Category: Uncategorized

Alt★Hero #1: the initial reactions

Some of the initial reactions to the first digital edition of Alt★Hero, Issue #1, from email and the forums. The general reaction is extremely positive.

  • I liked the artstyle and colouring. The story so far is gripping, and as someone who backed this project in order to start hitting back in the culture war in order to provide some sensible reading material for the next generation, I love the result.
  • Really loving the story so far! One satisfied backer!
  • I just wanted to congratulate you and your production team on Alt*Hero 1.  It’s spectacularly well-drawn, and the story line, while still abbreviated, holds promise for a lot of development further down the road.  I think it’s more than capable of giving Marvel, DC, etc. a run for their money.
  • Overall, well done.
  • First thought: nothing like clearing the fences on the first swing, with the grumble that you were just warming up. The coloring was great, story was succinct and spot-on; it’s amazing what you can do with the correct amount of dialogue. Excellent artwork that showed the story and reaction without needing to tell. That’s a lot of dynamic range in the action and wording. The climax and ending surprised me.
  • The coloring was wonderful, art was solid and the story was well-paced and not overly talk-y (a la Bendis, which I hate). Rainbow was handled perfectly, I thought, all body language and natural dialogue with none of the SJW preachiness we’re used to, either in one direction or another. Great start overall. Vox is definitely on to something here.
  • Just finished reading Alt*Hero #1. I really enjoyed it. Topical to world events, fun “bad” guys, with a sense of ominous foreboding on what’s coming up in the series.
  • This is why I donated. A big thank-you to the Alt-Hero and Arkhaven teams.
  • Congrats mate.  Huge professional accomplishment.
That being said, we are absolutely not resting on any initial laurels. Some professional criticism from various industry pros:
  • This was a very nice origin story for Dynamique and set up the global landscape for the series. I think starting in Europe is smart as everyone’s going to expect #MAGA American politics.
  • Fast-paced. Funny where it needs to be. God, could comics use some humor right now.
  • The lettering. The balloons are too cramped and the lettering doesn’t stack right. The font is bad as well. The worst aspect is the placement. Too often balloons are placed to cover actions or primary figures. It’s especially frustrating when plenty of available negative space is left uncovered that would been better real estate for the balloons.
  • Overall I’d call the story 4.5/5. It’s just minor elements, nothing major. Art I’d call at 2.5/5 could use major improvement.
  • Establishment panels. Reading this whole, I see that it needed establishment panels at the beginning of most transition scenes. We need to know where the characters are in relation to one another and their environment before proceeding. 
  • The characters are very distinct, and you can tell who is speaking mostly just based on the dialogue itself which is much better than most comics. Your use of humor is also very important — it sets the stage that this is not all that serious, which actually helps the reader forget about the art a little bit. If the tone was more serious, the art would matter and stick out more. Overall, it’s compelling.
And not everyone was equally enthusiastic.
  • I read the backer copy of Alt★Hero #1, and I have to be honest with you. It was total crap. The art was atrocious and amateurish. Scene transitions were awkward. Also, certain shots were composed in a confusing way. I got no sense of Dynamique’s motivations. There were way too many characters introduced from the beginning, drowning out Dynamique even further. The beginning itself had a very basic flaw — why should we care that this redheaded model is being kidnapped at all? 
I am not at all fazed by the criticism, and I think most of the professional criticism is both valid and worthy of figuring out how to address in the future. Let’s face it, it is a better first effort than my first solo novel. I am very pleased with the general nature of the professional criticism, because I have known from the start that the technical elements would inevitably take us time and experience to master. As I mentioned in my conversation with Ethan van Scriver, you can fix the art, you can fix the technical aspects, but you cannot fix the story or the characters. They are either interesting or they are not. And ultimately, it is the story and the characters that will determine the success of the endeavor.

UPDATE: As many people predicted, the naysayers who claimed Alt★Hero was a scam are simply moving the goalposts now that Issue #1 has been released. Which is why I never bothered to engage with any of them, but just ignored the petty little anklebiters from the start. And I will continue to do so. They never had any credibility in the first place, as I’m from the game industry, I subscribe to the id Software philosophy of “it’s done when it’s done,” and I never gave any hard release dates in the first place. People will continue to trash it – especially Jordan Peterson fans, it appears – and that will only help us become more successful over time.

I also note that we are providing considerably more than we promised. Yes, the digital version of the first issue is out to backers. But we will also release a print edition of that first issue very soon, which we neither planned nor promised to do, and we will release it in four languages. I’m selecting the font for the French, Italian, and German versions this week, because Backissues BB, the Blambot font we used for the digital edition, does not have the necessary accents.

