Why I block people.
Maybe I am wrong...
Maybe I am wrong...
I do not authorize psychological nor psychiatric formulations, interpretations nor diagnosis, etc. I am no lawyer and this is no legal advice, nor advice of any kind.
My reply to this Substack note
Just in case:
Alexa Maeve,
:"I think the block button is how they make us build our own cages, but they force us to do this by paying trolls to attack anyone who reaches across the political divide our broligarch overlords have constructed to generate profit."
Not for me. I am no lawyer and this is no legal advice, nor advice of any kind.
I block people for at least these reasons:
They are spreading harmful erroneous, false information.
They are not open to correct that despite being obligated to do so, Substack is not. Substack gives them freedom, and with that comes not responsibility alone, but obligation They are different. From obligation comes responsibility, not the other way around. Responsibility means responding, and they don´t respond and put themselves in a situation willingly, perhaps unknowingly to not being able to respond. They can´t call themselves responsible if they did not do their homework
They show extreme bias even in mere quotations.
Some quote someone else´s intellectual property without a legal standing to do so. Just the quote without legal context to do so is not merely poor intellectual work, it may be illegal, there is no exception AFIK to do so, their whole contribution is coping and pasting someone else´s intellectual work. It´s stealing one part of someone else´s property without a legal reason to do so. And they could put the link to the quote from the original work they got it from, that´s honest, legal, and the way the internet is supposed to work, that´s how Substack works in some reStackings as I see it. And I suspect some might do so knowingly they won´t get shafted by legal owners of such work, showing ill-will: they might not be not afraid of copyright lawsuits turning a mere infringement perhaps into a criminal one.
They do not receive comments to correct their false information unless I subscribe to them despite being obligated to be as barrier free to correct the harm to mere information in their actions which is accesible without subscription, and sometimes I suspect on the open internet nonetheless, giving me at least the obligation to find a way. And that´s burdensome for me.
They do not reply to direct messages, intended for me not to bring embarrassment for them by doing so publicly, or not putting them on the spot. Putting me in a position to be exposed to at least verbal violence.
They express racist, misogynistic, misandryc or ill-willed opinion, among others...
Any mix of the above or below.
They show not only ill-will but bad faith by being recalcitrant about it.
They show no significant understanding and no admission they don´t to my posts or comments. But on this I am sympathetic and understanding, I have been there.
They exhibit, perhaps without intent, willful ignorance by sitting themselves as despots behind their Firewalls. And at least one bragging about it!, And!, encouraging their readers to the same!, And!, fire walling me from pointing that to him or her by asking me to subscribe. And! claiming that´s how Substack is supposed to work. Despite Substack requires everybody not to make claims in it´s behalf without, I asume, explicit and appropriate legal means to do so.
They behave as if they knew they are not supposed to do something and try to do it in an “acceptable” way to the community at Substack proving to me their ill-will.
They show no intellectual honesty by not behaving as if they really cared for their readers knowledge, their readers understanding and all it implies, which I asume is not merely economical. They are not writing and publishing just to pretend to make money. They are not mercenary writers, I asume.
They express radicalized or Fundamentalist language, attitudes and behaviors, specially Pseudoscientific.
And some more. But I try to think about it.
Added: Substack is a source of inspiration for me. Filling it with low quality material even as a sample, sometimes as pretty bad examples, as bad deeds as Intellectuals, it sours my source of inspiration, at least because it entices me to engage and leaves me hanging. I can search somewhere else for inspiration… so, blocked…
Added: Advertising efforts, specially transparent efforts, specially if they also involved some of the above.
Added: Inanity on Notes, like silly questions or oblique non sensical out of context questions or comments. First I will try to mute, and then Block. Again, it contaminates one of my Sources of Inspiration, among others…
Added: People who Post useless work for me, specially without an appropriate, reasonable, explanatory, funny, etc., context. Specially if it seems or it could be plagiarism or copyright violations.
Added: Second hand pass the Post writers.
Added on June 18, 2025: People writing things which are uninteresting or unimportant to me and my work, specially repeatedly, hence making me work reading their wares to pass on them…
Thanks.
Federico Soto del Alba.