Consider the curious case of the National Football League: It’s the largest single entertainment property in the U.S., a $14 billion per year attention-sucking machine with a steady hold on the lives of tens of millions. And its future is now in widespread doubt.
Ratings for regular-season games fell 17 percent over the past two years, according to Nielsen, and after one week of play in the new season, viewership has been flat. February marked the third-straight year of audience decline for the Super Bowl and the smallest audience since 2009. Youth participation in tackle football, meanwhile, has declined by nearly 22 percent since 2012 in the face of an emerging scientific consensus that the game destroys the brains of its players. Once a straightforward Sunday diversion, the NFL has become a daily exercise in cognitive dissonance for fans and a hotly contested front in a culture war that no longer leaves space for non-combatants.
To many outside observers, this looks like the end of an era. “The NFL probably peaked two years ago,” says Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College who specializes in the business of sports. “It’s basically treading water.”
I really need to finish writing Corporate Cancer. The NFL is on exactly the same track as NASCAR and Marvel. This indicates it will likely be down 50 percent within a decade of the 2016 viewership peak.
So what did we learn today? I don’t know about you, but I was, of course, horrified to read the Washington Post and be informed that not only is ComicsGate Hitler, but that Ethan Van Sciver is also Hitler, and that Diversity & Comics is also Hitler too. Now, I have to admit that there is a certain amount of, I guess since we’re on the Germanic theme, schadenfreude, to be had in watching how this is playing out from the outside. The thing that the virtue signalers and ComicsGatekeepers simply refuse to understand is that there is nothing – nothing – you can do to defend yourself against a rhetorical attack by SJWs.
You can virtue signal all you like, you can run around talking about how you are a diverse movement and that you that you hate hate hate the Alt-Right, that you disavow, disapprove, and anathematize people like myself and so forth, but it won’t do you a damned bit of good. So yeah, my first thought when I was reading that was, “hey, don’t come talking to me about this, you know, Two-Face van Sciver owns the trademark!” I’m actually waiting for the first accusations that my contacts at the Washington Post set that whole thing up, that this is somehow my fault. I deny that! I absolutely deny that I arranged that hit piece!
I’m not going to pretend that I don’t find it funny. I find it more than a little bit amusing, though not quite hysterical just because I understand that the very ComicsGatekeepers who were trying to brigade this particular stream are probably genuinely astounded, and genuinely dismayed, at these attacks from the mainstream media. And what you have to understand is that they’re not going to stop, they’re not going to listen to you. They’re not going to give you a fair shake, they’re not going to allow you to defend yourself in any way, shape, or form, and they’re going to lie. So you’re going to see more articles like this. You know, we saw this with GamerGate. A lot of you guys don’t know about the history of the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies, but you really need to learn it because you guys are in the position of the Sad Puppies. The Sad Puppies were completely obliterated and that’s the fate that is in store for you if you follow your instincts.
Needless to say, the ComicsGatekeepers didn’t listen to me and continued to engage in some very public acts of virtue-signaling. A reader writes about D&C’s foolish decision to metaphorically tattoo “kick me” on his forehead:
I have to admit, even knowing better, to being highly disappointed in D&C’s latest futile attempt at virtue-signalling. He’s running another limited Indiegogo campaign as a “charity event” at premium prices, with at least US$10,000 to a charity that he spent several days researching and selecting.
Did he, a US veteran knowing full well how many veterans are in dire straits and in need of help, select Disabled American Veterans or another veterans’ charity. He did not. He chose The Trevor Project, an LGBTQIA+ charity. Seriously. Semper Fi is out; “please accept me, SJWs” is in.
The ComicsGatekeepers are cuckservatives through and through, and are unable and unwilling to conserve a damned thing. Just as you’ve said.
Once you indicate that you are willing to submit to the SJW Narrative, SJWs will never leave you alone until you submit to them entirely. The virtue-signaling tells them that you’re weak and that they only have to increase the pressure until you can’t take it anymore and give in to their demands. That’s one of the reasons they seldom even bother with me anymore. They know that not only will I never accept their idiot Narrative or submit to them, but the VFM and I will go after them harder and faster and from more directions than they even knew were vulnerable.
Darryl Ayo, an indie comic creator and critic, told me about one instance in which Comicsgate targeted him for speaking out. Ayo had criticized Malin’s claim that SJWs were Nazis. That night after midnight, popular comics penciler, outspoken right-winger and Comicsgate leader Ethan Van Sciver challenged him to appear on his podcast to debate Malin. “Darryl, come on my show right now and say what you have to say,” Van Sciver tweeted.
Ayo didn’t know Van Sciver and refused the offer. Van Sciver continued to demand that he appear on the show. For anyone who uses Twitter, the result was, predictably, months of insults and harassment. The day before we spoke, eight months after the original confrontation, someone had posted multiple messages on Ayo’s Facebook page to denigrate his art, referencing his conflict with Van Sciver.
Van Sciver framed himself as a proponent of debate and the healthy exchange of ideas. But in fact, he was demanding that Ayo deferentially follow his orders in the middle of the night or be labeled as unreasonable and a justifiable target for abuse. A free speech frame became a way to go after someone for saying things Van Sciver didn’t like — and for putting others on notice that their tweets or comments could make them the next target….
