Tom Cox

The very best album cover.

Thank you, Wes.

Please stop whatever you are doing and read this entire thread.

You’re welcome.
🐈

Tom Cox New writing by bestselling author Tom Cox.

THREAD. Late last summer I moved my newsletter away from Substack. I was not comfortable with the site's political choices, did not want to give 10% of my income to venture capitalists & felt Substack had reneged on their commitment to long form writing. My newsletter is now here: www.tom-cox.com

A bullock runs up a Cotswolds hill as the sun sets in the background, making everyone feel like they have stepped into one of the illustrations by Kit Williams in his book Masquerade, even though at that point the bullock hadn’t read it (I loaned him my spare copy later that evening in a pub in Dursley and, as anticipated, he never returned it to me, which is fine, and just the way things go with books).

Almost certainly the most psychedelic photo I have taken of a bullock at sunset.

1. By reposting this I might annoy people who already saw it.

2. Each time I post it someone tells me they enjoyed it so much they bought the book.

3. The book almost died in a ball of fire due to the demise of my ex-publishers.

4. It's fucking good.

5. I believe "no brainer" is the expression.

In case you were in any doubt about how brilliantly ridiculous this cat from the thread below is, I thought I would post this exclusive video clip as absolute confirmation.

Thank you!

Come for the cat pics, stay for the ALT-text!

(The T.P. reference just slew me! Literally --> 😂)
.

Jim is always so excited when Charles comes in filthy from his adventures and in desperate need of the services of his personal valet.

This is by far the nicest thing I read today. I live together with Koen en Bertje, two orange colleagues of Jim. They are very helpful in the house and garden. They have a political party called @partijvandebrokjes.bsky.social (the Brikkle Party). Maybe Jim can join them on foreign affairs.

Thank you!

Thanks Sara!

This thread is delightful.

In case you were in any doubt about how brilliantly ridiculous this cat from the thread below is, I thought I would post this exclusive video clip as absolute confirmation.

Jim cleaning behind Charles' ears, which can get very dirty.

This photo also looks like Jim is cleaning Charles but he is actually just eating a Rice Krispie he found on Charles' neck.

... But it turned out there was more to Jim's arrival than we had initially assumed. He had actually been invited over to our house by our cat Charles, to work full-time as a personal valet for Charles.

Very excellent thread 🐈

I subscribe to MUBI films at the moment. If I forget to cancel and my subscription autorenews, I wouldn't think, "Oh, I'll flag that payment to MUBI as fraud." I'd think, "Damn, I forgot to cancel when I meant to. That was silly of me."

Why is the system rigged so individuals get punished?

🧵

... but feel that, because of that, they have a right to insult the waitstaff." I don't think that's fully it, but maybe it makes me understand it a bit more. Which helps. Because I've been feeling quite bewildered, and like the Substack mindcult is a very alien world - and way of thinking - to me.

like what a lot of my more recent subscribers see themselves as doing, even though I *do* try to provide a service of sorts and write a lot of exclusive stuff for paying subscribers). Someone recently said to me "It's a bit like American tipping culture. That thing where some people tip well...

Just as a P.S. to this: I did have a kind of revelation about all this, and the attitude it stems from. I think a lot of those Substack loyalists who found me on there in 2023, 2024 and early 2025 saw themselves as "paying for a service" more than "supporting someone's writing" (which feels more

Thank you!

Pls read Tom's whole thread

Moving away from substack is much harder than substack promised and some people apparently don't realize how small folk (writers, artists, businesses) get punished when you flag a transaction as fraud

... they don't say Substack on them, and I no longer support the lifestyle of Chris Best, the co-founder of Kik Messenger, and his cohorts, with my writing.

I already felt a bit creeped out by the cult of Substack, and was glad I'm left, but now I'm *really* glad I left. Despite what it's cost me.

... I understand how fragmented and messy the online world is & why people want to streamline what comes at them, but I have scratched my head about this, over and over. THE NEWSLETTERS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. Literally the only difference is that they're much cheaper (if you want them to be) and...

... That is to say: if I'd carried on writing the same stuff I'm writing now, just as regularly, but - instead of being an independent person, surviving via his art, and trying to make it more affordable for the people who wanted to read it - chosen to use it to boost the wealth of some tech bros...

That is to say: I had thought they were supporting my writing & might - if they could afford to - continue to do if I kept up the quality and the regularity of it. But in fact, what they wanted was the word "Substack" on an email. Some even said they'd not have cancelled if I'd "stayed" there...

... Yes, some of the people who made fraud claims about the subscriptions they had chosen to pay for *did* think I'd vanished, but some, I realised, were still getting the newsletter, but were furious I'd left Substack & had flagged the payment as fraud in protest of the fact I'd left....

... about Substack. I mean, apart from the fact that it's not the writer's friend is makes itself out to be, and the fact that the promise it made about how easy it would be to leave is a false one. It's a modern kind of brainwashing, a cult which people are bafflingly loyal to...