Author: VD

Tactics are not objectives

Andrew Klavan points out the irony of Democrats complaining that Republicans are now utilizing their tactics:

As Roy Moore’s troubles were just getting underway, leftist CNN commentator Van Jones made what has to be one of the least self-aware and yet most revealing comments of the Trumpian Age. Targeting Breitbart firebrand Steve Bannon, who had promoted Moore, Van Jones said, “Bannon is trying to create this sense of an aggrieved identity, frankly, of a white aggrieved identity group that’s under siege by everybody. And this is that in its worse form. So, you’re not supposed to vote as a father, you’re not supposed to vote as a woman. You’re supposed to vote as a member of this identity group against the world. And if that works, that is very, very bad for the Republican Party and it’s very, very bad for our country.”

This comes from the man — from the political party — from the philosophy — that has sold absolutely nothing but aggrieved identities for the last sixty years, ever since it became clear that actual leftist policies don’t work. Blacks, women, people who think they’re women, people who pretend to be black — whatever category you find yourself in, the left has preached that you should ignore the disaster of leftism and focus only on your sweet victimhood, voting your grievances even when it’s against your best interests.

In other words, Van Jones’ only real complaint against Bannon is that Bannon has sunk to the level of Van Jones!

Ignore the whining. And don’t punch back twice as hard. Punch first, and hit them where they’re not looking when they’re not expecting it.

Identity politics are now the rules of the game. Learn to play by them or lose.

Don’t worry about setting examples or troubling precedents. The examples and the precedents are set, whether you like them or not, and whether you approve of them or not. Who cares about accusations of hypocrisy? These days, the only difference between the hypocrite and the non-hypocrite is that the hypocrite has standards, even if they are chiefly acknowledged in the breach. That is vastly preferable to having no standards at all.

However, Klavan and other conservative commentators have got to get over their irrepressible desire to fix the Left and understand that they don’t get a vote. The point is not to prove to the Left that they are wrong and that they should stop what they are doing and behave more like we do. The point is to defeat them utterly, then eradicate their ideas from Western civilization before they manage to destroy it once and for all.

A continent, not a government

Rather a lot of this “conservative manifesto for Europe” not only sounds encouraging and inspirational, it sounds familiar:

1. Europe is our home.
Europe belongs to us, and we belong to Europe. These lands are our home; we have no other. The reasons we hold Europe dear exceed our ability to explain or justify our loyalty. It is a matter of shared histories, hopes and loves. It is a matter of accustomed ways, of moments of pathos and pain. It is a matter of inspiring experiences of reconciliation and the promise of a shared future. Ordinary landscapes and events are charged with special meaning—for us, but not for others. Home is a place where things are familiar, and where we are recognized, however far we have wandered. This is the real Europe, our precious and irreplaceable civilization.

2. A false Europe threatens us.
Europe, in all its richness and greatness, is threatened by a false understanding of itself. This false Europe imagines itself as a fulfilment of our civilization, but in truth it will confiscate our home. It appeals to exaggerations and distortions of Europe’s authentic virtues while remaining blind to its own vices. Complacently trading in one-sided caricatures of our history, this false Europe is invincibly prejudiced against the past. Its proponents are orphans by choice, and they presume that to be an orphan—to be homeless—is a noble achievement. In this way, the false Europe praises itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.

3. The false Europe is utopian and tyrannical.
The patrons of the false Europe are bewitched by superstitions of inevitable progress. They believe that History is on their side, and this faith makes them haughty and disdainful, unable to acknowledge the defects in the post-national, post-cultural world they are constructing. Moreover, they are ignorant of the true sources of the humane decencies they themselves hold dear—as do we. They ignore, even repudiate the Christian roots of Europe. At the same time they take great care not to offend Muslims, who they imagine will cheerfully adopt their secular, multicultural outlook. Sunk in prejudice, superstition and ignorance, and blinded by vain, self-congratulating visions of a utopian future, the false Europe reflexively stifles dissent. This is done, of course, in the name of freedom and tolerance.

