Teams Human is a newsletter about being on the side of the humans in the pandemic and matters of public health. And not on the side of infectious diseases or business interests, but on the side of people. This should’ve always been an obvious choice, but unfortunately it’s not apparently obvious for everyone.
Conflicts?
I don’t have any conflicts to disclose. I’m on the side of the humans and public health.
I have not been paid to advertise anything or for product placement on my substacks or any of my other publications, or accounts on any other platforms or social media. I’m not using any affiliate links. I try to avoid brand mentions generally, but when I do I usually clarify that that I’m not being paid to do so. I don’t think it’s wrong to use advertising as a funding model, and I don’t begrudge it at all — it’s the disclosure part that I think is important. If I were to accept any kind of advertising here or elsewhere, it would be clearly recognizable and marked as advertising, and it would not be inline in-context product placement as I find that somewhat deceptive in itself, and also the types of things that tend to advertise that way tend to be stuff I would want to be so personally associated with.
In the U.S. technically bloggers, writers, influencers, and any kind of content creators, are required to disclose conflicts of interest and payments for promotion. But not all do, and some that disclose, do so in a way that’s technically legal disclosure, but so obscured or hard to find that it means that most people are not at all aware of the conflict supposedly disclosed.
As of September 2023, I currently have 6 paid substack subscribers altogether and have had less than two dozen individual different subscribers altogether since starting a substack in April 2022. There’s no way to do a one-time payment, and I’ve not spent the time to set up on any other system other than Substack, and on Patreon for anyone who would prefer that. Tumblr ended tipping and I just haven’t signed up for anything else. Some people do a one time payment by subscribing for one month or a couple months, because that’s all they can reasonably do or want to spend, and that’s fine.
I’m lucky to be ok for the moment, despite the pandemic, and the grotesquely mismanaged response to it, having ruined my ability to work in my previous professions. I publish stuff that I think it’s important to spread the word about. I don’t expect to make a living at it. The generosity and support of paid subscribers has covered some expenses, and I’m grateful and delighted for anything at all. And I would ask that people only subscribe if you have the capacity to comfortably do so.
I’m not a trained journalist nor a reporter. I am not looking to be in the influencer business. I never ever wanted to work in sales. I worked in advertising as an artist prior to the Great Recession and I am retired civil service. I have spent years reading about PR and learning about conspiracies and disinformation campaigns. There’s so much propaganda on the side against public health & safety, and I just want to add to the side of the humans.
Teams Human Socials
