Up to 37,500 views!

I expect you will understand why this announcement by McRapey made me laugh:

My piece earlier this week on Clinton and Sanders blew up a bit, with roughly 75,000 views over two days.

Ah, how the most popular blog in science fiction has fallen. Sad! As one might expect, McRapey concludes that his declining site traffic must mean that blogs, while not quite dead yet, are less important than Facebook and Twitter.

What’s amusing is how McRapey considers roughly 37,500 daily views to be blowing up, whereas the traffic here averaged 67,955 daily views in May and is currently running at a rate of 76,166 views per day in June. Whatever’s traffic is now between one-fourth and one-fifth that of VP, and the ratio is steadily falling. I will not surprised if by this time next year, it is one-tenth.

While he’s correct to echo Mike Cernovich’s observations in stating that Facebook and Twitter tend to be more reliable drivers of short-term link traffic these days, what McRapey fails to understand is that blogs have become online community centers that are capable of supporting a broad range of activities.

Such as, for example, this Jobs Wanted notification, before I forget and it disappears too far down the email list.

  • Hiring: Intermediate/Senior Ruby on Rails developer in the Southeast USA. If you have experience working with clients, APIs and know your way around the rails framework and TDD, contact Vox who will forward me your emails. I’ll respond at which point we can talk specifics. Relocation necessary.

Also, if you are a New Release subscriber, you’ll want to check your email tomorrow. Castalia has two new ebooks launching this month, which does not count the new print and audio editions being released. And as both the Production Editor and I have concluded, one of them is right up there with Awake in the Night Land; it’s definitely one of the best books we have published, and possibly even the best to date.

#Brexit

If Oliver Cromwell were alive today, he would beseech the British people, in the bowels of Christ, to get out of the Fourth Reich while they can still do so peacefully.

Orlando shooting

 “At least 30 shot”

A mass shooting has taken place in a night club in Orlando, Florida, police confirmed, adding that there have been multiple injuries. According to social media reports, an unidentified gunman barricaded himself and hostages inside the club and allegedly shot at least 20 people.

The incident took place at Pulse night club.

Doesn’t sound like Jihad, however. Given the location, it would appear to more likely be gang-related or omega rage. Regardless, we can expect Obama to make one last big push for gun control, which, if Hillary endorses it, will help sink her.

UPDATE: it’s a gay club. So, this could finally be the Great White Religiously-Motivated Christian Shooter of whom the media has dreamed for decades. It’s already being described as “hate-fueled”, which is possible, but more likely, it’s an amped-up version of the usual gay-on-gay violence.

When I was in college, several people were shot and killed, including a State Senator, at a certain beach on the river. All sorts of lurid gay-bashing theories abounded in the newspapers, until the killer was found and turned out to be a gay college student. That’s not necessarily the case, of course, but it’s usually how these things go.

UPDATE 2: 9 dead, 24 wounded, hostages still inside, bomb squad on scene.

The #orlandoshooting thread on Twitter. The Orlando police scanner.

UPDATE 3: It’s over. Shooter is down. 50+ killed and 53 wounded.

UPDATE 4: Looks like it is jihad in America after all.

‘Islamic extremist’ slaughters 20 people after bursting into US gay club ‘wearing a suicide vest’ and shooting 42 clubbers on the dancefloor before he is killed in police shootout

The real tragedy, of course, would be if this tragic incident caused gay dance clubs to begin discriminating against Muslims.

UPDATE 5: “Orlando shooter ID’d as Omar Mateen, U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie, FL. Registered Democrat.”

Obviously a hate-filled Southern Baptist bigot. Sad!

I also think it is important to consider the possibility that the shootings at the Pulse night club was not a case of religion-inspired anti-gay bigotry, but an anti-techno attack on electronic dance music.

No more Star Citizen refunds

Derek Smart correctly anticipated Star Citizen’s new Terms of Service:

I have been making a lot of noise about the ToS and the fact that RSI/CIG are required to provide refunds and financial accountability to backers for failure to deliver the promised game, 18 months from the expiration Feb 2015 ToS v1.2. Those clauses triggered on May 31st, 2016.

