Tag: Castalia House

A new book review of SJWs Always Lie:

It begins with a primer on the forces of intolerance and thought control that are currently active in today’s society, and provides a revealing look at the hearts and minds of those at the forefront of shutting down open and honest debate. It uses the on-going saga of GamerGate to provide an in-depth analysis of one front in the culture war, and to illustrate the standard playbook of those who prosecute the modern day Salem Witch Trials. The book then segues into effective counter-strategies that can be used against them. Generally the counter-strategies are defensive in nature, but if practiced on a wide-spread scale by individuals and small groups, they result in a powerful offensive strategy capable of pushing back against the totalitarians in our midst.

While the background and tactical studies portions of the book are worth the cover price, the real value of this book lies in its clarion call to like-minded individuals who have long been silenced by the insidious tactics of those who would outlaw dissent. The seemingly endless string of successes by those who support destructive public policies can often lead to feelings of resignation and cynicism among those who oppose the modern day tyranny of censorship, but this book underlain by an energizing message of hope and optimism meant to inspire the reader to fight the good fight, and by that measure it is a wild success.

It may not directly inspire an earth-shaking demonstration that single-handedly changes the world, but it is easy to imagine “SJWs Always Lie” inspiring countless acts of quiet resistance that together add up to a powerful and undeniable pushback against the entire culture of thought-crimes. In that way, this book helps serve as a bellows heating up the spark of freedom that still lurks in the hearts of all men, which – if we are lucky – will fan the flames of an honest debate between those who hold a defense of truth, real justice, and the American way against those who believe the spread of lies, false justice, and slavery are virtues.

Jeffro has completed the initial pass of his quixotic masterpiece. Some of his conclusions:

• Tolkien’s ascendancy was not inevitable. It’s really a fluke that he even became the template for the modern fantasy epic.
• A half dozen authors would have easily been considered on par with Tolkien in the seventies.
• Our concept of “Tolkienesque” fantasy has little to do with Tolkien’s actual work. Likewise, the “Lovecraftian” stories and games of today have little to do with what Lovecraft actually wrote. Our concepts of swords and sorcery have had the “weird” elements removed from them for the most part. Next to the giants of the thirties, just about everything looks tamed and watered down.
• Entire genres have been all but eliminated. The majority of the Appendix N list falls under either planetary romance, science fantasy, or weird fiction. Most people’s readings of AD&D and OD&D are done without a familiarity of these genres.
• Science fiction and fantasy were much more related up through the seventies. Several Appendix N authors did top notch work in both genres. Some did work that could be classified as neither.
• It used to be normal for science fiction and fantasy fans to read books that were published between 1910 and 1977. There was a sense of canon in the seventies that has since been obliterated.
• Modern fandom is now divorced from its past in a way that would be completely alien to game designers in the seventies. They had no problem synthesizing elements from classics, grandmasters of the thirties, and new wave authors.
• Ideological diversity in science fiction and fantasy was a given in the seventies. We are hopelessly homogenistic in comparison to them.
• The program of political correctness of the past several decades has made even writers like Ray Bradbury and C. L. Moore all but unreadable to an entire generation. The conditioning is so strong, some people have almost physical reactions to the older stories now.

And at Castalia House, Jeffro has posted a not-unrelated retrospective on the topic of Tolkien’s influence on Dungeons & Dragons:

This list has been held up as conclusive evidence of Tolkien’s
influence on the formation of original D&D.² Taking all of the
game’s influences into account it’s just not that convincing, however.
Certainly, players of this rule set would have been able to recreate The
Battle of Five Armies and The Battle of the Morannon. And unlike
anything you’d see in the coming D&D rule sets, Bard the Hunter’s
ability to take out a flying dragon with a single shot is accounted for
here. But while wraiths here are clearly inspired by the Nazgul, raising
the morale of their allies, causing their foes to make morale checks,
and paralyzing men with fear, these special abilities also failed
to survive the transition from miniatures supplement to role-playing
game.

Other staples of the D&D zeitgeist are in evidence even at this
early juncture: the chromatic dragons are out in force, along with the
chlorine gas breathing variety from the de Camp and Pratt’s The Roaring Trumpet.
The clearest example of Tolkien’s diluted authority in Gygax’s views
would be in the matter of Trolls. “What are generally referred to as
Trolls are more properly Ogres,” he explains. To Gygax, “true Trolls”
are more in line with the one in Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions.
 
