Substack's Nazi Takeover

Amidst a Constitutional Crisis, Substack celebrates Nazis

Why is Substack celebrating this man?

Elon Musk is a Nazi and I will not pretend that he isn’t. Donald Trump is a Nazi. This administration has, in very short order, demonstrated itself to be a Nazi regime through and through.

I’m genuinely sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. But it’s not my job to make you feel comfortable. My job is to articulate, as clearly as I can, what I see and why it matters. Our job as citizens is to speak up on behalf of the United States and the human rights that have always been at the heart of this deeply flawed but aspirational national project. Silence is not an option, and burying our heads on the sand doesn’t change the brutal reality we are now in.

I think some people don’t fully understand what is meant by the word Nazi, so let me explain: genocidal white supremacist ideology is one part of it; state terror and the dissolution of democracy through democratic means is the other. Nazis don’t just paint swastikas on synagogues; they become dictators on day one. Forget the first 100 days; in just the first ten days of the Trump-Musk presidency, we have already seen staggering acts of both Nazi ideology and Nazi governance on proud, public display:

• ICE arresting anyone brown, regardless of citizenship

• Congress passing the authoritarian Laken Riley act

• Department of Defense eliminating observance of all federal holidays honoring marginalized minorities, including Jews

• Decarcerating and enabling 1600 members of the President’s loyal, white supremacist militias

• Purging of federal government employees

• Efforts to eliminate and criminalize transgender and gender-nonconforming citizens

• Legislation to install permanent dictatorship

• Violence against political opponents

• Unprecedented, flagrant disregard for the constitution and the rule of law

• Nazi salutes under the Presidential Seal in our nation’s capital

If you think Elon’s heil Hitler salutes are a distraction, you need to wake up. There is a direct and not insignificant line between the president’s top advisor and GOP boss saluting Nazis at the presidential inauguration and every other act of hate, terror, and democratic dismantling he and the rest of team Trump have wrought since January 20. A dictator from day one, indeed.

So why, after everything we’ve seen from this administration’s first ten days in office, has Substack chosen to celebrate Elon Musk? Adding insult to injury, why is Substack praising Elon for his laughably bad faith posture as a free speech absolutist?

Substack Co-Founder and CEO Chris Best: “The fight for free speech in 2025 and beyond”

Free speech is one of the most important freedoms we enjoy as Americans, and one of the critical liberties under assault as Trump and Musk apply the authoritarian playbook. We see censorious lawsuits against journalists, a proposed executive order rolling out the militantly suppressive Insurrection Act, outright threats and doxing of members of the media. At least one journalist already lost their job for privately acknowledging that Musk’s Nazi salute was, indeed, a Nazi salute.

But it’s even worse than that. The Trump-Musk administration’s dead aim at the first amendment is a group project, but Elon alone bears responsibility for running Twitter like a censorious dictatorship: axing whoever he doesn’t like, warping the algorithm to undermine truthful reporting, and amplifying hate speech and fake news. It bears repeating that Twitter is in fact a private company not governed by the first amendment. But Elon and his fellow free speech crusaders have superimposed their Orwellian assault onto the social media landscape, and on their own terms Twitter has operated under the antithesis of the supposed free speech they claim to revere.

Yet this is the claim Substack has made, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary and the plain fact of a Musk-driven constitutional crisis unfolding before their eyes. So what the fuck is going on?

Is

Chris Best

really so simple that he genuinely believes Elon’s absurd free speech bullshit? I don’t think so. Is Substack playing realpolitik and cozying up to our new dictatorship, just as legacy media and social media have since the November election? This seems more likely. Or is it the worst of all possibilities: Substack’s leadership knows exactly what they’re doing, consciously and deliberately deploying doublespeak propaganda precisely because it validates an authoritarian agenda they actually support? I certainly hope not.

Jonathan Katz at the Atlantic famously reported that Substack has a Nazi problem. Grappling with the complexities of free speech, hate speech, and platform privileges in the digital age is a serious challenge, and I commend anyone working through that balancing act with good faith and values that extend beyond raw profit motive. Asserting Substack’s independence and commitment to free speech seemed to be Best’s goal with today’s post, but the decision to honor Musk in so doing is as alarming as it is disconnected from reality.

We are in a very dangerous moment. As tech moguls are wont to do, Elon and Trump are moving very fast and breaking many things. I fear for the republic and the millions of people already victimized by MAGA’s return to power. Selfishly, as someone who loves Substack, I lament the moral and intellectual rot at the top of the platform. Substack has been an incredible place for me, a safe haven, a real community, a vibrant opportunity to constantly learn and engage. Substack has empowered me to grow as a writer, as a person, and as a citizen. It breaks my heart to see the platform I have come to treasure so compromised when the stakes are so high.

But I’m not leaving. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to continue deepening my connection to my beloved community here, I will never stop writing, nor could I quit naming and shaming the Nazis in our midst. That’s on all of us.

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