4. We must defend the real Europe.
We are reaching a dead-end. The greatest threat to the future of Europe is neither Russian adventurism nor Muslim immigration. The true Europe is at risk because of the suffocating grip that the false Europe has over our imaginations. Our nations and shared culture are being hollowed out by illusions and self-deceptions about what Europe is and should be. We pledge to resist this threat to our future. We will defend, sustain and champion the real Europe, the Europe to which we all in truth belong.

5. Solidarity and civic loyalty encourage active participation.
The true Europe expects and encourages active participation in the common project of political and cultural life. The European ideal is one of solidarity based on assent to a body of law that applies to all, but is limited in its demands. This assent has not always taken the form of representative democracy. But our traditions of civic loyalty reflect a fundamental assent to our political and cultural traditions, whatever their forms. In the past, Europeans fought to make our political systems more open to popular participation, and we are justly proud of this history. Even as they did so, sometimes in open rebellion, they warmly affirmed that, despite their injustices and failures, the traditions of the peoples of this continent are ours. Such dedication to reform makes Europe a place that seeks ever-greater justice. This spirit of progress is born out of our love for and loyalty to our homelands.

6. We are not passive subjects.
A European spirit of unity allows us to trust others in the public square, even when we are strangers. The public parks, central squares and broad boulevards of European towns and cities express the European political spirit: We share our common life and the res publica. We assume that it is our duty to take responsibility for the futures of our societies. We are not passive subjects under the domination of despotic powers, whether sacred or secular. And we are not prostrate before implacable historical forces. To be European is to possess political and historical agency. We are the authors of our shared destiny.

7. The nation-state is a hallmark of Europe.
The true Europe is a community of nations. We have our own languages, traditions and borders. Yet we have always recognized a kinship with one another, even when we have been at odds—or at war. This unity-in-diversity seems natural to us. Yet this is remarkable and precious, for it is neither natural nor inevitable. The most common political form of unity-in-diversity is empire, which European warrior kings tried to recreate in the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. The allure of the imperial form endured, but the nation-state prevailed, the political form that joins peoplehood with sovereignty. The nation-state thereby became the hallmark of European civilization.

8. We do not back an imposed, enforced unity.
A national community takes pride in governing itself in its own way, often boasts of its great national achievements in the arts and sciences, and competes with other nations, sometimes on the battlefield. This has wounded Europe, sometimes gravely, but it has never compromised our cultural unity. In fact, the contrary has been the case. As the nation states of Europe became more established and distinct, a shared European identity became stronger. In the aftermath of the terrible bloodshed of the world wars in the first half of the twentieth century, we emerged with an even greater resolve to honor our shared heritage. This testifies to the depth and power of Europe as a civilization that is cosmopolitan in a proper sense. We do not seek the imposed, enforced unity of empire. Instead, European cosmopolitanism recognizes that patriotic love and civic loyalty open out to a wider world.

9. Christianity encouraged cultural unity.
The true Europe has been marked by Christianity. The universal spiritual empire of the Church brought cultural unity to Europe, but did so without political empire. This has allowed for particular civic loyalties to flourish within a shared European culture. The autonomy of what we call civil society became a characteristic feature of European life. Moreover, the Christian Gospel does not deliver a comprehensive divine law, and thus the diversity of the secular laws of the nations may be affirmed and honoured without threat to our European unity. It is no accident that the decline of Christian faith in Europe has been accompanied by renewed efforts to establish political unity—an empire of money and regulations, covered with sentiments of pseudo-religious universalism, that is being constructed by the European Union.

10. Christian roots nourish Europe.
The true Europe affirms the equal dignity of every individual, regardless of sex, rank or race. This also arises from our Christian roots. Our gentle virtues are of an unmistakably Christian heritage: fairness, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, peace-making, charity. Christianity revolutionized the relationship between men and women, valuing love and mutual fidelity in an unprecedented way. The bond of marriage allows both men and women to flourish in communion. Most of the sacrifices we make are for the sake of our spouses and children. This spirit of self-giving is yet another Christian contribution to the Europe we love.

