Mailvox: Gamma Struggles

An Australian Gamma asks for advice:

Hope you could give some advice for a 19 yr old gamma. I have read “graduating gamma” several times over the last few years and have mitigated most of my gamma behaviors and thoughts. The articles were very helpful.

While I am much less annoying now, I am struggling socially. I was forced to take a gap year (Victoria vax mandates), so all of my school friends are at university while I am not yet. I’m working minimum wage jobs until February when university starts. My self-esteem is poor thanks to this and because I had no-one to take to my senior high school dance last year (the final nail in the coffin for years of delusion about my social abilities).

I am okay at small talk with colleagues, but am fairly socially incapable in large group settings. I was immensely uncomfortable at a recent work Christmas party held at a bar.

I seem to have a resting depressed-looking face. Work colleagues, not infrequently, ask “Are you okay?” for no apparent reason. I am struggling to form new friendships after high school and am fairly black-pilled and reticent thanks to vax-related ostracism I’ve received in the last 2 years. I do not talk about political or social issues except with close friends. I understand that despair is a sin and hope is a virtue, but this is difficult for me.

I lift, but not as often as I used to or should. I pray, but also not as often as I should.

I was reading Panzer Commander recently, and this quote from the brilliant tank commander’s book seems to be relevant. He’s addressing the challenge facing soldiers in wartime, and how they are able to keep themselves from falling into despair when routinely faced with situations far more ghastly than young men face in peacetime.

Every war brings with it, through the shifting of theaters of action, longer or shorter pauses, the “periods between campaigns.” These pauses are of great value, both for the individual soldier and for the community. Everyone tries to mobilize his mental forces and is ready to suppress negative experiences and assimilate even the slightest positive ones.

People encourage each other and strengthen one another in the hope that at some point in time they will be able to escape this constant mortal threat forever.

Probably every soldier finds out in the course of a war that he can only bear the “having to kill” and “being killed” over long periods if he adopts the maxims of the Stoics: learn to endure all things with equanimity. He can only do this if he builds up an immune system of his own against the feelings of fear and sympathy and probably, to a certain degree, even against matters of ethics, morals, and conscience. He cannot afford to question the whys and wherefores of the things that happen around him and in which he, himself, has a part. He must act and apply his whole concentration to that.

Panzer Commander, Col Hans von Luck

The key there, in my opinion, is “to suppress negative experiences and assimilate even the slightest positive ones”.

In my experience, it is not low self-esteem that is the reader’s problem. To the contrary, it is the contradiction between his high self-esteem and objective reality. It’s not the peasant who is depressed, because he knows his place. It is the peasant who imagines he is a secret king forced to endure the life of a peasant who is depressed. But self-esteem is irrelevant. No one cares what anyone thinks about himself. Esteem has to be earned, it cannot be assumed, postured, or cajoled by imposters.

The good news is that there is steel at the core. The reader didn’t submit to the narrative. He didn’t take the vaxx. That means he has it in him to succeed, and what he needs right now are some small victories upon which he can build. So, my prescription is relentless positivity. Focus on making each interaction with you, no matter how small, a positive one.

The reader should NEVER talk about himself. He should always steer the conversation to the other person: “I’m fine, how are YOU doing? What have you been up to?” And then actually listen to what the other person says; since so few people actually listen to anyone else – most people simply wait, impatiently, for their own turn to talk – just being perceived as a listener will elevate the reader over most other people.

There is no answer, but there is a process of transformation. And that process is a slow one that takes shape one interaction at a time. It starts when the Gamma applies two concepts to his behavioral pattern:

  1. Get over yourself. Everything isn’t about you.
  2. LISTEN. Just shut the fuck up and listen! You learn SO much more when you listen than you do when you talk.

As an aside, it might surprise a lot of readers to learn that I’m a reasonably good listener in social situations. Granted, it’s more about intellectual curiosity than any personal interest in the conversations taking place around me, but even my mother didn’t realize I’d been paying any attention to anything that anyone had said until my second novel was published.

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The Least Shocking News Ever

Granted, most people probably haven’t even heard of him, but regardless, there isn’t a single person on the planet who is surprised by the dissolution of Neil Gaiman’s marriage.

Best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman and his singer wife Amanda Palmer have announced they are to divorce after their open marriage broke down.

The couple, married for 11 years, have been outspoken about their unusual set-up in the past, insisting that it works for them.

But in a joint statement published on their individual websites and social media, they said they have now made the ‘difficult decision’ to divorce.

If those two literally crazy godless freaks can’t make it, well, that says absolutely nothing about anyone else’s relationship. And no gamma, no matter how famous or successful, is ever going to retain the attention of a famewhore.

To be honest, I was under the impression they’d divorced years ago.

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Scott Adams Death Watch

The countdown has begun. Scott Adams is giving himself just one more year to live after life punctured his Delusion Bubble:

So here’s what happened to me in the past years.

That matrix-like mask kind of fell off. And I lost my illusion for a while.

So being depressed is not about being in the wrong state of mind, which is the problem.

