Author: VD

The decline of the West

I’ve read part of Spengler’s magnum opus, and to be honest, despite being a Hesse fan, I have a very hard time with all the German mystical babble. But in light of recent events, I feel as if I should probably return to it soon.

Political Epochs in Autumn and Winter

    1. Domination of Money (“Democracy”). Economic powers permeating the political forms and authorities. 1800-2000 AD.

    2. Victory of force-politics over money. Increasing primitiveness of political forms. Inward decline of the nations into a formless population, and constitution thereof as an Imperium of gradually-increasing crudity of despotism. 2000-2200 AD.

    3. Private and family policies of individual leaders. The world as spoil. Egypticism, Mandarinism, Byzantinism. Historyless stiffening and enfeeblement even of the imperial machinery, against young peoples eager for spoil, or alien conquerors. Primitive human conditions slowly thrust up into the highly-civilized mode of living. After 2200 AD.

The Future, Echoing Roman Civilization

In the Winter of Roman politics there was a shift from the Roman Republic to Caesarism, or government led by a charismatic strongman. Eventually, the idea of representation broke down and there was a shift to bloody “force politics.”

Of course, our current government is modeled on the Roman system. There are even similarities between the two dominant parties. In Rome, the two dominant parties were the Optimates and Populares, the Republicans and Democrats of their day. This form of representative government eventually stops working because the system of checks and balances interfere with each other, causing gridlock. Force politics (killing people) eventually comes along to break the gridlock. (As an aside, some historians say it’s possible we entered this era in 1963 with the assassination of JFK by the military-industrial complex.) Arguably, this predictive model is spot-on with the current situation in the Western world. So, if Spengler’s model is correct, we are awaiting the rise of a dictator to come along and smash the rotten edifice of democracy sometime this century.

Regardless, I very much doubt that Oswald Spengler could possibly have imagined the descendants of his co-nationals being anywhere nearly as stupid as they have been under the suicidal leadership of Angela Merkel.

Mailvox: they boldly ran away

 A Canadian reader is amused by rabbits doing what rabbits do:

Over Family Day weekend someone torched the rainbow flag at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  The response of the campus SJWs was to…cancel their own parade.

The Pride Collective at UBC cancelled a Wednesday parade as part of OUTweek celebrations in response to what it called “a suspected hate crime” on campus over the weekend.

A rainbow pride flag was found burned off the flagpole – located between Brock Hall and the old Student Union Building — where it was raised Friday to kick off OUTweek, an annual event aimed at celebrating gender and sexual diversity

The Pride Collective announced its discovery of the incident and plans to cancel the parade in a statement posted to Facebook late Tuesday.

“Needless to say this event has not made us feel safe on campus and affirms the continual need for more to be done in regards to support,” read the statement. “OUTweek 2016 is about creating safer spaces and we are incredibly disappointed that this has happened during our celebrations. This speaks to why we need OUTweek in the first place as well as to the history of terrorization of LGBTQ+ spaces on campuses – and how this plays into a larger culture of homophobia and transphobia.”

In a follow-up to the initial statement, the collective said it may consider holding the parade at a later date but added: “At this time we feel unsafe organizing and leading an event that has a high amount of external visibility.”

Whoever the magnificent bastard was, he got the SJWs to punch themselves while running away.  Ah rabbits.           

The best part is that there are better than even odds that the rainbow flag was torched by an SJW seeking to play the victim and drum up outrage.

Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Graphic Story

The preliminary recommendations for the Best Graphic Story Hugo:

As always, the humor to be found in the File 770ers isn’t in the fact that they are so observably stupid, but that they are so firmly in the grip of Dunning-Kruger that despite that observable stupidity, they genuinely believe they are the smarter, better-educated ones. Tasha Turner comments on yesterday’s Best Dramatic Performance recommendations:

All games? Really? Well the category should be RP free as its always well nominated.

Kurt Busiek corrects her: THE MARTIAN and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON are not games. The other three are.

*head desk* well I was wrong. Sorry VD. I should have checked before commenting. In the future I’ll try to be more careful before mocking you. It’s always bad to mock someone else and I really shouldn’t do it at all.

Keep in mind this was someone who was attempting to mock my Hugo recommendations. But she didn’t know, without looking it up or noticing the fact that I specifically mentioned that three of my five recommendations were games, that The Martian and Avengers: Age of Ultron are movies.

Forget whether it is bad or not, if you can’t mock someone without looking almost indescribably stupid, it’s probably an activity you should avoid at all costs.

