Category: Uncategorized

Geno-cultural eucivicism

The “culture is not genetic” crowd is finished, they simply don’t realize it yet because they a) have never thought logically through their position, and, b) are not up on the relevant science. This study of differing Han cognitive styles is but one of the many examples that is putting the coup de grace into the blank slate myth:

It has long been suggested that China’s reliance on rice fostered collectivist attitudes, and the Confucian emphasis on group allegiance and conformity. Such attitudes are even cited as explaining why Europe, rather than China, was the home of the industrial revolution: the revolution was based on scientific thinking, which is held to rely on individualism and openness to innovation. But the idea that growing rice promotes a group mentality remained speculation.

Talhelm and his colleagues in China decided to test it. They gave standard tests for cognitive style, individualism, and in-group loyalty to 1162 students in six cities across China, in wheat or rice-growing areas. All were Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, so other differences were hopefully minimal.

Nevertheless, they found many differences in cognitive style. For instance, students from all-wheat areas were 56 per cent more likely to think analytically than students from all-rice areas. For example, when asked to match the two closest of sheep, dog and grass, they grouped sheep and dog, which appear most similar. Students from rice-growing areas grouped sheep and grass, as these have the closest relationship to each other in real life, and to them this relationship mattered more than physical resemblance.

I read Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance yesterday, and while it was not without flaws, it does make for a useful roundup of the current state of genetic science as it presently relates to race, culture, and civilization. It is very nearly a restatement of my time-to-civilization hypothesis, and even provides some evidence in support of this.

Due to the intertwining of genetic microevolution, culture, and individual behavior, it is very likely that the differences in cognitive style observed are the result of genetic microevolution in the divergent Han populations brought about by the different growing cultures. It might be useful to think of these “cultural selections” as inadvertent genetic programming which tends to have either eucivic or dyscivic consequences over time.

I will get into this in considerably more detail over the next week, but after reading Wade’s book, it is apparent to me that geno-cultural eucivicism is likely to become one of the more important concepts of the 21st century.

Faith first

We need more Christian men willing to stand up and say the same:

With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on
television today you would think there would be room for two twin
brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical
principles, and dedicated professionals. If our faith costs us a
television show then so be it.

It’s not much of a loss. Let the wicked immerse themselves in their own fetid stew.

Bridgewater

I can live with the pick. While I’m dubious that Bridgewater is true starting material, it’s worth a shot and it’s not as if they threw away their top 10 pick; the Vikes badly need a linebacker. And Mike Mayock did have him as the best QB prospect, which isn’t nothing.

This is your NFL Draft discussion post.

Mailvox: making the choice

In response to yesterday’s column about it being time to choose your side, I heard from a reader who is interested in creating a short fiction companion site to Castalia House. While I don’t have the bandwidth to do much more than offer advice and perhaps some branding, I’m interested in finding out if there is anyone here interested in being involved in some way, shape, or form, be it editing, contributing short fiction, or helping with the site.

If so, mention it here, and if there are enough people that are interested, I’ll see about gathering the names and sending them to the individual concerned. There are a number of possibilities here I can imagine, from amping up Stupefying Stories to creating an entirely new short fiction brand. But the initial path will be determined by how many volunteers are willing to get involved.

As I told the guy, there is no money in short fiction these days. It has to be a mission and an objective to be pursued as an end in itself. I’d like to see it happen, as I can easily envision it being the NCAA to Castalia’s NFL, where writers can develop their storytelling and writing skills in the process of becoming publishable authors. But it has to be done right or there is no point in doing it at all.

The key to making things happen, of course, is simply jumping in and doing it. At Castalia, we had no plan. We had 10 ebooks, a name, a URL, and the support of the Dread Ilk. Three months later, we’ve sold or given away more than 15,000 books. So, I have no doubt that if the people here want to make it happen, we can collectively make it happen.

It would surprise me terribly if in five years, we have a fledgling Internet TV channel and production studio going. Or perhaps we will be petty warlords battling for local supremacy in various zombie-strewn post-civilization wastelands instead. But regardless, we have the advantage of knowing that even two men joined by their mutual allegiance to a certain Name can accomplish more than most people can imagine.