In my case, being depressed was being in the right state of mind. …

The part that made me depressed is when I saw things clearly.

And I worked since then to rebuild my illusions.

So when you ask me if I’m feeling better or depressed, I’m sort of in the process of rebuilding an illusion that I can live in without pain.

And I’m not quite there yet because I could still see too much ugly.

And I can’t live happily in a world with this much ugly around me.

I don’t mean physically ugly. I mean ugly ideas and thoughts.

And I’m trying as hard as I can to rebuild a protective, imaginary shield of “everything’s fine” when it isn’t. It definitely isn’t.

But you have to build up a little wall of imaginary protection.

So I’m building up a little wall of imaginary protection as efficiently as I can. But it’s hard work.

Then physically, I haven’t figured out how to fix my physical problem.

So, exercise — I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to exercise again.

Let me just give you an idea. It’s possible that I will never have another personal relationship for the rest of my life.

It’s possible that I’ll never exercise again for the rest of my life. Because that’s my current physical situation.

Now, it could be that I can work through those things and everything will be fine. I can do better by next week.

But the length of time it’s been, and the fact that I don’t even have a clue of what’s wrong — and I’m at that that certain age where things will fall apart — suggest that I could be at the end of my life.

And on top of that, [I’m] feeling physically that I’m literally at the end of my life.

But let me also tell you that I have a sort of at least a one-year minimum optimism buffer.

So my one year optimism about it works like this. If it looks impossible, I still give myself a year. That’s like a rule.

So the system —doesn’t matter what the problem is. Doesn’t matter how much it hurts. Doesn’t matter how much I want to stop.

I’ll give myself one year to just fix that thing.

What Scott actually needs is Jesus Christ, hope, and love, in that order. But unfortunately, he’s turning inward, toward himself, again, and relying upon the hope that he can reconstruct his Delusion Bubble in order to protect himself from the unpleasant realities of life.

And this is why it behooves us to help gammas grow out of their gammatude when they are willing to make the attempt, because their lives really are psychological hellscapes.

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Gammas are Never Wrong

Scott Adams illustrates the principle beautifully:

The biggest illusion of 2022 is that if your marriage doesn’t work it is because you picked the wrong person.

It doesn’t matter who you pick. Marriage is a pre-Internet, pre-equality system that no longer fits the modern world.

I don’t have a better idea.

The one thing, the only thing, that Scott Adams knows is that no matter what happens, it’s not his fault. The Gamma lives a life entirely free of self-accountability, which is why he is entirely incapable of learning from his not-mistakes.

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Trust the Grandmaster

Especially when he’s a world champion. The cheating accusations made by the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlson, have been substantially supported by a 72-page investigative report by Chess.com. The entire report can be downloaded here. (PDF)

Hans Niemann, the 19-year-old American grandmaster who last month was accused of cheating by World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen after a shocking upset, was found to have “likely cheated” more than 100 times, according to an investigation by Chess.com, the world’s largest online chess platform.

The investigation, a report from which was seen by the Wall Street Journal, found Niemann likely “received illegal assistance” in more than 100 online chess matches that took place as recently as 2020 when he was 17 years old, allegations that contradict his earlier claims that he only cheated on several occasions as a young teenager.

A letter sent to Niemann by Chess.com’s chief chess officer Danny Rensch last month detailed how Niemann’s suspicious moves tended to coincide with Niemann opening up new screens on his computer, which could indicate that Niemann was using a chess engine, according to the Journal. Niemann “privately confessed” to the allegations–which included cheating in chess games where prize money was awarded–and was banned from the site, according to the Journal.

While the Chess.com investigation largely focused on Niemann’s online games, the report noted that his rise in rankings for in-person chess was “statistically extraordinary” and that specific games may merit further investigation (the sport’s international governing body, FIDE, is conducting a separate investigation).

You can’t hide the math. I was certain that Niemann was cheating the moment that Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura went over some of the statistical analysis being provided by data scientists around the world on his YouTube channel.

One thing that I found interesting about the scandal was the way that Niemann was defended by chess Gammas on Reddit. They were vehemently accusing Carlson of being insecure, a poor loser, and insisting that Niemann couldn’t possibly be guilty of cheating because it was theoretically possible that he was, in fact, the most rapidly improving world-class-level chess player in history.

Which tells us that it isn’t merely jocks and celebs – however minor – that Gammas hate, but elite performance and status as well. It also demonstrates their instinctive inclination toward dishonesty; they would literally prefer for the world chess champion to be a confirmed cheater than be a paragon of legitimate excellence.

UPDATE: This quote from the report is nothing less than astonishing for those of us who can remember the first time Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997:

The best humans play at an Elo rating of 2800. “Stockfish,” the most powerful chess engine, has an estimated rating of more than 3500. In a theoretical match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen vs. Stockfish, we estimate that it is most likely that Magnus Carlsen would lose every single game—no wins and no draws.

While we know his Elo rating is fraudulent, one can’t help but wonder what Niemann’s ELoW rating is.

