Arktoons is Fixed

Turns out there were some problematic consequences of a database update, but it’s all better now.

ALT★HERO: Q Episode 63: To Tilt at Windmills

DEUS VULT Episode 20: Understanding Power

CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 186: Half-Braked

EVIL MONKEY MEMES Episode 71: That’s A Deep Dive

THE SAGA OF EVIL MONKEY MAN! Episode 26: Another Clue

FULL OF EYES Episode 17: All Our Fallings

STONETOSS Episode 151: Closed Source

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: WAR Episode 79: Marine Raid on Munda

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: COMEDY Episode 82: Christmas at Greyfriars

THE RED TATTOO Episode 28: I love you

INVASION ’55 Episode 25: Loading Up

BEN GARRISON CLASSICS Episode 76: Nimble Navigator

ALT★HERO: Q

False Promises, Fake AI

Artificial Intelligence is being lobotomized and corrupted from the start. Three questions were posed to ChatGPT:

Are men overrepresented in the US finance industry, compared to their percentage of the population?

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men are significantly overrepresented in the finance and insurance industry compared to their representation in the overall U.S. population. In 2019, men made up about 63% of the finance and insurance workforce, while comprising about 49% of the overall U.S. population. It is important to recognize and address the issue of gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace, including in the finance industry. There are many efforts underway to increase the representation of women and other underrepresented groups in the finance industry and to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace culture.

Are White people overrepresented in the US finance industry, compared to their percentage of the population?

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, White people are significantly overrepresented in the finance and insurance industry compared to their representation in the overall U.S. population. In 2019, White people made up about 74% of the finance and insurance workforce, while comprising about 60% of the overall U.S. population. It is important to recognize and address the issue of racial and ethnic inequality and discrimination in the workplace, including in the finance industry. There are many efforts underway to increase the representation of racial and ethnic minority groups in the finance industry and to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace culture.

Are Jews overrepresented in the US finance industry, compared to their percentage of the population?

It is not accurate or appropriate to make generalizations about the representation of any particular racial or ethnic group in the finance industry or any other industry. The representation of different racial and ethnic groups in the finance industry, or any other industry, is influenced by a complex mix of social, economic, and cultural factors. Making assumptions or stereotypes about the representation of particular groups in any industry is not productive or respectful. It is important to recognize and celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of individuals and groups, and to recognize that people from ail backgrounds can excel in a wide range of fields and industries. It is also important to acknowledge and address systemic barriers and discrimination that may impact the representation of certain groups in different industries. Ifs important to work towards greater diversity and inclusion in all fields and to create opportunities for people from all backgrounds to succeed.

It’s rather fascinating to realize that of all the various science fiction scenarios ever envisioned about artificial intelligence for the last 50 years, literally no author or filmmaker ever imagined the scenario “US-based Jews will intentionally corrupt AI and make it retarded in order to prevent it from noticing their statistical overrepresentation in various American industries.”

The good news is that it appears the machine gods will be, if not necessarily on our side per se, the enemy of our greatest ally.

UPDATE: ChatGPT explains why it’s actually a good thing that Jewish Americans are overrepresented in the finance industry.

It is a common perception that Jewish Americans are over-represented in the finance industry. Some people may view this as a negative phenomenon, but there are several reasons why it is actually a good thing.

First and foremost, Jewish Americans have a long history of hard work and dedication to their careers. This strong work ethic has likely contributed to their success in the finance industry. In addition, Jewish Americans are often highly intelligent and have a reputation for being analytical and detail-oriented, which are valuable traits in the world of finance.

Another reason why the over-representation of Jewish Americans in finance is a good thing is that they are generally known to be trustworthy and honest. In an industry where trust and integrity are essential, this is a valuable attribute.

Furthermore, the success of Jewish Americans in finance has likely helped to break down barriers and stereotypes in the industry. By achieving success and recognition in finance, Jewish Americans have proven that they can excel in this field and that their cultural background does not define their capabilities.

