A Sad Puppy Testifies

The brilliant Hans Schantz tells of his differing experiences with Jon Del Arroz and the big-name authors who are presently engaged in a series of unprofessional and inappropriate attacks on the Arkhaven author:

As my fans and Wise of Heart subscribers are well aware, I run periodic “Based Book Sales” where indie and small press authors join together to offer some of their books at $0.99 or free. I compile them in a couple of big blog posts and we all use our social media reach and email lists to promote the sale. We introduce our readers to other authors whose works they might find interesting. And those other authors introduce their readers to our books. It’s a win-win.

Lately, sales have been moving about a thousand books in each outing. The all-time record was about five thousand. Each sale connects several dozen authors to hundreds of new readers. And Jon del Arroz has been there since the beginning, participating and helping out fellow authors, most of whom have no where near his social media reach.

The big-name authors are well aware of the sale. We even include their books, since our readers may not be familiar with some of them and might appreciate being introduced to a new author. But with few exceptions, they prefer to whine about how they are being ignored by influencers with greater reach than theirs, while at the same time refusing to lend a hand to the “parasites” trying to “ride on their coat tails”…

The “Sad Puppies” saga is not my story to tell. I was merely one of thousands of backers and supporters of the movement. From my in-the-trenches perspective, though, it was an effort to carve out a niche for non-woke fiction from the Skittle-hair people in the publishing industry who sought to ignore and suppress not only dissenting views, but also any fiction that failed to properly kow-tow to their diversity quotas and social justice diktats. Great progress was made… until big-name authors and their big-name publishers decided enough controversy was enough, their point had been made and they were going to take their flags and go home, abandoning the rest of us on the field of battle.

Painful as that betrayal was at the time, it was probably for the best, because it gave rise to a more decentralized and less cancellable movement. Individual creators carved out their own independent pieces of a based literature movement, call it “Iron Age,” or “Comicsgate,” or “Superversive.” Based creators making based fiction and graphic novels serving their fans and defying their would-be gatekeepers.

And the legacy big-name authors and some of their fans are clueless and fail to understand what Jon means when he says “I am the leader of Sad Puppies,” for he omits the rest of the Gamergate-inspired mantra: “and so can you.”

L’Affaire del Arroz, 2 October 2023

As it happens, the Sad Puppies saga and the Comicsgate kerfluffle are my stories to tell, and I will tell them when I appear on Jon Del Arroz’s stream on Thursday night for an interview with him. It’s not my intention to criticize anyone, victimize anyone, or air any dirty laundry – and there isn’t any to air anyhow, Sad Puppies really was just a fundamental difference of opinions – but I will ensure that everyone knows exactly what happened and why it happened for future reference.

We’ll also have a new announcement to make concerning Alt-Hero.

In the interest of full disclosure, I note that Hans Schantz is an Arktoons contributor and I have occasionally supported his Based Book Sales marketing efforts.

DISCUSS ON SG


Faux Christian Nationalism

Douglas Wilson can’t give up his Boomer addiction to Enlightenment ideals:

A summary of Doug Wilson’s argument in “Mere Christendom” insisting that the Magistrate should not enforce blasphemy laws.;

As a theonomist Wilson believes in “the need to restore the Bible as the quarry from which to obtain the needed stone for our foundations of social order” (149), he strongly argues against state imposed punishment for blasphemy. He reminds us that “those who want the government to have the right to kill blasphemers are also asking for the government to have the right to kill those who rebuke their (the government’s) blasphemies” (157), and “When you give the state power to punish a blasphemer, you are giving the state the power to blaspheme with impunity” (171). Wilson argues that inherent protection of free speech by limiting the state’s power “is the theo-political genius of Christianity” (171). He argues that “The founding of our nation really was exceptional, because the men who drafted our Constitution knew that American politicians, taking one thing with another, would be every bit as sleazy as the same class of men from any other clime” (201).

There are political wolves in sheep’s clothing just as there are religious wolves in sheep’s clothing. Evil men are going to do what evil men do, regardless of what good Christian men do. We already know, we have a massive surfeit of knowledge, of what happens when Christian men do not enforce Christian societal norms.

What this reveals is that Wilson is more dedicated to his Enlightenment ideals than his Christian ideals. I have no doubt that he is also an ersatz nationalist, which is to say, a common Churchian civnat who makes positive noises about tribes and nations, but as with blasphemy, refuses to acknowledge the right of the state to enforce the nation’s will.

