PolitiMix

PolitiMix

Kill Notes ๐Ÿ’ฐ

Kill Notes #01

A new paid-subscriber column on the pieces I decide not to run, and why. This one: a scary statistic that is not what it appears, a viral photograph that is not real, and an argument I had backwards.

Aug 16, 2026
โˆ™ Paid

This is new, and it is only going to paid subscribers, so let me explain what it is before I get into it.

I kill a lot of pieces. Most weeks I start research on something, find that the premise does not survive the evidence, and stop. That work does not appear anywhere. It just quietly does not become an article, and you have no way of knowing it happened.

I have come to think that is the wrong instinct. What gets rejected, and why, says more about whether you can trust the things that do run than any individual piece does. So from now on the ones that die get written up here.

There is a second reason, which is more useful to you. Most of what I kill dies because a claim circulating online turns out to be wrong, and those claims do not stop circulating just because I declined to repeat them. You are probably going to encounter them. You should know what is underneath them.

Three this time.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to PolitiMix to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
ยฉ 2026 Tom Wellborn ยท Privacy โˆ™ Terms โˆ™ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture