#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Whether it’s a Sad Puppy sweep or we burned down the house, you are invited to celebrate the 2015 Hugo Awards online
with the Rabid Puppies, the Dread Ilk, the Vile Faceless Minions, and
two-time 2015 Hugo nominee Vox Day on August 22nd at 11 PM EST.
The Ustream video doesn’t work all that well through the webinar, so you’ll probably want to run it on your own machine. But there are 243 folks registered already, so come by and bring your own prosecco. Or champagne, if you swing that way.
Even the Swedes, Europe’s most limp-wristed and ideologically supine nationality, are beginning to defend themselves against the third-world invaders:
The Sweden Democrat party has been gradually rising in popularity since it scored 12.9 percent in the country’s last general election in September 2014. But a survey by pollsters YouGov published in Sweden’s Metro newspaper on Thursday suggested that 25.2 percent of those questioned would now vote for the nationalists, who are calling for dramatic cuts in immigration to Sweden.
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s Social Democrat party – which remains in favour of helping large numbers of refugees from war torn nations – scored 23.4 percent in the poll. The centre-right Moderates, led by Anna Kinberg Batra who took over from the country’s former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt earlier this year, saw their share cut to just 21.0, having previously scored higher than their ruling rivals in recent surveys.
The Sweden Democrats, with roots in the country’s most radical extreme right, entered parliament in 2010 with the ambition of curbing Sweden’s immigration and refugee policy.
We’re already seeing borders closed. The deportations should begin within two years. Meanwhile, in Germany, the violence is picking up steam:
Up to 1,000 protesters have clashed with police in eastern Germany in riots reportedly sparked by the arrival of 250 migrants.
Police said protesters shouting “foreigners out” and carrying banners against the “asylum flood” threw bottles and stones at busloads of asylum seekers arriving in Heidenau, near Dresden.
At least 31 officers were hurt in violent scuffles as police used tear gas to disperse crowds.
If the government will not resist invasion, the people will.
Brad Torgersen shares his “reaction” statement to the Wall Street Journal:
Because people will be gloating and/or gnashing their teeth (alternately) I’ve not been much inclined to make any after-the-fact statements. My “job” with this thing, finished the minute the door shut on the voting.
But I want to re-emphasize something I told WIRED magazine’s Amy Wallace: it doesn’t necessarily matter who wins or loses a Hugo award this year, as much as it matters that participation keeps increasing.
This year there were a record number of memberships, and a record number of ballots cast. This is very, very good. A democracy (any democracy) is only as worthwhile as those who keep their end up by actively participating. Past Hugo voting has tended to be remarkably anemic. Sad Puppies has changed this significantly — for two years running. If the participation (beyond 2015) declines, the Hugos are diminished. If participation grows, the Hugos mean more. That’s the real bottom line (in my book) and it goes way beyond which “side” can construct victory narratives.
A fine and noble sentiment. I applaud him for it. And I don’t disagree; a larger electorate means 40 Tor-affiliated SJWs can’t continue to hand Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Charles Stross and John Scalzi more Hugos to go with the 39 they’ve already collected.
Meanwhile, Mark Judge of CNS sets the historical record straight:
There is controversy surrounding this year’s Hugo Awards, the prestigious science fiction prize which will be handed out this Saturday and whose previous winners have included Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein. This year’s ballot has many names on it that liberals and the media have denounced as racist and reactionary white men.
The group in question counter that they are not reactionary, racist, or even white, and that the reporting on the entire episode has been atrocious.
The group of writers, calling themselves the “Sad Puppies” – a satire on liberalism’s penchant for appealing to emotion over logic – successfully got themselves on the Hugo ballot, and then nominated, by appealing to the fans who vote for the award. The Sad Puppies unofficial leader is Brad Torgerson, author of “The Chaplain’s War” and other works and a U.S. Army Reserve Warrant Officer. Torgerson, who has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula, another prestigious sci-fi prize, told one interviewer, “It became plainly obvious, especially after 2010, that a lot of the classic works of the old days – there’s no way they could possibly make it in the current climate because the current climate was all about affirmative action.”