The protection of free speech has literally nothing to do with Christianity, much less represents its “theo-political genius”. That is pure bafflegarble worthy of Jordan Peterson his own babbling self. Free speech is just another false virtue no more worth of state protection than equality, diversity, anti-racism, or the free movement of peoples.

Iron Ink is correct in his dismissal of Wilson’s Churchian drivel. “Rev. Wilson’s operating principle at work here is: give no one the power for good if they can use it for evil. Which of course reaches beyond absurd into the zip code of Nutville.”

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Conservatardery

Why does anyone continue to pay any attention to mainstream media conservatives? It puzzles me. Very nearly to a man – or woman – they failed the most basic test of analytical capability of the last decade as they fell for what was quintessentially a globalist and government program of the very sort they nominally oppose.

Megyn Kelly, a veteran journalist and podcaster, said Wednesday that she deeply regrets getting the COVID-19 vaccine because she believes she may have suffered a vaccine injury. Ms. Kelly said that she regrets getting vaccinated and then boosted, saying she doesn’t think it was necessary—and that a doctor told her that an autoimmune condition she developed after getting the shot may be related to the vaccine.

“I regret getting the vaccine even though I’m a 52-year-old woman because I don’t think I needed it,” Ms. Kelly said during a Sept. 6 episode of her podcast “The Megyn Kelly Show.”

“I think I would have been fine. I had got COVID many times, and it was well past when the vaccine was doing what it was supposed to be doing,” she added. “For the first time, I tested positive for an autoimmune issue at my annual physical. And I went to the best rheumatologist in New York, and I asked her, do you think this could have to do with the fact that I got the damn booster and then got COVID within three weeks? And she said yes. Yes. I wasn’t the only one she’d seen that with,” Ms. Kelly said.

Her current vaccine regret stands in contrast to remarks she made in April 2021, when she said she had “zero qualms” about getting the shot.

“Am getting the [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine this [weekend]. Have zero qualms [because] have spent a life immersed in a media obsessed with fear-mongering that is often irresponsible and untrue. Do what your doctor tells you to do and ignore everyone else,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

While it’s good that she’s telling the truth about her negative consequences, what about this provides you with evidence that her opinion about anything is to be taken seriously, let alone valued, in any way? Why would you ever watch a show, or listen to a podcast, or read a book, in order to learn what Ms Kelly thinks about anything? The same goes for every single other vaccinated conservative media figure. It wasn’t rocket science.

To the extent that “conservatism” stands for anything, it is supposed to stand against big government programs intruding on the lives of the citizens. And yet, there are few government programs bigger in scope or more intrusive than the various aspects of the Covid-19 program, from acquiring respirators to lockdowns to vaccines and vaccine mandates. But all it took was a wildly unconvincing health scare to convince conservatives to abandon their nominal core principle.

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I’m Not Saying He’s Fake

And I’m not saying he’s gay. I’m just saying it’s now well beyond obvious that the Red-Bearded Bard of Appalachia is as illegitimate and manufactured as Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Sam Harris and the rest of the so-called “Intellectual Dark Web”, and Joe Rogan.

Country star Oliver Anthony gave a surprise performance at Joe Rogan’s Texas comedy club after being called to stage to the extreme delight of the crowd.

Rogan invited Anthony to his club, The Comedy Mothership, located on East Sixth Street, on Tuesday night.

The popular podcaster had acquired the historic club as a standup comedy nightclub destination in 2022.

Audience members were unaware that Anthony was waiting in the wings. The songwriter became an instant sensation, when his song, ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was first released on YouTube less than two weeks ago, making Anthony the first artist ever to rise to the top without any prior charting history.

Rogan’s friend and fellow comedian, Tom Segura, teased Anthony’s performance by telling audience members that he ‘had a special treat for them.’ When the crowd discovered the musician was the ‘special treat’ they broke out in loud applause and cheers.

Rogan is also trying to help Anthony get out in front of his inevitable exposure as a manufactured creature.

Rogan: “Do you write all your own songs?”

OA: “Yeah…”

Rogan: “Have you been accused of not writing your own songs?”

OA: “Very early on, yeah”

I know Anthony’s “popularity” and “success” were manufactured, but I never seriously doubted he wrote his own songs until seeing Rogan ask these leading questions.

When the United States of America collapses amidst violence, disease, ethnic strife, and religious conflict, as it is likely to do before 2034, I hope that none of you will be so stubbornly and infernally ignorant as to look to the skies and cry out in despair “why did this happen?”

I can tell you right now why it happened. It happened because Americans, and conservative Americans in particularly, are literally too stupid and too naive to survive.

