Author: VD

Look out, SF fandom

Mike Cernovich is taking scalps:

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska will not be running for President after his connection to pedophiles was revealed by Mike Cernovich of Danger & Play Media. (Read: Ben Sasse and #NeverTrump’s Pedophile Problem.)

This entire election season Sasse has building up his personal brand by attacking Trump. Sasse had not taken a principled stand against anyone else on the right, and thus he’s engaging in showmanship marketing in an effort to run for president.

His campaign for president began gaining momentum, with establishment conservatives hailing him as a hero. He was primed to run, and then I scalped him.

Sasse claimed to be a political outsider, so I began digging. Far
from being an everyman, Sasse was an insider’s insider, working at
companies like McKinsey and Company in between stints in Washington,
D.C. Yet what was not common knowledge was Sasse’s role as a tutor of
underage boys.

Sasse tutored and was sworn to protect underage boys working as
Congressional pages. Yet pages were constantly abused, and I suspected,
were abused under his watch. When I raise those concerns to Sasse, he
went radio silent.

Radio silence is a good way to describe the science fiction’s response to the considerable amount of smoke surrounding Samuel Delaney, just to specifically name one oft-celebrated individual. Notice that despite the science fiction community’s retroactive distancing from H.P. Lovecraft, Marion Zimmer Bradley has not yet been stripped of a single award or honor, DAW still publishes her Darkover books, and Tor Books still publishes her “Light” series.

So why are DAW and Tor Books still publishing Marion Zimmer Bradley in the full knowledge of her crimes? Do they endorse child abuse? It certainly puts a very dark spin on the title of Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s blog, “Making Light”.

Persistent vandalism

SJWs simply never stop lying. They will use any and every opportunity to force history, science, and reality to fit their Narrative without any regard for the truth. It’s interesting to see that SJW Wikipedians have now gone too far even for the admins who historically tended to camp the page about me in order to prevent anyone from posting accurate information that might tend to make me look good.

(Protected “Vox Day”: Persistent vandalism: RFPP request ([Edit=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (expires 08:52, 8 June 2016 (UTC)) [Move=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (expires 08:52, 8 June 2016 (UTC))))

Why did they need to do this? Because an SJW took a page from Jeet Heer of New Republic and other media SJWs and attempted to run with the “white supremacist” theme.

Vox Day is an American publisher, activist, racist, [[science fiction writer]], journalist, misogynist, musician, [video game designer], and white supremacist. 

This is just one of a myriad of reasons we need new and better techno-cultural institutions.

Trial, error, and antifragility

I was looking for the transcript for the Brainstorm event with Christopher Hallpike when I came across the one from last October with Mike Cernovich. I started looking it over, and before I knew it, I found myself 14 pages in. It’s full of good advice from Mike, and it includes me talking about how I’ve applied his advice, both from Gorilla Mindset and from watching his example.

Here is a brief selection from it. I should be able to send it out in epub format to the Brainstorm members next week. The transcript for the Steve Keen event will probably go out around the same time.

QUESTION: I am reading Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and find the way of going through life by trial and error interesting. Will you both agree on that?

MIKE: My two-part answer to that would be, and I talked about this at the seminar I had the other day, is that life is not like a dance but a wrestling match. That’s a quote from Mark Twain. As for trial and error, you have to let life push back. A lot of people say how do I find my talents? How do I find what I am good at? How do I find my passion? Reality is going to push back at you, and that is where you are going to figure out whether you are good or not. That is where trial and error comes in. So, yeah, I am a huge believer in trial and error. Vox has talked about failing quickly, which is another thing that I believe in.

Let’s say, for example, you want to be really good at something. This is the way that I think you need to go about things. You need to try a lot of things until you find out something that you have the potential to be world-class at. I think everybody has the potential to be really good at something. It might not be the same thing, but there is something inside of you. Everybody has a gift if you try everything, but if you don’t try enough things then you are not going to find out what you are good at and what you’re not good at. For example, I always liked boxing. I was pretty good at boxing, but I would never have been an elite guy. Maybe if I fought really hard I could have been on ESPN once or twice on an undercard, but I never would have been a world-class boxer. So I said, well I am not going to get my head beaten in much longer for something I will never be elite at. How my business model works is that every time I get negative attention, every time I get conflict, I get stronger, my websites get stronger, and I sell more books.