The Alt-Right is inevitable. It doesn’t need leaders, dramas, or monkey-dancing for the media. It simply needs to stay focused relentlessly, and fearlessly, on expressing the truth. Globalism, multiculutralism, civic nationalism, and progressivism are rely upon the enforcement of lies. The truth will set us free.

A reader sends a not-unrelated quote from Toynbee:

“The moth’s self-inflicted doom is an apt simile for the nemesis that overtakes the barbarian invaders of more prosperous societies that lack the military strength to hold their aggressive barbarian neighbors at bay. The barbarian invaders’ greed is self-defeating. If the the intruders are not eventually exterminated by a counter-stroke, as the Gutaean conquerors of Sumer and Akkad were, they survive only to share in the impoverishment that they have inflicted on their victims.”

The problem, of course, is that even impoverishment by European standards is still better than living in non-European filth. And the European women are considerably more accessible, both with and without consent.

Mailvox: Justice League review

DJ watches it so you don’t have to.

I had some time to kill in town today. Didn’t want to drive back home just to turn around. Decided to roll the dice and see the Justice League Movie. Consider this me taking one for the team.   It was abysmal. Just flat out boring. But it was offensive, too.

Before the opening credits even completed, while the movie tries to convince us the world has gone to hell with the death of Superman, we witness two angry white men (one with a shaved head, of course) assaulting a grocery owning Muslim family.  But that’s actually the only “bad” scene we see. All the other scenes were just of urban decay and sad people in mourning.

Yet, that’s not the only reason I found the movie offensive. It was a horrendously dumbed-down version of the DC Apokolips/Darkseid mythos. Truly awful. Further, the introductions of Aquaman and Flash completely rewrite those characters, making them as annoying as they are impotent.

Flash is a self-described fearful Jew who admits being scared of bugs and running away from trouble, perfectly ok letting others do all the fighting. Arthur Curry is a depicted as a petulant and spoiled resigned member of Atlantis, who even with near godlike power and freedom, drinks himself silly while complaining about his mommy.

Cyborg was pretty on point and probably the best part of the movie.

A risen Superman?  Boring. Made more so by returning him to his all-powerful, Silver Age, personality-missing, truth and justice (minus the American Way) flying savior.

Wonder Woman?  Well…let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if Zach Snyder ends up on the Miramax Scoreboard soon considering how many times we got to see a center focus shot of Gal Gadot’s rear. As for her character?  By the end of the movie she’s telling us Batman wanted her to lead the team (which he never actually does), and that she’s supposed to be the glue for the league, all the while smiling patronizingly at all the “supermen” around her…until of course a shirtless Clark Kent arrives on scene, at which point she drops the smile and visibly quivers at the sight of hairy Henry’s chest.

Not ever how the angry-and-suspicious-of-all-men Wonder Woman was ever depicted.

Bruce Wayne/Batman?  Fat. Fat, and not at all intimidating on any level. The Batman. Not intimidating. It’s a joke, but when Barry Allen asks what Bruce’s super power, Bruce responds, “I’m rich,” but that’s clearly what we’re supposed to take away from Batman. He’s too old, too slow, past his prime, useless without real powers (as even stated by Arthur Curry), and nothing without his money.

What. The. Hell.  Not the greatest tactician to ever live. Not the world’s greatest detective. Not the most feared crime fighter villains have ever faced – also, every human bad guy in the movie is a white male; even Steppenwolf is depicted with pinkish white skin. No. Batman is just sort of the Justice League’s bruised-and-broken, Scotch-drinking rich uncle.

There was never any real danger once they raised Superman. None. No challenge. No real conflict. Just that tired trope of “if only we come together as a team, we can defeat anything,” and do it better than all those who did it before. Before, it took the combined forces of all the Amazons, all the Atlantians, all the heroes of all the tribes of man, AND the old gods to defeat Steppenwolf and the danger of the trinity box. This time it just takes a desire for justice as stated by Superman at the beginning of the final battle.

Ahhh!!  Even the CGI landscape the League flies into for the final battle looked cheap and fake!  Nothing about this movie reminded me of the hours I’d spend reading comics growing up!  None of it!  Not even the rise of Superman carried any inspiration whatsoever.