Also, our comics will never appear in the previews. We don’t work with Diamond and we don’t talk to the comics media. If you want to know what we’re doing, you’ll have to subscribe to our email newsletter, which right now is only available to backers.

LateNightComics
I’ve been calling Vox Day’s #althero a scam since day one. Even argued with him about it. Still no comic hahaha…. what a JOKE!

LateNightComics
So far every deadline has been missed, it’s not in previews and I haven’t seen a single person review it. Vox Day is a liar and #althero is a scam that hurt our side. Vox can either deliver the issue or refund the money he took under false pretenses.

LateNightComics
Sorry Jon I know you and Vox are boys you should encourage him to be a man and follow through on his word instead of getting himself banned on purpose and pocketing the money.

LateNightComics
If @DiversityAndCmx pulled the same bullshit as Vox Day I would never stop calling him out. @JonMalin and @BrettRSmith76 have reputations worth protecting I guess Vox doesn’t care what people think about him.

LateNightComics
He paid the people he needed to pay so there’s that at least. It just hurts all indie fundraisers when crooks and liars get involved in our hobby and trash it with bull crap like #althero

Flannel Avenger
So, when Alt-Hero ships I take it that you will publicly recant your accusations of scam?

LateNightComics
No I won’t it’s still a garbage comic and he still pocketed most of that money to prop up other projects.

Jawbreakers Fan Jon Del Arroz
How do you know it’s a garbage comic when you just said it doesn’t exist? This is backward logic and haterade nonsense.

LateNightComics
Maybe you’re right and Vox is simply horrible at marketing his product. He was high energy when he was fundraising now it’s sleepy time once the checks cleared.

LateNightComics
If Vox wanted people like me to shut up he could announce a hard release date or eat his shorts.

Jawbreakers Fan Jon Del Arroz
Yeah, we’re talking 2 months late from the goal which was made clear was not a promise timing wise from day one and this guy’s flipping out.

LateNightComics
I’m not flipping out, I’m calling out. It’s got to be done sometimes and horrible customer service is Dan Slott/ Mark Waid behavior. I just had hoped Vox would be different than those guys.

It doesn’t take two to tango

In which I address Larry Correia’s disinvitation to Origins in light of my own banning from ConSimWorld over an argument with a proto-SJW demanding the elimination of black SS counters from wargames about 15 years ago in a Darkstream.

The thing is that nothing has changed, it’s only gotten worse, things are only getting worse because nobody is fighting back. I mean even someone like Larry Correia, whom I admire, whom I respect, and who in creating Sad Puppies launched what until recently was the only effective response to the SJWs, now even he just wants to be left alone. And that is the fundamental flaw of the Right; you cannot win a war that you refuse to fight, you cannot win a war by being left alone, and the SJWs have made it very very clear that they will never ever leave us alone.

The woman who complained about Correia to Origins and managed to get him disinvited was bitter at him over a takedown that he had done of her boyfriend back in 2014, four years ago! So these people do not forget and they are going to continue to come after you. They would continue to come after me if they could, you know, if they didn’t know that I am always ready for it, I’m always anticipating it, and they also know damn well that I’m going to go after them harder than they come at me every single time, and so they tend to go, “you know what, maybe we’ll go after easier targets.” I mean it’s not like there aren’t a plethora of them out there.

And so what what you need to understand is that there is no telling them “that’s enough”, there is no warning them, the point is that you keep reading these articles, you keep seeing these comments, you know, now they’ve gone too far, now it’s too much, and that’s not going to achieve anything. There is a standard boilerplate conservative column that I could probably write in my sleep, I’ve been reading that same column for 30 years now and I call it the conservative dire warning column. If the Left doesn’t watch out, they’re not gonna like what happens! Well, guess what? Nothing’s gonna happen. You’re not going to do anything! You know, and they already know, that you’re not going to do anything. They already know that John Ringo is not going to do anything, they already know that Larry’s not going to do anything.

I mean, these guys are successful. These guys are successful and it’s not worth it to them. I understand that. I’m not unsympathetic. You know the problem is, that is the response of everybody: well, you know, it’s not that big a deal. Well, it’s not that big a deal to you, but it is a big deal collectively to everyone else that is now affected by it. Now I’m not condemning or criticizing anyone who just wants to wash their hands and walk away from that. I don’t go to conventions, it’s not my thing. I don’t want to be around a bunch of people, so if someone says “hey, you know what, I’m just not gonna go” hey, that makes perfect sense to me.

