Category: Uncategorized

Twitter Confessions

Elon Musk admits what we’ve known since 2017:

True, some accounts on the right were suspended even when Twitter internally acknowledged that no rules were broken

@elonmusk, 9 Dec 2022

Yes, I know. I never broke any of the Twitter rules. And yet, I’m still permanently suspended, without ever having a single violation of the rules cited.

Lesson: never trust a self-appointed Devil’s Champion.

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Death at the World Cup

We don’t know it was the vaxx… but it was the vaxx. Grant Wahl, the dean of American soccer journalism, is dead at 48.

Grant Wahl, a former Sports Illustrated senior writer, died Friday in Qatar while covering the 2022 World Cup. He was 48. Wahl is survived by his wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, and two dogs, Zizou (named after French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane) and Coco, who readers came to know over the years through Wahl’s coverage of the sport.

In a joint statement, SI’s co-editors in chief, Ryan Hunt and Stephen Cannella, said: “We’re shocked and devastated at the news of Grant’s passing. We were proud to call him a colleague and friend for two decades—no writer in the history of SI has been more passionate about the sport he loved and the stories he wanted to tell. Our hearts go out to Céline and his family, as well as everyone who loved his work. He will always be part of the SI family.”

Wahl spent 24 years at SI, joining in November 1996. Two years in, as a budding reporter, he volunteered to cover a growing game that few around SI’s offices cared about: soccer. He covered the World Cup in France that summer and quickly worked his way up to a senior writer for the publication in 2000. Eventually he would become one of the most respected soccer authorities in the world.

He was an excellent sportswriter, and he died with his boots on:

American sports journalist Grant Wahl, who died unexpected while covering the World Cup in Qatar, was in good spirits and joking with colleagues just minutes before his sudden death, an eyewitness said. Wahl, 48, died after he “fell ill” at the Lusail Stadium in the final minutes of the FIFA World Cup quarterfinal game between the Netherlands and Argentina Friday, a Qatari spokesperson said.

His SI colleague John Wertheim remembers him. RIP.

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Goodbye Brazil

And this is why no Brazilian has ever considered Neymar to be anywhere near Pele’s level despite setting the all-time scoring record for the Selecao. Nice goal in extra time, to be sure, but scoring just one goal in 120 minutes is a very bad idea against a team as good at taking penalties as Croatia.

FIFA’s dream final of Portugal (Ronaldo) vs Argentine (Messi) is still possible.

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10,000 Dead Canadians

Canada is literally massacring what once passed for its native population.

Last year, more than 10,000 people in Canada – astonishingly that’s over three percent of all deaths there – ended their lives via euthanasia, an increase of a third on the previous year. And it’s likely to keep rising: next year, Canada is set to allow people to die exclusively for mental health reasons.

To put things in context, that’s the equivalent of 186,000 US citizens being “assisted” last year. And if you put the trends together – depopulation, vaccination, and euthanization – Occam’s Razor suggest that the mass euthanization of the vaccinated may be the long-term result.

Today’s HYPERGAMOUSE provides an amusing take on a very dark matter.

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Avalon Poll

We have finished with CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON Issues 1-12. We’re now in the process of printing the two omnibuses, 1-6 and 7-12. However, it was suggested that having one big omnibus that collects Issues 1-12 would be preferable since we managed to complete the whole thing before getting the first half out.

I inquired of The Legend and he said he would prefer “one big doorstopper of a book.”

However, this is something that needs to be left up to the backers. It makes virtually no difference to us, as very few backers only backed the first omnibus and we’ll just send them the whole thing. So, if you are an Avalon backer, please let us know if you prefer two separate omnibuses or one big one.

UPDATE: It belatedly occurs to me that if we do one big omnibus, we MIGHT be able to eventually do some leather editions – not Smyth-sewn, unfortunately – but by using the paperback covers as the endpapers. Apparently this is the technique Easton has used to do their Marvel leatherbound editions and it’s the approach we will likely take with Midnight’s War.

