of affiliates, non-profits and shell companies. That kind of money and influence buys armies. I trust our guys already have their program for CBDC, so most of the digital wealth has been tracked to where it sits currently. Time will tell how long it takes for disclosure to sink into the normies depending on their curiosity (or pain) resulting from the narratives they follow.
true but they count on the masses being the masses. And the masses for the most part don’t disappoint. Not that I’m any different or better. I have fallen for lies as well.
Yeah. But the difference this time is the lack of censorship on what the left calls misinformation or disinformation. They are still putting out their lies and now they are getting ratioed right back. They don't have an absolute echo chamber as they did before.
Many regular NYTimes and WaPo readers unsubscribed when the paper chose not to endorse Kamala Harris 3 months ago. Krugman also retired from NYTimes in December. Anyone who subscribes to Paul Krugman would immediately be recommended to subscribe to Reich and others. So there is an obvious and logical explanation for their meteoric rise in subs over the past few months. Anyone who watched cable news ratings for the past 20 years knows that Fox does better when a Democrat is in the WH and MSNBC usually does better when a Republican is in the WH. People tune out when their party is in power.
A few or “our team” of writers seem to have experienced encouraging growth in the 1/2 month or so I’ve been monitoring subscriber numbers.
For example, a A Midwestern Doctor had 162,900+ subscribers when I did my analysis for my “Top 140 Contrarians” list/ranking.
When I looked a AMD’s numbers a day or two ago, they’d grown to 170,900 (+ 8,000 = + 4.91 percent growth).
I’ve noted that Debbie Lerman got a boost of about 600 subscribers with two widely-shared articles, which is a big percentage gain from her prior number of 2.5K+.
Jenna McCarthy has been on a roll lately and has added at least 400 subscribers from my first number (6.5K+ - which is now 6.9K+)
Update: I just saw that Rebekah Barnett, who writes "Dystopian Down Under," has added 1,000 subscribers in the past 2 1/2 or so weeks; Rebekah now has 12,900+ subscribers - up from 11,900. That's a significant spike.
I’ve experienced an increase in total subscribers of approximately 130 in the last three weeks, a boost largely explained by the number of shares my “Contrarian” list generated for me.
However, my subscriber numbers are, again, leveling off in the past week or so. My paid subscribers continue to plummet. Where I had 304 paid subscribers a couple of months ago, I now have 285.
In fact, my “paid ratio” is now 4.02 percent and, I guess, will soon dip below 4 percent. This key ratio was once close to 5 percent.
I think almost all “Contrarian” Substack authors are experiencing notable declines in their “paid” ratios.
“Real inflation” might best explain the declines in these paid ratios. But, as this article shows, the liberal population of America seems to now be flocking to, or discovering, Substack at a much greater clip than Americans who are seeking alternative journalism
I have appreciated much of what the Midwestern Doctor has published especially regarding aspirin and DMSO - but you know what bugs me bout that author Bill?
Unlike you and I, said author is supposedly incognito - give me a break on that - and guess what - when I used to subscribe - I don't no more I said as much directly to the author there - reality it - if you afraid to say who you are - then makes one wonder - if you really mean what you say.
The sad part is that the people in power almost certainly know who they are. Why they do not act is probably only because they do not want us to know just how much they know about all of us.
Staying incognito means they get to keep their day job while it is still dangerous to speak the truth in the mindless mob.
I look forward to the day they identify themselves.
Just curious if you have your real name and identity attached to your posts online?
We are almost the same age if the number is correct. I think my profile should be (mostly) visible at wikitree site.
I have no bone to pick with you, you seem nice. Just saying that anonymity should be a default until we want to force trust. A static identity is a useful thing to have so that we know that our trust is placed in the correct place and not been bait and switched like Amazon does with their reviews (sellers use well regarded item reviews and ratings to prop up new rubbish items). Having to keep hidden in fear is a symptom of bad stuff in society and not automatically a reason to distrust a sane source.
I think I concur with all that - hells-bells - I was born in Buffalo, NY on August 16th 1965 - my mother - and God rest her soul she just passed a few months ago - told me - I came out like lightening. If you can't believe your own mother, then I reckon - you got no foundation!