But here’s the problem. Every time you do that, you’re conceding space, you’re providing moral comfort to the enemy, and you are encouraging them to continue doing it. And eventually they’re going to push into spaces where it actually affects you. For example, you know someone like John Ringo doesn’t really care about getting disinvited from a convention, right? But he’s going to care a whole lot if he ends up getting dumped by Baen for his political views. Now you might say, oh, that’s ridiculous, he’s very successful, why would they ever do that? Well, because SJWs are not rational people. They don’t look at the situation and say “gee this guy is one of our best-selling authors, we shouldn’t get rid of him”, they’re just going to look and say this is a bad person and we’re going to go after them now.

If Disney was willing to throw away a billion dollars in order to turn Star Wars into an SJW fest, do you really think that a publisher is going to be unwilling to give up some book sales? They are not primarily motivated by money so you cannot anticipate their behavior on the basis of whether it’s in their economic self-interest or not.

UPDATE: Neither Bridget Correia nor John C. Wright appear inclined to take this lying down.

The SJWs have already ruined STAR WARS, STAR TREK, DR WHO, Marvel Comics, the Hugo Awards, the News media, the Anglican Church, and the Boy Scouts.

They ruin the fun for everyone.

They nag, they lie, they play holier-than-thou, and at the same time promote moral depravity that makes your stomach turn. These are the same people, allegedly so afraid of Larry Correia, who defended and continue to defend Marion Zimmer Bradley and her homosexual husband running a pedophile ring at conventions.

The anti-SJW front in comics

Arkhaven and Dark Legion are not alone:

Jawbreakers made history with one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever. The industry professionals who worked so hard to create a left-wing echo chamber, however, would not let this stand.

A Harassment Campaign Against Meyer

Once the project funded, Mark Waid opened fire on Meyer again, posting several rambling Facebook messages. “I have a call in to Antarctic Press,” Waid said. “Curious as to how they feel about publishing creators whose marketing strategy is to allegedly (*koff*) encourage their fans to threaten the employees of stores, and/or harass and one-star-review-bomb stores, that don’t offer their product.” There is nothing written on Meyer’s public social media profiles that come anywhere near the accusations Waid made. Waid did, however, encourage the industry to attack Meyer.

“Gee, I can’t imagine why publishers wouldn’t want to affiliate with this audience,” tweeted Gail Simone, a feminist icon in the industry.

“Is that the thing where those twits started bullying female Marvel editors after Flo’s memorial? Yup, that was creepy,” said Neil Gaiman, speaking of #ComicsGate and citing left wing op-eds as his source for his alleged facts.

“The game plan of targeting, attacking, labeling, threatening, and harassing people followed by ‘if you don’t buy MY book I’m going to attack, label, threaten and harass YOU!’ Seems a problematic one,” commented Erik Larsen, founder of Image Comics, who published a book by Michelle Perez, earlier in 2018, mocked Richard Meyer’s prior military service and publicly wished he had been killed in combat.

These creators inspired retailers to make tweets about refusing to carry Jawbreakers. Left-wing activists then became involved, sending a flurry of hatred against Meyer and his team. “Hate speech is not free speech & fascists like [Meyer] have no place in this diverse, inclusive industry,” posted one woman, who claims in her Facebook profile that she works for Planned Parenthood.

Conservative Creators Speak Out

The industry stood firm against conservative creators because they are outspoken against the extreme politics in comics, and as the left is wont to do, mischaracterized them in an effort to delegitimize their product. It worked to some extent, as Antarctic Press was pressured into backing out of publishing their book for comic store distribution.

I’m very pleased that Jawbreakers II got such strong support; it sends a clear message to the industry that the success of Alt★Hero was not a unique one-off and that there is a real market for non-SJW comics. However, I do wish they had decided to bring it to Dark Legion rather than trying to set up yet another new independent publishing company, because after spending the last three years building up a team and distribution channel, I am well aware of how much work is in store for them. For the record, I’m not simply saying this out of self-interest; I told Team Milo the exact same thing when they elected to try setting up their own publishing company on the basis of Simon & Schuster’s success with Dangerous. Even starting with a #1 bestselling hit is no guarantee of short-term survival, let alone lasting success.

But this is one of the ongoing challenges that will be faced by the Right as our options for working with SJW-converged institutions continue to disappear. Everyone who is successful tends to want to do their own thing and maximize their short-term interests, which is why we tend to have so much trouble successfully building strong, stable, alternative institutions. I don’t blame creators who prefer to go their own way, indeed, I freely admit that it is often to their short-term interest to do so right now. But I won’t shed any tears when they eventually discover why institutions are important either.