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Triggering the Hitlerians

For some reason, posting a meme comparing one foreigner who led another nation into ruin by provoking an unnecessary war with Russia triggered the Alt-Retards on Gab. I responded to them with my customary grace and kindness.

Dear Hitler cheerleaders,

You are collectively retarded. The salient fact about Adolf Hitler is not that he “stood up to the Jews”. The salient fact is that he was a foreign ruler of a people that he led into an utterly disastrous and unnecessary war.

After his early military success made him overconfident, he went way too far way too soon, and then tried to blame his predictable failures on the German people, who paid a terrible price for his stupid and short-sighted leadership.

He was as bad for Germany as Zelensky is proving to be for Ukraine.

If he’d been one-quarter the leader you believe him to be, Germany would still be peacefully dominating the continent.

Love,
Vox

As you can imagine, this went over well with the Alt-Retards. It was particularly amusing to hear that I am a) afraid to debate the matter and b) have Jewish handlers when I have already debated both Greg Johnson and Andrew Anglin on the subject and have been featured on one of the ADL’s many public hit lists since 2017.

But this underlines the reason I no longer debate anyone. Debates are ephemeral exercises for lightweights with short attention spans. They are of no lasting interest to anyone, apparently not even to those who are monomaniacally interested in the subject being debated.

And those whose minds are not impervious to historical facts may wish to take into account the fact that my perspective is not based on hindsight, but to the contrary, was shared by some of the Wehrmacht’s more illustrious figures at the time. In fact, my comments concerning the similarities of Hitler and Zelensky were largely the result of making the following observations when reading Col. Hans von Luck’s memoir, Panzer Commander.

  • At the beginning of June, suddenly and without warning, our division was entrained in Bonn and, after a journey of two or three days, detrained in Insterburg in East Prussia. The battalion was billeted in the surrounding villages. I used the opportunity to visit some friends on an estate nearby, where some years before, gay and light of heart, I had celebrated the wedding of one of my comrades. The old woman, who after the death of her husband, now managed the estate alone, greeted me sadly. “How depressing to see you again in these circumstances. How contented we were then and now we are threatened with a long and difficult encounter with Russia. Do you understand it all? What more does Hitler want? The Lebensraum so often talked of by him and Rosenberg?“ We walked through the clean stables. It was like saying good-bye to the old Germany.
  • Our entry into Russia had been delayed by nearly two months, because Hitler had had to help the Italians in Greece and subsequently deal with growing partisan activity in the Balkans. The Russian winter was at the door and the Wehrmacht was not prepared for it, let alone equipped. Hitler and the High Command seemed to have made no provision at all for a delay until winter.
  • The General looked at me over his glasses. “Luck, this was to be expected. Hitler has overreached himself. Now we’ve all got to pay for it, especially the poor infantry and the grenadiers. Give your men all the support you can. Many of them will get into a panic and try to save themselves at all costs. Don’t talk of retreat – the disengagement must and will succeed if we all keep our heads. We will lose a lot of materiel, but the main thing is to get the men back. In the hands of God, Luck.” Although catastrophe was looming, I couldn’t grasp it. For the first time since the successful blitzkriegs we were going back on disappointing terms. Snow, frost, icy winds, and an opponent who knew this climate and did not give up, had defeated us. The comparison with Napoleon was inescapable. I could see the pictures in my history books, of how the sad remnants of a proud army turned back and crossed the Beresina.
  • I could see the profound disappointment in Rommel’s face. “Through Hitler’s crazy order to hold out, we lost a vital day, which cost us losses that cannot be made good. I can’t hold Cyrenaica, so with the remains of the Afrika Korps, under General Bayerlein, I shall cross southern Cyrenaica, despite the rains and the sandstorms, in order to set up a first line of defense at Mersa el Brega.”

Some failures are noble. But Hitler’s failures were not. They were, even at the time, regarded as hubristic, crazy, and inexplicable by better and more intelligent individuals.

