Plagiarism is plagiarism

Toddy-Cat isn’t quite sure that the Zman is a plagiarist.

“I’m not sure that not citing a source in a response to a blog comment actually rises to the dignity of ‘plagiarism’”.

That degree of uncertainty is fair, especially if you haven’t actually read the source yourself, as I have not. But, as Tublecane demonstrates, once you look at Stove’s actual words and compare them to the Zman’s words, you are forced to conclude there is nothing to be uncertain about:

I thought of the paraphrasing defense, but that doesn’t hold up. It’s not that Z-man comes off sounding like Stove because uses the same general form of argument, borrowing a phrase or two…. I believe it was deliberate. Compare:

thezman: “Much more is known now about the natural world, than was known fifty years ago…”

Scientific Irrationalism by David Stove, (p.1) “Much more is known now than was known fifty years ago…”

thezman: “…and much more was known then than in 1580.”

Stove: “…and much more was known then than in 1580.”

thezman: “So there has been a great accumulation or growth of knowledge in the last four hundred years.”

Stove: “So there has been a great accumulation or growth of knowledge in the last four hundred years.”

thezman: “This is an extremely well-known fact.”

Stove: “This is an extremely well-known fact…”

thezman: “Let’s call this (A).”

Stove: “…which I will refer to as (A).”

thezman: “A person, who did not know (A), would be uncommonly ignorant.”

Stove: “A philosopher, in particular, who did not know it, would be uncommonly ignorant.”

The remainder of the post veers away from Stove’s text, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it were stolen from somewhere else. Now, whether such a thing as plagiarism exists in internet comment sections, that’s a different matter. I say yes, because it’s publicly passing off someone else’s writing as your own.

Tublecane is correct. The Zman clearly attempted to pass off David Stove’s writing and ideas as his own in order to try to place himself in an intellectually superior position from which he could then pass judgment. It’s not merely a question of what he did, but why he did it in that particular manner. He is observably a plagiarist. This observation is further supported by the fact that the Zman didn’t understand the argument that Stove was making about Karl Popper, nor does he understand Popper’s positions, nor does he even understand the fundamental differences between a) logic, b) math, and c) science, let alone the current need for the etymological division of “science” into its three aspects of scientody, scientage, and scientistry.

Ogre agrees. “It’s absolutely plagiarism in the sense of “presenting the words of another as your own.” And that’s really the only kind of plagiarism we care about here. Whether it could be considered academic plagiarism (I don’t know) or copyright infringement (its not), its still a dishonest and unethical thing to do. Especially given the context in which it was presented. It’s just more evidence of his posturing–passing off another’s arguments and expressions as his own in order to bolster his perceived intelligence.”

As has been the case every single time I have exposed the pretenses and posturings of someone who has fans, some of those fans are attempting to change the subject away from the failings of that particular individual to my theoretical motivations in destroying that individual’s intellectual reputation. To those fans, I will simply point out that my motivations are irrelevant, the facts are readily observable to everyone, and that this is what I do every time anyone comes at me, be they friend or foe.

The Zman and his would-be defenders can dance and defend and distract and theorize all they like. It won’t make any difference. The point is that he’s not particularly smart, he’s not very well-read – it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he hasn’t actually read much of the Stove book past the first page since he clearly didn’t understand it – and most importantly, he’s not very honest. And his moral and intellectual failings have nothing to do with me, as I am merely one of the many people who has happened to observe them.

The main difference between me and most of those who wish to somehow minimize my influence or discredit me is not that I am at least a standard deviation more intelligent than they are, although that is often true. The main difference is that for 16 years I have had tens of thousands of opponents poring over my every word written in column, blog post, comment, tweet, and book, looking for every possible mistake they can exploit, and most of my critics have not.

So, even if I lacked both confidence in my own words and personal integrity, I know better than to ever make the sort of stupid, obvious, dishonest, and self-discrediting mistake that the Zman did in plagiarizing David Stove’s words and attempting to pass off Stove’s ideas as his own. At the end of the day, a man must decide whether he values his integrity or he values the opinions of others. My decision should be obvious from my mantra: MPAI.

