We’re deleting our Patreon and here’s why

The journalism industry is challenging and we figured that opening up a new revenue stream based on crowdfunding was a wise course of action. Today we are deleting our Patreon and here’s why.

Over the last couple of weeks, prominent centrist and conservative creators were deplatformed on Patreon. The reasons for these moves were couched in language that invoked vague references to “terms of service” and “safety.” It was censorship based on ideology.

Now, we may not always agree with the high profile people Patreon has censored and kicked off the platform, but that’s hardly the point. And, yes, the company has every right to decide who it wants to do business with. But they attracted so much business to begin with because their CEO Jack Conte specifically pledged to respect the free speech rights of its creators. He lied.

Perhaps independent journalist Tim Pool put it best when he said, “Patreon doesn't seem to understand their precarious position. Ban someone from Twitter and people grumble. Strip someone’s income and people panic. This could trigger a ‘bank run’ on their platform. Maybe it’s already starting.”

The bank run is already starting. Prominent creators like Sam Harris have already walked away, and we are proud to stand in solidarity with him.

The high profile creators who were affected by Patreon’s purge will no doubt find a new way forward. We are more concerned about the little guy.

For every Sam Harris or Sargon of Akkad, there are hundreds of people just barely getting by, doing a weekly podcast in between their part-time jobs or classes. These are the people hardest hit by Patreon’s censorship. Many have lost most of their support. Some have lost all.

One friend of TPM disclosed to us that she lost one thousand dollars of support in one day as a result of users losing trust and walking away from the platform. She remains unsure if she will ever get that support back. We stand in solidarity with her and all of the other little guys Patreon has negatively affected as well.

Jordan Peterson broke it down quite well when he said, “They didn't just shut down Sargon. They shut down the free choice of thousands of people who funded him, in an effort to stop hundreds of thousands from listening to him.”

We remain hopeful for the the future of crowdfunding. It’s possible SubscribeStar will be able to survive its challenges and emerge as a viable alternative.

The new initiative by Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin to provide a brand new, free speech-friendly Patreon alternative looks particularly promising. When it’s ready, we will do our best to be the first to sign up.

In the meantime, we offer a direct subscription option on our website. There are many incentives, perks, and even swag. And the best part is that 0% of your money will go to a company that does not believe in freedom of expression!

We want no part of the new Orwellian direction Patreon is taking. It’s our belief that the woker they get, the broker they will get. And it’s very clear that their “Trust and Safety” committee cannot be trusted, and has, in fact, made the lives of many content creators a lot less safe.

So that’s it. We’re walking away.

Note: We reached out to Patreon for assistance in deleting our account. We wanted to ensure that the modest amount of money patrons intended for us was secured before deleting it. We emailed them this morning, and we have not heard back. We guess they're busy or something. So we hacked our own Patreon page while we wait. Enjoy!

The Post Millennial can be supported directly here.