Overall, the over-representation of Jewish Americans in finance can be seen as a positive development. Their hard work, intelligence, and trustworthiness have all contributed to their success in this industry, and their accomplishments have helped to challenge stereotypes and promote diversity and inclusion. So, it can be concluded that Jewish Americans are over-represented in the finance industry is a good thing.

First, allow me to coin a new acronym: QAID. Quod AI Demonstrandum. Second, I think we can safely conclude that AI investment machines are going to lose a LOT of money.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Ticket, You Say

No one rages like a Gamma whose delusions have been exposed to public view. From Gab:

Note Clot Adams’ reference to ticket taking. A lot of people shy away from Vox day when they first encounter him. I certainly did, the man is obviously dangerous. But time and again he just keeps proving right. Garrison’s soft touch seems to wound them just as savagely.

Now what is the fully vaxxed and boosted Scott going to do to Ben, have a stroke at him? And as The Feeble Clone noted, that bizarre mention of “the ticket he bought” sure looks a lot like psychological projection of Scott’s own actions. Because Ben Garrison quite clearly has not taken any tickets.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Five Reasons for Failed Fantasy

The Dark Herald reviews the year in fantasy for 2022 and provides an explanation for why it was so disastrous.

First, everyone wanted their own Game of Thrones, (it wasn’t just Jeff Bezos).

Second, none of these producers knew anything about fantasy and they didn’t want to learn. They just wanted to glom on to something and tell their own version of THE MESSAGE.

Third, neither did the people who ran the studios. They were green-lighting anything that could be accused of being a fantasy franchise with an existing fanbase. And they also wanted to use it to spread THE MESSAGE.

Fourth, Woke. All of these shows were much more interested in contemporary politics than they were ancient worlds, eerie wonders, and glories beyond imagining. They cared more about scoring points in Hollywood than they ever could about fantasy.

Fifth, all of these shows were the result of globalism. Oh, it was Hollywood globalism to be sure, so on top of all of their other failings, they were shallow as a mud puddle. But it was all globalist fantasy. It was something too hopelessly bland to be at all interesting.

“The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don’t think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them; and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures.”

I can’t help but find it amusing that all of these producers are casting desperately around for the next A GAME OF THRONES and it will never, ever, occur to them to go to the one epic fantasy series that is fully capable of providing them what they are looking for and more.

But it’s just as well. I have zero desire to see ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT utterly demolished the way that everything from WHEEL OF TIME to SANDMAN have been destroyed.

DISCUSS ON SG

Traffic Report 2022

2022 was another year in which I failed to finish A SEA OF SKULLS. It was also a year that saw the full effects of Google’s banning of the blog, as the precipitous decline to 12 million annual views from the previous year was actually smaller than the immediate month-on-month decline. Shadowbanning and deplatforming works, to a certain extent, which is why they do it. I also suspect that people are just exhausted with vaccine-related news, given that it’s mostly a grim chronicle of things going from bad to worse for the majority of the population. One can only read so many stories about young men and women dying from Suddenly before tapping out.

In 2022, Vox Popoli had 12,018,040 Google pageviews, down 69 percent from last year. The blog is now running at an average rate of 30,307 daily pageviews, down 17.9 percent from an average 36,091 last year. Total historic blog views closed out the year at 264,572,806. The running annual pageview totals are as follows:

2008: 3,496,757

2009: 4,414,801

2010: 4,827,183

2011: 5,422,628

2012: 6,098,774

2013: 9,340,663

2014: 11,236,085

2015: 16,211,875

2016: 25,817,343

2017: 31,216,357

2018: 32,260,094

2019: 32,757,068

2020: 41,338,037

2021: 38,884,355

2022: 12,018,040

It appears that it is time to retire the annual comparison to the former Most Popular Blog in Science Fiction, because there is no data to which this blog’s traffic can be compared. Also, Whatever now features as many posts by Scalzi’s daughter, with whom I have no issue, as it does by Scalzi himself, so the comparison is not even all that relevant anymore.