Closing in

Remember what I said about the big Hollywood dam starting to crack the other day? This would appear to be a very large fissure developing.

Anyway, on this particular show, there was a special guest star. A very special guest star. Still not a tween, everyone knew who she was. Executives flocked to the studio that day to see her. She was first molested when she was 5 or 6 and had continued to be molested throughout her hit movies and also on a previous show.

One of the stars of the show who has spent her life bouncing in and out of rehab because of what she saw, and who was actually nominated for awards from the show, described the atmosphere that day.

“A bunch of f**king pigs. I had just turned 12 or 13. I was the same age as the actress coming in. Maybe a little older. We had been shooting for months and I was old news. They knew I would do what they wanted, but they always wanted someone new. This was someone new and someone they all knew. They had it set up like a peep show almost. She had finished shooting that morning and they brought her out on a stage. The stage was used most of the time for a game show that was taped there. That game show is still on today. I can’t watch it knowing what happened to her there. They brought her out and the front four rows of this theatre were filled with guys who were already rubbing themselves. The girl was wearing a bikini. The show took place around a beach just so they could make these girls wear next to nothing. They had her walk around under the lights. The lights were focused on her and she couldn’t really see out to the audience. She was squinting. It must have been blinding for her. They had her walk back and forth. Then they had her start dancing. All of these guys were doing what another star at that same studio got busted for. This went on for about 20 minutes. Then three of the guys took her to a different area of the studio.”

Item: “She was first molested when she was 5 or 6.”

Item: “Heather O’Rourke was discovered by director Steven Spielberg when she was visiting MGM’s studios.”

Item: “That crap story ended up killing the girl because the parents believed the executives.”

Item: “Heather O’Rourke died at the age of 12 of cardiac arrest and septic shock.”

Item: Do you believe Steven Spielberg is an ideal guide and influence for our culture? Do Steven Spielberg’s films question our culture? What do Steven Spielberg’s films question? Does Steven Spielberg focus much of his fantasy life on young people? Did he portray children wallowing in sewers filled with fecal matter in Schindler’s List? Did he use children to finger paint an adult in Hook? Does he collect the illustrations of Norman Rockwell, such as the one showing a young boy in his underwear examined by a doctor? Are the inclinations of Steven Spielberg above suspicion by the media-fed culture? Was Steven Spielberg very friendly with Michael Jackson? Wasn’t Michael Jackson supposed to play Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg’s version of the story? Now that Michael Jackson is no longer held in favor by the mass media, does Spielberg associate with him? Do Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg share similar opinions about the sexuality of young boys?
– Crispin Glover

It’s only a matter of time now. I have always disliked Spielberg’s movies, even since I was in elementary school. There was always a wrongness about them, as if they gave off a repellent odor that one could detect even from the trailers. To this day, I haven’t seen many popular Spielberg movies, including Close Encounters, ET, Poltergeist, and Gremlins; after reviewing a comprehensive list of his filmography, it turns out that I’ve seen a total of nine movies in which he has played some role.

And now it appears we have a pretty good idea of exactly what that wrongness was.

UPDATE: I think we now have a clue as to why my Twitter account was suspended. Remember the meme about Indiana Jones being a pedophile? Unlike all of my other tweeted images, including the mock Beard covers, it is no longer available. As is the recent /pol/ thread on Spielberg’s List.

SJW will not protect you

Not even relentless virtue-signaling is proving sufficient to save the alleged sexual harassers in comics:

I understand that Group Editor of the Superman comics Eddie Berganza has informed staffers at the DC offices that Buzzfeed is about to publish an expose feature all about him and allegations that have been made against him regarding sexual harassment.

In 2012, Bleeding Cool reported the story that such an incident was alleged to have taken place in a hotel lobby at WonderCon in Anaheim.

I received multiple reports that the subject of the original post was DC Comics then-Executive Editor Eddie Berganza and the woman was a comic book creator in her own right, a partner of a regular DC writer, and an occasional convention reporter for Bleeding Cool.