Postchristianity and pagan meat

It’s remarkable how fast Britain is sliding down the tube in its postchristian era.

Supermarkets were facing a backlash last night after claiming it was ‘unnecessary’ to spell out on labels whether meat comes from animals killed by religious slaughter. Religious groups from all faiths, vets and animal welfare groups joined calls for new labels to identify halal or kosher meat. But retailers claimed that shoppers do not care – and even argued that there is not enough room on packs for new labels.

Demands for improved labels follow widespread outrage over the disclosure in yesterday’s Daily Mail that millions of people are being sold halal and kosher meat without being told.

All the major supermarkets are selling New Zealand lamb killed according to halal ritual without providing labels. Separately, many restaurants such as Pizza Express, KFC and Subway are selling halal meat – mainly chicken – without printing the information on menus.

The retailers are full of it, of course. The reason they didn’t tell anyone in the first place is because most shoppers will not buy halal or kosher meat for one reason or another.

The anti-racists are reeling in shock and denial before the revelations of genetic science that have completely demolished their “blank slate” concept of race and culture. It won’t be long before the secularists will join them, as postchristianity underlines the fact that Western civilization depends entirely upon Christianity combined with the Graeco-Roman inheritance and not “Enlightenment values”, whatever they are supposed to be.

I’d be curious to know how many non-Christians here would genuinely prefer the collapse of Western civilization if that is the price that will have to be paid for ending the dominance of Christianity throughout Europe and America.

The Lizard Queen DQs herself

And CNN knows it:

On May 7th CNN’s John King played a video of Hillary Clinton saying, “We have to rein in what has become [an] almost article of faith, that anybody can have a gun anywhere, [at] any time.” King quickly added, “She’s talking in the context of mental health,” but then he expressed obvious concern that this soundbite is going to make a great anti-Hillary commercial in southern Ohio, Florida, Colorado, and North Carolina, among other places.

Notice how the mainstream media will SHAMELESSLY lie on behalf of its favored candidates. Clinton wasn’t just “talking in the context of mental health”, she was talking about the expansion of concealed carry laws. While she did begin her answer in response to a question about suicide, her answer was a more broadly expansive one. But you can bet that we’re going to here the false “context” excuse when she gets nailed with her own words on the campaign trail.

Never, ever, trust a single word out of a leftist’s mouth at face value. I cannot stress this enough. They don’t believe in objective truth and they certainly feel no obligation to tell it.

The choosing time

With the quasi-completion of the Left’s long march through the media institutions, everything traditional, Christian, or moral is now effectively banned from mainstream publication and broadcast. We have two choices. Abandon our standards in order to get along or begin developing our own distribution channels and refuse to participate in the mainstream’s headlong dive into utter depravity and appeal to the lowest possible denominator:

After the group Right Wing Watch reported the twins who star in HGTV’s recently greenlit reality series Flip It Forward are anti-gay activists, the network said this morning it had given the hook to the series, which was set to debut in October.

This is why we need to develop our own content. This is why we need to develop our own distribution channels. This is why we need to do what the Left has done, which is to choose our side and relentlessly reject everything about the enemy. Because they are not merely the opposition, they are the self-declared enemy.

Don’t pride yourself on your tolerance of them because tolerance is not a virtue and tolerance of the wicked is a sin. Don’t try to separate yourself from others on your side in the hopes that they will spare you, because that separation is exactly what they require in order to divide and conquer.

Stop kidding yourself. You’re not disarming any of your foes with the disclaimer “I don’t agree with everything X says”. All that amounts to is a futile plea to not be damned by the only association that matters to them: do you not understand that by the lights of the pointing-and-shrieking pack, if you are not pointing and shrieking with them you are against them?

I don’t agree with everything that anyone says. For that matter, I don’t even agree with everything I have ever said. But I know who is on the side of light, truth, and reason and who is on the side of darkness, lies, and madness. Compromise with the latter at your peril.

