Skepticism required here

As usual, expressing anything but perfect and unshakeable faith in the total accuracy of the U.S. government’s Official Story concerning the Apollo Program and the Moon landings has the Moonies out in full frothing force. I find this more than a little amusing, as many of the Moonies believe that the U.S. government lies about absolutely everything else, but not this, dammit!

Seriously, what are the chances that despite the various anomalies and falsehoods that have been exposed and uncovered concerning these events over the years, that what remains is the pure, unvarnished truth? That is simply ludicrous. It is theoretically possible, but given what we know about the vagaries of human nature, it is extremely improbable. Some of the responses to my post yesterday and the subsequent Darkstream connecting the false narrative being pushed concerning the Yellow Vest Protests and the Moon landing narrative were informative.

You are now Unfollowed from my Feedly. There will never be enough time to follow nutjobs, even if I live to 1,000,000.

Fine by me. I have no desire to be followed by unquestioning, credulous individuals who unquestioningly swallow everything they are told by an Authority. Jordan Peterson will doubtless be more your style.

Come on Vox, if anyone else but Owen Benjamin was proposing this you would dismiss him as a crank. If the moon landing was a hoax, you’d think there would have been something about it in the Soviet archives. 

Totally false. I wrote about my skepticism concerning the Official Story of the Moon landings 12 years ago. Now, I have not said that the Moon landings were a hoax, I have only observed that I do not believe the Official Story concerning them. I don’t know what people are lying about or the full extent of their lies and deception, I only know that the Official Story is not entirely true. That does not mean it is entirely false.

Great. We send people here, people on the cusp of some important realizations and recognitions. We tell them “read, critically of course, but with an open mind.” And they come back and look at us pityingly and say “you mean read the guy who says the moon landings were faked?” As a strategy of separation, this is not going to yield the group you want.

This is written by someone who is clearly new here. If these people on the cusp of some important realizations are such inept readers as to somehow conclude that I am a guy “who says the moon landings are faked”, I definitely don’t want them here. Because that simply is not true. Agnosticism is not skepticism is not denial.

Damnit, Vox. Dread Ilk. You assholes. You’re going to drag out this topic. You’re going to question the fucking moon landing. I can’t believe this.  I love astronomy. Love space. Love space news. The Pluto flyby was awesome. The GAIA data is incredible. I can’t wait for the resulting image from the Event Horizon Telescope project. And now…you assholes are going to tell me the moon landing wasn’t real. But…I…I know. I can see how it is a lie. After seeing the government lie about monumental things throughout my life, I can see the pattern. I cannot deny this possibility. 

A lot of things can be faked, for one reason or another. But being surprised at habitual liars lying, well, that’s like being surprised every time you drop a ball and it hits the ground.

This is all HORRIBLE rhetoric for VD and Owen. I don’t know what the hell these guys are thinking. Not only does it make them look crazy to the normies AND the people with a science/engineering background, but it also shits all over the greatest achievement of European man, the one achievement that we know will have monuments lasting a million years. 

It’s not rhetoric, at least, not in my case. As usual, Vox’s First Law applies: any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from insanity. It would be impossible to exaggerate my lack of concern about how people with one-half to two-thirds of my IQ happen to regard me. That’s like being concerned about being informed that my son’s dog has doubts about my thoughts on free trade.

It’s also worth noting that VD didn’t say the landing didn’t happen. He said there are enough indicators to know that some aspect of the official narrative isn’t true which could or could not include the landing.

Exactly. It’s always intriguing to see people who literally can’t read or understand what I wrote puffing out their chests and loftily offering to explain to me how every single aspect of the Official Story of the Apollo program and the Moon landings is not only absolutely true, but utterly beyond the possibility of any questioning whatsoever.

With that in mind, watch this and listen to the unusual, carefully chosen language about “participating in an adventure… on and about the Moon.”