I think My wording was poor, I do not promote forced trust, just see anonymity as perfectly acceptable unless we are forced to trust someone then we need to know who this someone is. Like a faceless president would be a bad thing but a faceless TMD might not be so bad as our trust is voluntary because (in my mind) it is earned.
I don't advertise my name, but I don't hide it either - I have a "small group" of readers - probably half of them know me personally I suspect. My name is out there and easily found. I have indicated it directly on Substack in a few of the articles/stories I present.
I understand there can be valid reasons not to put one's name out there, but I think the times of being "worried" about repercussions or getting "canceled" need to come to a swift end and courage and transparency are demanded if things are "gonna get better". I agree with what you put forth - "....the people in power almost certainly know who they are".....The Midwestern Doctor has published some fine material and she (or he as the case may be) ought not feel they need to be incognito anymore - let the chips fall where they will....and some of the material there is based their expertise somewhat unique on medical issues of tremendous significance - so with that kind of "influence" why not be willing to "back it up" with your name. Be fearless is what I think - it adds to an authors "appeal" in my book.
Sure. If RFK Jr. is HHS secretary and asks TMD to join his team I believe they would come into the open.
We still need a few undercover operatives on our side while the battle wages.
Things are in flux for a bit and perhaps when the fate of RFK Jr. is settled some changes will wake up more people and no longer give people the excuse of saying the authority said so.
Hey get this - they got both my birthday WRONG and the birthday of my daughter WRONG. Both birthdays indicated as 9/14 - what the fuck you think up with that?
Now you know my name - I won't say I got nothing to hide - but I put myself out there - no strings attached - and don't believe everything you read on the internet.
I have posted a comment at your place - and I wonder sometimes about folks show up out of nowhere asking questions....
As I just typed elsewhere - if the whole thing was a "ruse" then secession increases significantly in probability.
If Kennedy "gets in there" and changes his tune, then secession is damn near guaranteed.
If he doesn't get Senate approval - I reckon secession is assured - especially given some 2000 pound (?) bunker busters continue to be sent. So - tis now or never I reckon.
There is a need for the freedom movement to make use of Mastodon on the Fediverse. It is populated by many woke sorts that have absolutely no back pressure and they think the world is like their self censored corner on Mastodon,
I think every freedom writer should cross post there and make some noise. It is possible to set up your own servers still (UK wants to make it hard for the small guys to host social media) with no censorship.
If the top 137 covid contrarians were to all create an user account on Mastodon and post about it I think the platform could be swung round to progressive topics in a few weeks and it has no adverts and cannot easily be fully censored.
I post a little there and the most common comments are negative so I know the sort of people there.
You can click on an author's name to see how many subscribers they have. When you do this, you get a long list of current subscribers to this author. I've started clicking on names of people who are, themselves, Substack authors ... to see how many subscribers these people have.
I spent 20 minutes doing this exercise with Michael Moore's subscribers. I clicked on about 30 names of his subscribers who also have their own Substack newsletters.
I'd estimate that 85 to 95 percent of these fellow Substack authors had either ONE or TWO subscribers (and you figure this includes themselves).
In contrast, the "Contrarian" authors have subscribers who have many more subscribers at their own newsletters.
As a test, I clicked on about 40 of my subscribers who also have Substack newsletters. Only two had "one subscriber" and two or three had two subscribers. The rest had at least 20 to 1000 ... or many thousands of subscribers.
Something is up with this. More research, analysis needed!
re: "You can click on an author's name to see how many subscribers they have."
Instead, might we look at actual subscriber involvement in the comments section as a real indicator of 'eyeballs on the site'? I read some analysis sometime back looking at simple subscriber numbers versus posting involvement; this may have been for a site like CGTN or some other large org, and the involvement numbers just were not there but the sub numbers were high.
Looks like Substack has taken out a "life insurance policy" in response to the negative attention that has been directed towards Substack from the left. It's still fishy, but the stink is familiar.
There was a truly TDS gal on one contrarian I read yesterday. Unbelievably sick in the soul about President Trump. She got tons of pushback but left still raging. They are getting orders. No doubt about it.
I just read one of Krugman's non-stop anti-Trump, fear-mongering screeds. This one isn't exactly subtle. The headline says it all: "Trump wants you to die."
My math that allows me to predict Paul Krugman will be grossing at least $605,000 on Substack in 60 days ...