The ire of the irrelevant

What is it with these Canadian SFWA members?  A SF nonentity is foolish enough to call John C. Wright a liar despite the readily accessible public record:

Andrew Barton ‏@ActsofAndrewB
John C Wright is either ignorant or a liar. Theodore Beale was kicked out of SFWA for using its Twitter feed to disseminate a racist screed.

Andrew Barton ‏@ActsofAndrewB
Personally, given the evidence I have seen thus far, my own suspicion is that John C. Wright knows he is lying and does not give a fuck.

Andrew Barton ‏@ActsofAndrewB
I know this because I am one of those who sent an email to my SFWA board rep demanding Beale’s removal. Good riddance to a goddamned swine.

Andrew Barton ‏@ActsofAndrewB
Sometimes I feel like just scouring this planet of life would be the most expedient course.

Andrew Barton ‏@ActsofAndrewB
Folk’re sure confident saying things online that they wouldn’t if they said them to my face, giving me a chance to break their fucking nose.

The self-proclaimed pencil-neck geek is a real tuff guy. It’s fascinating to observe the way these SWPLs insist that it is beyond the pale to call a deceitful and obnoxious African-American “an educated but ignorant half-savage” but deem it acceptable to label Hispanics “goddamned swine”. No wonder so few writers of color, such as Larry Correia and Sarah Hoyt, have any desire to join the organization.

At this point, any SF/F writer would have to be a complete fool to think that joining SFWA will enhance his career in any way. SFWA members know that SFWA provides a writer with zero credibility with the publishers, (editors in the SFWA Forum openly joke about how only total noobs are so stupid as to mention their memberships when they are submitting manuscripts), so there is literally no professional upside that comes with the downside of paying for having one’s speech policed.

Now consider that this SFWA nobody was attacking a science fiction master on the very day that Mr. Wright’s novella was #86 on Amazon: 4,117 people downloaded AWAKE IN THE NIGHT yesterday and the day before.  Another new release from Mr. Wright has been #1 in Science Fiction History & Criticism for three straight days. It is readily apparent that Mr. Wright doesn’t need SFWA. I certainly don’t need SFWA. Neither does anyone else anymore.

It is very easy to demonstrate that Mr. Barton is a liar himself. The SFWA did not give any reason for expelling an unnamed member last year and still has issued no official statement concerning any of the reasons for its actions: “We will continue to omit the expelled individual’s name and the details of his behavior on advice of counsel.”

And as I pointed out in my response to the SFWA report concerning the various false claims about SFWA’s “twitter feed”: “the channel does not belong to SFWA, the Content did not belong to SFWA, the content was deemed permissible by the channel owner, and the personal attack contained in the blog post to which the tweet linked was fully in line with previous personal attacks made by dozens of other members of the organization in official SFWA spaces. Therefore it is incorrect to claim that an official SFWA channel was misused via the marking for inclusion of the blog post of June 13, 2013 in the @sfwaauthors Twitter feed.”

Barton is only one of many SFWA members who simply do not grasp that “@sfwaauthors” is not, and has never been, “SFWA’s Twitter feed”. That is “@sfwa”, which according to Twitter’s Terms of Usage, does not belong to SFWA either. They also do not grasp that the tweet in question contained nothing that was racist or offensive, it was a simple link to a blog post. And finally, anyone who has read either the 34-page SFWA report or my detailed response to it knows that the SFWA Board’s action was based on its active thought policing of a) me on my personal blog, b) the various commenters on my blog, and c) people with no connection to me commenting on sites with no connection to me. The SFWA President even admitted as much the other day: “Board investigation of harassment complaints may take public statements into consideration”. 


By which they not only mean public statements by their members, but also by anyone who happens to comment on a member’s blog or anywhere else on the Internet.

Mr. Wright’s view of SFWA is entirely correct. The SFWA Board has overtly and undeniably claimed for itself the right to police the public statements of SFWA members. Although the SFWA Board has done its best to bury its own report, inadvertently encouraging members like Andrew Barton to present fiction as fact, the truth is out there. Some of the sub-irrelevant SFWA members, such as the clueless wonder who keeps posting links to her blog post here on unrelated topics, would be advised to read it.