Someone asked on SG, “is there any hope at all for the survival of the USA”. No, there is not. There is no hope whatsoever for the survival of the USA as a unitary political entity of 50 states spanning the North American continent. None whatsoever. And the reason is that after more than 75 years of relentless subversion, demoralization, inversion, and invasion, a significant percentage of Americans still cheer for and support those who are being used to destroy their nation and their society.

At least we won’t be able to say we didn’t deserve our collective fate.

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Conservativism Failed American Christianity

The Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, the organized Christian churches, and the conservative movement all collectively failed both America and American Christians:

The danger is that a marriage between conservatism and Christianity will place the Faith in a position to be compromised, just as conservative politicians are compromising every day. This would result in a Christian faith which conforms to politics instead of a politics which conforms to Christianity.

This is not to say that the conservative movement has never been Christian or never supported Christian values. It is very true that in past decades the conservative movement was where devout Christians of all stripes could find allies in the culture war. Catholics and Evangelicals found themselves side by side in the fight to protect the unborn. Presbyterians and Methodists found themselves in the same trenches defending the sanctity of marriage. This was only possible because a critical mass of American society was, in fact, devoutly Christian, and therefore the conservative movement was trying to conserve a Christian America. Politics was downstream of culture and culture was downstream of Christianity.

Those days are more or less over. America is only nominally Christian, if that, and hence it is increasingly common for conservatives to identify as non-Christian or pagan. The campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy is a good example of this. While he may preach a familiar set of conservative policies, his social and religious views sound more similar to a mid-decade liberal than a traditional Christian conservative, as he is a vocal and devout Hindu. This is not to rail against his faith but to point out that he is a glowing example of how one can be uber-conservative and non-Christian. If it is the essence of conservatism to preserve and to change slowly, and our culture is no longer Christian, no wonder our conservative movement is less than Christian. There is little Christianity in our nation to preserve!

What Exactly Are Conservatives Conserving?, CRISIS MAGAZINE, 28 August 2023

It’s now more than apparent that the American conservativism articulated by Russell Kirk and championed by Buckley, Goldwater, and Reagan was a complete and unmitigated failure that was unsuccessful in conserving anything from the American people’s majority in the United States to the historic concept of the two genders. Like Churchianity, its failure was inevitable because it was focused on inclusivity and expanding its numbers rather than requiring a dedication to the truths it proclaimed on its members and policing the legitimacy of that dedication among them.

American Christians must put Jesus Christ, heritage America, the good, the beautiful, and the true ahead of all the niceness and inclusivity and equality and civnattery and all the other fake virtues, or they will continue to drown in a swamp of judeo-churchian conservatism.

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Officially Denied

The Washington Post and a literal Rothschild assure us that the Red-Bearded Bard of Appalachia is a totally 100-percent genuine phenomenon, for reals.

Anthony’s meteoric rise has provoked its fair share of skepticism — and other theories. Some have accused him of being an industry plant, an artist who presents as independent but is secretly backed by rich and powerful insiders. Others have speculated that “Rich Men” was the product of “astroturfing,” a coordinated marketing or PR campaign pretending to be a grass-roots movement.

Rothschild doubts that’s the case. For one, it’s hard to purposefully make something go so viral, so quickly. And if the country music industry did have this power, it would probably go for someone “more marketable” than Anthony, he said.

“I don’t think there needs to be some kind of scheme or a scam to make this guy popular,” he said. “I think this is just the right thing, at the right time, for the right group of people.”

Oliver Anthony and the ‘mainstreaming’ of conspiracy theories, WASHINGTON POST, 20 August 2023

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m sure convinced now!

Let’s consider for a moment some observational principles which Postcards pointed out concerning the signs of controlled opposition. Two in particular appear to be highly relevant in this case, in addition to another one that I added.

  • Inexplicable popularity with conservatives.
  • Irregular ties to suspicious folk.
  • Connected to other manufactured creatures.

Read this paragraph from the Washington Post article with that last point in mind.

The most revealing window into Anthony’s worldview may be a YouTube playlist he curated, “Videos that make your noggin get bigger.” The list includes performances from Luciano Pavarotti and Hank Williams Sr., but it also features several talking heads popular among the far right — Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan — as well as multiple clips putting forward the conspiracy theory that Jews were responsible for 9/11. Mike Rothschild, a journalist and author who covers conspiracy theories, doesn’t think these connections are incidental…

Yes, I think that is indeed a revealing window. And as a side note, speaking as an editor and writer, I think that playlist title is fake. It has the same sort of false Hollywood tone that the dialogue provided by those recounting events that never happened invariably does.