Krugman now has 130,000 subscribers.
Math: +3,600 new subscribers a day = 216,000 subscribers 60 days from now x 4 percent paid = 8,640 paid subscribers x $70/year = $604,800 Substack revenue.
I should have also mentioned that one of the kings of Substack is liberal documentary film-maker Michael Moore, who has even more subscribers than Robert Reich.
When I did my first analysis, Moore had 720,000 subscribers. Last I checked a day or two ago, Moore's fans had grown that number to 736,000.
Nobody on "our team" comes close to the total subscriber numbers of Reich and Moore.
You can contact Substack Trust & Safety with this reporting form: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new? You could ask them for an interview about money-laundering, subscriptions IP Address searches and policy.
"However, almost all of the authors who are benefitting from eye-popping subscription growth seem to be writers determined to take this beachhead away from the Contrarians’ army of writers".
I think that's the idea.
Remember that phrase from the Convid years "flooding the zone"?
I love these AWESOME exclusive Bill Rice Jr exposes!
I will also say again that Substack Trust & Safety can easily determine whether these mysterious subscriptions are real or not because they see the IP Addresses of email subscribers.
If one IP address has thousands of subscribers, they would know it's a money-laundering scheme.
The question we now have is - do they want to look? Probably not. Looking might activate their consciences, which might lose them a lot of the money-laundering squeeze money. Better not to look.
“I also know for a fact that my own subscriber metrics changed (dramatically and for the worse) about 10 to 14 months ago.”
Yep - something is wrong, and that is when it started. The fact that Yuri Bezmenov has also noticed the anomaly tells us something. He understands implicitly the techniques once used by the Soviets in their AgitProp operations to destabilise their targets in the West. What is happening with Substack has all the smell of one such operation. The owners of Substack need to take care, however - there are no free lunches in this world. If they aid & abet a subversion operation by allowing the Goliath Establishment to use the Substack platform as a weapon to assault the contrarians, then at the end of the day they run the risk of being left with a worthless smoking ruin of an asset once the tide goes out.
Update on my total subscribers (a disconcerting observation) ....
I just checked my total subscriber numbers, which are now 7,093. I also checked the list/names of people who subscribed to my site yesterday (January 26). Per Substack's metrics, 15 people subscribed to my Substack yesterday (all free).
The day before I was at 7,090 subscribers. So if you add my 15 new subscribers, you'd think my current number would be 7,105. However, it's now 7,093. This must mean that while I added 15 new subscribers, 12 of my subscribers unsubscribed yesterday.
I went up 15 steps ... and then back 12 - for a net increase of only three new subscribers in the past two days.
Question: Why did 12 (free) subscribers unsubscribe in the past two days? Were these real subscribers or real people or not? I don't know.
We need to get the word out and ask the MAGA community, a majority of whom don’t visit Substack, to start a revolt and return Substack to its roots. Please list ten writers here considered “conspiracy theorists” whose subscriber rolls need improvement. I’ll get it done. We don’t have to put up with liberals purposely setting out to destroy our strongholds.
In today's article, I made the point that Paul Krugman's huge early influx of subscribers is, perhaps, understandable as he came over to Substack with a large following of nut-cases - who no doubt wanted to support him in his new venture.
So to do an apples-to-apples comparison of Krugman's huge subscriber numbers we'd have to find a "conservative" writer who is just as well-known and had as many readers as Krugman ... and then see if this person also added 130,000 subscribers in six weeks.
The only comparison I can think of is Ann Coutler, who was (once) one of the most-famous conservative writers in the world. Ms. Coulter started a Substack many months ago. Alas, Substack doesn't publish her subscriber numbers. She does have a big orange check that signifies she has "thousands" of paid subscribers. However, I doubt she has 130,000 total subscribers. Or, if she does, it took her much longer than Krugman to reach this figure.
It seems to me that Coulter fell off the face of the earth when she got sideways with the Trump supporters a couple of years ago (because she argued Trump wasn't making enough progress building his wall). For example, she used to be a regular on Fox and all kinds of alternative media news outlets and then, all of a sudden, you don't see her anywhere.
Coulter hasn't gone "all in" on being a "Covid Contrarian" although a couple of weeks ago she did pen one of her signature acerbic and biting pieces that ridiculed the Fauci's of the world.