Doubling down

Nicolas Kristof has learned absolutely nothing from the reaction of Boko Haram:

Women’s rights advocates in Nigeria noisily demanded action, and social media mavens around the world spread word on Twitter, Facebook and online petitions — and a movement grew.

The #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, started on Twitter by a Nigerian lawyer, has now been shared more than one million times. A Nigerian started a petition on Change.org, calling for more efforts to find the girls, and more than 450,000 people around the world have signed it.

Nigerian women embarrassed the government by announcing that they would strip off their clothes and march naked into the Sambisa forest to confront the militants and recover the girls….

All of us can respond more directly. Boko Haram, whose name means roughly “Western education is a sin,” is keeping women and girls marginalized; conversely, we can help educate and empower women. Ultimately, the greatest threat to extremism isn’t a drone overhead but a girl with a book.

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and, by all means, let’s use it to celebrate the moms in our lives with flowers and brunches. But let’s also use the occasion to honor the girls still missing in Nigeria.

One way is a donation to support girls going to school around Africa through the Campaign for Female Education, Camfed.org; a $40 gift pays for a girl’s school uniform.

Kristof is acting as if the young women are not legitimate military targets. But that is the entire point. He, and many others like him, have made them legitimate military targets by intentionally turning them into weapons in a cultural war. And he had better pray that Boko Haram does not follow al Qaeda’s lead in bringing the West’s cultural war on the South and East back to the West.

At Virginia Tech, one mentally disturbed immigrant managed to kill 33 college students. A small team of Boko Haram activists could probably manage to kill at least five times that number should they target an American university. And the latest news out of Nigeria makes it clear that they are at least one step ahead of the likes of Kristof et al.

Islamist insurgents have killed hundreds in a town in Nigeria’s northeast this week, the area’s senator, a resident and the Nigerian news media reported on Wednesday, as more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the militants, known as Boko Haram, remained missing.

The latest attack, on Monday, followed a classic Boko Haram pattern: Dozens of militants wearing fatigues and wielding AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers descended on the town of Gamboru Ngala, chanting “Allahu akbar,” firing indiscriminately and torching houses. When it was over, at least 336 people had been killed and hundreds of houses and cars had been set on fire, said Waziri Hassan, who lives there, and Senator Ahmed Zanna….

Gamboru, a town of perhaps 3,000 people, “is now burned into ashes,” Mr. Hassan said. “I saw it with my own eyes, 171 dead bodies, scattered around.” At least 18 police officers were killed, but Mr. Zanna said there were no military forces in the town because all had been drafted in the search for the schoolgirls.

Perhaps the Nigerian government actually knew what it was doing when it didn’t drop everything to engage in a fruitless search for the young women, who may not even be inside the country’s borders anyhow. Regardless, in the end, there can only ever be one result between those who “fight” by public posturing and those who fight by taking arms.

UPDATE: The US military cannot get involved as it is prohibited by law from collaboration with Nigerian security forces.

A second wind

Political correctness is vital to the Left, because disqualification is the only form of argument they have left to them:

This ubiquity of “check your privilege” suggests that political correctness is now entering a second generation and gaining a second wind.  While political correctness previously concentrated on race and gender, the new focus on inequality seems to have emboldened the campus left to put class back on the list of identity politics.  Of course, using the phrase “check your privilege” to cut off debate on campus is not nearly as destructive as what communists did to people who were from the “wrong” class. Many children of privilege then were sent to reeducation camps to reflect or were even silenced never to speak again.  But it stems from the same impulse to replace reason with power.

This new form of an old disorder also shows that despite the orthodoxy on many campuses many left-liberals remain very afraid of classical liberal and conservative dissent.  Just as students who protested Condi Rice’s prospective graduation speech at Rutgers showed strength in numbers but weakness in intellectual confidence, so do those who parrot this new campus slogan.  If your underlying argument is flawed, you do need a force other than logic and evidence to sustain your position.  Political correctness is an admission of intellectual frailty.

My privilege is my intelligence. It’s hardly my fault that the other side correctly sees itself as being disadvantaged and underprivileged.