These mythical stories and adventures are supposed to inspire us to be better people, but this movie wasn’t that at all. It was plain and not mythical. It was common and trite. It wasn’t even good brain candy. It was exhausting.

It was just boring.

Shaking the industry

I doubt we’ll ever know if the success of the Alt★Hero kickstarter helped galvanize Disney into replacing the head SJW at Marvel. But I, for one, will mourn the departure of Axel Alonso from Marvel before he had the chance to sink it even deeper.

Marvel Entertainment, the home of Captain America, Spider-Man and the X-Men, among other colorful heroes, is undergoing a change in leadership. The company released a statement Friday announcing the appointment of C. B. Cebulski as editor in chief. Mr. Cebulski is replacing Axel Alonso, who served in that role since 2011 and is leaving Marvel.

As one of the public faces for Marvel, Mr. Alonso sometimes found himself at the forefront of controversies. In April Marvel took a beating on social media after seeming to link poor sales to a lack of enthusiasm for newer characters who were female or had diverse backgrounds. In fact, it was a handful of retailers in a small subset of comic-shop owners who felt that way.

As well as the 20 percent of comics buyers who stopped buying comics over the last year. Sadly, we can’t count on Marvel continuing to implode, although it may well do so. Fortunately, Alonso’s co-conspirator, Brian Bendis, is now at DC Comics and we can be absolutely confident that he’ll be doing his best to sink DC in much the same way he helped sink Marvel.

Then again, upon further review, I think we can be confident that the more things change at Marvel, the more they stay the same.

But the biggest thing that Cebulski might be known to fans for directly, is editing the company’s sleeper hit series, Runaways. The series, written by Brian K. Vaughn (Y the Last Man, Saga) and drawn by Adrian Alphona, featured a diverse and compelling cast of teenage children of supervillains rebelling against bad guys and good guys alike.

Ah, how I do love the smell of convergence in a competitor! In any event, we are going to shake up the industry in ways that no one who is in it can presently imagine. I can’t say anything more about it now, but rest assured, we are going to be hitting them from sides they didn’t even realize they had.

I’ll be sending out emails soon to all the backers with the promised postcards and a few other digital bonuses, one of which you’re going to be able to see on Monday as part of my new monthly column on the culture war.

The social media war on the Right

Wife with a Purpose@apurposefulwife
Just checked my email. @Jack you darn well know I’ve  violated none of the TOS. I know @TRobinsonNewEra lost his too and @VoxDay was suspended. Do we have any recourse?

The only recourse is to build our own platforms. If you want to help replace Twitter and Facebook, then support Infogalactic. This war on the Right by the social media giants has made it clear that we not only need our own social media platform, but we need one with the capability of taking the center away from them. Which is why we are building the foundations for one into the DONTPANIC engine, in addition to its wiki functionalities.

Good luck with that

Ben Garrison’s cartoon attempting to make the case for civic nationalism instead tends to demonstrate its utter hopelessness, and rather effectively makes the case against it.

The Alt-Right is correct and the Alt-Right is inevitable. You can no more instill an instinctive respect for the U.S. Constitution, the Common Law, and Anglo-American culture into immigrants, no matter how long they are resident in the USA, than you can instill Rohinga values into Americans during a visit to a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Think about it. Do the Jews, the Italians, the Irish, or the Scandinavians value small government today, even after more than 100 years of residence in the USA? No. Not even a little bit. They have learned to speak English, but they have never learned to value limited government. They are not, they have not been, and they will never be Americans in the original sense of the term, which is simply another way of saying “British colonist”.

Hence the references in the Declaration of Independence to “ties of consaguinity” and “British brethren” and “King George”. The American revolutionaries were not declaring independence from Gustav II of Sweden, Emperor Joseph II of the Hapsburg Empire, or  Alvise Giovanni Mocenigo, the Doge of Venice.

The Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, and various and sundry other post-1965 immigrant groups aren’t going to become Americans either. Not now, and not in 10 generations. They will NEVER accept or respect the historical Anglo-American values upon which the country was founded.

