Why is Naomi Klein Funding Substack’s Hate Machine?

I've already explored how Substack executives are generally terrible people who coddle white-supremacists, transphobes, and nazis to goose clicks, engagement, and revenues. This is extremely well documented at this point.

Numerous Substack newsletter authors openly feature swastikas while heaping praise on Hitler, spreading antisemitic or white supremacist conspiracy theories, attacking gay or trans Americans, and spreading ignorant dipshittery.

Once you've subscribed to that hateful slop, Substack's algorithm happily shovels you to countless others. You know, to broaden your horizons (and take a ten percent cut).

This was all brought up in a damning Atlantic article in 2024, culminating in a mass writer exodus from the platform after execs made it clear they simply didn't give a shit about morals or ethics. Earlier this year The Guardian confirmed nothing has really changed. Substack has simply stopped commenting.

Like most fascist or fashy-adjacent tech bros (Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg), Substack execs previously tried to hide behind pseudo-noble claims they just really love free speech. In reality, they're turning a blind eye to hateful, white supremacist, anti-trans ideology and bigotry to make an extra buck.

So if I see someone building a new media company on the back of Substack in 2026 – especially if you're purporting to be an ethical, truthful author with a keen grasp of politics and modern media – I'm going to have questions.

Questions like: "did you do literally any platform research whatsoever?" Or: "if you were aware of the platform's well-documented management problems, what was the reason you decided to ignore them?"

Enter Naomi Klein, whose books like No Logo were transformative for me as a youngster in New York City. This week, Klein announced she was launching her new newsletter, Patterns, on Substack.

In a parade of well-manicured posts on platforms like Facebook, Klein insists she launched a new newsletter on Substack to "help one another…