If she keeps doing this, she might rally on Substack.
One note about Fox News: in the emails used as evidence during the then Rupert Murdoch-owned network, he sent an email to his staff stating something along the lines of “Trump must be made a non-person.” President Trump was not interviewed one time in a year and a half. While we greatly reduced FNC viewing after Brett Baier announced “Biden’s win” in AZ (while polls were still open I might add), we stopped watching entirely when Tucker was fired. I honestly believe the channel captures a tiny percentage of MAGA viewers, there are so many more choices now.
That early call in Arizona is about the same time I cut the chord completely on Fox News. And then firing Tucker - the No. 1 talk show host in the world - was another "tell."
I had a short conversation with a leftist progressive communist once on a plane a few months ago. When I offered some mild comments, besides the standard leftist disdain he made the common leftist attack, "you're watching fox news" I laughed and said I haven't had a TV or watched TV for twenty years. He then dismissed me as one of the ignorant unwashed masses .
Malone and Berenson et al. took their Twitter followers when Twitter shot them out they benefitted by joining stack and asking people to find them there...they are all waning now. I gain subscribers daily and followers...point is substack is silencing us now...I see it. we will find another medium, we may start our own...
Dr. Alexander ... Regarding the last five words of your post ... let's huddle up and brainstorm on this idea/possible solution.
There is a need for the freedom movement to make use of Mastodon on the Fediverse. It is populated by many woke sorts that have absolutely no back pressure and they think the world is like their self censored corner on Mastodon,
I think every freedom writer should cross post there and make some noise. It is possible to set up your own servers still (UK wants to make it hard for the small guys to host social media) with no censorship.
If the top 137 covid contrarians were to all create an user account on Mastodon and post about it I think the platform could be swung round to progressive topics in a few weeks and it has no adverts and cannot easily be fully censored.
I post a little there and the most common comments are negative so I know the sort of people there.
Publishing a How-To guide would be a great thing.
Coulter is controlled opposition, in my opinion. The entire media universe is only in the beginning stages of complete overhaul and change. Long overdue since many were just paid shills for the government anyway. The truth comes out eventually.
Yes, and more. I also suspect thousands of paid subscribers are funded by the billion$ dark money laundering operations like Arabella Advisors and their web of affiliates, non-profits and shell companies. That kind of money and influence buys armies. I trust our guys already have their program for CBDC, so most of the digital wealth has been tracked to where it sits currently. Time will tell how long it takes for disclosure to sink into the normies depending on their curiosity (or pain) resulting from the narratives they follow.
An obvious truth, money buys propaganda, propaganda works.
Propaganda definitely works. But it requires Mass and agressive Censorship (plus "self censorship") to work.
true but they count on the masses being the masses. And the masses for the most part don’t disappoint. Not that I’m any different or better. I have fallen for lies as well.
We all have fallen for lies, Wilson. I might turn your comments into a column about all the lies/propaganda that, once, worked on me.
Yeah. But the difference this time is the lack of censorship on what the left calls misinformation or disinformation. They are still putting out their lies and now they are getting ratioed right back. They don't have an absolute echo chamber as they did before.
Many regular NYTimes and WaPo readers unsubscribed when the paper chose not to endorse Kamala Harris 3 months ago. Krugman also retired from NYTimes in December. Anyone who subscribes to Paul Krugman would immediately be recommended to subscribe to Reich and others. So there is an obvious and logical explanation for their meteoric rise in subs over the past few months. Anyone who watched cable news ratings for the past 20 years knows that Fox does better when a Democrat is in the WH and MSNBC usually does better when a Republican is in the WH. People tune out when their party is in power.
A few or “our team” of writers seem to have experienced encouraging growth in the 1/2 month or so I’ve been monitoring subscriber numbers.
For example, a A Midwestern Doctor had 162,900+ subscribers when I did my analysis for my “Top 140 Contrarians” list/ranking.
When I looked a AMD’s numbers a day or two ago, they’d grown to 170,900 (+ 8,000 = + 4.91 percent growth).
I’ve noted that Debbie Lerman got a boost of about 600 subscribers with two widely-shared articles, which is a big percentage gain from her prior number of 2.5K+.