Now, I don’t know why three of the greatest heroes of humanity are behaving in such a deceptive and shady manner after accomplishing one of the greatest, if not the greatest feats in the recorded history of Man. I don’t know what they are hiding, or what it is that they are so obviously attempting to avoid saying. Owen Benjamin has proposed one potential explanation, others have provided a wide variety of other possibilities. I don’t even pretend to know which is correct; I am genuinely agnostic on the subject. But one thing I have observed through my studies of history is that the objective truth that holds up over time very often diverges from both the Official Story as well as the primary alternative theories posited by the skeptics.

And since I don’t believe the GDP figures that are released by the U.S. government on a regular basis, and I don’t accept any of the various justifications that are offered for its various foreign adventures, why would you ever expect me to believe everything the U.S. government says about its historical accomplishments?

The Hollywood system

Press them for sex and pay them off when it goes wrong:

Actress Eliza Dushku claims she was written off the CBS drama Bull after reporting sexual harassment by the show’s lead actor Michael Weatherly – allegations the network tried to bury by paying her a $9.5million settlement.

Dushku, who is best known for her role in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, signed on for three episodes of Bull and was slated to be added as a full-time cast member before her interactions with Weatherly got in the way, according to a bombshell report from the New York Times.

The report claims that the two actors – who played love interests – got along well in the beginning and that Dushku thought Weatherly ‘seemed friendly’.

Things took a turn after Weatherly allegedly made a series of comments in front of other cast and crew members that made Dushku uncomfortable – including remarks about her appearance, a rape joke and a mention of having a threesome.

Dushku, who says she had been told by Bull producer and writer Glenn Gordon Caron that her character would become more prominent, flagged the comments up to the network.

Soon after she was pushed off the show out of what she claims to be retaliation.

This isn’t even scratching the tip of the iceberg. When investigators start digging into the payoffs to parents, the real fireworks will start.

No one went to the Moon

Owen Benjamin makes the case. Feel free to criticize it, if you are a Moonie, but don’t bother with either the fainting or shaming routines. Because if there is one thing that has become eminently clear over the last 20 years, the one and only thing we can be ABSOLUTELY SURE did not happen is the Official Story.

As with all things for which there is no clear historical consensus, I remain entirely agnostic on the issue. To the extent that I lean one way or the other, I tend to assume that the landings were faked due to the means, motive, and opportunity heuristic and because I am a confirmed cynic when it comes to Official Stories narrated by the U.S. government.

Liste des 42 revendications des gilets jaunes

I have some serious doubts that this list of demands that purports to represent what the Yellow Vests want is much more than an attempt to redirect some of the nationalist revolutionary spirit that presently pervades France. Where is the demand for Macron’s resignation, for starters?