Similarly, the wizards of the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement are unlike
anything from Tolkien’s corpus; they unleash “Cloudkill” on enemy
armies, create hallucinatory terrain, “haste” friendly units while
“slowing” enemies, and disrupt the opposing force’s command and control
with “confuse”. Tolkien’s stark contrasts between good and evil are
replaced with Poul Anderson’s and Michael Moorcock’s Law to Chaos
alignment spectrum, with the most surprising implication of this
system being that the question of whether Elves will come in on the side
of Halflings or Wraiths is determined entirely by the roll of the dice!

It’s very easy for wargamers to see the wargaming roots that underlie all role-playing games, but rather less easy for non-wargamers to recognize them. This is actually something I cover in my game development course; the students tend to be very fascinated to see how one can trace the developmental lineage of some of today’s biggest games all the way back to the arcade games of the 1980s. As for literature, I always find it amusing when people assert that Warhammer was an influence on Selenoth because I don’t play Warhammer or any miniatures games nor have I ever read even a single book from the Black Library. The influences they think they are seeing actually stem from board-and-counter games that influenced both Games Workshop and me.

Selenoth began life as a wargame called “Warleader” which was my attempt to write rules for Fantasy Advanced Squad Leader. Perhaps one day I’ll return to it.

Speaking of Castalia House, we are looking for some more high-quality writers to join Jeffro, Morgan, and Daniel there, but we are only interested in potential contributors who already have a blog and a track record. If you’re a book reviewer or a game writer interested in expanding your audience, touch base.

John Walker reviews SJWs Always Lie at None Dare Call It Reason:

This book is a superbly written history of GamerGate and the revolt against SJWs in science fiction and fantasy writers’ associations and fandom, but also provides deep insight into the seriously dysfunctional world of the SJW and advice about how to deal with them and what to do if you find yourself a target. The tactics of the SJWs are laid bare, and practical advice is given as to how to identify SJWs before they enter your organisation and how to get rid of them if they’re already hired. (And get rid of them you must; they’re like communists in the 1930s–1950s: once in place they will hire others and promote their kind within the organisation. You have to do your homework, and the Internet is your friend—the most innocuous co-worker or prospective employee may have a long digital trail you can find quickly with a search engine.)

There is no compromising with these people. That has been the key mistake of those who have found themselves targeted by SJWs. Any apology will be immediately trumpeted as an admission of culpability, and nothing less than the complete destruction of the career and life of the target will suffice. They are not well-meaning adversaries; they are enemies, and you must, if they attack you, seek to destroy them just as they seek to destroy you. Read Alinsky; they have. I’m not suggesting you call in SWAT raids on their residences, dig up and release damaging personal information on them, or make anonymous bomb threats when they gather. But be aware that they have used these tactics repeatedly against their opponents.

You must also learn that SJWs have no concern for objective facts. You can neither persuade nor dissuade them from advancing their arguments by citing facts that falsify their claims. They will repeat their objectively false talking points until they tire you out or drown out your voice. You are engaging in dialectic while they are employing rhetoric. To defeat them, you must counter their rhetoric with your own rhetoric, even when the facts are on your side.

The word is spreading. I appreciate the efforts some of you have been making to bring the book to the attention of those with platforms to reach potential readers that I cannot.

And an Amazon reviewer asked a question that merited a response:

Very funny, but why get embroiled in fights with crazy people in the first place? You can’t win, they are not open to logic, and nobody benefits one way or the other. Some SJWs will grow up and realize their silliness, but others, like the hags of N.O.W., never change or advance. The general public is oblivious, and always will be.

Why? Because you can’t avoid them. They are on the Long March through the institutions and organizations of the West and they will attack everyone who does not submit to the Narrative. They are not open to logic, but you can win and I am living proof that you can benefit from standing up to them and defeating them.

And while the general public is oblivious, it will not always be. There is absolutely no reason for defeatism when until recently, most of us didn’t even realize they have been attacking and undermining Western civilization for over 150 years. We not only CAN win, we WILL win because reality always reimposes itself in the end.