TODAY! 2 September 2026. Noon eastern. Monthly LIVE Substack chat with me. Paid Subscribers, join me for a roundup of anything you’d like to discuss. I hope to see you there.
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I remember the first time someone highjacked one of my comment threads. A friend and I had floated part of South Carolina’s Edisto River in tractor tire tubes to celebrate her fortieth birthday. (Yes, this really is a southern gothic activity. We towed our own adult beverage cooler in a separate tube and were on the lookout for poisonous water snakes and gators the whole time.)
Anyway, her oldest friend met us at the end with their collective children. We sat beneath a canopy of cypress trees and devoured watermelon instead of cake while tea-stained freshwater drifted by.
One of the youngest kids had an epic meltdown. I captured it on video and loaded it to Facebook so the mom could have a copy. (She wanted it to show her child how ridiculous they looked when they lost it.)
This was 2009, basically the dawn of social media. What could go wrong?
Well, one of my high school connections made a random comment about how she’d discipline her child if they acted like that. AND WE WERE OFF TO THE CAT-FIGHT OLYMPICS. People I didn’t even know were tuning in to watch. Some picked sides. Others popped popcorn.
I removed the post to stop the carnage.
These are things I’ve noticed in my own limited online forays. If you have others to add, please share them in a comment today. I want readers to have as many tools as possible to amass good information and filter out the rest.
Trolls
We’ve always had online trolls, but I think we’re seeing a dramatic uptick in AI-bot troll activity. These accounts may have human names or not. They may have avatars or not. They may have a cache of followers or not.
Their entire aim is to generate drama that distracts from the main message of a newsletter, live video, or note. Usually by name-calling and using profanity.
Whenever I encounter these accounts, I don’t even read their AI-generated drivel. I block them and move on.
Disruptors
This type of troll isn’t new, either. But their tactics appear to be more coordinated and sophisticated. (I’d put Pete Hegseth’s army of hired propagandists in this category, for example.)
Let’s say they come onto a LIVE event and they start talking about Gaza. Or Israel. Or genocide. Or Zionism. (I’ve seen this one on stun.) For purposes of this example, it really doesn’t matter which position they’re taking. The point is that the LIVE discussion IS NOT about those things. People start brawling in the comments, and the whole live becomes a waste of time for many attendees.
It’s very difficult to manage disruptors in real time, because they may engage normally at first. In my own space, I have no problem telling a commenter their input is off-topic and removing it. In other spaces, my go-to coping mechanism has become ignoring comments that have nothing to do with the main discussion.
Both trolls and disruptors exist to draw attention away from the primary information being shared, usually because their overlords don’t want that information to imprint on our collective consciousness.
Algorithmic censorship
Clicking LIKE, RESTACK, and SHARE matters more than ever. Especially if a writer is being throttled by the algorithm. (Like me.)
I use the LIKE button to let a fellow Substacker know I read their piece. For me, it’s like saying Hi, I was here.
I know asking readers to click the LIKE button is a tough ask. Because even I don’t like much of what I write. So think of clicking LIKE as an f-you to our billionaire overlords. Every time you click LIKE on good information, you shine a light on their psychotic, comic-book-level villainy.
You may think nobody sees or cares about your shares, but the algorithm does. Your enthusiastic use of these buttons may help more good information break through the fascist algorithm in the lead-up to the midterms.
So smash those hearts, restacks, and shares.
Outright censorship
I haven’t noticed outright censorship on Substack - YET. But it’s happening on all other social media: Meta products; TikTok; YouTube; the former bird site; and even sporadically on BlueSky.
Here are a few examples of information that’s being removed from the above platforms:
Any information in support of abortion - where to go to get one; how to get pills; where to apply for funding; and more.
Pro-contraception and sex-positive information.
Support of transgender people - especially children.
Critical discussions of techno-state governments, fascist platforms, fascist billionaire overlords and their underlings (Bari Weiss/CBS News comes to mind), and their goals.
Organizing discussions around ICE/DHS to protect immigrant populations and/or protest.
Information that is critical of AI, surveillance (data) centers, Flock cameras, and similar.
If you’ve seen other examples, please share them in a comment today.
Which makes it vital to do more than click LIKE and SHARE in these spaces.
My husband and I text each other things we want to make sure aren’t missed.
I screenshot posts, images, and notes often and share them with others instead of hoping they see my online share. Personal shares open up avenues for discussion where a possible newsfeed appearance may not.
Information that provokes an immediate, visceral emotion
I believe the recent story on men drugging and raping their wives and long-term partners while unconscious is an example of this kind of psy-op.
I’m not saying the underlying story wasn’t real. Rather, it was presented in a psychologically manipulative way that was designed to hit the amygdala and make victims more susceptible to brainwashing.
I know what this feels like, because it happened to me in WCN. Every time I have an immediate, visceral emotional response to information these days, I try to stop and ask myself what it could be targeting and/or what it is designed to draw my attention away from.
Stories of Democratic civil war
This is 100% designed to discourage people and distract them from voting in the midterms. The messaging is highly coordinated and near-constant. I don’t spend time reading this manufactured drama. Neither should anyone.
This week, I’m taking time away from my usual lane because I want my readers to get more out of their time online. We are headed into the most monumental election of our lifetimes. We MUST get it right.
We can do this, everyone. I believe in US.
Click LIKE. Click RESTACK. Click the SHARE button to share this newsletter with your off-Substack connections.
