Tag: books

200 reviews

I’ve never had a book hit that many Amazon reviews before, so to see it happen in a month is rather pleasant. It’s also good to see that interest has remained high enough to keep SJWs Always Lie at #1 in the Political Philosophy category for the whole month since it was first published.

And speaking of reviews, Jan Weir of American Renaissance reviewed SJWs Always Lie. It’s a pretty favorable review, although the reviewer is subject to what I think of as Clemens Disease; I’m considerably less famous than Bono, after all, but I don’t often see articles about U2 that say “The pseudonymous singer, Bono (real name: Paul Hewitt Hewson). Anyhow, to the review:

While SJWs Always Lie is a highly entertaining read, I don’t want to leave the impression that it’s just a witty romp through the SJW jungle. It’s deadly serious about the damage SJWs can do to you and me as we try to get through our workday. One of their favorite venues for mischief-making is the Human Resources department, particularly in large companies that like to remind you from time to time that they have something called a Code of Conduct. This code is invariably vague, with lots of soothing phrases about commitment to equality, a “safe” workplace, and of course “diversity.” This is an open-ended invitation to all sorts of SJW mischief, which often takes the form of a whispering campaign against you, in which both accusation and accuser remain concealed from view. This has happened to the author, who eloquently describes the pit-of-the-stomach anxiety and confusion of being attacked by unseen assailants.

How to respond? Probably the most valuable part of the book is about what to do and not do if you’re attacked. Don’t apologize. Don’t resign. Fight back.

    Target the enemy at every opportunity. Hit them wherever they show themselves vulnerable. Play as dirty as your conscience will permit. Undermine them, sabotage them, and discredit them. Be ruthless and show them absolutely no mercy. This is not the time for Christian forgiveness because these are people who have not repented, these are people who are trying to destroy you and are quite willing to harm your family and your children in the process. Take them down and take them out without hesitation. If you have any SJWs working under you, fire them . . . .

Mr. Beale also proposes a long-term plan for SJW-proofing our society. I found this the most intriguing part of the book. It displays a level of sociological insight and gravitas that is quite different from the light, snarky tone found in other parts of the book and promoted on the book’s cartoonish cover. The author analyzes the deep rot that the SJWs have caused our institutions, explains how we have made ourselves vulnerable to their control, and tells what we can do to end this vulnerability. His suggestions are too extensive to summarize here, but inter alia, we are enjoined to: Build alternative institutions (e.g., home school your children, create alternatives to SJW-infested Wikipedia); defund and destroy their propaganda centers (e.g., ignore their entertainment media); deny them employment; keep them out of your organizations.

It’s a bracing call-to-arms, based on an honest concept of justice.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that, like it or not, I am an American Indian (one brother is out on the rez this week, as it happens), and my great-grandfather did ride with Villa. Damn near got killed with him too. In fact, I was talking to one of my brothers today and he told me a funny story about how he was out raking his lawn recently and someone from his wealthy neighborhood driving by stopped his car and tried to hire him to mow his lawn. My brother wasn’t at all offended; when the guy tried to apologize, he said, “why would I be upset that you think I look Mexican? I am Mexican.”

I told him that he should have burst out crying and started a Patreon account; apparently that is the correct SJW-approved response to microaggressions these days.

Despite his height, that brother looks the most Mexican in the family; his equally tall doppleganger works at a Mexican supply store at which I bought a tortilla press last year. Ender actually thought it was his uncle for a moment and was extremely confused about what he was doing there. I look the most Anglo, obviously, whereas another brother looks sufficiently Indian that he was invited to join the American Indian group at his college by strangers.

Having written a book about speech and thought police, perhaps I’ll have to write a book about race police one of these days.

The demonic Demian

It’s interesting to go back and read books that made an impression on you when you were younger. Demian wasn’t the Hesse novel that made a big impression on me, that was Magister Ludi as the paperback edition I had then called The Glass Bead Game, but it was the first Hesse novel that I read and the one that drew me into becoming a moderately serious Hesse fan.

