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Somehow, Steph returned.1
Seriously though, thank you all for waiting patiently while I took some time to focus on my family. I know Support Human has had a lot of hiatuses, but it’s never had one this important, and it means a lot to me that you all stuck with me as you always seem to do. I don’t take your care and loyalty for granted.
Because I’m catching up this week on a lot of news, updates, and content, I’ll do the regular Roundup next Friday. A new issue of Bad Job Bingo will be back on Monday.
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Beehiiv’s Tyler Denk Reminds Us That Tech is Just Assholes All the Way Down
As always, what I meant to write today turned out to be totally different than what I actually wrote. I had planned to speed-run a very incomplete review of stuff that happened while I was out, but then I re-read my notes for this news item and got pissed off all over again.2
In May, beehiiv’s co-founder and CEO Tyler Denk posted an Instagram story with a tweet3 in which he endorsed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt:4
Credit: Lex Roman
As you might know, this is relevant to me because beehiiv is the platform I use to publish the Support Human newsletter. But before we get into how shitty Denk is being here, it might be helpful to understand just how much of an absolute nutjob Pratt is.
Pratt gained his…celebrity, if I am being forced to call it that, in the aughts for appearing on a series of reality shows, starting with The Hills. His schtick on those shows was basically being a douchebag, a bit to which he has subsequently really committed.
So why do I call Pratt a nutjob?
Here is a nonexhaustive list of shit Pratt has done: he sold photos of an underage Mary-Kate Olsen to the tabloids. He once referred to himself as the “white Jay-Z.” He, along with his infamous wife, Heidi Montag, spread rumors that Montag’s best friend had made a sex tape to drum up ratings for their reality show, pretended to divorce as a publicity stunt, and have a business selling crystals for up to $2,700 each at their website PrattDaddy.com5 and are themselves obsessed with them, and say they blew $10 million on things like an armored truck and designer handbags because they thought the Mayan apocalypse would end the world in 2012. They also went on Alex Jones’ Infowars in 2017 to complain that their rejection of the New World Order is what ruined their careers; Pratt took that opportunity to claim that 9/11 was an inside job. And then there’s this:
Pratt joked to Jones that they are irrelevant now and that maybe the Jones interview would get their "juice" back. They'd like to make a comeback of sorts and think that having Jones in their corner could help.
[…]
The interview can be found in full on Jones' YouTube channel and veers between Pratt and Montag talking about the aftermath of fame and Jones pontificating about his usual topics like globalism, his admiration for Trump, and New World Order-led psychological operations.
He also made sure to call Hillary Clinton a "slug, murdering piece of crap" when Pratt coaxed him into a rant for Twitter.”
Got all that? Great. Now it’s time to remind you that this is the guy Tyler Denk endorsed in his Instagram story of a screenshot of a tweet that no longer exists.6
But that’s not all! It’s not just that Denk publicly endorsed Pratt, or that he did it in such a weird way, it’s what seems to have spurred Denk to endorse Pratt: Pratt’s campaign promise of abusing unhoused persons.
If you haven’t been following the LA mayoral race (and I wouldn’t blame you; I don’t live there, and the race only came to my attention because of this nonsense), you might not know that Pratt entered the race after his home with Montag and their family was destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire last year. Pratt announced his candidacy for mayor on the one-year anniversary of the fire, and the fire has been the primary focus of his campaign.7
That means that either Denk only paid attention to Pratt once he started confusing abuse as public policy, or it was the promise of the abuse itself that finally convinced him Pratt was his guy. (Or both. It could certainly be both.)
Either way, Denk liked the idea of further harming people who’ve already been hurt and abandoned by the capitalist system he benefits from so much that that’s what motivated him to get off his ass and suddenly care about his civic duty!
And if Denk also at least had the character to stand by his own assholery, maybe I could at least respect him. Alas — he does not.
Lex Roman is another content creator in the newsletter space that I admire,8 and they covered Denk’s endorsement of Pratt in their newsletter, Revenue Rulebreaker: beehiiv's CEO backs a MAGA candidate but don't pack your bags just yet.
Lex argues that despite Denk’s endorsement and behavior, beehiiv as a platform is (currently, at least) nothing like, say, Substack, which essentially bakes its founders’ shitty beliefs into the platform itself, meaning their shittiness directly affects you and your publication.
Their point is not that we need to find a platform whose founders aren’t assholes — unfortunately, you can’t toss an ultimate frisbee in any direction in Silicon Valley without hitting an asshole. Tech is just assholes all the way down.