She did not want to be named back then – she was afraid it might damage her work prospects and wanted to move on, and we respected that. But a few weeks later Bleeding Cool was able to name Eddie Berganza as the man allegedly responsible.

We later learnt that a number of complaints against Berganza had been made over previous years, including this one. During this period, he was demoted from Executive Editor to Group Editor, and reportedly banned from attending comic conventions for DC.

Between the Marvel-destroying SJW Brian Bendis moving to DC and Berganza’s slow-motion departure, this is really shaping up to be a tremendous vacuum for Alt★Hero to begin filling next spring.

And whether the accusations are true or not, this insidious environment is merely one of the many reasons you are very unlikely to ever see me at a comic convention. Can you even imagine how many female SJWs would be lining up to go public with their claims that I killed them, dismembered them, and raped them with their own severed limbs if I was foolish enough to so much as let them shake my hand?

Meanwhile, SJW convergence continues to kill the comics.

Sales of comics and graphic novels to comic stores declined 11.12{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5} in October in comparison to the year ago period, according to information released by Diamond Comic Distributors.  Comic sales were the entire source of the decline; comic sales declined 15.74{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5}, while graphic novel sales were up 2.37{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5}. Year-to-date sales are down 10.12{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5}, overall, with comic sales down 9.93{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5} and graphic novel sales down 10.55{666e5e86189a1fe5e2247551e7a4443f43206d2d8b82140cfc9efd38c8e16ed5}.

Even more interesting, unit sales were down 20.27 percent year-on-year.

Mailvox: posturing and plagiarism

Tublecane accuses the Zman of plagiarizing David Stove

If those paragraphs you quoted in your update are supposed to be Z-man’s words, uttered without reference to their source, oh boy. I thought they sounded familiar, so I checked my copy of David Stove’s Scientific Irrationalism and Z-man copies verbiage found on page one. Right down to the year 1580, the letter “A,” and the phrase “uncommonly ignorant.”

Stove, being much brighter than the Z-men of the world, wasn’t making an “everything scientists say is factual, so shut up” argument. He doesn’t even share Z-man’s opinion on Popperian falsifiabilty, though he lays into Popper and finds him guilty of launching a line of irrationalism (or a “postmodern cult,” as the subtitle has it) in the philosophy and historiography of science. A line which isn’t so bad with Popper but gets worse and worse as you go through Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend.

The point about accumulation of knowledge, which is robust in Stove’s book, is neither here nor there regarding the subject at hand. Z-man thinks he’s dealing with nihilists, and nihilists would have trouble with facts accumulating. But of course that has nothing to do with how you characterize varieties of “science” in the 16 Points. Science since 1580 could have simultaneously been more wrong than right and still served to advance human knowledge.

Upon closer inspection, Z-man explicitly mentions David Stove’s Popper and After, but in a separate post from the one in which he steals from it.

I call plagiarism!

Moreover, plagiarism that would be insulting to Stove, RIP, since he wouldn’t be caught making an argument as silly as Z-man’s.

I haven’t read any of David Stove’s books, so I can’t testify to the accuracy of the accusation of plagiarism. But it’s not particularly surprising to be informed that the argument the Zman’s was making is not his own, as 8 hours before Tublecane posted his comment, I had made this observation: “One definitely has the impression that the Zman has not read Popper, or even Kuhn, himself, but rather, has read what people have written about Popper.”

In any event, this demonstrates why it is important not to feign knowledge you do not possess, not to pass off the arguments of others as your own, and not to express opinions on subjects you do not know very much about. Especially on the Internet, someone is bound to eventually notice that you are an intellectual fraud.

The fiend Roy Moore

Well, if dating a girl who is of the age of consent and not taking advantage of her over several months of dating doesn’t disqualify a man for the Senate, I don’t know what does!

Debbie Wesson Gibson says that she was 17 in the spring of 1981 when Moore spoke to her Etowah High School civics class about serving as the assistant district attorney. She says that when he asked her out, she asked her mother what she would say if she wanted to date a 34-year-old man. Gibson says her mother asked her who the man was, and when Gibson said “Roy Moore,” her mother said, “I’d say you were the luckiest girl in the world.”