  1. Zero homeless: URGENT.
  2. More progressive income tax (more slices).
  3. Minimum monthly income set at 1300 euros net.
  4. Favor the small villages and town centers. Stop the construction of large commercial areas around major cities that kill the small businesses and give free parking in city centers.
  5. Large Housing Isolation Plan. Save the environment by saving households.
  6. Force the LARGE CORPORATIONS (McDonalds, Google, Amazon, Carrefour) to pay MORE taxes and that the small corporations pay less.
  7. Same social security system for everyone (including artisans and autoentrepreneurs). End of the RSI.
  8. The pension system must remain in solidarity and therefore socialized. (No point of retirement).
  9. End of the tax hike on fuel.
  10. No monthly retirement payment below 1,200 euros.
  11. Any elected representative will be entitled to the median salary. His transport costs will be monitored and reimbursed if they are justified. Right to the restaurant ticket and the holiday voucher.
  12. The wages of all French people as well as pensions and allowances must be indexed to inflation.
  13. Protect French industry and prohibit corporate relocations. Protecting our industry is protecting our know-how and our jobs.
  14. End of detached work. It is abnormal that a person who works on French territory does not benefit from the same salary and the same rights. Anyone who is authorized to work on French territory must be on a par with a French citizen and his employer must contribute at the same level as a French employer.
  15. For job security: further limit the number of fixed-term contracts for large companies. We want more CDI.
  16. End of the CICE. Use this money for the launch of a French hydrogen car industry (which is truly ecological, unlike the electric car.)
  17. End of the austerity policy. We will stop repaying the interest on the debt that is declared illegitimate and will repay the legitimate debt without taking the money from the poor and the poorest, but by reclaiming the $80 billion in annual tax evasion.
  18. That the causes of forced migration are addressed.
  19. That asylum seekers be treated well. We owe them housing, security, food and education for the minors. Work with the UN to have host camps open in many countries around the world, pending the outcome of the asylum application.
  20. That the unsuccessful asylum seekers be returned to their country of origin.
  21. That a real integration policy is implemented. Living in France means becoming French. This means a French language course, History of France course and civic education course with certification at the end of the course.
  22. Maximum salary set at 15,000 euros.
  23. That jobs are created for the unemployed.
  24. Increase of disabled allowances.
  25. Limitation of rents. Moderate rent housing, especially for students and low-income workers.
  26. Prohibition to sell property belonging to France (airport dam …)
  27. Substantial means granted to the justice system, the police, the gendarmerie and the army. That law enforcement overtime be paid or recovered.
  28. All the money earned by highway tolls will be used to maintain highways and roads in France and road safety.
  29. As the price of gas and electricity has increased since privatization, we want them to become public again and prices fall significantly.
  30. Immediate closure of small lines, post offices, schools and maternity wards.
  31. Let’s bring wellness to our seniors. Prohibition of making money on the elderly. The gray gold is finished. The era of gray well-being begins.
  32. Maximum 25 students per class from kindergarten to 12th grade.
  33. Substantial means brought to psychiatry.
  34. The People’s Referendum must enter the Constitution. Creating a readable and effective site, supervised by an independent control body where people can make a proposal for a law. If this bill obtains 700,000 signatures then this bill will have to be discussed, completed, amended by the National Assembly which will have the obligation, (one year to the day after obtaining the 700,000 signatures) to submit it. to the vote of all the French.
  35. Back to a 7-year term for the President of the Republic. (The election of deputies two years after the election of the President of the Republic made it possible to send a positive or negative signal to the President of the Republic concerning his policy, so it helped to make the voice of the people heard.)
  36. Retirement at age 60 and for all those who have worked in a trade using the body right to retirement at 55 years.
  37. A child of 6 years not keeping alone, continuation of the PAJEMPLOI help system until the child is 10 years old.
  38. Promote the transport of goods by rail.
  39. No withholding tax.
  40. End of presidential allowances for life.
  41. Prohibit paying merchants a tax when their customers use the credit card. -Taxe on marine fuel oil and kerosene.

No party for the enemies of the people

The God-Emperor has spoken:

President Trump has canceled the White House holiday party for the media, making the decades-old tradition a victim of his increasingly contentious relationship with major news organizations. The annual Christmas-season gathering was a significant perk for those covering the White House, as well as other Washington reporters, anchors and commentators, and New York media executives would regularly fly in for the occasion. At its peak, the invitation-only soirees grew so large that there were two back-to-back events, one for broadcast outlets and one for print organizations.

Bravo. Despite the various disappointments to date, Donald Trump still easily the best President since Calvin Coolidge. Let them celebrate whatever fake holidays it is they pretend to celebrate on their own.

I don’t do “holiday” parties myself. We celebrate Christmas.

The return of nationalism

You may recall that this trend was not only predictable, it was, in fact, predicted:

A return of national sovereignty across Europe is no longer coming.  I think it’s here.  This can no longer be stage-managed as a relief valve of the massive discontent at neoliberal policies rammed down Europeans’ throats as it has in the past.

Something far more significant is here.  They can’t cordon off this movement in France and use it to demonize the leadership and, by extension, the people.

It’s jumped borders.  It’s part of the zeitgeist now.

