How Do We Fight Back?
The ultra rich love personally attacking creators & media. What do we do about it?
Hi,
New Zealand multi-billionaire Nick Mowbray continues to tweet at me, seemingly still unhappy about my Webworm story covering his apparent enthusiasm for far right, anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson.
Mowbray can be a bit hard to follow at the best of times, but I think this is a billionaire sort of dangling his money in front of me or something?
I don’t really know what billionaires do, but that’s my reading of it anyway.
And that got me thinking about Webworm, and how it all works. I shared these thoughts on social media yesterday (I am always trying to tell new people about Webworm), but wanted to get them all down in one place before I forget.
I haven’t sent this as an email — but it’ll pop up on the app, and I’ll link to it from a future, more substantial newsletter.
How Do We Fight Back?
I’ve been writing this newsletter for almost five years now, starting with a very humble little story about missing puzzle pieces. That’s not a metaphor — it was literally a story about missing puzzle pieces.
And over those years, I’ve been amazed at how great being reader-supported is.
It affords me the resources to research, interview people, write, pay guest writers, and get legal advice.
And I never, ever have to sell ads.
Most paying members (including some of you reading this — thank you!) pay $6.99 US a month, or less if it’s yearly.
Over the five years some readers have taken up 50%-off offers if they can’t afford it, and I currently comp 368 members whose financial circumstances changed, but wanted to stay reading & be a part of the community. Some of that is offset by readers giving gift donations to their friends and family.
Overall this all balances out to is a very positive Webworm-land, to the point where I hadn’t really clocked something pointed out on Twitter/X the other day:
My friend Kyle Church (of the 1/200 podcast) made this comment after I wrote about NZ billionaire Nick Mowbray tweeting about me and Webworm:
For some context: Mowbray made that comment about me on January 4, after I’d pointed out how he’s been passionately retweeting far right, anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson for most of 2025 so far:
I’d previously written in 2022 about Mowbray’s toy company “Zuru” successfully getting user details from workplace review site Glassdoor (so they could take legal action against those who’d left negative reviews about the Zuro work environment).
Anyway, Kyle had made a point I hadn’t really clocked: Where are the liberal rich folk (emphasis on “rich”)?
I think of Sean Plunket’s “The Platform”, single handedly kept afloat for years by Wayne Wright Jr — a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Who, or what, is the equivalent on the left? Is it Taylor Swift?
Do they even exist, or does wealth always just corrupt? God knows I’ve dealt with some insufferable ultra-wealthy people lately.
Webworm has an option (found at www.webworm.co/subscribe) if readers (or a business) want to pay more — and a few members have used it (THANK YOU!)
But largely Webworm is kept successful, ad-free and viable thanks to the cost of one fancy coffee per month. That system works.
But I do wonder if there are any truly wealthy people who want to push back. Again, Kyle’s tweet:
Sidebar: I thought I’d found my multi-millionaire backer in 2023 when a reader signed up for $36,000 a year. But… drunk or drugged, they’d done it in error.
I refunded the whole lot.
Payment system Stripe refused to pay me back the cut they’d already taken of that $36,000 :(
Anyway, GET TO YOUR POINT FARRIER!
There are three things:
Thanks to my readers who make Webworm work, and let me get under the skin of certain people, be they Megachurch leaders or Mowbrays. That includes any new readers who’ve recently come onboard. Welcome.
I am genuinely interested in Kyle’s question.
And if you do know the equivalent of a Nick Mowbray or a Wayne Wright (the Smeagol to their Gollum) that might like my work — please consider telling them about the “sponsor” feature.
Again, this is the link: www.webworm.co/subscribe
But mainly, yeah, thanks to all the Worms who take out a sub, or buy a tee, or come to a live Webworm event — you make all of this work.
David.
PS: Here is a puppy I met this week:
To approach Kyle's question - one of my other favourite journalists Robert Evans has a great BTB podcast episode about "Elite Panic" which goes into how wealth affects behaviour. Basically, there is a body of research that shows that as wealth goes up, so does a sense of entitlement and self-interest, while compassion and empathy go down. (Warning: not an easy listen, lots of death, but a very good one). If we look at the types of media wealthy people choose to fund, we see ideologies which continue to enrich them and preserve their positions of power. While I'm sure there are exceptions, the elite in general are much less willing to risk their own resources for the common good, but happy to spend on their own interests. So rich people are much less likely to be left-wing, and even if they are they are less willing to spend their money on non-profit things like public interest journalism.
I think about that episode a lot. Not only about how the rich and powerful will always look out for themselves, but how that is the antithesis of normal human nature - that the natural instinct of people is compassion and collective action. I think that's what Webworm readers represent.
I don't know what we do about these people, but I hope that you are seeing the 'Desperate Dave' label as a compliment; yes, you and the rest of us here in this space are desperate to see change, desperately hoping that others will too, and desperately sick of money and power providing a platform which allows misinformation to continue. Thanks for doing what you do!