Fighting rhetoric with rhetoric

An author who appears to be in transition one way or the other (it’s hard to tell) provides a salutory lesson in how NOT to do it:

As Movement Conservatives consolidated their power in the Republican Party their appeal became more and more emotional and less and less rational. By the time of the George W. Bush administration, it no longer reflected, as one of Bush’s advisers put it, the “reality based community.” But, like any other myth, its lack of reality made it more emotionally powerful than ever. The good guys are pure and virtuous, and they are under attack: Christianity is under siege in a country that is 70 percent Christian, for example, and those who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are fighting to kill the big government that gives “subsidies” to lazy black people despite the fact that they themselves have received subsides — and one of the occupiers an outright loan. And the bad guys are really bad. Donald Trump has famously asserted that Mexican immigrants are rapists, and his attacks on black Americans are so inflammatory that the Ku Klux Klan uses them as a recruiting tool. Indeed, all Democrats are demons: Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina has asserted—all evidence to the contrary—that Democrats support Planned Parenthood because they want to kill babies and sell their body parts. The emotional punch of these allegations stays with supporters despite the fact they are false.

The national triumph of this Movement Conservative narrative explains the present political moment. Republican leaders who were previously focused on consolidating voting blocs now face two very real voter insurgencies. On one hand, those like Ted Cruz argue that rank-and-file voters feel betrayed because Republicans have not actually shrunk the government. Cruz promises to see that destruction through. On the other, Trump voters have absorbed the racism and sexism in his candidacy and are following it in pure rage. Cruz and Trump have a clear narrative. Republican Party leaders do not.

But, like Republican insiders, establishment Democrats have also suffered for lack of a narrative. The Movement Conservative story has made America a hostile place for minorities, women and those falling behind economically. Democratic voters are angry at leaders who have stayed largely quiet as the government has befriended Wall Street, gutted the middle class, slashed social programs, and endangered their health. While Clinton still works to line up narrow voting blocs, Sanders offers an alternative: a narrative of America that gives Democrats a national vision to counter that of Movement Conservatives.

Voters on both sides are angry, and neither cares much what the political establishment says, especially an establishment that on both sides is notably white, elitist and male—aside from Clinton’s refreshing candidacy– and clearly has no idea what life looks like for those outside its bubble. If establishment figures want to regain leadership, they should try articulating a narrative for their vision of America, a narrative that lets voters choose a direction for their country.

Until then, they are preaching to a choir that has lost its audience.

 The Rhetorical Test:

  1. Is this rhetoric, dialectic, or pseudo-dialectic?
  2. What is the most effective way to refute it? 
  3. Why is this likely to be ineffective?

He didn’t read the book

Marc Andreessen discovers that an apology is never the end:

Facebook just lost an important legal fight in India, and now one of its board members has complicated its next steps. The mess started when Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen took to Twitter to criticize India’s decision to block Facebook from offering free but limited Internet access to poor areas. At one point, when a critic likened Andreessen’s position to “Internet colonialism,” he shot back, “Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?” recounts the Wall Street Journal. That sentiment drew widespread condemnation and prompted Mark Zuckerberg himself to quickly distance himself from it. And in a series of tweets, Andreessen apologized for his “ill-informed and ill-advised comment.”

On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg used stronger language, describing the tweet as “deeply unsettling” and making clear that the company “strongly” rejects it. The controversy revolves around a program called Free Basics. As CNET explains, an Indian court declared that the concept violated Net neutrality rules because it would have provided free access to the Internet but only to a limited number of services.

It’s amazing how Mark Zuckerberg continues to find ways to be a prissily annoying little punch-face. I don’t care how rich and influential he is; you couldn’t pay me to trade places with him. His spineless, parasitical existence strikes me as an absolute living hell.

Rabid Puppies 2016: Dramatic Presentation (long)

Although the ancient geezers of fandom don’t seem to know it, or are just too old to either know or care about games, both computer and video games are eligible for the Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation Long Form as they are included in the definition of “any medium of dramatized science fiction or fantasy” that lasts more than 90 minutes. Ergo, my recommendations for the category will probably look a little different than most this year.

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • Until Dawn
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • The Martian

I should mention that this is NOT my list of the three best games of the year, because not all games are dramatic presentations nor are they all science fiction and fantasy. These are simply the best dramatic presentations of science fiction and fantasy longer than 90 minutes, three of which happen to be games.

Other 2016 Hugo categories

UPDATE: If you still haven’t received your pin number from MidAmericaCon II, email them at hugopin@midamericon2.org and request it.

In other news, lest you doubt that the SJWs in SF will do anything and everything they can to ensure that their stacked decked remains stacked in their favor, the Hugo administrators at MidAmericaCon II have announced, contra previous promises, that they will not release nominating data in any form to anyone… except those to whom they have already given it.

Other than the EPH validation, it is not our intention to release nominating data in any form, even to other people wishing to test software under an NDA.  The Hugo administrators already have sufficient software to handle the needs of the awards even if the nomination counting rules ends up being confirmed as changed at the business meeting in Kansas City.