No matter how many times rags like The Guardian, Der Spiegel and Politico call these people ‘far-right’ or ‘alt-right’ and link them to Nazism it doesn’t stop them because the protestors don’t see themselves that way.

And well they shouldn’t because they aren’t.

Macron made numerous mistakes in handling this protests.  But the biggest one was opening up his conversation with the French people with the same, tired insults used in the past to smear them and sow division.

Have they learned nothing in the past three years?

Brexit was not a fluke.

Trump was not a fluke. 

Salvini isn’t a fluke. 

Orban isn’t a fluke.  

France is not a fluke.

These elections represent gut level revulsion to the path the political and economic discourse is on.  And crying Nazi wolf too many times eventually gets you eaten.

These people are sick of the corruption and demand results, not words.  Not campaign speeches, but results.

And if these men don’t deliver quickly they will be on a short leash.  A very short one in Macron’s case.  Because it isn’t like 35{51060298616648a432127aa487592f15c981010bc8b0ce296b7f79f7f5f50574} of France wasn’t willing to turn hard away from the status quo last year and vote for Marine Le Pen.

Macron was sold as the outsider, the reformer, who wasn’t in office a week before he began betraying the people who voted for him.  And now he’s stuck.

The media turned against him quickly because they know he is done.  Their job now will be to prep the narrative to puff up his replacement.

Kicking the can down the road means replacing the old boss with a new boss who is also just another globalist, neoliberal shill.

This is all a good thing, a very good thing. Because if the nationalists fail in restoring sovereignty to their nations and prioritizing their various national interests, that does not mean the globalists will succeed. It means that the ultras and imperialists will come to the fore.

At least no one can call them homophobic

The Boy Scouts survived world wars and the invention of the airplane, the computer, and video games. But they couldn’t survive SJW convergence:

The Boy Scouts of America is considering filing for bankruptcy protection as it faces dwindling membership and escalating legal costs related to lawsuits over how it handled allegations of sex abuse. Leaders of the Boy Scouts, one of the country’s largest youth organizations, have hired law firm Sidley Austin LLP for assistance with a possible chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter.

It didn’t take a rocket science to grasp that permitting gays to go camping with young boys was going to lead to sexual abuse and parents refusing to render their sons vulnerable to the oh-so-tender ministrations of the local pedos.

Convergence is corporate cancer.

Gamma strategery

Micah Sample
22 hours ago
@Darkstream by Vox Day , you’re welcome to come on and debate us— unless you’re too much of a coward.

2

Darkstream by Vox Day
Darkstream by Vox Day
8 hours ago
I’ll be pleased to debate you after Jordan Peterson debates me. And, come to think of it, I’m still waiting for Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh to follow through on their debate challenges that I accepted.

Micah Sample
Micah Sample
8 hours ago
Darkstream by Vox Day , Dr. Peterson probably doesn’t want to waste his time arguing against someone who doesn’t have any properly logical arguments to begin with. You resort to ad hominem too much. But I hope he does— and I hope he leaves you at least partially intact, so I can have my fun.

Darkstream by Vox Day
Darkstream by Vox Day
1 second ago
@Micah Sample Jordan Peterson wastes a lot more time trying to surreptitiously respond to the arguments in the book in this tweets, on Dave Rubin’s show, and on Joe Rogan’s show. He will never debate me because he knows I will expose his charlatanry and relative ignorance on a wide range of subjects, as you would know if you simply read the book you tried to critique without reading. The idea that Peterson’s incoherent arguments are logical and mine are not is not merely wrong, it’s ludicrous. Nor do I resort to ad hominem at all. First, I point out the relevant facts and logic. I separately point out that the person who made the false argument was dishonest, crazy, stupid, whatever. Jordan Peterson’s assertions and arguments are not wrong because he is a deceitful, mentally ill charlatan; that would be the genetic fallacy. His various assertions and arguments are wrong for many different reasons, including ignorance, incorrect citations, improper logic, statistical ineptitude, and simple incoherence. The observable fact that Jordan Peterson is a habitually deceitful, mentally ill charlatan may happen to explain why he so frequently produces incorrect arguments, but it is not argumentum ad hominem to make the observation.

