Substack has advised me to inform followers that I’m using Notes and invite them to “join” as well. I gather you may have received some sort of notification in any case, but I am doing as told and my apologies for cluttering your mail box if you did already receive e-mail notification.
I’ll try to use Notes to supplement my articles, as, for instance, in my latest note below.
The editor, unfortunately, still appears to have some kinks. I don’t know why there are two links to the NZ document and I wasn’t able to remove one without making the other go bad. But, anyway, let’s hope this works as an alternative to Twitter.
Right now, I have the impression that I’m essentially talking to the walls on Twitter. “Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach”, after all… I guess some followers are seeing my posts over there, but there is virtually zero non-follower engagement, whereas just a couple of weeks ago, when for some reason Twitter briefly let me out of my cage, non-follower to follower engagement was running at maybe 10:1.
I have doubts that Notes, as currently configured, can replace Twitter. Precisely because of these e-mails. Nobody wants to inundate their inboxes with notifications from thousands or even just dozens of followed Substacks. So, there has to be a way to follow Notes authors without necessarily subscribing to their newsletters. Otherwise, this is not a viable alternative. Maybe there is such a possibility and I’m just not understanding.
In any case, I’d be happy for feedback of course.
Everything below the following divider is not me, but Substack’s “invitation” template.
How to join
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to EdV’s Newsletter, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!
You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of EdV’s Newsletter can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.
If you encounter any issues, you can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance. Looking forward to seeing you there!
If I may summarize your ongoing main thremes/betes noires: (leaving aside Musk and Twitter) 1. German actors, far more than the usual American suspects, were the impetus for worldwide lockdowns and vaccine insanity, primarily (if not exclusively), to reap the financial benefits accruing to BioNTech. 2. The Germans are perfectly happy to remain out of the limelight, and let the "if only Trump/Fauci/Birx/US DOD/Pfizer" critics pursue their lines of inquiry, and leave out the critical rose of Germany in this totalitarian coup -- something Germany knows quite a bit about. .3. Germany is the largest funder of a totalitarian organization run by ex-convict Tedros presumably, again, for financial benefit. Of perhaps they want to indirectly control the world, which the WHO's pandemic treaty proposals would effectively achieve. 4. On another topic, Twitter, it is impossible to reconcile optimzing financial performance of a social media site, while at the same time allowing uncensored speech, because either advertisers or authorities will step in. The French press of the 1830s knew the rules and accepted them, and in any case it was all about style and political affiliation. We find the stratospheric levels of hypocrisy among the French elite shocking, but the only change in their behavior in the last few hundred years is that they pretend to be "on your side", whiule in the past, they saw no need. I met Breton a few times, who seems to be European minister for everything: not only countering "disinformation", but promoting "fair competition" (i.e. subsidies, no foreign imports), and a level playing field in public procurement (favoring French suppliers), preserving freedom of expression, so long as your thoughts align with those with your safety at heart ... you know this, and you get my point. The French elite are untouchable. Take Bernard Tapie. (Well, God took him first.) I suppose everyone on Twitter has an obsesssion: yours is correcting references to Pfizer that should be to BioNTech. But if Naomi Wolf et al had titled their book "The BioNtech Files" would there have been half as many sales? Boural, Fauci, Trump make far more "Austin Power" style villains than Drosten, Sahin (who he? why he's that nice Turk with the fake smile, who was gifted with the Covid vaccine patent), and the pathologically insane Karl Lautenbach. I understand your point about hammering away at the same issues, in hopes of alerting people about who their real enemies are, but people don't care about abstract institutions (except for all the people I follow on Twitter!), or foreigners they've never heard of. (Rihanna probably got 100,000 times more coverage of her testicles tweets, than you'll ever get. Such is life.) The idea of getting Americans riled up about European interference in American first amendment rights is too abstract. They get riled up about human demons, not organizations. Twenty years ago, prior to the Iraq war, the Americans adopted "Freedom Fries" and coined the term "cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys", in response to Chirac's valid criticism of the Iraq war, making no attempt to hide his intellectual superiority: "Ces pays (qui supportent la guerre en Irak) ont manque une bonne occasion de se taire". Current European elites not only avoid that language; they lie about absolutely everything in a smooth poished inoffensive manner. That is the key to their success. As for Substacks Notes, it looks to me like a non starter. I doubt Musk gives a shit about Substack Notes, finanically speaking. Intelllectally, it appears you know the end game -- European censorship will win -- it cannot possibly faile -- but you haven't yet given up on your "J'Accuse!". I admire you for continuing what you're doing. I hvae never posted, becuse I never did the resarch, but back in my careers in physics and investment banking all I can say is that telling the truth signified I was not a team player.
I don't like Twitter and I'm not crazy about Notes. Not a fan of short form stuff. Eventually I hope there will be a way to be more granular in the kind of notifications we get.