There’s a scene in the third season of The Good Place, in which (spoiler alert) the main characters are trying to explain to a judge how difficult it is to be a good person. Just make good choices, the judge says. It’s not that easy, the characters reply, because each choice you make has ripple effects and unintended consequences.
Imagine you want to buy a tomato, they say. You could get in your car and go to big box store, thereby putting out carbon emissions and supporting multi-national corporations who purchase their tomatoes from factory farms who use immigrant labour working for shocking wages. You could research a local farm co-op, and use a bicycle to get your tomatoes, but how are you doing your research? Are you using a phone or computer, made from non-renewable plastics in another country by children? And if you spend all of your life doing that research to get to the best possible tomato, is that a life worth living?
Everything we do has consequences, and most of the time, we’re unaware of them. Blissfully so. Which is why I’ve taken a break from this newsletter as I try to figure out where I go from here.
Here’s the deal, in a condensed way that makes sense in my head but may not make sense to you:
This newsletter is published through Substack. I am, and I cannot stress this enough, not important to Substack the company in literally any way. I do not charge for this newsletter, I do not have enough subscribers to merit any consideration. They do not think of me at all.
But I think about them. Because when the company started, they were a hosting site for newsletters like this one. They had journalists and writers of all sizes use their platform to publish newsletters, and if those writers charged for their newsletters, Substack took a cut. Then, they made more money, and decided to court specific writers over to their platform, including writers with decidedly anti-trans and hateful views.
Which, I would argue, makes them more than a newsletter host, and turns them into a publishing company. They are deciding who to promote, and which writers get advances, and how to maximize profits through their writing. They are making editorial decisions.
So, some writers have left the platform, and others have stayed. What’s the right move? I don’t know. Is it better to take your readership to other sites in protest, or to push for change from within? There’s no real neutral publishing platform. I enjoy writing for many outlets, several of which have published works from writers I disagree with or find harmful. Also, I must say this again, it literally does not matter at all to Substack if I stay or go. But it’s something I’m wrestling with. What’s the best move forward? How do I find the right tomato? (The connection to the The Good Place feels technically correct, but still seems silly in this instance. Just go with me on this one.)
I, unequivocally and unabashedly, support my trans, non-binary, and GNC friends in their lives and in their push for a more equitable world. So while I figure out how to move forward with this little side project of mine, and where it might go from here, I’ll take it slow. From here on out, newsletters will come out…kinda whenever I want? And if I ever decide to charge for this thing, I’ll be upfront about what you can expect from me, and exactly who might be getting a cut of the profits.
Recommendations From the Slush Pile:
I’ve been baking a lot of bread and rolls lately, and I would like to try most of these recipes. Though ‘braided egg bread’?? That’s a challah, my dudes.
I wrote this piece about a disturbing video that made the rounds in Halifax last week. Since then, police have issued a warrant for the man in the video, but I don’t believe they’ve released any other information about their investigation into the officer.
Novel of the Week: Over the weekend, I finished two books that I absolutely tore through. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Magic For Liars were both entrancing in different ways. The first is a saga that had me hooked from the jump (Taylor Jenkins Reid is a master of the oral history genre, if that’s a thing.) The second is the noir detective saga I didn’t know I wanted from a Harry Potter-esque world. Fantastic.
One Last Thing:
Someone start a band with these dogs.