apo-, a learned borrowing from Greek, occurring in direct loan words where the meaning is no longer clear (apodosis) and with the meaning “away,” “different from,” as an element in the formation of compound words, etc., from Random House.
a-poph-a-sis (ah-pof’-ah-sis), n. Rhet. denial of one’s intention to speak of a subject which is at the same time named or insinuated, as “I shall not mention Caesar’s avarice, nor his cunning, nor his morality,” etc., from Random House.
Welcome to another episode of The Oracle Report
This week we’ll pluck a word from the oracle instead of leaving it to chance. Apophasis is a common tactic in Rhetoric and can be used in many different forms, clever, cruel and resourceful.
Can you say, “plausible deniability?”
Last week’s post was a general rant on current affairs as well as a reach for solidarity during the Memorial Day holiday. We will take no credit for any of it beyond copyright, although every word was sincere - but we never said any of it. It was a fluke since politics is not part of S&UP.
It’s not a lie, it’s a fiction.
All of it is real, but none of this is real.
Apophasis seems real enough, and my Greek friend tells me the word is still used in his native language, in some literal way, although it’s not for me to say since Greek isn’t my language. You’ll have to talk with a Greek. A beautiful language and the origin of much of the English language.
Truth be known that post was written with no awareness of the word apophasis or its’ meaning. It appeared during a broadcast radio talk show days later; took a while to decipher and its’ correct pronunciation still eludes me. But it’s a brutal form of communicating intent while denying accountability. Try it sometime.
We won’t say this is the end of the report, since it is.
Unaccountable Updates
Substack.com continues to grow and evolve with top creators earning millions of dollars, podcasts, videos, audio and a host of growth options like Notes, reposts, comments, recommendations etc.
All the while staying tenaciously with their core principles: a new internet economy that supports creators.
Since all of their revenue derives from paid subscribers, creators are important to them, and they show it by taking only 10 percent of proceeds from subscriptions, 90 percent goes to the creators (minus a small fee from the payment service). People are able to earn a living doing what they love without a middleman conglomerate hijacking the lions’ share and owning the content while cancelling dissenting views with impunity.
This is different.
Not everyone is an overnight success regardless of the content. Creators have complete control - we own our content, mailing lists and 90 percent of proceeds. We can opt out anytime and take our content and audience with us. We also have complete control of growth.
S&UP is among the group known affectionately as “freeloaders” since we make liberal use of the platform but generate no income. Some of us will go on to open a paywall, some will always post free content and some will end up in the graveyard of abandoned profiles. Harsh realities.
Here in S&UP readership is the objective; inactive subscriptions are culled because reader average suffers without readers. We’ve been here over a year now with consistent posts putting us in the top 12 percent of creators. Posting consistently is work. Our readership is generally over 50 percent, and we aim to keep it that way.
If we can grow the audience and keep high readership, we’ll be well positioned for a paywall - so the support will manifest into dollars - so that S&UP can continue - so we can keep doing what we do.
For obvious reasons Substack will never promote creators who are not earning income. Promotion is vital, income is vital, that’s the only way this can work.
So read here, explore, hit that little circle thing called restack, do something that gives back and shows your support. Most of the content will always be free (the best stuff), and there’s a lot of good reading already (read it myself). Substack calls this a call to action. The buttons are also calls to action, not just buttons.
Learned a new word thanks man.