Most of Comicsgate’s targets have been lower profile than Jones or Tran. But that doesn’t mean that the harassers have been ineffective. Meyer, Van Sciver and their followers have made it clear that black critics who question their friends, or female Marvel employees who post selfies online, will be bullied and attacked. Their goal has been to make comics less welcoming to people who aren’t white and male, and they’ve succeeded in that goal.
Well, it certainly cannot be denied that at Ethan van Sciver’s instigation, ComicsGatekeepers repeatedly attempted to mau-mau a brilliant and innovative Native American comics publisher as well as issuing death threats to a popular Hispanic writer. Terrible, simply terrible!
I’m just ever so glad that I’m not a part of that deplorable, racist ComicsGate! They must be truly horrible people if the Washington Post says they are!
Meanwhile, the slow-motion suicide of Marvel and DC continues apace.
The upcoming season of The CW’s Supergirl will be a special one, and not just because of the guest stars. The Arrowverse / Berlantiverse series will introduce the first trans superhero to the television universe, and actress Nicole Maines will be bringing character Nia to life.
Arkhaven Comics is proud to announce the release of the digital edition of CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON #2: RULEBREAKER. Kindle and CBZ editions have already been sent out to Alt★Hero campaign backers.
Detective Ben Church is hot on the heels of the vigilante who murdered a city councilman in broad daylight. But agents of the UN Superhuman Protection Council are interfering with his investigation, even as they claim that they can help him clean up Avalon City. Should he believe them? More importantly, can he trust them? Meanwhile, King Ace has dealt with his partner-in-crimefighting Fazer’s little slip-up with regards to the unwritten Hero’s Code, but that doesn’t keep them from going after the notorious crime boss, Nicodemus Vukovich, together. The problem, King Ace discovers, is that there is a lot of temptation to be found in a wealthy crime lord’s uptown apartment. Perhaps too much temptation for anyone…. Chuck Dixon is the most prolific comic book writer in history. Set in the world of Alt★Hero, CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON #2: RULEBREAKER is the legend’s newest creation. In other Alt★Hero-related news, Arkhaven Comics is pleased to announce that the Gold Logo edition of Alt★Hero #4: The War in Paris is now available at Arkhaven Direct. Please note that a large retailer has already ordered a not-insignificant fraction of the total number available, so if you want the limited edition issue, it would be best not to wait on this one.
Cliff Cosmic, Richard Bonk, and Arklight Studios are currently hard at work on Alt★Hero Issues #5 and #6, so it looks very promising for the first paperback and hardcover omnibuses to come out in plenty of time for Christmas. We also expect to release the first Premium editions soon. There is no new news on the film front.
UPDATE: It looks like the publication date problem is fixed.
Bounding Into Comicshas the exclusive on the cover for the new Chuck Dixon comic that is being launched today.
“Avalon is a great first issue that introduces us to a fascinating group of super-powered individuals who are struggling with their own strengths and weaknesses. The conflicts that will eventually play out are worth being excited for and it’s a great bit of writing and world building overall that allow us to feel as if we’re already familiar with this universe, even as we’re only just introduced to it. You can feel safe in being excited for this one, folks.” – Nathan Braudrick, Bounding Into Comics You may notice that we’ve added an Alt★Hero logo to the bottom of the cover. This is because the success of the new series has already reached the point that The Legend Chuck Dixon and I have concluded the connection to Alt★Hero is of benefit to Chuck Dixon’s Avalon rather than detracting from it. Despite being set in the same world at roughly the same time, the two series will remain entirely distinct, with different authors and different art teams producing them.
Our objective is to grow both series over time, gradually adding individual hero-centric and limited-run story-centric spinoffs such as Alt★Hero: Q while continuing the two core series. One of the few complaints about the series has been the sheer volume of characters being introduced, but that is not going to change, as the scope of the Alternative Comics Universe aka ACU requires an ever-growing cast of characters. Going deeper into the stories of the individual heroes such as Vendetta or Shade will require focused spinoffs, which we will certainly create if there is sufficient demand for them.
Considers the possibility of talking to Milo about writing a Rainbow-centric comic. Is amused to consider the myriad of ways that could go so very, very wrong.
And we haven’t even gotten to the military line yet! Headshot, High-Q, Dark Zero, Centerfold, and the Gods of Peaceful Sleep are still little more than rumors to the readers.
The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Wednesday that “Europe belongs to the Europeans” and that refugees should return to their native countries to rebuild them.
Speaking at a conference in Sweden’s third-largest city of Malmo, home to a large immigrant population, the Dalai Lama — who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 — said Europe was “morally responsible” for helping “a refugee really facing danger against their life”.
“Receive them, help them, educate them… but ultimately they should develop their own country,” said the 83-year-old Tibetan who fled the capital Lhasa in fear of his life after China poured troops into the region to crush an uprising.
“I think Europe belongs to the Europeans,” he said, adding they should make clear to refugees that “they ultimately should rebuild their own country”.