It is, however, a little frustrating to see one creator after another soar, Icarus-like, sunward on a solo flight, only to crash into the sea before long. Especially when I think about where Castalia might be right now if I had been able to convince some of them that they would have been better off in the long-term by working with us rather than going it alone.

The critical narrative

It’s a good thing Man has moved beyond thinking in narrative, unlike the human race before the Sixteenth Century, or one might suspect that the collection of Jordanologists at Steve Sailer’s place are guilty of doing so. Of course, this little collection doesn’t even begin to address the many comments at YouTube insisting that I am only criticizing Jordanetics because I am, and one really has to quote one particular gentleman in order to fully appreciate the sentiment, “jelly”.

I’m fascinated by the fact that Jordan Peterson has caused Vox Day to to go completely off the rails. I don’t get it, honestly. Can’t a man have many things to say that you find interesting and worthwhile, and others you disagree with without it causing you to condemn him unreservedly?

Vox Day is sort of a professional egotist. I suspect that Vox really hates Peterson because he thinks that he deserves Peterson’s large fanbase, salary and media attention.

It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Vox Day is loosing his cheese-wizz over this. As I said in other words in another post still awaiting moderation: Peterson may be the single greatest existential threat to the alt-right – and the Alt-right understands that. I think the Maoist left understands him as a enemy they are programmed to try to destroy at all costs, but they probably don’t understand that if he succeeds, he’s their death too, as much so as that of the Alt-right.

People like Vox Day are coming down with PDS (Peterson Derangement Syndrome). It’s most likely because they narcissistically think of themselves as more deserving of delivering the masses from evil.

Vox Day is an amateur troll who’s obviously chaffing at the reality of Jordan Peterson’s popularity and impact, while he toils away in obscurity, egged on only by his amen chorus of commenters who can’t tolerate even the mildest criticism. His latest Dorkstream is a rambling, incoherent assemblage of ad-homenims, such as saying Peterson is an “intellectual fraud”, whatever that means. Peterson is also claimed to have some five-degrees-of-separation link to John Podesta and George Soros. Yeah, whatever.

Vox has developed a strange obsession with Peterson, and at this point it’s rather pathetic. Vox is obviously a bright guy, but he has torn into Peterson with the fury of a scorned lover. He has convinced himself that Peterson is a minion of the Anti Christ, and Vox’s fanboys have gone all in with this supposed takedown. Not that Peterson cares, or even knows, who Vox is. Vox is sperging on Peterson and I think there is some serious projection going on.

Vox Day was never on the rails. Regardless of his ideology it’s pretty clear from his writing style that he’s a psycho.

I agree with your take on Auster and Vox Day, but Vox is in no way as intelligent as Auster was. Not even in the same league. Vox Day is an angry crank who babbles on and on about his 150+ IQ. If his IQ was above 110 I would be shocked.

You are right that Poz Day has lost his mind about this. Jealousy? Did JP bag Space Cunny?

The Vox Day vs. Jordan Peterson/Lawrence Auster vs. Mark Steyn thing is a sufficiently common phenomenon that it’s got a name: “the narcissism of small differences.” Back in the day, I was thoroughly dismayed by Auster’s constant attacks on Steyn, which seemed to surpass in vitriol anything he ever said about genuinely bad actors like, say, David Frum. And Day’s scorched earth tactics against Peterson are, if anything, still more “off the rails” – as you aptly put it. The word “narcissism” is particularly apropos in Day’s case – is there anybody on the internet so quick to toot his own horn – and to toot is so loudly?

it really is weird. i think VD is a very good ideas man and enjoy reading his thoughts on just about every topic (save sci-fi), but it seems like 15+ posts on JP in the last 3 days means jp is in his head like a blood clot.

I like Vox, but his reaction to Peterson is a bit cringey, he seems to be disagreeing with him on a different plane than Peterson intends to operate. He’s a shrink, not an Aristotelian philosopher – and he never claims to be. Vox’s reaction to Peterson’s sympathizers is also striking in that it feels unhinged.

VD is a joke. I stumbled on his blog one time. I saw he was making a big deal of his so-called American Indian heritage for some reason, so I mocked him by calling him Big Chief Blogging Eagle. Then he responded by saying “look how racist these leftist SJWs are” even though I had said nothing that could be construed as leftist. All I had done was mock him, which in his mind automatically makes me an “SJW.”

I find it mildly ironic that Peterson’s defenders are defending an emotionally unstable, mentally ill individual who proclaims his dependence on mood-altering drugs using the narrative that I have lost my mind. The thing is, they are constantly attempting to set up a “I win, you lose” scenario, which is quite funny when you compare the critics of one Darkstream to the critics of a later one.