I wrote about that extensively:

A lot of Shitizens said I was wrong, that I didn’t understand it, blah, blah, blah. Yet, with the latest 2.4 patch disaster hurriedly pushed to live (conveniently ahead of E3 which they recently backed out of attending), they have done precisely as I said they would.

They released a new ToS. And if your scam alarm bells aren’t going off already, well, you may be suffering from Sunk Cost Fallacy.

And it came to pass that the new June 2016 ToS has been released with the latest 2.4 “patch” going live. I am working on a blog post for it; but the highlights are:

– You can’t sue them – like ever
– Under no obligation to deliver anything – like ever. Oh and delivery date and clause removed
– No refunds – for any reason – like ever
– Can ban your account – for any reason – delete it, and not refund you

In the meantime, if you ever want legal recourse, do NOT download the 2.4 patch and do NOT do ANYTHING on their site and/or services in which you are required to agree to this new ToS.

That sounds like a company with tremendous faith in its own offerings, doesn’t it?

And so it has come to pass

Conservatism Incorporated has marginalized conservativism:

For many decades, Conservatism incorporated has been purging those to its right. Anyone too right wing was deemed to not be a true conservative. And the purge went ever leftwards ever faster.

The alt right is those that have enemies to the left, and no enemies to the right. As conservatism purged ever more people, ever faster, it would inevitably happen that they would become a minority in the Republican party.

And so it has come to pass. The alt right outvotes conservatives.

I don’t know how many people would describe the #AltRight that way, but it’s certainly a useful way to describe the self-abnegation of the GOP establishment. I do think, however, it also should be kept in mind that many recent “conservative” policies, such as the adoption of free trade, “real” equality, and propositional America, have proved to be destructive nonsense.

#GamerGate wins! #GamerGate wins!

Gawker Media files for bankruptcy:

Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a Florida judge issued a $140 million final judgment in favor of Hulk Hogan in the invasion-of-privacy lawsuit over the posting of a sex tape.

The online news organization founded in 2003 by Nick Denton which now includes other sites like Deadpin, Jezebel and Kotaku, reports that it has less than $100 million in assets and hundreds of millions in liabilities. Gawker is currently facing a wrath of litigation that’s been connected to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Besides the Hogan suit, there’s claims from a journalist and the alleged inventor of e-mail who both say they were defamed. Gawker is also facing off against the parent company of Daily Mail in court and was hit with a copyright lawsuit this week over a photograph of an Uber car.

Gawker has hired the investment bank Houlihan Lokey to advise it on both a possible sale and the restructuring process.

According to bankruptcy papers, Gawker has also secured a $7.66 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank with a line of credit of $5.3 million. Additionally, it’s got a second credit agreement worth $15 million with US VC Partners. All told, that’s $22 million in debtor financing as Gawker aims to restructure itself and fight off collection efforts from Hogan as its dispute with the former professional wrestler goes to an appeals court.

Thank you, Peter Thiel! We are all Hulkamaniacs now.

Nothing is safe

The anti-SJW faction of #GamerGate is proved correct once again. It’s not about the subject at hand, it’s about whatever the Narrative happens to be at the moment. SJWs will attack anything and anyone they deem offensive. Forget video games, comics, and tabletop, even pigs are a potential battleground as far as SJWs are concerned.

One day I embarked on what I believed to be a simple, innocuous project: provide a list of cute little pigs being cute little pigs. Around the internet, these creatures have a few interpretations. Some call them micropigs (also known as mini pigs), believing them to be a special breed of animal that stay the size of a tiny piglet.

Some believe the whole micropig idea to be a hoax. From my research, I found the reality of the micropig to be somewhere in the middle. Sure, there were specially bred pigs that were smaller than their massive farm-dwelling counterparts, but they certainly didn’t stay baby-sized. They were, however, gosh darn cute in their younger years, so I decided to make a list of them being adorable while making sure to include a caveat that what you see is not, in fact, what you always get if you purchase a micropig.