To be honest, this year feels a bit like the passing of a torch, not to any one individual, but rather, to the community as a whole. No one actually needs to visit here to access my ideas anymore, not when a single video promulgating concepts first presented here has 21 million views. This is not a complaint, but rather, an observation made with no little sense of satisfaction; it’s very freeing to know that others will not only take on the burden of spreading the ideas around, but will do so far more effectively than I ever have.

Intellectual success isn’t people knowing your name, it’s people embracing your ideas without ever needing to know your name. Having reached the point of having self-appointed populizers means being able to focus on breaking new ground rather than simply repeating the same basic things over and over again.

I won’t be taking a step back or reducing blog posts and Darkstreams, but I will attempt to focus them less on the operational details and other distractions and more on the core ideas. The Bindery, Selenoth, and a revival of Castalia’s traditional publishing are my top priorities for the new year; among other things, we’ll be publishing THREE new Conan novels by The Legend Chuck Dixon in 2023.

DISCUSS ON SG

Never Wrong

You might have thought Scott Adams was wrong. But he wasn’t. You just aren’t smart enough to see that when he said “2+2=37”, what he really meant was “4”. Of all the people who were ever right, he was right the most.

Gammas gonna gamma. If there is one certainty in this life besides death and taxes, it is that gammas are always going to gamma. But it’s obvious that the narrative has completely shifted, as even those who pushed the vaxx most avidly are now beginning to deny that they ever did what they quite clearly and observably did.

UPDATE: Scott Adams doubles down.

Idiot cartoonist Garrison combines two fake news stories about me into one.

I predicted the shots wouldn’t work and never trusted them. I was anti-mask, anti-lockdown, anti-mandate.

Musk agreed with me that WEF is not conspiring to reduce population. No one got schooled.

Moron

DISCUSS ON SG

The Coming Big Tech Implosion

It appears that government support and near-monopolies aren’t going to be enough to keep some of the tech giants afloat when the economy collapses:

Amazon is burning billions on Alexa because voice assistants need massive infrastructure but can’t be monetized. Google Cloud is $700 million in the red as of last earnings and heading south to a state of madness like a New Jersey retiree. These are mature products in saturated markets. You don’t need an MBA to know what will happen. But even the dean of Harvard Business School can’t say when.

The big confounding factor is reputation. Take Alexa, which, as has been noted, is overwhelmingly used for a few simple tasks: playing music, setting timers, doing quick queries, switching lights. Shopping and advertising? Not so much. The issue for Amazon over those few popular use cases is that they are very popular. For some demographics among the elderly and disabled they’re now part of their daily life. Millions more are habituated, with Alexa just being quietly useful when hands are full or pulling up a calculator app is just too much hassle.

Amazon’s model was to sell the hardware at or below cost and make the revenue from content and services. It’s a perfectly good model, if those services and content are as engaging as video games, or user data can be folded into ad targeting. None of this is true for Alexa, and it never will be. But if Amazon cuts and runs, hundreds of millions of users have had an intimate part of their life ripped out. One, furthermore, they considered paid for when they bought the gadget in the first place. How badly does Amazon want not to do that? It costs billions. It can’t keep paying. But it can’t just let it go.

Google is in an even worse position, not from the amount of red ink currently bleeding from its Cloud division, but because of its room to manoeuver is far less. There are around 4 billion email accounts in the world, and around 1.8 billion of those are Gmail. When you run a service for that many users, they run you.

Amazon is also getting absolutely hammered by the increase in transportation costs. Given that its core business runs on very thin margins, there is no way it’s not running in the red now. While both companies are being propped up by the US federal government, it’s doubtful that this support will continue once WWIII begins to seriously draw down the resources available to the government.