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Mailvox: Gamma Struggles

An Australian Gamma asks for advice:

Hope you could give some advice for a 19 yr old gamma. I have read “graduating gamma” several times over the last few years and have mitigated most of my gamma behaviors and thoughts. The articles were very helpful.

While I am much less annoying now, I am struggling socially. I was forced to take a gap year (Victoria vax mandates), so all of my school friends are at university while I am not yet. I’m working minimum wage jobs until February when university starts. My self-esteem is poor thanks to this and because I had no-one to take to my senior high school dance last year (the final nail in the coffin for years of delusion about my social abilities).

I am okay at small talk with colleagues, but am fairly socially incapable in large group settings. I was immensely uncomfortable at a recent work Christmas party held at a bar.

I seem to have a resting depressed-looking face. Work colleagues, not infrequently, ask “Are you okay?” for no apparent reason. I am struggling to form new friendships after high school and am fairly black-pilled and reticent thanks to vax-related ostracism I’ve received in the last 2 years. I do not talk about political or social issues except with close friends. I understand that despair is a sin and hope is a virtue, but this is difficult for me.

I lift, but not as often as I used to or should. I pray, but also not as often as I should.

I was reading Panzer Commander recently, and this quote from the brilliant tank commander’s book seems to be relevant. He’s addressing the challenge facing soldiers in wartime, and how they are able to keep themselves from falling into despair when routinely faced with situations far more ghastly than young men face in peacetime.

Every war brings with it, through the shifting of theaters of action, longer or shorter pauses, the “periods between campaigns.” These pauses are of great value, both for the individual soldier and for the community. Everyone tries to mobilize his mental forces and is ready to suppress negative experiences and assimilate even the slightest positive ones.

People encourage each other and strengthen one another in the hope that at some point in time they will be able to escape this constant mortal threat forever.

Probably every soldier finds out in the course of a war that he can only bear the “having to kill” and “being killed” over long periods if he adopts the maxims of the Stoics: learn to endure all things with equanimity. He can only do this if he builds up an immune system of his own against the feelings of fear and sympathy and probably, to a certain degree, even against matters of ethics, morals, and conscience. He cannot afford to question the whys and wherefores of the things that happen around him and in which he, himself, has a part. He must act and apply his whole concentration to that.

Panzer Commander, Col Hans von Luck

The key there, in my opinion, is “to suppress negative experiences and assimilate even the slightest positive ones”.

In my experience, it is not low self-esteem that is the reader’s problem. To the contrary, it is the contradiction between his high self-esteem and objective reality. It’s not the peasant who is depressed, because he knows his place. It is the peasant who imagines he is a secret king forced to endure the life of a peasant who is depressed. But self-esteem is irrelevant. No one cares what anyone thinks about himself. Esteem has to be earned, it cannot be assumed, postured, or cajoled by imposters.

The good news is that there is steel at the core. The reader didn’t submit to the narrative. He didn’t take the vaxx. That means he has it in him to succeed, and what he needs right now are some small victories upon which he can build. So, my prescription is relentless positivity. Focus on making each interaction with you, no matter how small, a positive one.

The reader should NEVER talk about himself. He should always steer the conversation to the other person: “I’m fine, how are YOU doing? What have you been up to?” And then actually listen to what the other person says; since so few people actually listen to anyone else – most people simply wait, impatiently, for their own turn to talk – just being perceived as a listener will elevate the reader over most other people.

There is no answer, but there is a process of transformation. And that process is a slow one that takes shape one interaction at a time. It starts when the Gamma applies two concepts to his behavioral pattern:

  1. Get over yourself. Everything isn’t about you.
  2. LISTEN. Just shut the fuck up and listen! You learn SO much more when you listen than you do when you talk.

As an aside, it might surprise a lot of readers to learn that I’m a reasonably good listener in social situations. Granted, it’s more about intellectual curiosity than any personal interest in the conversations taking place around me, but even my mother didn’t realize I’d been paying any attention to anything that anyone had said until my second novel was published.

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