VOX: I think that for both of us, being antifragile is particularly important because we are so targeted by SJWs who are constantly trying to disqualify, discredit, and disemploye. They can’t fire you from your job. They can’t fire me from my job. It is just not possible. That is exactly what being antifragile is.

MIKE: But more than that, the more they attack, the more your web traffic grows.

VOX: That is true as well, but the important thing, the important concept, is to allow yourself to live life in an antifragile way, because antifragility is about more than politics and personal enemies. You want to be antifragile with regards to the economy, changes in your personal life, and even the people around you. For me, the trial and error concept is vital because one of the biggest flaws that I see in a lot of the intelligent people around me is that they are constantly trying to work out the perfect plan. That just doesn’t work. Like Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. That is the situation that most of us are in with our businesses, or with our jobs. We all have a plan, and we all try to come up with an idea that will work, but then reality so often throws you a curveball that you can’t plan for.

MIKE: I was just re-emphasizing that point which is you’re not going to know what you’re good at until life decides what you’re good at. We don’t really have unlimited potential for anything. Some things we are going to be better at and some things we are going to be terrible at and some things no matter how hard you try, how hard you practice, you’re never going to be great at. That is why instead of sitting around thinking well in ten years here is what I am going to be, you need to be thinking in ten minutes here is what I am going to do and I am going to do it. You will find out real quick if that is going to work out for you.

I highly recommend both Antifragile and Gorilla Mindset. They are very, very different books, but they will both affect your thinking in positive ways. And speaking of Brainstorm, we’ll probably hold the monthly closed event sometime next week. There is much to discuss.

Good rhetoric in action

To show how really good rhetoric works, notice how it can be summoned and utilized in a variety of ways to instantly shut down any rhetorical sally from the target.

Elizabeth Warren@elizabethforma
@realDonaldTrump: Your policies are dangerous. Your words are reckless. Your record is embarrassing. And your free ride is over.

John Cardillo ‏@johncardillo
Next Fauxcahontas will tell us that #Trump corrupted her people with Whiskey and rifles.

KABOOM! That’s the effect you are looking for. Notice that there is no attempt whatsoever to respond to the dialectical aspects of the sally, nor is one needed.

A tale of two rhetorics

Some of the white nationalists on Twitter have been remarkably sensitive over my observation that #whitegenocide is ineffective rhetoric. To be fair, most of them haven’t read either me or Aristotle and quite clearly don’t understand the difference between dialectic and rhetoric.

But even someone who doesn’t should be able to grasp the fact that the term SJW has proven to be far more rhetorically effective than the “white genocide” meme, and it has done so in far less time.

That is what the empirical difference between effective rhetoric and ineffective rhetoric looks like. Interestingly enough, there are some indications that “cuckservative” may be similarly limited, but it is probably too soon to tell. However, the fact that “cuckservative” is already utilized half as often as “white genocide” despite being around for less than one year tends to indicate that it, too, is a more effective term.

Regardless, it is important to remember that clinging to suboptimal tactics is one of the most effective ways to ensure one fails to accomplish one’s strategic goals.

The Trumpening marches on

The Democratic race is getting interesting. Hillary is looking worse and worse as the Master Persuader turns his attention to Crooked Hillary, and it’s not at all impossible that Crazy Bernie will end up with more actual delegates than the presumptive nominee.

The ironically named Democrats have a superdelegate system to prevent democracy from getting in the way of the establishment’s selection, but it’s not unlikely that the pledged superdelegates will see losing the delegate contest as a reason to break their promises to Hillary Clinton. She is, after all, Crooked.

Introducing Rod Walker

Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker is the first in a new line of juvenile science fiction novels from Castalia House.