This statement completely lacks credibility, as do all of the public statements of those to whom the data was given, because “the people they gave the data announced on file 770 that they had not
only ran Single Vote Transferable on the data, but had examined the data
to count puppy ballots and slate discipline.”

The behavior of the Hugo administrators is dishonest and downright antiscientific. If the data is not open and cannot be replicated, it must be ignored. Nothing the Hugo administrators’ pet investigators announce should be taken at face value by anyone, pro or con. It can be easily dismissed by a simple statement of fact: “So you say. Where is the evidence to support that?”

I’m not saying this because I oppose EPH. To the contrary, I support it, because EPH enshrines the Rabid Puppies as one of the five primary factions in science fiction and gives us equal status with the Tor Cabal. So, I fully support the decision of the fandom to give the Supreme Dark Lord of the Evil Legion of Evil the right to at least one nomination per category in perpetuity. It gives the Tor Cabal the same, of course (which is why it was a cabal initiative), and initially the other two or three factions will reliably favor Tor in reaction to the establishment of the Puppies, but that will change over time, as deals are made and new alliances are formed.

As I have said, I am a patient man.

    Two down, five to go

    Christie and Carly are out of the running for the Republican nomination:

    Chris Christie dropped out of the race for president on Wednesday afternoon, two hours after a rival candidate quit. Carly Fiorina, one of only two women in the U.S. presidential race, left her quixotic pursuit of the White House on Wednesday after a seventh-place New Hampshire primary finish in a field of eight candidates.

    And Christie, the governor of New Jersey, soon followed suit after rumors of his campaign’s demise swirled all day.

    Spokeswoman Samantha Smith confirmed the news to the Associated Press, saying that Christie broke the news of his decision to staff at his campaign headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, late in the afternoon.

    Interesting that neither of them endorsed anyone. That either indicates that they think Trump has a chance or the GOPe hasn’t settled on its anti-Trump replacement for Jeb Bush.

    Trump is the Great Nationalist

    This is why Europeans across the continent are hoping to see Donald Trump win the US presidency:

     “What’s happening in Europe can lead to its collapse. It’s dramatic what Merkel has allowed to happen, this flood,” he said, adding that the “consequences” were being felt around the continent.

    “If we don’t deal with the situation competently and firmly, then yes, it’s the end of Europe,” he predicted.

    Stopping short of predicting civil war, he said the continent had “real revolutions ahead of you”, adding that Europe “won’t be spared” a 9/11-style disaster.

    “My German friends no longer know where they are. They can’t believe their eyes about what is happening…they’re desperate,” he claimed.

    He also warned that if immigration could not be dealt with “in an intelligent, rapid and energetic manner,” then Europe was headed for “more than just upheaval, on a scale you can’t even imagine.”

    As for France, Mr Trump warned: “Unfortunately, France isn’t what it was, nor Paris”. The pro-gun candidate claimed that the Paris terrorist attack of November 13 that killed 130 could have been thwarted if the French had been allowed to bear arms to defend themselves, saying he would have done so.

    At the Bataclan (concert hall where 90 died), he said: “The only people who had weapons were the killers…it was ‘open bar’ for a massacre.”

    He added: “I always carry a weapon on me. If I’d been at the Bataclan or one of those bars, I would have opened fire. I would have perhaps died, but at least I would have taken a shot. The worst thing is the powerlessness to respond to those who want to kill you,” he said.

    They don’t get a vote, but I think Trump just won over the French and German people. And remember, Trump is married to a European, so he understands the continent much better than most American politicians.

    And as for the Americans, notice that he didn’t say his bodyguards carried a gun. He does. Not only that, but he is advocating for carry laws in Europe. I expect he is considerably more trustworthy on the 2nd Amendment than any of the Republican establishment candidates.

    Women, science, and sex

    The SJWs in science are setting up their favorite damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t scenario for male scientists. If you don’t bring young women along with you on your trips, you’re a damnable sexist. And if you do, you’re a sexual predator.

    On a cold evening last March, as researchers descended upon St. Louis, Missouri, for the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA), a dramatic scene unfolded at the rooftop bar of the St. Louis Hilton at the Ballpark, the conference hotel. From here, attendees had spectacular views of the city, including Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch, but many were riveted by an animated discussion at one table.

    Loudly, and apparently without caring who heard her, a research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City charged that her boss—noted paleoanthropologist Brian Richmond, the museum’s curator of human origins—had “sexually assaulted” her in his hotel room after a meeting the previous September in Florence, Italy. (She requested that her name not appear in this story to protect her privacy.) Over the next several days, as the 1700 conference attendees presented and discussed the latest research, word of the allegations raced through the meeting.

    Richmond, who was also at the meeting, has vigorously denied the accusations in a statement to Science and in email responses. (He declined to be interviewed in person or by telephone.) The encounter in the hotel room, he wrote, was “consensual and reciprocal,” adding that “I never sexually assaulted anyone.”

