My Last-Ever Post Probably…
I’m sure this satire will be destroyed soon. I’ve lost faith.

Why The Establishment Doesn’t Welcome Open Dialogue or Discussion on Any of the Important Views Expressed By the Establishment


It might seem strange for a newly launched online publishing platform to not allow comments.
Why The Establishment Doesn’t Welcome Open Dialogue or Discussion on Any of the Important Views Expressed By the Establishment

As a platform dedicated to discussing issues that don’t usually get attention in mainstream media, wouldn’t we want to promote dialogue in our comments section? I keep this in mind when others call out issues they see in my words, and have come to value deeply the times when others invest energy in engaging with me, enabling me to evolve.
The truth is…we thought long and hard about whether to include a comments section, but when it came time to decide, each and every one of us said “no.”
The founding team’ve decided to share those reasons with you here.

What were we thinking with this whole ‘no comments’ thing?
It can be an uncomfortable and painful process to encounter new ideas or opinions, especially if they are directly critical of your work.

Our own reasons for deciding that we didn’t want a comments section:
“Comments sections rarely provide the thoughtful feedback they were designed for” — Kelley Calkins, Cofounder & News Director
A true discourse — however challenging — is vital to moving us toward a more equitable and informed society. A vast majority of my most formative ‘Aha!’ moments were borne of writers and thinkers rebutting and debating viewpoints. However, rarely happens in comments sections online — and certainly never as a result of hurled invectives or brutal ad hominem attacks.
Never once has being called a worthless cunt contributed to my personal growth.
Never once has being threatened with rape inspired intellectual advancement.
Nary a single time has being called ugly and stupid enriched my life or society in any way

Comments sections legitimize abusive language
- Nikki Gloudeman, Cofounder & Editorial Director
The Internet, that greatest of democratizers, has in many ways served as a powerful force for positive change; in the best of circumstances, marginalized voices that might otherwise be denied a platform are provided the critical space to be heard. But by its very nature, this democratization also provides space for those who have always been heard, and who least deserve to be: namely, privileged, hateful assholes.

The Internet presents the illusion that these bigoted voices carry as much weight, and deserve as much space, as the marginalized voices.
Every time, for instance, you read a story about rape, and then proceed to dive into a comments section where a bunch of men talk about how the woman probably deserved it or fabricated her story, you’re left with the perception that the voices of rape survivors and the voices of rape apologists are of equal merit.


Providing a platform for bigotry is an implicit endorsement of its value, when it actually has none.
Yet the comments section — which on paper is a virtual democracy in which all voices can and will be heard; it is decidedly Free Speech run amok.
In the bowels of those small white glowing boxes was a true, if twisted, cross-section of our society. And I’m wont to agree. There, in the blissful bravery that anonymity provides, people indulge their darkness; their basest fears. They bare their fetid teeth and claws, lashing out at those who are alternatively the most brave and the most vulnerable. And often in this Venn diagram of writers, they are both.
We have created and methodically maintained a ‘safe place’ for every disgusting ‘ism’ on the goddamn planet — while exposing writers and creators to the kind of caustic cruelty that as far as I’m concerned, only belongs in dystopian fiction. Clicking a View All Comments button is a mild manifestation, I suspect, of the Freudian death instinct.’
If the comments section is truly a cross-section of humanity, then we, as humanity, need to do better. Full stop. This isn’t about silence or censorship; it’s about civility.
It’s about fostering a critically thinking dialogue that isn’t predicated on expletives, fear-mongering, shame, or threats of sexual assault. Imagine that.”


Jessica Sutherland, Marketing Director,
I think I’m fortunate in this regard, because I see what happens to everyone else and it terrifies me. It’s not just the writers . . . it’s also those whose life experiences make the news who are attacked by these faceless Wi-Fi warriors.

I have hundreds of writer friends in my world, and I have seen them attacked in the comments, doxxed, threatened, and worse.
I fear for my friends’ safety, but I fear more for their openness — they are brave enough to share a part of themselves with the world, and this is how the world thanks them. What if they stop shouting their stories?
These garbage people don’t matter, in the big scheme of things.
That’s why it was not a difficult decision for the ladies of the Establishment to keep comments off our site: we strive to provide a platform for voices we seldom hear in the media, and our content creators offer up so much of themselves to our readers, so that readers may see things a little differently when next they look at the world. We have a responsibility to house that gift they’ve given us in a safe place of honor — not out in the yard, where the bottom-feeders can try to destroy it.

Women writers of color face disproportionate amount of abuse in the comments
-Ruchika Tulshyan, Contributing Editor
Writers who are also women of color encounter particularly damaging vitriol, mostly ad hominem, when they write about minority issues at the intersection of gender, race, and class. Prowlers hiding behind the anonymous and cowardly masks the Internet readily provides, I have often felt deterred from writing on important topics such as immigration reform.

The Establishment recognizes that the digital age gives trolls the very platform they need to spew venom at bold writers. So we take a proactive stance to ensure our courageous storytellers never feel a moment’s hesitation when telling difficult, multi-layered stories.

We always welcome well thought-out critiques by email.
“We love active debates, but politely decline assholish diatribes.” — Ijeoma Oluo, Editor-At-Large
The reason was simple: Abuse is not dialogue. Abuse is not speech. Abuse is abuse, and we owe it to our writers and our readers to stop legitimizing abuse.Assholes already have plenty of platforms from which to abuse women, people of color, disabled people, sex workers, the poor, and the LGBTQI community.
We won’t provide one here.