Aaron sent over this cheerful meme of the Supreme Dark Lord at his ease. I just wish he’d sent it sooner, so I could have sent it in as my picture for the Awards ceremony. C’est la vie. I’m feeling more than a little optimistic today, although about what exactly I can’t say. Perhaps it is because I finished the final draft of SJWS ALWAYS LIE: Taking Down the Thought Police last night and will be able to deliver it on August 27th, the first anniversary of #GamerGate, as planned. Or perhaps because Art of Sword is coming along nicely, as we’ve finally got some of the powerups in and working. Or perhaps because we’ve got our gargantuan new project server coming on line this weekend.
I’m looking forward to tonight no matter what happens. Several media outlets have asked me for my take on the situation after the awards are announced, as there is considerably more interest in the outcome than usual, but the fact of the matter is that we achieved our objectives back in April. The Rabid Puppies outperformed my expectations, and if they do so again tonight, it won’t be for the first time. Regardless, we have broken the perceived power of the SJWs in science fiction once and for all; they are not frantically debating the best way to mitigate our growing influence in science fiction because they believe they are still in control of it.
I had to laugh when I read that some of the people at the business meeting wanted to postpone the vote on EPH until after the awards were announced because they wanted to see what the results were before taking a position on it. This indicates that they still have no idea what motivates us or what we expect to accomplish. They are too solipsistic to understand our goals even when we tell them straight out what they are. So to be clear, WorldCon, be informed that He Who Shall Only Be Named In Fearful Whispers supports E Pluribus Hugo 100 percent. As for the other anti-slate plan, X of Y, I am totally indifferent because it is structurally futile. Contra the purpose of its designers, it provides an even bigger advantage to disciplined slates than the current rules do. It’s irrelevant.
As the International Lord of Hate observed concerning EPH: “So it rewards coordination between a group that is willing to focus
votes for one item per category. Did Vox write that proposal for them?”
George Martin is already frantically pre-spinning the Narrative, declaring that no awards being given out means the truefen win and the Puppies lose, except of course when it doesn’t because he’s totally against slates except when a slate nominates something he likes. It’s the usual SJW incoherence. But we don’t care if I win Best Editor or No Award does, we don’t care if Tom Kratman wins best novella or No Award does, the objective was to ensure that none of the usual SJWs did. And in that, we have already succeeded brilliantly. Sure, it would be amusing to see Jim or John or Rolf or Eric win a plastic rocket, but only because that would, somewhat to my surprise, upset the SJWs even more than the demise of the awards.
John C. Wright is one of science fiction’s greatest authors, Jim Butcher is one of fantasy’s most popular, and I truly did not expect that the SJWs would rather burn the awards to the ground than permit one of them to be recognized for their contributions to the field. But that is certainly an acceptable outcome.
What Martin and the other SJWs are hoping is that by establishing false objectives for us (and then praying that we don’t achieve them), we will be demoralized and go away with our tails tucked between our legs, chastened by the disapproval of the empty-handed, but victorious truefen. This is amusing, because it is not us, but them, who are demoralized. Consider the despairing lament of one SJW at io9.
No, it won’t. They’re weary and in despair because they thought they’d already won the cultural war. They didn’t realize that we were still mobilizing, that we were gearing up to blow them off the battlefield with weapons and dark forces they didn’t know existed. What demoralized us was seeing SJW crap fill the bookstore shelves. What demoralized us was seeing utterly forgettable romance novels in space being declared the best that science fiction had to offer. If that mediocre SJW-infested nonsense was the best that could make it past the publishing gatekeepers, then what was the point of reading it or writing it?
Compared to nearly three decades of that, what is one more year of not winning awards? We never won any before, so what the hell do we care?
Tonight will tell us one very important thing. It will give us the opportunity to see what their true numbers are and reveal the true extent of their fully mobilized strength. Last year, the maximum No Award vote was 1,100. This year it will be more, somewhere between 1,100 and 4,000.
Being SJWs, they doubled-down as per the Second Law, giving us the chance to break them once and for all. But even if we don’t, even if we only burn Munich instead of taking Berlin, even if they are successful in “sending a message”, what we hear will not be what they wish for us to hear. Because what we will hear is this: Next year, bring more puppies.
They’re not likely to be confused with the Vile Faceless Minions of the Evil Legion of Evil.
Too much faces. Not enough slavering jaws, black talons, or gnawed and splintered bones in the background.
In any event, this is your open WorldCon thread. Stay safe out there, Puppies, we have word of someone in a manatee t-shirt distributing unauthorized material that may be insensitive, problematic, offensive, exclusive, or otherwise dangerous. OpSec has been informed and has issued this warning:
Say what you will, but I think the Puppies have really gone too far this time! “US president Obama declares state of emergency in Washington State….”