When the radical revolutionaries of the Social Party prevent his attendance at university and make his life on New Chicago impossible, Nikolai Rovio has no choice but to accept his starship-bound uncle’s offer to take refuge in space and sign on as a technical apprentice with Starways. But space, he quickly learns, is full of dangers that can kill a young man just as dead as even the most bloodthirsty revolutionary. 

And no place that Man can travel will ever be able to provide safe refuge from ambitious and evil-minded men. 

Rod Walker is the New New Heinlein, and Mutiny in Space marks a first step in the long-awaited, much-needed return of science fiction to its classical form and historical heights. Written in the style and tradition of Robert Heinlein’s 12 classic juvenile novels published by Scribner, Mutiny in Space is an exciting tale of space, technology, courage, independence, and the indomitable spirit of Man. 

Written by Rod Walker and edited by three-time Hugo-nominated editor Vox Day, Mutiny in Space is 200 pages, DRM-free, and $4.99/£4.99. Available only on Amazon.

We are very excited about our new series of Rod Walker books, because they are exactly what we founded Castalia House to publish. They are pure Blue SF, and contain no foul language, no adult themes, no nihilism, and they are 100 percent social justice-free. Robert Heinlein revitalized science fiction with just 12 wonderful novels – 13, if one counts Starship Troopers which was originally supposed to be a Scribner novel, but was foolishly turned down – and we believe it is possible to do achieve similar effects by applying the same principles that made his early novels so successful.

Except, of course, for the issue of gun control. Gun control was a particular bugaboo of Heinlein’s editor at Scribner, Alice Dalgleish, and while the Rod Walker books will not feature Correia-style gun porn, neither will they contain any anti-gun propaganda of the sort Dalgleish imposed on Heinlein.

Anyhow, the Rod Walker books are intended to be books that can serve to successfully introduce boys and girls to science fiction again.

UPDATE: It’s easy to tell the SJWs are worried about this new development, as they’re already posting attack reviews. Message fiction masquerading as Heinlein pastiche.

UPDATE 2: Not a bad start for Mr. Walker.

  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327 Paid in Kindle Store
        #3 in Books > Children’s Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
        #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction

You can’t shame the Alt Right

It’s fascinating to see how SJWs and other media types simply cannot grasp the fact that the tactics and techniques that worked in pre-internet days simply don’t function in the social media era.

The rise of Trump has been distressing to many people on many levels. It turned out that so many people were hungry for a message of strength, after years of “leading from behind” rhetoric, that they ignored that the message came with vague platitudes and limited workable proposals. For Jews it exposed a lingering suspicion that there exist a lot of people who simply don’t like and don’t accept us as Americans. For Republican Jews, who pride themselves on voting with the people who have unwavering support for Israel, it was especially sad to see these people consider themselves on our political side. When Donald Trump inevitably fades away, and he will with either a bang or a whimper, perhaps these people will retreat back into the shadows. But it will no longer be possible for Jews to ignore that they are there.

It seems very, very difficult for Jews to understand that most people do not give a quantum of a damn about them. That’s not a bad thing, most people don’t care about Eskimos or Filipinos or Malaysians either. People care about themselves and their own nation. That’s pretty much it.

And why would Americans accept Jews as Americans if all they ever hear from Jews is a few of them on television complaining about how everyone hates Jews, how terrible, awful, and evil Americans are, and how white America needs to be destroyed? How is that even conceivable?

Here’s the reality: holocaustianity has timed out. No one under the age of 40 cares any more about it than they do about the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. A lot of them don’t care about being called racist or sexist, so why would they care about being called anti-semitic? They think being called a Nazi by lame old people is hilarious; their usual response is to bury the accuser in dank memes full of images that would give the average Baby Boomer a stroke.

The shame game is over. This is the new reality. Deal with it or deny it, but it’s here to stay regardless.

Cathy Young is an America-hater

It’s downright remarkable that Cathy Young appears to think her defense of a double-standard in her attack on Ann Coulter will convince anyone of anything but her being a dishonest and perfidious anti-American propagandist.