Jenna McCarthy has been on a roll lately and has added at least 400 subscribers from my first number (6.5K+ - which is now 6.9K+)
Update: I just saw that Rebekah Barnett, who writes "Dystopian Down Under," has added 1,000 subscribers in the past 2 1/2 or so weeks; Rebekah now has 12,900+ subscribers - up from 11,900. That's a significant spike.
I’ve experienced an increase in total subscribers of approximately 130 in the last three weeks, a boost largely explained by the number of shares my “Contrarian” list generated for me.
However, my subscriber numbers are, again, leveling off in the past week or so. My paid subscribers continue to plummet. Where I had 304 paid subscribers a couple of months ago, I now have 285.
In fact, my “paid ratio” is now 4.02 percent and, I guess, will soon dip below 4 percent. This key ratio was once close to 5 percent.
I think almost all “Contrarian” Substack authors are experiencing notable declines in their “paid” ratios.
“Real inflation” might best explain the declines in these paid ratios. But, as this article shows, the liberal population of America seems to now be flocking to, or discovering, Substack at a much greater clip than Americans who are seeking alternative journalism
I have appreciated much of what the Midwestern Doctor has published especially regarding aspirin and DMSO - but you know what bugs me bout that author Bill?
Unlike you and I, said author is supposedly incognito - give me a break on that - and guess what - when I used to subscribe - I don't no more I said as much directly to the author there - reality it - if you afraid to say who you are - then makes one wonder - if you really mean what you say.
~
Go Bills!
The sad part is that the people in power almost certainly know who they are. Why they do not act is probably only because they do not want us to know just how much they know about all of us.
Staying incognito means they get to keep their day job while it is still dangerous to speak the truth in the mindless mob.
I look forward to the day they identify themselves.
Just curious if you have your real name and identity attached to your posts online?
and guess what - don't believe everything you read on the internet:
https://www.officialusa.com/names/Kenneth-Hausle/
I mean "eff me" - they got my birthday WRONG
~
Here is some more info:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/uticaod/name/robert-hausle-obituary?pid=167736481
Really, when my brother Bob died - that was a seriously sad family moment.
U want to know more - if so - figure it out yourself - but ain't nobody can hide these days - that ought be known.
We are almost the same age if the number is correct. I think my profile should be (mostly) visible at wikitree site.
I have no bone to pick with you, you seem nice. Just saying that anonymity should be a default until we want to force trust. A static identity is a useful thing to have so that we know that our trust is placed in the correct place and not been bait and switched like Amazon does with their reviews (sellers use well regarded item reviews and ratings to prop up new rubbish items). Having to keep hidden in fear is a symptom of bad stuff in society and not automatically a reason to distrust a sane source.
I think I concur with all that - hells-bells - I was born in Buffalo, NY on August 16th 1965 - my mother - and God rest her soul she just passed a few months ago - told me - I came out like lightening. If you can't believe your own mother, then I reckon - you got no foundation!
What is your birthday exactly please.
23.08.67
I think My wording was poor, I do not promote forced trust, just see anonymity as perfectly acceptable unless we are forced to trust someone then we need to know who this someone is. Like a faceless president would be a bad thing but a faceless TMD might not be so bad as our trust is voluntary because (in my mind) it is earned.
ps - trust cannot be "forced" - it is earned.
Kalle,
I don't advertise my name, but I don't hide it either - I have a "small group" of readers - probably half of them know me personally I suspect. My name is out there and easily found. I have indicated it directly on Substack in a few of the articles/stories I present.
I understand there can be valid reasons not to put one's name out there, but I think the times of being "worried" about repercussions or getting "canceled" need to come to a swift end and courage and transparency are demanded if things are "gonna get better". I agree with what you put forth - "....the people in power almost certainly know who they are".....The Midwestern Doctor has published some fine material and she (or he as the case may be) ought not feel they need to be incognito anymore - let the chips fall where they will....and some of the material there is based their expertise somewhat unique on medical issues of tremendous significance - so with that kind of "influence" why not be willing to "back it up" with your name. Be fearless is what I think - it adds to an authors "appeal" in my book.
Regards,
BK
Sure. If RFK Jr. is HHS secretary and asks TMD to join his team I believe they would come into the open.