To: Carol Wilson Re: SFWA Membership
Dear Carol,
First, congratulations on your recent sales! We here at SFWA are always happy to see the professional success of authors.
It should be noted, however, that one or more of the markets you listed are under review for desirability issues.
However, if the sales are validated, I’d appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer a few questions to help us properly determine the true quality and merits of your work.
1. What does your genitalia look like?
2. How do you feel about what your genitalia looks like?
3. Have you ever changed your genitalia?
4. If you responded “No” to question 3, are you planning, or have you ever planned to change your genitalia?
5. When you are naked in bed with another person, what does their genitalia look like?
6. Of the major characters in your stories, how many have genitalia different than yours?
7. Have you ever represented a character of the LGBTQQIAPHDBDSMBFDVIPRSVPRESPECTEIEIO groups as an antagonist/villain or as having any negative traits?
Finally, please provide an evaluation of the melanin content of your skin. If you do not have a medical result available, please go to your local Sherwin-Williams store and obtain a copy of Palette Card #17 – Earth Tones and enter the color number of the swatch which most closely resembles your skin. If your skin is lighter than the faintest color swatch on Palette Card #17 – Earth Tones, please enter “Oppressor White”.
Again, congratulations on your sales and I hope we can process your membership in time for you to participate in our annual Shunning and Denouncement Survey. It’s great fun.
Sincerely yours,
S. J. Woreeahr
President, Socialist Fiction Writers of America
This is, of course, crimethink and wrongsatire, an unspeakable horror worse than the Holocaust, the Holodomor, Hiroshima, and the Great Leap Forward combined. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of all the wounded victims of WorldCon.
That’s how long it took African-Americans to transform excellent, oversized, newly constructed suburban housing into a community that became infamous worldwide for gangs, crime, and violence:
As late as 1948, fewer than fifty African Americans lived in among
Compton’s forty-five thousand residents. … Yet during the 1950s, Compton
underwent the most profound racial change of any city in Southern
California. Responding to the great demand for African American housing
outside the ghetto, a new group of tract home developers and real estate
brokers found a niche in the unrestricted housing market. … This
undeveloped property became a fertile area for the growth of the city’s
black population. Davenport builders, a large developer, quickly built
unrestricted tract homes on the western edge of Compton. … This was one
of the few places in Los Angeles County where blacks could buy new tract
housing. … “For once, the Negro did not move into slums; for once he
came into good housing.” Indeed, the 1960 census revealed that 93
percent of blacks in Compton lived in homes built since 1940, with more
than half residing in homes built since 1950. Compton’s houses were also
large: almost 75 percent of black households in Compton had four to
five rooms.
From Wikipedia: “For many years, Compton was a much sought after neighborhood for the black middle class of Los Angeles. Now, only some areas of Compton are still middle class communities. This past affluence is reflected in the area’s appearance—Compton’s streets are lined with relatively spacious and attractive single family houses. However, several factors have contributed to Compton’s decline. One of the most significant factors was a steady erosion of its tax base.”
How shocking it is to discover that despite the magic of geography and high quality infrastructure, African-Americans did not magically transform into 1950s-style tax-paying, economically sufficient white people. Interestingly enough, it has only taken my ruthless Aztec cousins 27 years to ethnically cleanse Compton of most of its African-Americans. What was a white city in 1948 and a black city in 1988 is now 65 percent La Raza, 32.9 percent black, and 0.8 percent white.
That’s what diversity in future America looks like, cuckservatives. One without white people. Good luck with that. It’s also why I think it is spectacularly funny that white SJWs believe one has to be a white supremacist in order to hate blacks. You’d think they never met an Arab, an Asian, or a Mexican.
Apparently it is very exciting for the little rabbits to claim that they have ventured forth from the warren and dared the wrath of the terrible Elil lurking outside. Even when they haven’t.