Those familiar with the alt-right will recognize one of its favorite talking points: Israel supporters—particularly Jews—are hypocritical if they support immigration into the U.S., since they don’t advocate large-scale non-Jewish immigration into Israel or the Palestinian right of return. (It is invoked, for example, in an unabashedly anti-Semitic primer on “How to Argue with Neocons” on an alt-right blog.) Regardless of what one thinks of immigration to the United States, or of Israeli policies, this is a remarkably bad analogy.

Israel was founded as an ethno-state (though it is worth noting that a quarter of its citizens are not Jewish); the United States of America was not. Israel is surrounded by hostile neighbors; the United States is not. A Palestinian right of return would mean forcing a nation of eight million to accept as many as four to five million immigrants many of whom are hostile to its statehood; proportionately, that would be analogous to an influx of 150 million into the U.S. If such a proposal were on the table, Coulter and Trump certainly wouldn’t be the only ones to oppose it.

The “double standards” argument has blatantly anti-Semitic overtones, since it invariably invokes Israel and never other small nations, like Finland, that limit immigration and grant automatic citizenship on the basis of ethnic background.

A few relevant points:

  • American Jews are absolutely hypocritical if they support large-scale immigration into the USA while opposing it for Israel. They are also observably anti-American.
  • It is not a “a remarkably bad analogy”. It is a very fair and pertinent comparison.
  • Israel was not founded as an ethno-state. It is an ethno-religious state. An ethnic Jew who is a Christian is not permitted the right of return. Moreover, since Israel already grants citizenship to Palestinians, the nature of its founding in this regard is not relevant.
  • The USA absolutely was founded as an ethno-state. “The original United States Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were free white persons of good character. It thus excluded American Indians, indentured servants, slaves, free blacks, and Asians.”
  • The state of relations with Israel’s neighbors are irrelevant. China is not at war with Israel and Israel does not permit unlimited immigration from China, or from the United States, for that matter.
  • Since Jews like Cathy Young believe that large-scale immigration is a beneficial thing, why wouldn’t four million immigrants benefit Israel?
  • The US population was 194 million in 1965. The 61 million immigrants who have entered the country since would be identical to permitting 2.5 million Palestinians to return to Israel. Is Cathy Young willing to permit just 2.5 million Palestinians to return? If that many, proportionately, would be bad for Israel, how can she argue the same percentage is good for the USA?
  • The reason the double-standards argument invariably invokes Israel and never small nations like Finland is because no Finns are publicly arguing for large-scale immigration to the United States or calling everyone who disagrees with them anti-Finnites.

Cathy Young’s argument fails historically, mathematically, and logically. Ann Coulter is right. Israel has the right to exist and defend its borders. So does the United States of America. Cathy Young, being an openly anti-American extremist opposed to the American national interest, should be rejected by every American, and especially by every conservative.

As for the Alt Right, well, we already knew she was dreadful.

Wrath of the Rabid

Hugos Vs Puppies IV: Wrath of the Rabid

Mere minutes after the nominations were announced, John Scalzi said that the Puppies were attempting to lead a parade that was already in motion, by nominating works of obvious quality that probably would have been nominated anyway.  George R. R. Martin made a similar observation:

    The Rabids used a new tactic this year. They nominated legitimate, quality works in addition to the dross. Works by writers like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Alastair Reynolds,…Andy Weir, and several others. Some of these writers are apolitical (like Weir) while others are known to oppose everything that VD stands for (Gaiman, Stephenson, King).

This is a tacit admission that the Puppies are doing exactly what they claim to be doing–nominating “legitimate, quality works” based on “excellence in actual science fiction and fantasy,” regardless of the political stance of the nominated writer.

And while the bulk of the nominations are obviously for deserving works–Stephen King received his first nomination for over thirty years–several of them are…unique.

Two
Best Related Work nominations, however, are generally being overlooked
in the furor over My Little Ponies (and Chuck Tingle’s gay dinosaur
erotica in space), and those are much more problematic.  “The Story of
Moira Greyland” outs fantasy writer Marion Zimmer Bradley for abuse and
molestation, and “Safe Space as Rape Room” by Daniel Eness raises some
very uncomfortable questions about science fiction fandom.

Uncomfortable questions indeed. Questions which pedophandom is desperate to avoid asking, or being answered.