We still need a few undercover operatives on our side while the battle wages.
Things are in flux for a bit and perhaps when the fate of RFK Jr. is settled some changes will wake up more people and no longer give people the excuse of saying the authority said so.
Hey get this - they got both my birthday WRONG and the birthday of my daughter WRONG. Both birthdays indicated as 9/14 - what the fuck you think up with that?
Now you know my name - I won't say I got nothing to hide - but I put myself out there - no strings attached - and don't believe everything you read on the internet.
I have posted a comment at your place - and I wonder sometimes about folks show up out of nowhere asking questions....
what is "TMD" if you don't mind me asking
Oh and by the way - my name is Ken Hausle.
I'm a dirt farmer out of Virginia - land of Jefferson and Madison.
I cheer for the Buffalo Bills.
TMD = TheMidwesternDoctor we were discussing. Saving some keystrokes in vain. :-)
As I just typed elsewhere - if the whole thing was a "ruse" then secession increases significantly in probability.
If Kennedy "gets in there" and changes his tune, then secession is damn near guaranteed.
If he doesn't get Senate approval - I reckon secession is assured - especially given some 2000 pound (?) bunker busters continue to be sent. So - tis now or never I reckon.
There is a need for the freedom movement to make use of Mastodon on the Fediverse. It is populated by many woke sorts that have absolutely no back pressure and they think the world is like their self censored corner on Mastodon,
I think every freedom writer should cross post there and make some noise. It is possible to set up your own servers still (UK wants to make it hard for the small guys to host social media) with no censorship.
If the top 137 covid contrarians were to all create an user account on Mastodon and post about it I think the platform could be swung round to progressive topics in a few weeks and it has no adverts and cannot easily be fully censored.
I post a little there and the most common comments are negative so I know the sort of people there.
Publishing a How-To guide would be a great thing.
I think it is likely these are Potemkin subscribers paid by globalist ngos or the like
You can click on an author's name to see how many subscribers they have. When you do this, you get a long list of current subscribers to this author. I've started clicking on names of people who are, themselves, Substack authors ... to see how many subscribers these people have.
I spent 20 minutes doing this exercise with Michael Moore's subscribers. I clicked on about 30 names of his subscribers who also have their own Substack newsletters.
I'd estimate that 85 to 95 percent of these fellow Substack authors had either ONE or TWO subscribers (and you figure this includes themselves).
In contrast, the "Contrarian" authors have subscribers who have many more subscribers at their own newsletters.
As a test, I clicked on about 40 of my subscribers who also have Substack newsletters. Only two had "one subscriber" and two or three had two subscribers. The rest had at least 20 to 1000 ... or many thousands of subscribers.
Something is up with this. More research, analysis needed!
I probably have more followers than some you have traced. I don’t even have my own substack. 🤣
Believe it not, it's similar on X in some respects
x - formerly knows as "twitter" - is sort of suspect in my mind....but the jury is still out JWM - Jim if I recall correctly.
re: "You can click on an author's name to see how many subscribers they have."
Instead, might we look at actual subscriber involvement in the comments section as a real indicator of 'eyeballs on the site'? I read some analysis sometime back looking at simple subscriber numbers versus posting involvement; this may have been for a site like CGTN or some other large org, and the involvement numbers just were not there but the sub numbers were high.
Great work!!!
Bingo 🎯
I suspect that is the case - in fact - tis easily proven.
Take the "ai" just released from China - and probably could figure it out in what - 15 seconds?
"Fishy" is the first word which comes to mind...
It sure looks like substack is now a stacked democratic deck being used to re-educate their followers. Time to find a new venue!
Looks like Substack has taken out a "life insurance policy" in response to the negative attention that has been directed towards Substack from the left. It's still fishy, but the stink is familiar.
Yep. Agree 💯. Substack has been infiltrated. But don't worry. Lies get exposed and Reich and krugman are known liars.
To us maybe. Nobody I know around me has ever heard of substack. Even conservatives.
Wish I knew where! Very few places I go now are free of their presence!
There was a truly TDS gal on one contrarian I read yesterday. Unbelievably sick in the soul about President Trump. She got tons of pushback but left still raging. They are getting orders. No doubt about it.