    Although the most recent high-profile cases of sexual harassment in science have arisen in astronomy and biology, many researchers say paleoanthropology also has been rife with sexual misconduct for decades. Fieldwork, often in remote places, can throw senior male faculty and young female students together in situations where the rules about appropriate behavior can be stretched to the breaking point. Senior women report years of unwanted sexual attention in the field, at meetings, and on campus. A widely cited anonymous survey of anthropologists and other field scientists, called the SAFE study and published in July 2014 in PLOS ONE, reported that 64% of the 666 respondents had experienced some sort of sexual harassment, from comments to physical contact, while doing fieldwork.

    Even a few years ago, the research assistant might not even have aired her complaint, as few women—or men—felt emboldened to speak out about harassment. Of the 139 respondents in the SAFE study who said they experienced unwanted physical contact, only 37 had reported it. Those who remained silent may have feared retaliation. Senior paleoanthropologists control access to field sites and fossils, write letters of recommendation, and might end up as reviewers on papers or grant proposals. “The potential for [senior scientists] to make a phone call and kill a career-making paper feels very real,” says Leslea Hlusko, a paleontologist at the University of California (UC), Berkeley.

    It will be interesting to learn if the female scientists entering the field will be sufficient to make up for the male scientists they drive from it. The history of social justice convergence indicates that not only will they fail to make up for it, but that all actual scientific activity will cease once a critical mass is reached.

    It’s rather remarkable that the Richmond situation is being portrayed as him sexually assaulting her when she was in his hotel room. I suspect that the charge of sexual assault are nothing more than her trying to cover for the fact that she was more or less cheating on her husband. They were out drinking with their colleagues, all of whom would have known that she went back to his room with him.

    Remember, it’s much better to be deemed a sexist than a sexual assailant. Don’t mentor women in person, don’t go out of your way to help them, don’t befriend them (particularly if you find them attractive), and don’t go out to dinner with them alone. If you can’t avoid it due to work, insist on lunch. Definitely don’t go out for drinks or to a club. Don’t hug or kiss them, and don’t let them touch you except to shake your hand. Don’t ever give the SJWs an opening to take you down.

    The SJWs would love nothing better than to try to do to me what they’ve done to everyone from Jian Gomeshi to James Frenkel. They can’t, because I never give them even the slightest molehill out of which to make a mountain.

    Sanders upsets Clinton

    When thinking about the way in which Bernie Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton, it’s worth noting that as recently as January, Clinton was leading Sanders in the New Hampshire polls:

    Sanders didn’t just win in New Hampshire. He undermined Clinton’s campaign so badly, she may never recover.

    CONCORD, New Hampshire — Hundreds of Bernie Sanders’s supporters packed into a high school gym here—after waiting outside in frigid temperatures to file through metal detectors one-by-one—to celebrate his big win. Meanwhile, about 20 miles away, a loyal crowd tried to keep its collective chin up as Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the first Democratic primary contest.

    The contrast highlights just how much damage Sanders is doing to Clinton’s campaign. Even though he’s still a longshot to snag the nomination, his candidacy is persuading young voters, women, and progressives that Clinton is in the pocket of big banks and corrupt corporations—and it’s persuading Clinton’s own supporters that they’re on the sadder side of this contest.

    It remains to be seen, of course, if Sanders will actually be able to pick up any more wins. Current polls indicate that Sanders’s campaign in the other early states will be much trickier than his efforts in New Hampshire. Clinton’s double-digit leads in South Carolina and Nevada might have given a few of his supporters pause.

    But those supporters weren’t in Concord tonight.

    The gym his supporters packed into brimmed with unmitigated glee. An eclectic crowd danced, chanted, foot-stomped, and overall whooped it up for the democratic-socialist turned Democratic primary champion.

    And the crowd’s devotion to their candidate highlighted just how much damage his candidacy is doing to Clinton’s—even if she’s the party’s ultimate nominee, which still seems all but guaranteed.

    Considering that Sanders gained 25 points on Clinton in New Hampshire in just a single month, it seems insane to put any weight at all on Clinton’s 29.5 percent advantage in South Carolina that dates back to the week of January 17th.

    I suspect that Sanders has dealt Hillary her death blow, everyone just hasn’t realized it yet. It’s not as if Hillary is particularly popular in the South, after all. And let’s face it, there wouldn’t be all this talk about Biden getting into the race if anyone had any confidence in Hillary, who appears to be the least competent establishment favorite since Bob Dole.

    I mean, she managed to lose 83 percent of the young female vote to a 74-year-old gamma male… while running on her vagina. She is spectacularly unlikable; young women openly hate her. And remember, despite all the revised expectations in the new narrative, she was the favorite in New Hampshire until her Iowa debacle.