What a pity that neither the Fake Pope nor the leaderships of any of the big Protestant denominations have the courage, the integrity, or the necessary relationship with the truth to state the obvious.
Our society is built around the concept of a nation state as the focus of our loyalties, embodying our families, our tribes and our communities into a higher order of commitment. As former President Theodore Roosevelt famously said in a 1915 speech:
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts ‘native’ before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as anyone else. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.
If you believe in the concept of a specifically American nation, it’s hard to disagree with him.
The concept of a “tribe” can be inimical to this national identity. If one places more pride in being a socialist or communist or capitalist or Democrat or Republican, or a Christian or Muslim or Jew or Buddhist or Hindu, or a citizen of Texas or California or Vermont or Wyoming or Alaska, than one does in being an American, then one’s loyalty to one’s country is necessarily affected or influenced by the extent to which one identifies with that primary personal identity. If the group(s) to which one belongs place similar emphasis on being this, or that, or the other, before being American, the same problem arises.
The trouble is, such divided loyalties end up weakening everybody – ourselves, our tribes, our communities, and our nation.
No doubt that is true. But the problem with Peter’s thinking is that loyalty to an artificially constructed “nation-state” can be manufactured simply by everyone of goodwill electing to pretend that they are all part of the same nation. Even after centuries of being unified under a single British crown, the Scots voted for independence – it was the votes of the non-Scots resident in Scotland that caused the “Scottish” independence vote to fail.
And even Teddy Roosevelt himself said that “there ought to be no room” in the country for those who do not consider themselves to be Americans and nothing else. That means forcibly deporting most of the post-1965 immigrants, all of the Jews, and all of the African-Americans, just for starters. And that’s a more extreme position than that espoused by the average member of the Alt-Right. I very much doubt most of the civic nationalists who cite Roosevelt’s stirring rhetoric realize precisely what it is they are implicitly endorsing.
The rise of 4GW has broken the state’s monopoly on violence. Once nukes or other weapons of mass destruction are accessible to non-state actors, that will break the state’s monopoly on political legitimacy as well, because there will be strength without the numbers provided by unity.
And like nukes, identity politics are not going to disappear simply because some people happen to find them distasteful. Identity politics are not a Marxist plot or a “right-wing SJW” tactic, they are nothing less than the political environment in which Americans now find themselves due to their foolish and ruinous immigration policies of the last 53 years.
A video recorded by Google shortly after the 2016 presidential election reveals an atmosphere of panic and dismay amongst the tech giant’s leadership, coupled with a determination to thwart both the Trump agenda and the broader populist movement emerging around the globe.
The video is a full recording of Google’s first all-hands meeting following the 2016 election (these weekly meetings are known inside the company as “TGIF” or “Thank God It’s Friday” meetings). Sent to Breitbart News by an anonymous source, it features co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, VPs Kent Walker and Eileen Naughton, CFO Ruth Porat, and CEO Sundar Pichai. It can be watched in full above. It can and should be watched in full above in order to get the full context of the meeting and the statements made.
It was reported earlier this week that Google tried to boost turnout among the Latino population to help Hillary Clinton, only to be dismayed as the usually solid Democratic voting bloc switched to the GOP in record numbers. This video shows a similar level of dismay among Google’s most high-profile figures.
These individuals, who preside over a company with unrivaled influence over the flow of information, can be seen disparaging the motivations of Trump voters and plotting ways to use their vast resources to thwart the Trump agenda.
Co-founder Sergey Brin can be heard comparing Trump supporters to fascists and extremists. Brin argues that like other extremists, Trump voters were motivated by “boredom,” which he says in the past led to fascism and communism.
The Google co-founder then asks his company to consider what it can do to ensure a “better quality of governance and decision-making.”
VP for Global Affairs Kent Walker argues that supporters of populist causes like the Trump campaign are motivated by “fear, xenophobia, hatred, and a desire for answers that may or may not be there.”
Later, Walker says that Google should fight to ensure the populist movement – not just in the U.S. but around the world – is merely a “blip” and a “hiccup” in a historical arc that “bends toward progress.”
CEO Sundar Pichai states that the company will develop machine learning and A.I. to combat what an employee described as “misinformation” shared by “low-information voters.”
Well, it’s hardly as if we didn’t know these people were openly and avowedly against the duly-elected President of the United States. But to see it, and hear it, confirmed so shamelessly is still rather shocking. They clearly cannot be trusted with even a modicum of monopoly power over the American people; AT&T was broken up for less.
The Russian military details that on September 11, the White Helmets and terrorists from Tahrir al-Sham (commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Syria) held a meeting following the filming process, in which they selected two out of nine videos for future transfer to the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The remaining videos are to be used for propaganda on social media networks due to the poor quality, the military claims.
At the same time, since September 9, the White Helmets have been staging rehearsals of an alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Russian officials say in the same statement, claiming that the rehearsals feature up to 30 civilians, including a dozen children aged 8-12.
Why would the Syrian government ever utilize banned chemical weapons in such a situation. Assad has already won the civil war. He has absolutely no need to do anything more than keep pressing forward and his victory is assured.
This is an insult to even the average American’s intelligence.