I just read one of Krugman's non-stop anti-Trump, fear-mongering screeds. This one isn't exactly subtle. The headline says it all: "Trump wants you to die."
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/donald-trump-wants-you-to-die
My math that allows me to predict Paul Krugman will be grossing at least $605,000 on Substack in 60 days ...
Krugman now has 130,000 subscribers.
Math: +3,600 new subscribers a day = 216,000 subscribers 60 days from now x 4 percent paid = 8,640 paid subscribers x $70/year = $604,800 Substack revenue.
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
I should have also mentioned that one of the kings of Substack is liberal documentary film-maker Michael Moore, who has even more subscribers than Robert Reich.
When I did my first analysis, Moore had 720,000 subscribers. Last I checked a day or two ago, Moore's fans had grown that number to 736,000.
Nobody on "our team" comes close to the total subscriber numbers of Reich and Moore.
You can contact Substack Trust & Safety with this reporting form: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new? You could ask them for an interview about money-laundering, subscriptions IP Address searches and policy.
From your article Bill,
"However, almost all of the authors who are benefitting from eye-popping subscription growth seem to be writers determined to take this beachhead away from the Contrarians’ army of writers".
I think that's the idea.
Remember that phrase from the Convid years "flooding the zone"?
I suspect that's exactly what's happening.
Flood the zone, dilute the message.
I love these AWESOME exclusive Bill Rice Jr exposes!
I will also say again that Substack Trust & Safety can easily determine whether these mysterious subscriptions are real or not because they see the IP Addresses of email subscribers.
If one IP address has thousands of subscribers, they would know it's a money-laundering scheme.
The question we now have is - do they want to look? Probably not. Looking might activate their consciences, which might lose them a lot of the money-laundering squeeze money. Better not to look.
The devil has scads of “followers.” Just sayin’.
“I can’t like this”, as my young children used to say. We need to find out how and why. It’s very suspicious.
Quoting:
“I also know for a fact that my own subscriber metrics changed (dramatically and for the worse) about 10 to 14 months ago.”
Yep - something is wrong, and that is when it started. The fact that Yuri Bezmenov has also noticed the anomaly tells us something. He understands implicitly the techniques once used by the Soviets in their AgitProp operations to destabilise their targets in the West. What is happening with Substack has all the smell of one such operation. The owners of Substack need to take care, however - there are no free lunches in this world. If they aid & abet a subversion operation by allowing the Goliath Establishment to use the Substack platform as a weapon to assault the contrarians, then at the end of the day they run the risk of being left with a worthless smoking ruin of an asset once the tide goes out.
Thank you Bill Rice for identifying this issue.
I would follow most of my authors unquestionably.
This trend us disturbing
Okay, after another review….Dan Rather has 420,000 subscribers?? And I’m Miss America….and where is Matt Taibbi??
Bert Parks: "There she is, Mrs McFar-arland! There she is, your ideal."
It Could Be. ;)
Dan rather? That old fossil? Now I am suspicious.
Old and angry….no way he has that many subscribers…..even free, no way
Yup. No way. That troll Reich the same.
yep, their numbers are fishy
Are You A Contrarian?
...and what is a 'contrarian' anyway?
https://tomg2021.substack.com/p/are-you-a-contrarian
Update on my total subscribers (a disconcerting observation) ....
I just checked my total subscriber numbers, which are now 7,093. I also checked the list/names of people who subscribed to my site yesterday (January 26). Per Substack's metrics, 15 people subscribed to my Substack yesterday (all free).
The day before I was at 7,090 subscribers. So if you add my 15 new subscribers, you'd think my current number would be 7,105. However, it's now 7,093. This must mean that while I added 15 new subscribers, 12 of my subscribers unsubscribed yesterday.
I went up 15 steps ... and then back 12 - for a net increase of only three new subscribers in the past two days.
Question: Why did 12 (free) subscribers unsubscribe in the past two days? Were these real subscribers or real people or not? I don't know.
We need to get the word out and ask the MAGA community, a majority of whom don’t visit Substack, to start a revolt and return Substack to its roots. Please list ten writers here considered “conspiracy theorists” whose subscriber rolls need improvement. I’ll get it done. We don’t have to put up with liberals purposely setting out to destroy our strongholds.
Good idea. We all should flood our personal zone. I’m going to link more.