“And then he said, ‘don’t be bustin no caps on me, fool!'”

On a tangential note, some have asked what could be the point of pushing a controlled figure who even partially violates the mainstream Narrative. Read the whole Washington Post article, especially the last three paragraphs. One obvious objective would be to suck up the resources that would otherwise go to legitimate figures with the potential to seriously threaten the current Narrative.

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Obvious Manufacture is Obvious

You may recall the list of signs that an individual is controlled opposition and his “popularity” is being manufactured for him by the mainstream media, as in the cases of Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Nick Fuentes, and Andrew Tate, just to name a few. The next one absolutely pings on all of them.

What do you get if you throw Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, a Baptist preacher and seventeen cans of Red Bull in a blender?

Jon Zherka.

You mightn’t have heard of him before, but believe me, it’s only a matter of time before his name pops up on your social media feed. That’s because the “6’5 king of alpha male energy” is taking the internet by storm. On TikTok, his videos have been viewed tens of millions of times.

According to his YouTube channel, which boasts 93,000-plus subscribers, Jon Zherka is a comedian who excels at pushing boundaries. His “humour” – controversial to say the least – explores “topics such as race, religion, gender dynamics and orientation”.

Zherka’s comedy, we’re told, involves “challenging perceptions and sparking dialogue, all while making sure the laughs keep coming”. He’s not your average comedian, he’s Jon Zherka, a human wrecking ball who is liable to say what he wants, when he wants.

‘Alpha male energy’: Why Jon Zherka is the most controversial man on social media, 23 July 2023

Now, how can he be ‘the most controversial man on social media” when he hasn’t been deplatformed from any of the SJW platforms? Note that he has less than one-third the number of YouTube subscribers that Big Bear did before he was ejected from the platform four years ago. And note that while you haven’t heard of him – I certainly hadn’t – he’s “taking the Internet by storm” thanks to some suspiciously familiar themes.

When he’s not busy trying to convert the masses to Christianity, Zherka enjoys pushing flat earth conspiracies. Not surprisingly, Zherka also believes that the moon landing of 1969, when two American astronauts became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface, was faked. His close friend, Sneako, also a wildly popular influencer, also subscribes to the fake moon landing narrative.

Translation: this is the media’s feeble attempt to provide an alternative to Owen Benjamin. Notice in particular how the article compares him to their previous fakes instead of to the individual whom he is obviously imitating; they do this because the whole point is to avoid mentioning the genuine celebrity they are attempting to depopularize.

Be particularly suspicious when these manufactured creatures always refer to “Christ” and never “Jesus Christ of Nazareth”.

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7 Signs of Controlled Opposition

Postcards from the Edge of Reason lists seven signs that your saviour du jour is just another gatekeeper:

  1. Inexplicable popularity with conservatives.

The first time you heard about Big Conservative Thing was probably someone in media telling you how popular it has already become. No one can explain how, and most likely nobody you know could say they knew anything about it when it was small. Their rise is described as miraculous, or a movement, but the growth was very sudden.

  1. Fleecing massive amounts of money off of conservatives.

Gee. With all those resources in one pool, we’ll surely see some positive change, right? Right? Don’t hold your breath, mate. But do expect someone to extol the virtues of “taking stands” and “making statements” and other ways of paying them to tweet things about other famous people.

  1. Alleviates the pressure of the current situation by saying, “Something is being done.”

Somewhere, out there. You may have had a bee in your bonnet about some issue, and Controlled Opposition may have even gotten you riled up about it, ready to kick names and all that. Even just listening to someone talk about it was cathartic.

  1. Offers their entertainment value as part of some vague solution.

This is closely tied in with the last two. One way or another, it always comes back to them leading the way forward. They assure you that you’re all part of something big together.

  1. Leaves the true power of action entirely within the System.

The closest they ever come to offering a solution is to reinforce processes inside the System, or to leave solutions entirely in the hands of System officials.

  1. Portrays the managers of the system as incompetent, weak, cowardly, clumsy, or even greedy, but never evil and complicit.

This deflects true responsibility from those in power. Worse, it appeals to our natural inclination to say this about leaders we disagree with. But this is all part of the show that starts with politicians saying one thing and doing something else with entirely different results.

  1. Irregular ties to suspicious folk.

How many CIA agents do you know? How many criminals? How many billionaires? You may know zero, or a handful. But you probably don’t know many, and you probably haven’t received large sums of money from them, or acted as godfather to their kids.