  1. How can you criticize him when you haven’t even watched his videos?
  2. Well, maybe you’ve watched a video or two, but how can you criticize him when you haven’t even read his book?
  3. He’s just a psychologist helping people, he’s not a philosopher! Wait, he said what?
  4. Well, just because he is trying to create a new philosophy doesn’t mean it’s a bad one!
  5. Just because you write a UN report doesn’t mean you agree with it!
  6. Just because you worked with John Podesta was on doesn’t mean you’re associated with him.
  7. Just because the media asks you to appear on all the shows and leaps to your defense whenever someone calls you names doesn’t mean you’re not the legitimate opposition to the media.
  8. Why is Vox so obsessed with this? Something must be wrong with him! He must be jealous. Or crazy!

They can’t seem to grasp that all I have been doing is systematically responding to their various defenses of the man, which keep popping up anew every time I knock one down. I don’t care about Peterson himself, his life is a living hell of insecurity and fear. How stupid would you have to be to envy a man who sincerely believes that life is suffering; apparently the man can’t even eat chocolate. It’s his philosophy and his defenders with which I have the problem.

Of course as one wiser commenter noted, I agree in your description of VD’s personality, yet you do not address any of the arguments he has made. Weak sauce, that. And the differences between VD and JP are not small. They are at the foundations of their respective philosophies. Understanding this would require, again, reading what they have written. 

As far as the idea that I am jealous of Peterson, to the contrary, what profit a man to top the bestseller lists at the price of his intellectual soul? If I was prone to envy, I’d envy NN Taleb, or perhaps the guy who wrote Who Moved My Cheese. Anyhow, at this point, I’ve said pretty much all I needed to say until the book comes out. If you still take the man seriously at this point, that’s on you now. The information is there.

In defense of Jordan Peterson

You know, Jordan Peterson must be a real threat to the mainstream, a true dark intellectual renegade, when The Weekly Standard rushes to his defense because someone suggested that he just might possibly be less than entirely philosemitic. After all, we know that the mainstream media always makes it an absolute top priority to see that false accusations are exposed whenever someone is inaccurately accused of being insufficiently enthusiastic about minorities who are no different than anyone else except for being smarter and harder working and more successful or are falsely accused of membership in the defunct German National Socialist Workers Party, right?

I know I have always appreciated the forthright way with which The Weekly Standard staunchly defended President Trump, and all his loyal supporters, and GamerGate, and the Sad Puppies, and indeed, myself, from all manner of false and scurrilious charges.

Unscrupulously, Feldman also hid from readers all the notable Jewish individuals from across the political spectrum who’ve written or spoken positively about Jordan Peterson and his work. To name a few: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Harvard’s Steven Pinker, psychiatrist Norman Doidge, professor Jonathan Haidt, author Howard Bloom, novelist Melanie Phillips, journalist Barbara Kay, professor Gad Saad, editor Jonathan Kay, comedian Dave Rubin, writer Cathy Young, biologist Bret Weinstein, author Ben Shapiro, comedian Bill Maher, New York Times columnists David Brooks and Bari Weiss.

It’s frankly astonishing that not one editor at the Forward had the professionalism to insist on gathering some testimony on behalf of the accused from any of these reputable people. Evidently, at the Forward, it’s perfectly acceptable journalism to ask a loaded question about a man and then stack the deck against him by quoting only his accusers. One of those anti-Peterson complainants—Heidi Beirich from the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center—even suggested (without any evidence) that Peterson could be seen as “a possible ally in Holocaust denial.”

In sum, what Feldman did was to 1) lie about a neo-Nazi’s opinion of Peterson; 2) use that lie to suggest he has a vast neo-Nazi following at the Daily Stormer; 3) conceal all the Jews who like him; and 4) seek out political partisans to smear him as a possible Holocaust denier.

It’s as unethical as it’s unconvincing. Even the most superficial reading of Peterson’s oeuvre suffices to show he’s an uncompromising enemy of anti-Semitism–and a real friend to the Jewish people. As he demonstrates in his detailed response to Feldman, he has spent the last 30 years “lecturing and teaching about the horrors of the Holocaust.”

It’s interesting, is it not, that it is so important for the media – supposedly Peterson’s enemy, who, we are told are just waiting to pounce on any mistake it can use to ruin him – to defend him from discrediting and disqualification? After this and The New York Times puff piece, how much more confirmation do you require to accept that he is Fake Opposition?