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The Gammas in the Manger

Yesterday, I posted the following to Gab, to mark a significant milestone there. While SocialGalactic is, and will remain, my primary social media platform, Gab has become an increasingly effective way to reach those who are outside the community.

It’s official. I now have more followers – 34k – on #GAB than I did on Twitter – 33k – when my account was permanently “suspended” there without any reason being given or anything controversial being tweeted. Thanks very much to @a for persevering through tremendous obstacles to provide everyone with this sound alternative platform.

That’s a really big deal, not for me, but for the alternative platform. It serves as proof that for public figures, Gab is now a viable and credible alternative to Twitter. One of the primary challenges of any social media platform is to provide a compelling reason for people to join it, and one of the biggest attractions for users is the ability to follow the regular postings of the public figures they like and admire.

And as with the Wikipedia/Infogalactic situation, it’s very frustrating for those who go to the effort to provide alternatives to the mainstream platforms to observe how a) most public figures simply will not support the alternatives unless they are literally kicked off the mainstream platform, b) the vast majority of people would rather use a free platform that farms their data on behalf of globalists who hate them and want to see them dead than pay a very small amount to use a platform that is in accordance with their faith and society, and c) most people would rather cry about being deprived access to the mainstream platforms than make effective use of the alternatives.

So, this particular milestone is significant for Gab, because it proves that at least for minor public figures, there is no material advantage to being on Twitter any longer. Most people appeared to recognize this, as the post was liked by more than two thousand users, and yet, it still managed to trigger the Gammas of Gab, as the following comments demonstrate.

  • Space Bear: Also notice how he thanks @a but not to his followers. very telling. I am going to assume (rightfully or wrongly) that it is a tel of narcissism.
  • Travis Hancock: And still, I don’t know what/what you are. Don’t care…..
  • Alex Pazzo: wow you are so much better than other people with fewer followers. SIMP
  • BrotherStephen444: Don’t like you, don’t care for you in the slightest, but, real freedom of speech allows you to succeed in you vainglorious attempt to prove to the world that there are some who actually want to listen to you. Good job, and I am sincere about that. I am also sincere when I tell you to crawl back under the rock you came out from under from.
  • m249saw2004: gross. You equate your social media to actual achievement.
  • ForeverLawless: Yet u only follow 43 people back
  • Theycensoredme: You must be a shill…
  • Mythbuster: Who cares about the number of followers? Get rid of your ego
  • Ozymandias, King of King: It seems important to you, but why?
  • Gerald VonGustav: Holy shit, you’re still grifting here? I for sure thought you would be completely irrelevant for everyone by now.
  • SHELLSHOCK_1986: nice followbots gayboy
  • 7SEAL7: Says a person who only follows back less than 50 people. Numbers mean nothing. People should unfollow number Nazis
  • Up A Damn Mountain: Yeah…but everyone knows there aren’t 34k actual human beings that use Gab actively, so is it REALLY that much of an accomplishment?

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Retards Demand Respect

One guess as to where. It started when I posted this meme on Gab.

Naturally, the atheist gamma who’d appointed himself religion police couldn’t keep his retarded mouth shut despite the fact that he clearly knows nothing about any major religion or its teachings.

Many people are also attracted to their religion because they want to live eternally at a desirable location (i.e. heaven) and avoid a permanent death.

You’re literally retarded. Religion merely determines what happens next, it doesn’t “avoid a permanent death”.

And your labeling me “retarded” reveals what kind of religion you practice. By their fruits you shall know them.

No, it merely means that you are observably stupid and ignorant. Your statement was totally incoherent in light of what the major religions actually teach concerning death. Never attempt to “correct” your intellectual superiors, particularly on matters of which you know nothing.

“Being nice” is not the only alternative to being derogatory, which you were in labeling me “retarded”. Other alternatives exist, such as being respectful of the messenger while you critique his message. Try it sometime.

I’m not respectful of retards. There is nothing to respect. You spoke when you should have remained silent. You have nothing to add to the discussion. You merit zero respect.

At which point he ran away, thereby saving us from experiencing any more of his retardery. But notice how he utilizes the automatic gamma tactic of trying to change the subject to his interlocutor’s assumed flaws while attempting to seize the moral high ground.

The correct way to handle any gamma is to refuse to accept his inevitable attempts at reframing the discussion. If he won’t stick to the relevant dialectic, go directly to the burning rhetoric.

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Dude, Take the Damn L

Gammas simply never know when to stop defending themselves and admit that they were wrong, even when it is obvious to everyone. One of the reasons it is wise to develop the ability to admit error is because refusing to take the loss, to learn from it, and then move on tends to inspire people to mock all of one’s subsequent attempts to retroactively reframe the situation and redefine yourself as the winner.

This is the actual Dilbert cartoon. So very funny, is it not? After all, what is more amusing than a butthurt gamma setting up strawmen in order show how smart he is by knocking them down?

The cartoon below is not the original Dilbert cartoon, it is a parody of it. I leave it to you, gentle reader, to decide which one is funnier. And which is The Best Thing That Ever Happened.

DEFINITELY NOT DILBERT: A PARODY

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