The point is that there is no “fractured America”. It is the USA that is fractured into America and various flavors of Not-America dating back to the mid-1800s. It worked, for a while, because the American residents sufficiently outnumbered the Not-American residents while immigration was almost entirely shut down between 1920 and 1965. They don’t outnumber them anymore, which is why the USA will never be synonymous with America again.

Resign, Frankenstien

The Democratic wall begins to crack. Two DFL officials call for (((Al Franken)))’s resignation for sexually harassing Leeann Tweeden:

Two prominent members of Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party are calling on Sen. Al Franken to resign his Senate seat following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Although many other Democrats have called the former comedian’s actions disturbing, state auditor Rebecca Otto and Megan Thomas, president of the party’s official Feminist Caucus, say he should leave office.

The allegations were made Thursday morning by radio host Leeann Tweeden, who said Franken harassed her during a 2006 USO trip to the Middle East, before he was elected to the Senate in 2008.

Tweeden said Franken wrote a play to be performed in front of troops featuring a kiss, and then forced his tongue into her mouth after insisting on practice. A photo also shows a grinning Franken’s hands over Tweeden’s breasts while she was asleep.

Otto, a candidate for governor in Minnesota, said in a statement that “I believe it’s in the best interest of Minnesotans and of women everywhere for Senator Franken to resign, and to set an example to powerful men across America that sexual harassment will not be tolerated.”

Thomas, meanwhile, told the Washington Examiner that Franken’s misconduct was “every woman’s nightmare on a bus.” In a Facebook post, the longtime party organizer wrote that while she appreciated his progressive vote record, the fear Franken will instill in women is enough reason for his departure.

“The ‘political’ answer is to wait and not overreact. But I also know that the next time I see him in person I will, however fleeting or unneeded, be afraid because of what he is doing in that picture. No one should fear their elected representatives, so, sadly, for me, I think the Senator should resign,” she wrote.

After the initial allegations, Franken called for an ethics investigation into himself, and many Democratic colleagues called the allegations disturbing, but stopped short of demanding his resignation.

Otto’s statement was the first from a major officeholder to demand his resignation. Many state Democratic officials are standing by Franken for now, while expressing concern about the allegations.

Fish Lips Franken has to go. I don’t see any way he can reasonably survive that photograph and the credible details of the accusation by Tweeden. And, of course, there are already other credible accusers coming forward, so there will probably be more material evidence forthcoming. The difference between the Franken case and the Moore case is that Franken’s accusers have evidence and are credible, while Moore’s accusers have nothing but “evidence” that was clearly faked and are not credible.

Moreover, the accusations of Franken are consistent with his known public behavior, whereas the accusations of Moore are not.

That being said, the craven response of the Democrats, especially the female Democrats who talk such a big game about feminism and sexual harassment, is going to hurt them. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, in particularly, looks pathetic and cowardly.

The God-Emperor, on the other hand, has got this one down cold.

“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?”

Senator Sexual Harassment

Sen. Al Franken must step down from the U.S. Senate at once for physically molesting Leann Tweeden.

As a TV host and sports broadcaster, as well as a model familiar to the audience from the covers of FHM, Maxim and Playboy, I was only expecting to emcee and introduce the acts, but Franken said he had written a part for me that he thought would be funny, and I agreed to play along.

When I saw the script, Franken had written a moment when his character comes at me for a ‘kiss’. I suspected what he was after, but I figured I could turn my head at the last minute, or put my hand over his mouth, to get more laughs from the crowd.

On the day of the show Franken and I were alone backstage going over our lines one last time. He said to me, “We need to rehearse the kiss.” I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL…we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’ He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.

He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.

I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time.

I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth.

I felt disgusted and violated.

Molesting a sleeping woman? Even a Kennedy wouldn’t stoop so low. Franken has to go, and go now. Let’s see if Messrs. McConnnell, Cruz, and Ryan can summon up the same outrage for actual sexual harassment 11 years ago for which there is photographic evidence as they have for the nonexistent kind that didn’t happen 40 years ago.

Nor is it likely to be the only time (((Franken))) did something like that.

