(PRO TIP) Substack Notes has the most robust moderation tools of any social networking platform—from a certain perspective.

You can delete any post on your feed and block people instantly. This is important because Substack is a platform that deliberately creates the conditions for antisemites, racists, misogynists, Islamophobes, transphobes—et al.—to thrive by not engaging in any of its own moderation. And I learned a long time ago that Substack may ask for, but will never take, advice that contradicts what Hamish and Chris believe in, which is literally nothing beyond the idiot libertarianism children are attracted to in their late teens and usually grow out of.

My point: antisemites and racists and other cretins will show up in your feed from time to time with a brazenness these troglodytes don’t exhibit elsewhere because they are not coddled elsewhere the way they are here. Just now, I responded to a subtly antisemitic comment on my feed—from someone claiming to have no problem with Jews—with an accusation that I knew exactly who he was and what he was doing. He responded with an unabashedly antisemitic cartoon.

This is a platform with some really wonderful people on it, and also some really disgusting people. And the disgusting people will pretend to be otherwise to troll you. But the fact remains that we are all strangers to one another and no one deserves the benefit of the doubt when they come into your digital home and their first reply to you causes every hair on the back of your neck to stand up because you know you are in the presence of someone you would never have anything to do with in real life.

The people who care about what you write and who you are and creating dialogues are going to come on your feed with a friendly tone, a candid but respectful address, and a desire to ask questions rather than lecture you (and not the coy rhetorical questions trolls use to entrap their marks, either, but questions that indicate the asker realizes there may be things they do not know and areas of expertise they do not have; when we go onto others’ feeds to engage with them that is ideally the tack we all take).

On Substack Notes, we should feel free to delete posts at will, block people freely, and not waste our time with fake conversations with ill-intentioned people who (not for nothing) reveal almost their entire ideological agenda just by who they read. That’s right: because Substack bends over backwards to allow publications that include the most vile sort of bigoted content, you can simply look at who someone is reading to note trends in their worldview that reveal they are on your feed just to troll you—not to engage in discourse and certainly not to learn.

I admit that social media users with large followings probably have to learn some of these lessons faster and harder than others, but on the other hand so do women and Black social media users and Jews and Muslims and others who are rhetorical targets for the rising tide of Nazism and white supremacy in the United States that people like Elon Musk are deliberately stoking and people like Hamish and Chris simply do not give the first sh*t about pushing back on (indeed, they profit from it financially).

Never feel guilty about deleting a post or blocking someone. Your feed is your space—your home—and you can mind your home however you like because everyone in it is a guest, not a lodger. Trust your instincts: if someone enters your home and immediately gives you the creeps or makes you feel profoundly disrespected (as opposed to merely disagreed with, which is of course fine) you have a right to show them the door—instantly. You are not obligated to do a two-step with them or wait for them to remove their mask (or hood).