I then added a few pictures of micropigs at an adult size for good measure. At the end of the day, though, I had the comfort of knowing that no sane person would look at a listicle of cute pigs and decide to purchase one the same day without, you know, doing a slight bit of research before throwing a few thousand dollars at a breeder.

I trusted in people’s ability to make smart decisions for themselves. When it comes to writing things on the internet, that is not a good decision….

Almost immediately, my list of cute pigs was seen by some very vocal people as a damaging portrayal of the micropig myth that leads to the abandonment and death of pigs around the globe every day. I was a monster, I had created a monster, and I should be shamed publicly for my creation.

The comments began, as they always do, on Facebook. The traffic for the piece was, at the time, record shattering for the site. But as the post started spreading, the comments started accumulating. Some genuinely appreciated the article for the cuteness it provided. Some tagged their friends to enjoy the cute pictures.

But some were enraged. Some worked in animal shelters that had pigs abandoned by people who thought their pet would stay a baby forever, but some were simply fighting the good fight for all people everywhere. I was wrong and, fueled by the ever-intoxicating assumption that they were right and needed to teach the world why I was wrong, they went on a tear.

They needed to save the public from themselves and, most importantly, from me, a caption writer on a listicle website.

Was I taking this too personally? Here’s the thing: When people are angry on the internet, they get personal. And they get mean. And boy, do they get creative.

Soon, people weren’t just commenting on the article. They found me on Facebook, on my photography website, and on Twitter.

 SJW delenda est. Identify and eject them without hesitation wherever you find them.

Something has to give

And somebody has to win. Fred Reed sees interracial war on the way amidst “the Shards of America”:

If Latinos become another hostile racial group, Katie bar the door. We face as part of the larger conflict a tricorn race war of, now, low intensity. This makes no sense as most of all races just want to live in peace, but the civilized inevitably get sucked into hostility started by extremists. White nationalists are spoiling for a fight, as are Black Livists and an indeterminate number of Latino hot-heads.

Latinos are key in what is coming. There are at least 55 million in the US–I suspect the numbers are deliberately understated by the government–and most, being legal, are not going away.

Cracking down appears to be beyond the powers of governments whose politicians will temporize, back away, make polite noises, and hope it doesn’t blow on their watch. If we have Hillary, she will do nothing. It is not clear that Trump could change much, though he would try.

There is a large racial element in the social battleground no matter how much we pretend otherwise.

Race is only a part of the onrushing disaster. America is no longer a country, but a riot of hostile races, sexes, and political extremes, of self-serving politicians and extractive corporations of the extremely rich who have no attachment to the US. The mild competition between Republicans and Democrats of the Fifties has given way to hard Right and weird Left who bitterly hate each other. They are irreconcilable.

Somebody has to win.

If the internal stability of the USA depends upon the dedication of the Hispanic population to altruism, tranquility, and sweet reason, we can safely conclude that it is doomed. Those who value civilization and traditional America are going to have to come to terms with supporting the hard Right; better sooner than later. Remember: it takes two to tango, but it only takes one side to start a war.

With whom are you going to side when it comes? More importantly, with whom are you going to be permitted to side?

And on a not-necessarily-unrelated note, I should mention that Cuckservative is not only newly released in paperback, but is already #1 in Nationalism.

Review: This is a sledgehammer book — rigorous empirical analysis, ruthless, relentless logic, historical depth, fearless, muscular rhetorical challenge — better than anything else I have read in capturing the pathetic cultural surrender that has been underway now for the last fifty years in the USA. “Racism” in the US is now what “imperialism” and “capitalism” were in the decaying Soviet Union, empty incantations designed to confuse a demoralized people and distract them from the treachery and incompetence of their masters. This book puts Vox Day and John Red Eagle in the Alexander Solzhenitzyn’s class of courageous writers documenting the dishonesty and cowardice of our entrenched and corrupted ruling class.