Among locals in Gadsden, a town of about 47,000 back then, Moore “had this godlike, almost deity status — he was a hometown boy made good,” Gibson says, “West Point and so forth.”

Gibson says that they dated for two to three months, and that he took her to his house, read her poetry and played his guitar. She says he kissed her once in his bedroom and once by the pool at a local country club.

“Looking back, I’m glad nothing bad happened,” says Gibson, who now lives in Florida. “As a mother of daughters, I realize that our age difference at that time made our dating inappropriate.”

Now, I wasn’t there, but I will say that an older man who dates a younger woman for two to three months with her mother’s approval and doesn’t have sex with her is not the sort of man who behaves in the manner that his accuser is claiming. Especially in light of the timing, this is almost certainly politically motivated slander and Fake News.

Quite on the other end of the credibility scale, Steve Sailer just busted (((Jon Leibowitz))) for attempting to sweep (((Louis CK’s serial sexual harassment under the rug, while (((Matthew Weiner))) is the latest Hollywood Values paragon to be accused of sexual harassment.

Why is one accusation credible while the other isn’t? Compare how Moore’s behavior towards other was described compared with Weiner’s.

At times he seemed a classic bully: obsequious toward those above him, condescending and harsh toward those he perceived as having less power to help or harm him. After one confrontation, costume designer Juliet Polcsa began carrying a minicassette recorder to tape her interactions with Weiner.

And then there is this.

Matt originally hired Kater as his personal assistant. She was soon promoted to be his writer’s assistant, and by the end of that same season, Matt offered her the opportunity to co-write the season finale — a particularly important show for him as Weiner also directs the final episode of each season. Then, without requiring Kater to generate any other spec material on her own (usually required for a writer’s advancement), Matt promoted her to be a full-time staff writer for this past season. 

That’s a totally normal timeframe for advancement, right? Weiner wasn’t treating Kater any differently than any other PA/writer’s assistant/co-writer/staff writer, right? She was just so super-talented that she never worked in the industry again, right?

SJWS ALWAYS DOUBLE DOWN now in paperback

STAGE SIX: Expel the Infidels

The Node.js community has again turned against itself, this time over a failed vote to oust a controversial member of the project’s technical steering committee (TSC) over alleged code-of-conduct violations…. Vagg, who declined to be interviewed, offended members of the Node community through various online posts. A member of the TSC attempted to move the allegations out of public view, but they’re presently available through the Internet Archive. Essentially, among other things, Vagg argued there are downsides to codes of conduct, which seek to shut down harassment and super-sketchy behavior within technical conferences and projects.
—“Node.js forks again—this time it’s a war of words over anti-sex-pest codes of conduct”, The Register, 24 August 2017

While the nebulous code of conduct rules sometimes prove too nebulous to actual make any charges stick well enough to justify expulsion, the very Kafkaesque nature of the process is usually sufficient to demoralize the dissidents and push them into quitting. After all, how does one defend oneself against a code of conduct violation which is comprised of arguing that there are downsides to the code of conduct? Notice that the controversial member is not charged with either harassment or super-sketchy behavior at conferences, but merely with arguing against something that theoretically seeks to shut down such behaviors.

Of course, quitting is always a mistake, however one tries to justify it to oneself. Quitting is the very outcome for which the SJWs are hoping because it saves them the trouble of trying to concoct a plausible case for disemployment where none exists. As I advise in SJWs Always Lie, don’t go easily, and take as many of them with you as you can while making the rubble bounce on the way out. Remember, SJWs are cowards, and they have little stamina for extended periods of open conflict. They try to wear their opponents down through insinuation and social pressure, killing them with the death of a thousand cuts rather than via a fair trial followed by an execution.

This is a timely release indeed. The 208-page paperback edition of SJWs Always Double Down: Anticipating the Thought Police appeared on Amazon on literally the very evening that Twitter suspended its author indefinitely using a method very similar to the one explained in Chapter 5: The SJW Convergence Sequence. As TZ noted, “If they actually declared the violation, then it could be evaded in various ways. It has to remain abstract and arbitrary, so that badthink people can be banned while goodthink people get a pass for equal violations.”