It’s all about merit

It’s funny how the US “meritocracy” never seems to work out for white Christians, no matter how objectively excellent their performance happens to be:

I got the news—I kid you not—on Friday the 13th.

In April.

Seven months ago.

Since when, I have been living a lie. Or a half truth. Or…oh, fuck it, it sucks.

Because it is nonsense, of course. I deserve to be promoted to full professor.

I have published a second major monograph with a prestigious academic publisher (our standard in the department, barring an outside offer from another university) that has been described in the flagship journal for my field as a “magnum opus” likely to be a “game-changer” in the long-overdue reassessment of Vatican II’s deficient Mariology.

I have held fellowships from the Mellon Foundation (twice), the American Council of Learned Societies (twice), and the Guggenheim (you only get one of those per lifetime).

I have won the oldest award in the country for excellence in undergraduate teaching (the Quantrell Award) as well as a Provost’s award for my teaching.

I have designed and taught now thirty different courses for undergraduates and graduates in the twenty-five years since I was hired at the University of Chicago as a newly-minted Ph.D. (Syllabi here.)

I have written over thirty reviews of books in my academic field and published sixteen substantive peer-reviewed articles, with additional pieces under contract and in press.

My first monograph won the prize from the Medieval Academy of America for a first book published on a medieval subject “judged to be…of outstanding quality,” as well as a prize for the best book in intellectual history published in 2002.

I have done all the appropriate service to my profession and my university as a reviewer, committee member, conference participant, and colleague.

And on Friday, April 13th, of this year, I was told that my scholarship was not good enough for the University of Chicago to promote me to full professor.

Either you learn to play identity politics or identity politics plays you. Of course, the more these institutions are converged away from their original purpose, the less capable they are of even performing their most basic functions.

Yes, Jordan, there is a conspiracy…. The Darkstream on the myth of meritocracy in America.

Michael Knowles is a neocon fraud

When are conservatives going to stop falling for the fraudulent figureheads appointed by those who hate the European nations, hate America, and hate Christianity? I was asked about someone named Michael Knowles in last night’s Darkstream on the fake leaders of the parade, and a cursory examination quickly revealed that he is just another deceitful charlatan in the same vein as Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, William F. Buckley, Jennifer Rubin, and every other cuckservative fraud.

Other alt-right leaders include Sam Francis, the late syndicated columnist and forefather of the movement who famously called for a white racial consciousness. Theodore Beale, the blogger known as Vox Day, who in his manifesto what is the Alt Right cites the white nationalist motto “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”, and Paul Ramsey, a white nationalist who produced and starred in a video entitled, “Is it wrong not to feel sad about the Holocaust.

Another area of agreement between the alt-right and the left is that both ultimately reject God. The Alt Right admires Christendom for uniting the European continent but rejects Christianity for its offer of salvation to all people irrespective of race. The movement’s favorite philosopher, just like the Nazis of yesteryear is Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously claimed God is dead.

This is a pack of lies from start to finish. I don’t reject God, but Ben Shapiro most certainly rejects both Jesus Christ and his Father. I regard Nietzsche with complete contempt and pay him no heed at all, but neocon favorite Jordan Peterson lauds him and mentions him no less than 43 times in 12 Rules for Life and 83 times in Maps of Meaning. And no one who deprecates Sam Francis can be considered a genuine conservative. So, in answer to those who asked me about Michael Knowles on the Darkstream, my answer is this: Knowles is a manufactured new media whore, he is a liar, and he is not on the side of truth, justice, or the American Way.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
– Isaiah 5:20

Once you catch one of these media whores in a lie, you know who and what they are, and whom they serve. FFS, stop falling for the “but he’s such an effective critic of the Left” headfake. The world is not binary, there are an abundancy of rival evils, and absolutely none of them are good.