It’s that we have to stay vigilant and proactive, in their apt words:
The question is not "where are we going?" like we're on some kind of family vacation needing to find a new hotel. The question is "how do I stay as independent and nimble as possible?"
beehiiv is still one of the best options for independent newsletter publications and creators9 — for now. When it's no longer a good option, we’ll find one that is.
This extremely reasonable and measured take was apparently too much for Denk. Here’s how Denk responded to Lex’s post:
Credit: Lex Roman
I wouldn't conflate me being in favor of the change that LA so desperately needs with anything to do with the platform or content policies
Why is it always the men who run literal content platforms who don’t understand the power and privilege of their speech? You are the CEO of beehiiv. You decide who and what gets platformed. You have absolute control over the content. Your customers’ livelihoods — your paying customers’ livelihoods — live or die according to your whims. Why, why, why do you not understand that your speech and opinions have everything to do with your platform and its content policies, Tyler?
My dude. This is little league shit. Please find a clue before your ignorance actually hurts you or someone on your platform.10
I also wouldn't consider Pratt "far right" - I dont identify with either political party. I'm just in favor of common sense (ie enforcing laws, auditing use of funds, prioritizing improving the city)
Okay, one: you can consider him a citizen of Mars, but that won’t make him one. Other far-right politicians certainly consider him one of theirs; here’s what Trump had to say about Pratt:
Trump himself recently gave a nod to Pratt's campaign. Asked about it by a reporter, he said: "I'd like to see him do well. He's a character."
The president added: "I heard he's a big Maga person. He's doing well."
Two: You’re in favor of common sense? Common sense from the guy who wasted millions because he thought a meteor predicted by the Mayans was going to end civilization? THAT GUY?
Also: that you think mass incarcerating the unhoused is common sense only demonstrates that you don’t have any, because any human being with a lick of common sense — not to mention basic decency — would have at least bothered to do a quick internet search into the topic before blindly believing a guy with no experience in anything but being a shit weasel and who himself lied about being homeless because he knew that voters wouldn’t relate to a rich dude living at the luxury Hotel Bel-Air in Beverly Hills.
That cursory Google search would have given you dozens of credible sources explaining why criminalizing homelessness doesn’t work.
Three: You don’t identify with either political party? So it’s just this promise of immense cruelty that finally spurred you into being politically active?
most of the people with an opinion on this don't even live in LA. I'm currently typing this from my car that is parked across the street from 2 homeless encampments / open air drug markets
Ah, yes. How dare people be visibly poor in front of you. This is obviously a crime.
tldr; me being in favor of new leadership to replace incompetent leadership shouldn't be a "warning shot" nor does it have anything to do with the platform. this post is hyperbolic for no reason
No, this post is hyperbolic for no reason. I can only take comfort in the fact that I’m publishing it on beehiiv, the content platform that has nothing to do with anything its CEO says or does. I guess we’re going to find out how true that is.
1 I don’t know why I made this reference; I don’t consider myself a villain (most of the time, this issue notwithstanding). I don’t even like the sequels. Or Star Wars. I’M SORRY. There are just so many of them. And they’re so long. So long and so boring.
2 Thank god for this newsletter as a platform for ranting. I just know I’d be back on beta blockers without it.
3 Don’t ask me why he did this, I have no idea. The tweet no longer seems to exist. Although just the fact that he’s still on The SM Platform Formerly Known as Twitter…says a lot.
4 It’s worth noting that this is also a timely story: LA held its mayoral election on June 2nd, and no candidate earned a simple majority to win outright, so they’re heading to a runoff in November.
5 I will forever hate Pratt just for making me type that out. I feel dirty.
6 Could it be that Denk did this because he endlessly craves the attention from publishing social media posts that he likes to pretend are witty and smart, but not the consequences that come with what are actually just bullshit takes that result from being a coddled and immature asshole in Tech?
7 Pratt has been highly critical of the local LA government’s response to the fire and its aftermath (and of California Democrats in general). I have no idea if there’s merit to these criticisms; I don’t know enough to have an opinion on that, aside from having basic human empathy to understand why he’s upset.
8 Hilariously, we connected through beehiiv’s Slack community for newsletter publishers.
9 Ghost is another very decent option that Lex didn’t mention, although it’s not as feature-rich as beehiiv yet. They’ve been churning out new features recently, though, so it seems they’ve caught on to the need to compete with beehiiv. I am also blissfully unaware of the political leanings of anyone in that organization.
10 I will direct you to Matt Mullenweg. Do you really want to be listed in the same category as that guy?
That's it for this week! If you have items for the Roundup you'd like to submit, you can do so at [email protected], but be sure to check out the Roundup FAQs first.
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