However, as much as I enjoyed the books, I did not understand the countercultural appeal of Hesse back then. I was too much a child of the 80s to grasp why Demian and Steppenwolf were so significant to the hippies and the other counterculturals who laid the groundwork for today’s SJWs, most of whom wouldn’t know Hermann Hesse from Rudolf Hess.

But I was reading Demian at the gym yesterday, and besides developing a newfound respect for James Franco, who wrote a rather amusing introduction to it, I began to understand both that historic countercultural appeal as well as the depth of literally Satanic evil intrinsic to the quasi-Gnostic philosophy expressed in the book. This passage, in particular, caught my attention:

Then, at that moment, a memory flashed up within me that almost took my breath away: on that ill-starred evening when my misery had begun, that moment with my father when I had, so to speak, seen right through him and his bright clean world and wisdom, and despised them! Yes, I had imagined on my own that I was Cain and bore the mark, and that the mark was not a disgrace but a badge of honor; I had felt that my wicked misdeed made me superior to my father, higher than the good and pious people in his world.

It’s not that I had thought it all through, clearly and analytically, at the time; it was just an emotion flaring up, strange stirrings that hurt me but at the same time filled me with pride. Yet all these ideas were contained in the feeling I’d had.

When I thought about how oddly Demian had spoken of the fearless tribe and the cowards, how strange his interpretation was of the mark on Cain’s forehead, and how marvelously his eyes, his peculiar, grown-up eyes, had lit up when he spoke, the vague thought passed through my mind: This Demian, is he not himself a kind of Cain? Why else would he defend Cain, if he didn’t feel like him? Why does he have such power in his eyes, and why does he speak so scornfully about the “others,” the fearful ones, who after all are actually pious and pleasing to God?

What can be more appealing to young men and women of little accomplishment than the idea that they are the chosen ones, that they are superior by virtue of their weakness and uselessness? What could better suit that collection of worthless parasites than an excuse to take pride in their barbaric rejection of constructive, civilized society? Sinclair’s misdeed was based on pure cowardice, and yet on the basis of nothing more than Demian’s baseless reinterpretation of the Cain story, his multi-faceted cowardice is transformed into heroism, even into a form of demi-godhood!

I didn’t understand this when I was 15. I took the concept of the “fearless ones” at face value, although fortunately I was not foolish enough to take the philosophy behind it seriously. I haven’t finished re-reading the book yet, but what I’m seeing is that Demian represents a proto-SJW perspective, although one that is considerably more educated and self-aware than modern SJWs because it is shaped in reaction to traditional Western culture and is therefore fully aware of what today’s SJWs do not know.

Hesse moved beyond this juvenile, reactionary, and self-deluded gnosticism in both Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, but the counterculture never did, not even when it became the popular culture. And if the philosophy is considerably more evil than I recalled, I have to say that the writing is even deeper and more insightful than I remembered.

It’s somewhat remarkable that a man capable of seeing so deeply into his own soul should then go so far afield philosophically, but then, perception is not analysis.

Back From the Dead on Amazon

The Stars Came Back Book One: Back From the Dead by Rolf Nelson is now available on Amazon and at Castalia House for $4.99.

Helton Strom is just a guy between contracts when he runs afoul of both
planetary officialdom and space pirates. He is left with nothing but the
clothes on his back, and not even a citizenship to his name. Is the
ancient, broken-down military surplus starship and the young lady living
aboard it the key to a bright future, or will his repairs and new
mercenary friends reawaken the demons lurking in the ship’s murky and
lethal past?

Back From the Dead is the first book in The Stars Came Back series.
It is a space western, the story of regular folks just trying stay
alive, seeking work to earn money for repairs to get to the next job,
with no shortage of action and adventure along the way. It is military
sci-fi, featuring a company of mercenaries, spaceship combat, mortar and
rifle combat, spear-and-shield battle, and post-traumatic stress
disorder. And it is a philosophical investigation, pondering everything
from the lessons of Achilles to how one stops a bar fight with earplugs.

If you have already read it, I hope you will consider reviewing it on Amazon.