Larry Felton Johnson @larryfeltonj
I’ve been visited and tagged by everyone from Adam Baldwin to Vox Day since I sent those tweets.Max Waters @rmaxwaters
I doubt that @voxday can be bothered to notice you exist.Vox Day @voxday
I don’t know who he is and I have never visited or tagged him.Larry Felton Johnson @larryfeltonj
I’ve achieved a hat trick. Vox Day, Adam Baldwin, and Mike Cernovich have dropped by to chat with a guy who writes about SPLOST projectsVox Day@voxday
.@larryfeltonj Who are you, what is SPLOST, and what “chat” are you talking about? Twitter shows “from:voxday to:larryfeltonj = No results”Larry Felton Johnson @larryfeltonj
You left me tagged in this crazy convo. SPLOST is a GA specific taxation method. You have no need to wonder who I am. My tagVox Day @voxday
.@larryfeltonj I have not been involved in this conversation. I neither know nor care you who are. But I’m sure you’re very brave and all.
It’s harmless enough and I don’t mind. I just find it amusing that I have become this mythic icon of terror among the lesser SJWs looking to make a name for themselves. I suppose it must be the mounds of skulls or something.
And it’s not as if we didn’t already know that SJWS ALWAYS LIE.
Nature reports how more rigorous documentation requirements are demonstrating the intrinsic unreliability of scientistry (the profession of science) and showing how the substitution of scientistry for scientody (the actual scientific process) makes what subsequently passes for science unreliable.
The launch of the clinicaltrials.gov registry in 2000 seems to have had a striking impact on reported trial results, according to a PLoS ONE study1 that many researchers have been talking about online in the past week.
A 1997 US law mandated the registry’s creation, requiring researchers from 2000 to record their trial methods and outcome measures before collecting data. The study found that in a sample of 55 large trials testing heart-disease treatments, 57% of those published before 2000 reported positive effects from the treatments. But that figure plunged to just 8% in studies that were conducted after 2000. Study author Veronica Irvin, a health scientist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, says this suggests that registering clinical studies is leading to more rigorous research. Writing on his NeuroLogica Blog, neurologist Steven Novella of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, called the study “encouraging” but also “a bit frightening” because it casts doubt on previous positive results.
Irvin and her co-author Robert Kaplan, chief science officer at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland, focused on human randomized controlled trials that were funded by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The authors conclude that registration of trials seemed to be the dominant driver of the drastic change in study results. They found no evidence that the trend could be explained by shifting levels of industry sponsorship or by changes in trial methodologies.
Translation: there is good reason to be dubious about more than 7 in every 8 historical corporate sponsored medical trials. Keep this in mind when you are basing an argument in support of the safety and efficacy of vaccines on research published by the pharmaceutical industry.
This higher standard of documentation is very welcome, but it underlines the way in which that the human factor is the weak link in the scientific process. No amount of “training” can substitute for forcing scientists to be completely transparent about their work.
Europe is no longer accepting Muslims:
Slovakia has said it will not accept any Muslims under an EU scheme to share migrants more evenly between member states.
“We want to help Europe with the migration issue. We could take 800 Muslims but we don’t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?” Ivan Metik, an interior ministry spokesman, said.
Slovakia is to host 200 migrants under an EU plan to redistribute 40,000 away from Italy and Greece, which are overwhelmed with the numbers arriving across the Mediterranean.
The Slovakian government said it plans to ask the migrants their religion on arrival.
I give it less than 18 months before the Germans start to get unpleasant as they’re on track to have nearly one million “refugees” invade Germany this year. We already know that the Greek and Italian navies are starting to secretly sink boats. If the pro-immigration European governments don’t back down, they will be overthrown.
Don’t blame the nationalists for any future bloodshed. Blame the open borders idiots.
SJWs just can’t seem to fairly characterize my positions on anything:
Princess Content @ContentPrincess
I just didn’t think any of them would really go. I mean they aren’t fans.John Scalzi @scalzi
If they pay for a membership, then they can go. If they make trouble, they’ll get the boot. If they don’t, they can stay.Princess Content @ContentPrincess
I would not feel safe in a place where someone was openly admitting association with @voxday or his minions.Vox Day @voxday
Then you’d better flee. There are more than a few there.Princess Content @ContentPrincess
i didn’t go. You ruined it. and you don’t even care. You don’t care at all that you have hurt people.Vox Day @voxday
That is totally unfair and untrue. I am rather pleased at hurting the people who claim to have been hurt.Princess Content @ContentPrincess
aren’t you supposed to be a cruelty artist? Doesn’t throwing around old memes make you a cruelty hack? #notcreativeVox Day @voxday
Quoting the classics doesn’t make one a hack. Ripping them off does. Of course, no @scalzi fan would grasp the difference.