This silencing of the leading opposition voices is less important than instilling fear and submission on the part of the moderates, who are always looking for a means of rationalizing their acceptance of the status quo. As the subtitle indicates, I’m not at all surprised that Twitter targeted me and suspended my account even though I’ve been very good about not responding in kind to those who have been relentlessly attacking me in ways that obviously violate the Twitter rules. It was patently obvious that Twitter was playing a version of the Expel the Infidel game when I submitted dozens of reports about blatant violations of their policies directed at me, all of which were more egregious than any of the tweets that triggered my previous suspensions, and only those that rose to the level of serious libel were found to be in violation of their politices. That told me Twitter had no intention of playing fair; their only concern was preventing me from being able to pursue any external recourse they could not control.

So, what to do? What we’re already doing, of course. Did I not promise that SJWADD would give the reader the ability to anticipate their actions? We’re already constructing our own social media platform. It will take 12-18 months, but as I mentioned on a recent Darkstream, we are already building a range of social media capabilities, including Twitter-style functionality, into DONTPANIC. In the meantime, I expect the VFM on Twitter to carry on with the #DailyMemeWars, and I will continue to provide them with the ammunition to do so via email. Remember, you should not simply quit Twitter, just keep resisting the narrative in order to force them to show their hand and shut you down.

From the recent reviews:

  • Every CEO who doesn’t want to see their company get infested and eventually decline should pick up a copy.
  • This exceeds the first. Unreservedly recommend. This may be Vox’s best book so far. Both concise, and packed with very practical information presented in an easy and entertaining manner. Go Buy it.
  • A clearly written guide for looking at the why of SJWs and how to deal with them in your organization. The connection to socio-sexual hierarchy and the fresh look at Aristotle’s ideas were brilliant examples of why this book is a standout in modern political philosophy.
  • There are two types of political commentary/philosophy books: those that complain about what’s wrong and those exceedingly rare ones offering remedies to make right. This book, like its predecessor, SJWs Always Lie, is firmly in the latter camp.
  • This book is superb! I was prepared to be disappointed as how could any book live up to SJWs Always Lie? Yet this one did. 

Another Twitter suspension

Your account (@voxday) is currently suspended. For more information, please visit Suspended Accounts.

I can’t say the Trust & Safety Council were particularly helpful, as they did not provide any explanation why or ask me to remove any tweets. I can still access Twitter from that account and see my notifications, but can’t actually tweet anything. It’s just as well, I have too much to do to waste time on social media anyhow.

We apologize for this momentary disruption in the Daily Meme Wars, which will resume tomorrow in an email-only format.

If you want to be on the daily email list, sign up here.

The power of omninationalism

This email from MD may tend to confuse more than a few of my more unvarnished critics.

I am a 32 year old Kenyan man. Kenyan being a full-blooded African as we say. I have been mulling writing this email for sometime now. It is primarily to say thank you for the good work you are doing. I came across your blogs sometime in 2011/2012. I started off with Alphagameplan(AGP) and really started on Vox Popoli(VP) at the beginning of 2014. I think I have read all the posts on AGP but haven’t really dug into the VP archives.

I got to reading the manosphere as I searched for a way to make sense of women. I am relatively intelligent (have an engineering degree) and struggled in my relations with the opposite sex. I would say I had several gamma tendencies and self sabotaged myself in this area for a while. In addition I have grown up in a staunchly Christian home struggled to reconcile my Christian faith and the local way of gender relations. This local way primarily involves sleeping around a lot. Our traditional family and moral structures have heavily eroded my modernity.

Anyway in short I came to learn how to relate with women, succeeded and moved on to learning the basics of civilization. I got married this year to a wonderful Christian girl from a family which also acknowledges the Lordship of Christ and hopefully will be a dad soon. Your take on women, men’s roles and relationships and marriage really gave me hope when I had almost given up on having a Godly marriage. I hope I do not sound too spiritual but it is the truth.