We are winning

This is why the Tor boycott hurts. Those who pooh-pooh its effects don’t realize that the real wounds are inflicted on the margins:

In the 18 months between February 2014 and September 2015, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), whose 1200 members include the “Big Five”: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette — have seen their collective share of the US ebook market collapse:

    from 45% of all Kindle books sold down to 32%
    from 64% of Kindle publisher gross $ revenue down to 50%
    from 48% of all Kindle author net $ earnings down to 32%

The AAP releases monthly StatShot reports on the total dollar sales of their 1200 participating publishers, of which the “Big Five” collectively account for roughly 80%. So far in 2015, the AAP’s reports have charted a progressive decline in both ebook sales and overall revenue for the AAP’s member publishers.

During that same period in 2015, Amazon’s overall ebook sales have continued to grow in both unit and dollar terms, fueled by a strong shift in consumer ebook purchasing behavior away from traditionally-published ebooks and toward indie-published- and Amazon-imprint-published ebooks. These “non-traditionally-published” books now make up nearly 60% of all Kindle ebooks purchased in the US, and take in 40% of all consumer dollars spent on those ebooks.

In other words, the Tor boycott doesn’t have to do anything substantial at all to ensure that Tor Books continues to bleed, it is merely pouring salt on what are clearly the self-administered wounds.

At least two of the Big Five are going to collapse in the relatively near future, although I have no idea which of them it will be because I haven’t seen their financials. We know that Tor Books is in trouble simply by observing that it is bringing in foreign authors and trying to pass off midlist authors as its leading men; the so-called biggest publisher of SF/F has published precisely zero of the big SF/F hits of the last few years. Forget Rowling and Martin and whoever wrote the Hunger Games, they couldn’t even get Howey or the guy who wrote The Martian.

This is the price of failing to develop new talent; once a new author hits on Amazon, he has no incentive to work with the traditional publishers. Throw in the Pink SF gatekeeping, the unprofessional and abusive behavior of their editors, and it should be quite obvious that they’re doomed. How long it will take to play out, I don’t know, but the end game is already clear.

There Will Be More

Dr. Jerry Pournelle has an important announcement:

Accepting submissions for a new volume of the There Will Be War series. Send with cover note to submission@therewillbewar.net. Stories should preferably be 20,000 words or less.  Poetry encouraged, but see the previous series; it needs to make sense. Hard science fiction mainly; urban fantasy with a military theme possibly acceptable, but mostly we want hard, realistic stories.  They need not be action adventure; good command decision stories encouraged. Space opera always considered.  Again see the previous nine volumes.

Nonexclusive anthology rights only are purchased.  Payment on acceptance is $100 advance against pro rata share of 50% of the revenues received from the publisher. Given the sales of the previous volumes we expect this to be a respectable payment. Original works will be considered, but author is welcome to sell it elsewhere; we purchase only nonexclusive anthology rights.

There will be a hardbound print edition, paperback if the sales indicate it, and eBook publication. Contributors will receive an author’s copy. Each contribution will have an introduction by the editor. The work will contain non-fiction essays by invited contributors: again see the previous volumes. 

There Will Be War has historically been a reprint anthology, so reprints are not only fine, they are preferred. But if you’re a military science fiction writer, be sure to only send in your very best, as this will essentially be a “best of” the last two decades of military science fiction. If Vol. X can somehow reach what I consider to be the heights of Vol. II, I will be extremely pleased.

And if you haven’t read There Will Be War Vol. II yet, go and get it now. Just do it. The entire series is more than merely good, it is important. But in my opinion, Volume II is the best SF anthology ever published. Seriously, it was hard to decide which of the stories most merited mention in the Amazon listing. Of particular note are “Superiority” by Arthur C. Clarke, “In the Name
of the Father” by Edward P. Hughes, “‘Caster” by Eric Vinicoff,
“Cincinnatus” by Joel Rosenberg, “On the Shadow of a Phosphor Screen” by
William Wu, and “Proud Legions”, an essay on the Korean War by T.R.
Fehrenbach.

I was talking to Dr. Pournelle recently, and one of the things I told him was that I was extremely surprised to learn, upon editing the re-released anthologies, how much influence There Will Be War had upon my intellectual development. If you have a teenage boy, this is a series that should be a part of his education.