During the meeting, writers are brainstorming about how to develop a sketch in which one of the actors plays “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney, who finds an empty pill bottle in his desk. According to the article, Franken’s suggestion includes Rooney saying: “I give the pills to Leslie Stahl. Then when Leslie is passed out, I take her to the closet and rape her. Or ‘That’s why you never see Lesley until February. Or, ‘When she passes out. I put her in various positions and take pictures of her.’ ”

This isn’t new and this isn’t news. Read Portnoy’s Complaint. It’s all right there, courtesy of Mr. Roth. Notice the bitter, butthurt behavior (((Franken))) exhibits after Tweeden refuses to play along with his “joke” too.

UPDATE: Once the true nature of these harassers is revealed, the floodgates tend to open:

Phil Kerpen‏@kerpen
I’ve already heard about a second Al Franken victim.

Mailvox: this is how you do it

Yesterday, I responded to an email from this gentleman which indicated that he did not understand how rhetoric worked. My response was not particularly gentle. This was his reaction:

Your email and blog post were humbling and appreciated. I read both of your SJW books last weekend after hearing about them on Instapundit. Your message and stand for Christianity inspired me to check out your blog and eventually contact you.

Clearly I’m misunderstanding one of your fundamental lessons on communicating with the rabid left. Also, another mistake I made was to assume that SJW was how the left describes itself which lead me down the path of “better” rhetoric.

On the tangential topic of the impact your books are making, I was also inspired to contact [someone currently under SJW attack.] I sent him a note of support and the link to SJW Always Lie. He was very appreciative and I’m hopeful your book will help him save his job.

The main point of this email is to thank you for taking the time to respond and continue to teach, especially when your “students” frustrate you. Thanks. What you are doing is so important. I appreciate it.

Some of you have asked about the difference between Delta and Gamma. Well, you’ve seen Gamma responses; this is not what those look like. This is how a competent individual accepts authoritative criticism and correction.

“Oh, did I get it wrong? All right. Let me try it again. Thanks.”

Notice the complete lack of defensiveness, the total unwillingness to rationalize or justify or explain away his previous mistake, and the complete absence of bitterness or unease at being told he was incorrect. That’s the difference between a Delta confidence and Gamma butthurt.

This is why most men like and respect Deltas, regardless of their own social rank. Deltas don’t create drama or cause trouble when they are accurately criticized, they just correct course and carry on.

Twitter’s new policy

A blue check now indicates formal endorsement by Twitter:

Twitter Inc. updated its policies for removing the verification of a user’s identity, saying it can pull the blue check mark at any time without notice for behavior including promoting hate or inciting harassment of others.

While “verification has long been perceived as an endorsement,” Twitter’s support account wrote Wednesday in a tweet, “this perception became worse when we opened up verification for public submissions and verified people who we in no way endorse.”

Twitter users are already broadcasting their loss of verification status. Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the far-right English Defence League, tweeted a screen shot of a note he received from Twitter, saying that his verified badge will be permanently removed “after determining that your account does not comply with Twitter’s guidelines.” The company has also removed the blue check mark from conservative commentator Laura Loomer and Richard Spencer, a white supremacist and co-editor of AltRight.com.

I’ll admit it. I am just sadistic enough to enjoy the thrashings-about of an SJW-converged company attempting to reconcile its self-contradictions.

What I don’t understand is why anyone ever cared about the stupid blue checkmarks in the first place. Prior to my most recent suspension, which now appears to be a permanent ban-equivalent, people used to ask me on a regular basis why I wasn’t verified. The answer, of course, is because I didn’t, and don’t, see any value in approval, recognition, endorsement, or verification from SJWs.

I’ve been banned by Goodreads, banned by Twitter, suspended and weirdly locked down by Facebook, which has a Real Name policy that prevents me from using “Vox Day” but insists that I remain “Charles Tingle”, and none of it has harmed my blog traffic or my book sales in the least. In fact, I’ve noticed one unexpected consequence, which is that the blog traffic tends to increase slightly whenever I’m not on Twitter for an extended period, because some who were content with reading my Twitter account show up here when that’s not an option.