I tell my wife that your writing helped me reconcile rationality and Christianity. I always felt lacking in apologetics when people around bad mouthed Christianity. Now I have a fairly good framework for tackling the why and when they bad mouth it. One of the sad bits about the intelligentsia here in Kenya is that they suppose that their intelligence qualifies them to look down on believers.

A lot of people here are Christians because of the promise of a better tomorrow, me included. I have seen how far belief in Christ has brought my dad and mum. Unfortunately many Christians have no theological grounding and are taken advantage of. Basically people (especially intelligent ones) consider Christians to be idiots. Your writings have exposed me, sharpened my critical thinking skills and given me hope.

The post ‘On the necessity of Christianity’ gave me hope. It may not be in  my generation or the one after it but that one day the same transformation it have on the backward Germanic and other European peoples will be seen here in my homeland. Especially if we embrace the transformative power of Christianity.

Thank you. Even as you defend the West, you have allies even here in the supposed dark continent.

He is quite welcome, of course. He is also far from the only African reader here. And the fact is that it is men like MD who are the best hope of the global South and the West alike, Christian men who are willing to accept the hard task of accepting even the most bitter truths, and then taking on the challenge of building their families and their nations despite the additional degree of difficulty involved.

His comparison of the historical backwardness of the Germanic peoples with the present backwardness of his own is an apt one. Things will not always be as they are now. A reckoning is coming. A winnowing is coming. And it is strong Christian men who will serve as the foundation for the successful societies to come, wherever they may be.

Yes, Africa faces serious challenges, both material and spiritual. But imagine what an Africa that somehow, through the will of Man and the grace of God, managed to surmount them would look like. Imagine how iron-forged and formidable it would be!

We can only play the hand that we are dealt. It is our responsibility to play that hand to the best of our ability, rather than spend our lives lamenting the fact that someone else, somewhere else, happend to receive better cards.

Louis CK is up to bat

The next Hollywood Values guy to be thrown to the wolves is Louis CK:

The New York premiere of Louis C.K.’s upcoming film, I Love You, Daddy, set for Thursday, has been canceled. Reps for the premiere, due to take place at the Paris Theatre, cited “unexpected circumstances.” A source tells The Hollywood Reporter that a New York Times story on the comedian is about to break, and the premiere was canceled in case it is damaging. Additionally, Louis C.K.’s planned appearance on CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was also canceled, with William H. Macy taking his place.

I wonder what was going on there?

The film generated controversy following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. TIFF programmers had screened it and given I Love You, Daddy a world premiere after C.K. surprised Toronto organizers, letting them know the film existed. Controversial dialogue appears throughout the film, including the use of the N-word by C.K.’s character and multiple jokes about child rape.

Ah, there we go. As a rule of thumb, if a Hollywood Values guy is joking about something, or making a movie about something, he’s probably doing it. Good riddance. I never thought he was funny anyhow.

UPDATE: Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say

After being contacted for an interview this week about the on-the-record accusations of sexual misconduct — encounters that took place over a decade ago — Louis C.K.’s publicist, Lewis Kay, said the comedian would not respond. “Louis is not going to answer any questions,” Mr. Kay wrote in an email Tuesday night.

Neither Louis C.K. nor Mr. Kay replied to follow-up emails in which the accusations were laid out in detail, or to voice messages or texts. On Thursday, the premiere of Louis C.K.’s new movie “I Love You, Daddy,” was abruptly canceled, and he also canceled an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

The stories told by the women raise sharp questions about the anecdotes that Louis C.K. tells in his own comedy. He rose to fame in part by appearing to be candid about his flaws and sexual hang-ups, discussing and miming masturbation extensively in his act — an exaggerated riff that some of the women feel may have served as a cover for real misconduct. He has all but invited comparison between his private life and his onscreen work, too: In “I Love You, Daddy,” which is scheduled to be released next week, a character pretends to masturbate at length in front of other people, and other characters appear to dismiss rumors of sexual predation.