There is no escape from SJW

SJWs are in the process of reinventing James Bond to be more to their liking:

For decades he has swaggered through life conquering women, chain smoking and saving the world, untroubled by the sensitivities of the 21st century. In a new book, however, James Bond will be getting a dose of modern morality, as author Anthony Horowitz reveals the tricks he used to drag the spy kicking and screaming into the era of political correctness.

Horowitz, the writer of new Bond novel Trigger Mortis, said he had worked carefully to preserve Ian Fleming’s original character and ensuring his 1950s attitudes remained in tact.

But he has introduced a cast of new characters to point out the error of his chauvinistic ways, including messages about smoking causing cancer, women who give him a run for his money, and an “outspoken” gay friend.

Horowitz, who has been given access to Fleming’s own notes to research his latest update, said he had inserted “little twists” to make the story work for modern readers.

 “He does smoke cigarettes, he smokes many many cigarettes. But then what I do is I nudge him with a little reference to a newspaper article he happens to glance at which just reminds him that these things will give him cancer. With women, he has this sort of patronising carnal attitude with them which is absolutely accurate to the Bond of the books. But then by creating very strong women he is given quite a run for his money and his attitudes are challenged. I also gave him a very outspoken gay friend, who chides him and says ‘come on Bond, you’re living in the 20th century now not the Middle Ages.’”

It’s not just science fiction, it’s not just games, it’s not just comics, it is literally everywhere. You cannot escape social justice morality, you can only submit to it or fight it. And one way to do the latter, as this gentleman inadvertently demonstrated, is to black-knight it.

Controversy has enveloped the prestigious Best American Poetry anthology after it emerged that a white poet had been included in the selection after adopting a Chinese pen name – and that Yi-Fen Chou’s poem was kept in the much sought-after lineup even after the author told editors his real identity was Michael Derrick Hudson.

At the back of the 2015 edition of The Best American Poetry, which is published today, Yi-Fen Chou is revealed as the pen name of Michael Derrick Hudson, from Indiana. Hudson writes that his poem chosen for the anthology, The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve, was rejected under his real name 40 times before he sent it out as Yi-Fen Chou, when it was rejected nine times before getting accepted. “If indeed this is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I’m nothing if not persistent,” writes Hudson.

At least Mr. Chou has had the sense to avoid apologizing, but it would have been even better if he had simply announced to his critics that he identifies as Chinese and to refer to him as “Michael Hudson” is deadnaming, racist, and wrongskinphobic.

This identity black-knighting is an excellent way to systematically undermine the SJWs, which is to claim whatever identities you find useful and force them to recognize them in precisely the same manner they declare war to be peace, black to be white, and Bruce to be Caitlyn. The key is to not overdo it or be too obvious – I see way too much stupid “well, I’m a lesbian in a man’s body, ha ha ha” here – and to stick to it relentlessly. If you’re a white writer, you should have at least one ethnic nom de plume to your credit.

The first two reviews

Interestingly enough, the very first review of SJWs Always Lie is by an individual whose SJW attack is mentioned in the book, Paz Dickenson:

Vox Day’s short new book “SJWs Always Lie” is essential reading for anyone interested in modern online moral panics triggered by Social Justice Warriors. Vox explains what these people are, how they function, and what to do if you’re attacked. As someone who has personally lived through his own political correctness lynching I agree wholeheartedly with his recommendations.

The book includes chapters that comprise the best short summaries I’ve read of Gamergate and the Sad Puppies movements to date, and having just been released it includes even the most recent developments.

I’m very pleased to see others who have experienced SJW attacks can endorse both the descriptions of the attacks as well as the recommendations on how to react to them. Another reviewer who is mentioned in the book, Gorilla Mindset author Mike Cernovich, one of my GGinParis cohosts, reviews SJWs Always Lie with a completely different angle in mind, and frankly, one I’d never really considered, which is to say professional public relations:

No one ever attacked me with such rabid dishonesty as the social justice warriors.

SJWs lied about every area of my life. They lied about verifiable facts. For example, SJWs claimed I wasn’t a real lawyer. (Anyone can ascertain my ability to practice law by checking the California State Bar website!)