For backers only

I’m very pleased to be able to finally announce that the digital edition of Alt★Hero #1: CRACKDOWN has been released to the backers of the Alt★Hero project. If you are a backer who unsubscribed to the Castalia House bookclub or if you did not receive the email, please email me with BACKER in the subject and I will send out second mailing tonight with the link that will allow you to download the 11 meg file.

The digital edition is in the MOBI format, which will work on your Kindle. You can also use download the free Kindle Previewer for Windows  or Macintosh to read the digital edition on your computer. This is the same file that will be released for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited next week, we’re just getting it out early to the backers.

We anticipate having the first print edition out in about two weeks. It will retail for $3 and will be in the same royal octavo size as the QM and Jeeves comic books. French, German, and Italian editions will soon follow.

Please feel free to discuss the first issue of Alt★Hero in the Forums. I look forward to hearing your reactions. Thanks to all the backers who have made this possible, and thanks to the Arkhaven team, especially Cliff Cosmic and Matteo Mystic, for all their hard work in bringing this from concept to comic book.

Speaking of charlatans

The Weekly Standard attempts to redefine the term “protest”:

They’re not protests. They’re suicide-riots.

On Monday President Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign promise to move the United States embassy in Israel to the country’s capital, Jerusalem. As usual, the American and European media’s coverage interpreted the event in the worst possible light for the nation of Israel. One learns very little from our mainstream news sources about what the move may mean for the nations primarily concerned—Israel and the United States—but a great deal about the Palestinian “protests” happening along Israel’s southern border with Gaza: Headlines in the New York Times and Washington Post proclaimed (misleadingly) “Israel Kills Dozens and Wounds 1700 at Gaza Border” and “Over 50 Killed in Gaza Protests as U.S. Opens Embassy in Jerusalem.”

We put the word “protests” in quotation marks advisedly. In ordinary English usage, a protest is a collective action or gesture meant to bring pressure on a government or corporate entity. The Gaza “protests” are meant to bring pressure on Israel, but they’re intended mainly to kill and maim both Israelis and the Palestinian “protesters” themselves.

These demonstrations would be better described as suicide-riots. For nearly two months, Hamas and other militant factions have been encouraging young Palestinian men to storm the fence separating Gaza from Israel. The rioters cut holes in the fence, charge Israeli guards with crude weapons like axes, and lob fire bombs over the wall in attempts to set Israeli fields on fire. Hamas has pledged to massacre those on the other side of the fence, and these riots are expressions of that intention. Israeli defense forces are obliged to respond with force. An axe-clutching Palestinian insanely charging into Israeli territory isn’t a “protester” but a combatant and a terrorist. The fact that he doesn’t expect to prevail against the might of the Israel Defense Forces—he is in essence on a suicide mission—doesn’t somehow oblige Israeli soldiers not to use force to stop him. The Israelis have no choice but to fire back, and they do, often with deadly results.

If the Gaza protests are intended mainly to kill and maim Israelis, they are making an incredibly ineffective job of it, given the lack of Israeli casualties. On the other hand, these “suicide-riots” are proving to be very effective at bringing political pressure on the Israeli government from a broad global spectrum.

The Turks have expelled the Israeli ambassador. China has expressed serious concern. Russia has condemned the “indiscriminate” nature of the thousands of shootings. The UK government has urged restraint. These protests may be suicidal, but they are absolutely and without question protests, and to the extent their objective is to put international pressure on the Israeli government, they are successful.

Prime Minister Netanyahu clearly needs to read more Martin van Creveld than he has.

Seven signs of the charlatan


The Seven Signs of the Charlatan

  1. Redefines commonly understood words to suit his arguments.
  2. Prefers speaking to writing.
  3. Provides evasive answers to relevant direct questions.
  4. Utilizes his answers to self-posed questions as propositions for logical syllogisms.
  5. Cites secondary and tertiary sources instead of primary sources.
  6. Substitutes superficial knowledge about a subject for substantive knowledge of it.
  7. Advertises credentials and accolades and avoids addressing criticism.

Any time you see someone changing the definition of a well-defined, commonly-understood term, that’s a reliable sign that they are full of it.