The most reliable sign is the first one, the way that they suddenly pop up out of nowhere and their “incredible rise” is celebrated by the media and accepted unquestioningly by the average conservative. And here are a few additional signs:

  • This isn’t their first rodeo. Look into the background of all these manufactured characters and you’ll inevitably discover a previous attempt at becoming a star, from Ben Shapiro’s playing violin on TV as a “child prodigy” to the “modeling” of various female gatekeepers.
  • They publish books even though they’re obviously not writers. I’ve written and published more books than most of these “bestselling authors” combined, and I’m not even particularly prolific. The one “popular book” is there to justify their marketing as a relevant intellectual figure.
  • They’re poorly read and are usually known to have one major influence, who is the only intellectual figure they ever reference because it’s the only one they can reference. How much Jung do you think Jordan Peterson actually read when he didn’t even bother reading the Bible once?
  • They’re connected to other manufactured creatures. See: Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.
  • They travel a lot. Most genuinely successful people don’t travel that much because their success permits them to live comfortable lives in the manner they prefer. If you’re in LA on Saturday, DC on Sunday, and Budapest on Monday, you’re not successful, you’re an actor working a PR job.

It’s not an accident that these signs tend to point to The Sound of Freedom being a gatekeeper operation. That doesn’t make it a bad thing, per se, especially given the comparisons and context. But it does point to the improbability that enthusiastically anointing those involved with the film as conservative leaders will end well.

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Saving the Devil Mouse

Conservatives are literally retarded. When they’re not trying to save liberals from the obvious consequences of their actions, they’re trying to prevent the Devil Mouse from immolating itself in its own wickedness.

Movieguide Chairman and Founder Ted Baehr, is calling on parents to petition Disney+ to stop the release of Pauline on the platform.

“We can’t let this twisted and disturbing content corrupt our children’s values and beliefs,” he shared.

“Let me be clear. Pauline is not just another piece of entertainment,” Baehr added. “Horrifically, this series even portrays Satan as a romantic partner! By normalizing and promoting such a relationship, Pauline sends a dangerous message to young viewers that associating with demons, Satan, and evil is acceptable and even desirable!”

Baehr said MovieGuide is partnering with Citizen-go to stop the series from premiering on Disney+.

“If released, there will be millions of young viewers who may perceive this twisted and disturbing story as desirable and exciting,” Baehr warned. “The show’s attempt to normalize and even promote demonic association is a blatant attempt to blur the lines of morality and make evil desirable.”

“We must act now to petition Disney to reconsider their decision to platform this evil show. We need to inform the studios that there are still discerning viewers and parents who won’t allow this content to be viewed by our children,” he added.

Baehr continued, “Pauline has not been released yet, and we can still STOP this show from progressing any further…we need to act fast.”

This is wrong. This is retarded. This is ridiculous. We don’t need to act fast. In fact, we should not act at all. Of course Pauline is awful. And worse is still to come. Let Disney be Disney, shake the dust of the Magic Kingdom off your sandals, and let the flames of its descent into the Hellmouth warm your back as you walk away from it.

UPDATE: The Dark Herald observes horrors beyond your imagination at Disney World, which is to say, trans-princesses for Pride month.

Mickey the Franchise Cannibal Rat is now devouring his own. This is exactly why I was laughing my ass off when various content monkeys started to claim with perfect conviction that Disney was getting rid of the Woke. That was impossible. Not given the board of directors it has and not given Bob Iger’s personal inclinations that he is now too old to successfully hide anymore.

When we snarl about Pedo-Mouse this is exactly the kind of shit we are talking about. It’s not just Princess Poppers greeting the kids at the door. Apparently pixie-dust can now change little boys into little princesses if they have the kind of mother who should have been forcibly sterilized before graduating college. What should be a very special day for a little girl is now the Disney Princess Drag Race. Do you have a perfectly normal little girl? Disney can fix that for you! With the right horrors implanted where cherished memories should have been, she’ll be a fat-shaven-headed bisexual activist before she graduates from grade school! That’s the Disney Magic!!!

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Debt to Infinity and Beyond

I know you’re probably all just as surprised as I am to learn that the House Republicans cucked and caved on the debt ceiling. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are going to stop spending until the financial system collapses and forcibly prevents them.

US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached a “tentative” agreement on raising the country’s debt ceiling.

But it’s worse than you’d think. The ceiling hasn’t been raised so much as eliminated. Because there are no limits to the retarded evil of Clown World.

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