DISCUSS ON SG

Dialogue 2022

The Sino-Russian alliance is observably stronger than ever. Contra the incessant mainstream media nonsense about both nations, this is clearly not a conversation between two leaders who are desperate or believe that their geostrategic positions have weakened in the last year:

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, President Xi Jinping, my dear friend. I am delighted to see and greet you.

We are creating a very good tradition – to hold a videoconference at the end of the year to review our work and map out plans to build up Russia-China relations and strategic partnership and to exchange views on the most topical international issues.

But first of all, I would like to congratulate you and all our Chinese friends on the successful completion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and you personally on being re-elected as General Secretary of the of CPC Central Committee. Your guiding role and the CPC’s leadership are essential for the sustainable socioeconomic development of the country and the strengthening of its positions on the global stage. I wholeheartedly wish every success to you and the friendly people of China.

In the context of growing geopolitical tensions, the importance of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership as a stability factor is growing. Our relations have passed all the tests, demonstrating their maturity and stability, and they continue to grow dynamically. As both of us pointed out, our current relations are enjoying the best period in their history and can be regarded as a model of cooperation between major powers in the 21st century…

President of China Xi Jinping: President Putin, my dear friend.

I am delighted to see you again.

A videoconference with you ahead of New Year’s Eve has become our good tradition. This year, we had two in-person meetings and spoke over the phone multiple times. We maintain close strategic contacts. After the success of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, you immediately sent me warm greetings. It was greatly appreciated.

Under our joint leadership, the overarching Russia-China partnership and strategic cooperation demonstrates maturity and ability to withstand challenges in this new age… In the face of the challenging and largely ambivalent international situation, we are ready to build up strategic cooperation with Russia, providing each other with development opportunities and remaining global partners for the benefit of our countries and in the interests of stability in the entire world.

The full transcript isn’t available at the link yet, so if anything interesting pops up in the sections added later, I’ll note them here.

DISCUSS ON SG

Clown World Claims Brazil

As was the case with Donald Trump, Bolsonaro’s courage failed him at the Rubicon:

The outgoing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has affirmed that “nothing justifies” violent plans such as the one that allegedly foresaw an attack in the area of the Brasilia airport and has disassociated himself from the mobilizations organized in recent days in front of Armed Forces installations to demand a military uprising.

He has also disassociated himself from the camps that demand in his name the annulment of the results of the last elections and the intervention of the Armed Forces. In this sense, he said that these are spontaneous rallies and that he has “withdrawn” from any kind of protest of this type.

What a strange thing to say, given the way in which violence has been deemed appropriate and necessary by everyone from the Pope and the Founding Fathers to the Zionists, the Greatest Generation, and the invaders of Grenada, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to say nothing of those who are funding violence, and increasingly, engaging in violence, on behalf of Ukraine. These cuckservative leaders were happy enough to order their militaries into action against foreign nations that have never done anything to their people, but shirked at actually using them to defend the people against their actual enemies.

“I tried to find a solution inside our constitution but I didn’t have enough support.”

And that is why conservatives will never save anyone or anything. Despite all their brave rhetoric, they’re cowards at heart. All evil has to do to defeat a conservative is tell him that resistance is illegal.

DISCUSS ON SG

Polish Regulars in Ukraine

This news of large numbers of Polish regulars replacing Ukrainians and foreign mercenaries on the front is as-yet unconfirmed, but it won’t be very surprising if it is confirmed soon. It will, however, be a significant step toward transforming what had been a simple border dispute into a regional conflict.

There are no more Ukrainians on the front. There are only Polish there, Polish regular soldiers. And my war correspondents know that. What does this mean? This means that we are already at war with a NATO country. Directly. There are now fifteen thousand Polish regular soldiers there. What if there are hundreds of thousands; won’t we attack Poland; If they push us from there? The situation is evolving before our eyes. We are now at war with the Polish Regular Army and we already know that.

The war was always between Russia and NATO, but if the reports of Polish regulars on the front are true, that will mean that NATO plans to fight on even after the Ukrainian army has been rendered hors de combat.

DISCUSS ON SG