The sign number two: they prefer speaking to writing. I realize this is a little ironic because here I am in a spoken medium, but you know, the genuine intellectual always prefers writing. Writing forces you to articulate more precisely. There are many things that sound pretty good, but once you put them down on paper, you realize that the argument has holes in it, you start to see the problems with it. It is much easier to baffle and dazzle and bypass people’s reason when you’re speaking to them. You know, speech is more intrinsically rhetorical than writing, and so anytime you see someone who is really big on speaking and who much prefers lecturing to writing, that’s a clue. It’s not as reliable as the first sign, but it is definitely an indicator

Sign number three: they reliably provide evasive answers to direct questions. Now, there are times when you have to avoid a direct question, you know, when someone poses you the equivalent of a “have you stopped beating your wife: type of question, it’s totally legitimate to refuse to answer it. So whenever you are dealing with somebody who is asked a relevant direct question, when you’re dealing with someone who is asked a pertinent question that is substantive, and is not a gotcha question, when it’s aimed at understanding or clarifying something the person has said, or what the person’s position is, and they respond evasively… if they respond to a question that is meant to clarify their position and their response is to try to fog it up even more, this is also a very reliable sign that you’re dealing with a charlatan.

Excerpt: The Stones of Silence

Peter Grant is self-publishing a new trilogy. An excerpt from The Stones of Silence:

On Colomb’s bridge, her duty watch felt no tension at all as they looked at the Plot display. The cargo shuttle was almost ten minutes out, arrowing toward its rendezvous with the first satellite. They’d all shared in a handsome bonus for capturing the first three satellites, some months before. If they picked up the next three as well, plus the monitoring station that they now knew existed, they’d get the same again – something to look forward to when they got back to Callanish.

Their anticipation was rudely shattered as three traces appeared in the Plot display, the first above them, the second thirty degrees below and to starboard, and the last thirty degrees below and to port. The Plot operator froze for a disbelieving second, then almost screamed, “Vampire! Vampire! Three missiles launched from… they’re all around us!”

Almost before he’d finished speaking, Lieutenant-Commander Macaskill’s voice cut over his from the Navigation console. “They’re not aimed at us! They’re offset to one side, sir!”

Lamprey felt as if he were wading through mental molasses as he tried to cudgel his astonished brain into action. He raised his voice over the sudden hubbub of startled cries and oaths. “Silence! Silence on the bridge!” Every instinct screamed at him to cut in the drive and head for safety right away… but those missiles proved it would be futile. Every one of them had been launched from only half a million kilometers away.

They watched in frozen, dumbfounded silence as the three missiles arrowed closer, then detonated in three starburst icons in the Plot display. Their laser beam cones were aimed away from Colomb, so they did no damage, instead slashing harmlessly through the vacuum of space.

Almost as soon as the last missile had detonated, a voice crackled over the Communications speaker on the interplanetary emergency channel. It was filtered through a voice modulator, so that it came over in a flat, mechanical monotone.

“Attention! Colomb, you are surrounded by armed vessels. Any attempt to flee will result in your instant destruction. Your ship and crew are under arrest. Order your cargo shuttle to return to your ship immediately. Your crew is to enter Colomb’s lifeboats, taking nothing with them, and remain there until further orders. The Commanding Officer, plus a skeleton bridge and drive room crew, are to remain at their stations. Send your Executive Officer to meet an armed boarding party in your docking bay. They will give you further orders. In the meantime, you are not to damage your ship in any way. Leave all systems and equipment in fully operational condition. Do not erase any records, files or programs. If you do, those responsible will face the most severe consequences. Acknowledge. Over.”

There was a stunned silence in the control center as Lamprey reached for his microphone. He somehow managed to keep his voice steady, even though his body was trembling with the shock of his reaction to the missiles that had come out of nowhere.

“Colomb to unknown vessel. Who are you? Identify yourself! By what authority are you trying to arrest us? There is no System Control Service in the Mycenae system, and no laws or regulations authorizing you or anybody else to arrest anyone for anything. This is an act of piracy! Over.”

“Colomb, we are the new security service for the Mycenae system. That’s all you need to know. We don’t care whether you recognize our authority. You’d better recognize the authority of our missiles, if you value your lives! As for your arrest, what did you expect after you stole three satellites from around this planet? Your presence here was recorded, and your ship identified. You are now being brought to justice for that theft. It may be frontier justice, but it’s justice nonetheless. Your ship is forfeit for your crimes. You and your crew will be placed under guard while Colomb is taken away for disposal. After that, plus a suitable interval to make sure you haven’t sabotaged her in any way, you’ll all be returned to Callanish, to explain to your bosses how you lost their ship. Over.”

Lamprey wanted to spit on the deck next to his console, but restrained himself. He was filled with bitter anger and frustration. He knew they had no defense against… whoever these people were. They’d heard vague rumors that the New Orkney Enterprise was considering system security in Mycenae, but his superiors had assured him that nothing had been done about it yet. They’d claimed it would take months, if not years, for NOE to buy patrol craft, hire qualified and experienced crews for them, and set up a formal security operation. What’s more, NOE didn’t have the money to spare for that right now. He couldn’t help thinking bitterly, It looks like they had a lot more money than we thought. They must have hired an existing outfit, rather than taken the time to raise their own. Who the hell are these people? There aren’t many space security companies out there, and I don’t know any who can afford to expend nuclear-tipped missiles as a demonstration like that. They cost too much.