SJWs called me a racist, a rapist, and accused me of moving to Vietnam for underage sex tourism.I also had to stay in a hotel after SJWs attempted to have a police SWAT team sent to my home. A 350-pound woman falsely accused me of threatening her with rape.

Fortunately my business model is anti-fragile. The more hate I receive leads to more books sold. SJWs actually helped me make Gorilla Mindset a best seller, as my unwavering mindset in the face of their death threats proved the power of mindset. SJWs lined my pocket with their attacks, and for the most part have moved on to exploit vulnerable people.

Yet even I was a bit shell shocked by the attacks. I had never encountered such hateful people in my life.

SJWs Always Lie would have helped me anticipate their tactics and thus fight more effectively. SJWs Always Lie is the public relations book every celebrity and public relations strategist will deny owning.

It’s interesting to see Mike declare that the book isn’t a polemic because I am a polemicist, I had conceived of the book as a polemic, and indeed, began writing it as a polemic. But then, the patterns that I kept seeing over and over in the different SJW attacks, across different industries and in different countries, were too obvious to ignore, and after describing those patterns, it seemed only natural to explain some strategies for dealing with them. And somehow, in the process, what began as a specific polemic was transformed into a more general cultural 4GW handbook.

And Skittles Boy violate Amazon’s review policy when he scribbled a one-star review that is even less intelligent than the fake one. I particularly liked how I’m supposed to be “piggybacking on a topic he knows will be popular for his own obvious self-aggrandizement.” All together now: SJWs Always Lie! 

“We have a zero tolerance policy for any review designed to mislead or manipulate customers.”

SJWs Always Lie

There WILL be an offer tonight for the CH subscribers, so if you are one, you might want to hold off on buying it today. The official announcement is tomorrow, but seeing as the cat is out of the bag, there is no harm in mentioning that it is available on Amazon now.

UPDATE: Sweet Smoked SJW, I was NOT expecting this, particularly not after what may be the most haphazard and lackadaisical “book launch” in history. I’m turning in, so if someone wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on the numbers and posting them in the comments, I’d appreciate it.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#842 #306 #286 #251 #238 Paid in Kindle Store

Just because this made me laugh. Vox Day… Machiavelli… Plato.

The most replaceable SJW institutions

I’m working on a list for the book. Wikipedia is at the top of my list, for various reasons, but I’m interested in hearing more ideas for SJW-infested institutions that can be most easily replaced with alternatives.

For example, WPP, the advertising giant, would be hugely significant, but it would be very, very difficult to effectively provide an alternative to it. And I don’t even know that it is the advertising agency most responsible for pushing various SJW memes via advertising anyhow.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is probably the most important SJW institution at the moment due to the $3.3 trillion it is giving away on an annual basis, but obviously, it’s not going to be easy to produce an alternative to that either.

So, if you have ideas on this score, please make your case.

The bonfire of the SJWs approaches

As I mentioned previously, SJWS ALWAYS LIE: Taking Down the Thought Police will be released on August 27, 2015, the first anniversary of #GamerGate. I thought those of you looking forward to the book might be interested in seeing yet another excellent cover by JartStar.

As you can see, the cover is an homage to another political book well-loved by the Left, Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. But SJWs is a lighter read, it’s meant to be a book that serves as a handbook and a reference for those who already oppose the self-appointed thought police as well as an evangelical tract that can be used to convince neutral parties that the SJWS are a serious problem and a direct threat to them even though they may be currently unaware of it. In other words, it’s written more in the vein of The Irrational Atheist than The Return of the Great Depression.

There is a chapter devoted to GamerGate, a chapter devoted to the Hugo Awards, and a chapter that contains a systematic breakdown of the standard SJW attack sequence as well as recommendations on how to respond to it. It contains a few surprises, as well as a few elements that will not be a surprise to anyone at all. It is my hope that SJWs will prove but one of many useful weapons to people across the West as the long-overdue counterattack against the thought and speech police grows and gains momentum.

It will be initially available in ebook, but we expect to have a hardcover out before the end of the year.