Slowly, he raised his microphone. “Colomb to… whoever you are. We shall comply, under protest. I am recalling my cargo shuttle, and will send my crew to the lifeboats and my Executive Officer to the docking bay. We await your boarding party. Over.”

“Very well. Do as you’re told, and no-one will get hurt, and you’ll all get home safely. Stand by.”
Lamprey switched to intercom. “Drive compartment, stand fast. Bridge, stand fast. The rest of the crew is to proceed to their lifeboat stations at once, and take their places in the lifeboats, but do not launch, I say again, Do. Not. Launch. This is not a drill. I repeat, This. Is. Not. A. Drill. Lifeboat commanders, call the roll. Report to me as soon as all assigned personnel are in their places.”

Faintly, echoing up and down the main passageway, he could hear shouts of astonishment from the crew. Most of them knew nothing of the drama outside the hull, he reminded himself. He’d have to broadcast to them in the lifeboats, and explain what had happened.

He nodded approvingly at Lieutenant-Commander Macaskill, who’d taken it upon himself to radio the cargo shuttle and order its immediate return. “Thank you, Exec. You’d better head for the docking bay to meet the boarding party. Be careful. They may be trigger-happy.”

“I’ll be careful, sir.” Aidan’s voice was tight with anger and concern. “I wonder where they’re going to put us while they take Colomb to… wherever she’s going?”

“I daresay we’ll find out soon enough. As to where she’s going, surely that’s obvious? They’ll take her somewhere they can sell her for a lot of money, cash on the barrelhead. A newly refurbished repair ship, with all its equipment intact, is worth hundreds of millions, even in a no-questions-asked under-the-counter sale. They’ll want to recover as much as they can of the value of the satellites we took from them.”

“I wish we could hand them a worthless, burned-out hulk!”

“It’s a tempting thought, but what would happen to our crew if we did?” They stared at each other for a wordless moment, then Lamprey shook his head. “No. We can’t risk it. Our people deserve better than that.”

“I… yes, sir. You’re right.”

“I’ll broadcast to the ship’s company once they’re in the lifeboats, and make sure they understand that too. No resistance, no sabotage, no funny business at all. Our families want us back alive, not in coffins!”

Please to disavow

Sam Rocha would like to make it very, very clear that he does not approve of me, this blog, the Israeli government, or anything else that can possibly be described as Alt-Right.

PUBLIC NOTICE & STATEMENT:

I have been informed that the Alt-Right blog *Vox Populi* has a sympathetic post excerpting and linking to my critical review of Jordan B. Peterson that ran yesterday morning at Catholic News Service and listing my 12 rules parody thread.

I fully, completely, and totally reject any form of sympathetic association to this site and its ideology.

More than that, I see these people’s ideological platform as a grave evil. As a Mexican-American, I cannot assume if they take me to be “white” or not. So let me assure them that I am a racial mestizo and proud of it.

All intellectual debates aside, I want nothing to do with any person who advocates for anything approaching any form of political ethnonationalism, most of all that falsely conceived, racist ethnos called “white.”

I have been extremely critical of Rod Dreher and Jordan Peterson and others for not distancing themselves immediately from any form of alt-right sympathy. I hold myself to the same uncompromising and absolute standard. As soon as I found out, I posted this thread.

My Roman Catholic faith — and every other institution I am affiliated with — also condemns this ideology, but, tragically, it is the particularity of my race that is now the clearest bright line. All the same, I condemn the Alt-Right, totally.

Since we’re playing identity cards here, let me state that it is mildly amusing to me, the great-grandson of a Mexican revolutionary, to see a Catholic wildly waving his Mexican identity like a flag in defense of his desire to continue living as a mestizo invader in an Anglo-Saxon Protestant country. While my great-grandfather was of the revolutionary faction that more or less tolerated Catholics instead of slaughtering them out of hand, there is an irony there that will likely escape those who are insufficiently familiar with La Reforma, La Cristiada, and the Calles Law.

But Mr. Rocha need not worry. I can assure him that I have zero sympathy for him or his Bronze Catholic pride in La Raza Cósmica. I merely found it both interesting and informative that even people as ideologically divergent as we happen to be can find common ground with regards to the observation that Jordan Peterson is an intellectual charlatan.