Tag: rhetoric

The New York Times attempts to explain the NPC meme to NPCs:

It’s a long story, but the short version is that a group of young, extremely pro-Trump internet trolls have spent the past several years mocking anti-Trump people as whiny, easily triggered snowflakes who are primarily motivated by social acceptance rather than by logic and critical thinking.

Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters — including, as of last week, Kanye West — put their support for him in the language of freethinking rationality and paint the other side as being motivated by blind loyalty and identity politics. (Mr. West said of his pre-Trump-supporting days, “I was programmed to think from a victimized mentality.”)

The NPC meme fits neatly into this narrative and offers Mr. Trump’s online supporters an easy shorthand way to paint liberals as humorless prudes who say “Drumpf” because the HBO host John Oliver told them to, who march in protests and put on pink “pussyhats” because they’re the popular things to do, and whose views can’t withstand scrutiny.

(And then, when progressives object to a meme that portrays them as unthinking automatons, it becomes another piece of evidence: See? The left can’t take a joke.)

It wouldn’t sting if it wasn’t true. And the Left observably can’t take a joke. That’s why it attempts to deplatform and silence everyone who cracks wise at their expense.

It’s all a bit meta at this point, as what the NYT is really doing here is programming the NPCs to point-and-shriek: “NPC meme racist!”

The proof of the effectiveness of a rhetorical term is in the emotional reaction of the target. And the targets, they are most certainly reacting:

The new “NPC” meme mocks leftists by depicting them as unthinking and reflexive automatons. The meme has upset the left so much that Twitter is now banning people posting it for “dehumanizing speech,” but its humble origins are the computer-controlled characters of limited intelligence found in most video games.

The popular NPC meme trend frames its targets as non-player characters (NPCs) who reflexively spout neo-Marxist axioms in response to real-world events. Actual NPCs are computer-controlled characters in video games with limited scripted responses given the parameters of the games in which they appear. For example, NPCs may assign quests to the player in games like Skyrim, or join the player as a companion in Fallout.

Built on the long-running Wojak meme, the NPC meme mocks leftists as expressionless in appearance and bot-like in behavior. The universal standard appearance illustrates the left’s political homogeneity.

 And, as those who have read SJWs Always Lie know, rhetoric is effective because it points toward the truth. SJWs don’t think for themselves. They change their beliefs as the Social Justice Narrative evolves and when the Narrative is in conflict with objective, material reality, they insist that the Narrative is true. They do as they are instructed, they do as they are programmed, as we saw in the recent self-destructive decisions by Bleeding Cool and Indiegogo.

They are, in a word, Non-Player Characters.

I suspect that the reason the rhetoric is so effective is that it is most utilized in the very technological spaces that are populated by the people who are most familiar with the acronym. One senses the fine hand of GamerGate at work in this. And there is nothing that hurts the feelings of a prideful SJW who firmly believes he is smarter and more thoughtful than most than a contemptuous observation of the fact that he does not even think for himself. It also lends itself very well to visual rhetoric, aka meming.

How do we know it’s effective? Because the Social Justice Thought Police are already attempting to bury it.

Twitter suspended 1,500 accounts that were using the NPC meme as their avatar.

By Ben Shapiro. Code Pink’s National Director shows how easy it is to rattle Ben Shapiro and completely shut him down. The rampant hypocrisy in his contradictory approach towards his nation-state and towards the USA leaves him with an easy weakness that anyone can easily exploit. It’s also clear that both the Left and the Right have increasingly had it with all the Israel First activists in the US media. There is a very hard line between supporting Israel and supporting Israel at the expense of America, and Ben Shapiro is one of many in the US media who is observably on the wrong side of it.

It’s also a good example of how rhetoric trumps dialectic. “Apartheid Israel” is a rhetorical kill shot. Sure, one can make a reasonable dialectical argument that Israel is not an apartheid state according to the technical definition of the series of laws that were collectively known as the historical South African policy of apartheid from 1948 to 1994. But the very effectiveness of the kill shot indicates that whether the charge is technically true or not, the rhetoric tends to point towards the truth of the situation, especially since Israel has the legal equivalent of South Africa’s Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, which was the first apartheid law, as well as a milder religious version of the Population Registration Act of 1950.

For example, the Code Pink woman could have easily pointed out that Israel observably practices religious apartheid, as the Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that even Jews or the descendants of Jews that actively practice any religion other than Judaism are not entitled to immigrate to Israel. The point is that it is relatively easy to expose even the smoothest, most-practiced wormtongues with sufficient mastery of rhetoric and dialectic combined with an awareness of their customary deceits and inconsistencies.

From the transcript of the Darkstream:

Is calling an SJW a social justice terrorist good rhetoric?

No, it’s terrible, it’s absolutely terrible. The whole point of rhetoric is to instigate emotions. SJWs do consider themselves to be brave warriors for social justice, that’s why using SJW in a derogatory sense upsets them. They do not consider themselves to be terrorists, so you might as well call them social justice poopyheads, that’s not effective either. What you guys need to learn is it’s not about what YOU think.

You know I find this incredibly irritating. People are constantly saying “well, I call them social justice crybabies cuz I think they I think they cry and they’re babies.” First of all, no, you don’t call them that, nobody calls them that, you’ve never called them that. Second, it’s not about you, it’s not about what you think, it’s about what they think. That’s why rhetoric is effective. Rhetoric points to the truth, you know,  and they’re not terrorists, terrorists are actually scary and SJWs are not. That’s part of why they’re so successful, you know, because they’re not scary people who are taken seriously.

Yeah, alternatively use what they call you, mockingly, but use it not ironically,  that can also be effective. SJWs aren’t warriors and they don’t fight anything but caffeine and sugar addictions, diabetes, and obesity. That’s true, but they like to think that they are, and so when you’re calling them “warriors” they know that you’re mocking them,  that’s why it’s so effective. What is a good use of rhetoric to use against SJWS? They hate being called SJWs, it drives them crazy, they even try to claim that the Alt-Right invented it! No, the Alt-Right didn’t invent any of that, that’s what they actually call themselves and it was just such a lame, ridiculous term that it became a perjorative, a very effective one.

What would you call them to offend them? I just call them SJWs, that offends them every single time, they hate it. Don’t you understand the most effective rhetoric to use against something is that which upsets them the most? That’s why the whole “Democrats are the real racists” doesn’t work at all, because they don’t regard themselves as being racist, they’re too clueless and hypocritical to make the abstract leap that is required to connect their paternalistic attitude towards minorities with racism and understand that it is actually racist. Again,  you’re delving into the realm of dialectic, as soon as you have to start explaining something you are in the realm of dialectic. If you are applying logic to it you’re in the realm of dialectic. Whatever you use has to inflict emotional pain on them.

To which I later added in the comments:

For the benefit of those of you who are too stupid to understand either my books or Aristotle’s, I will dumb the concept down to the maximum extent possible:

Rhetoric is NOT about YOU. It is not about what you think, it is not about what makes sense to you, it is not about what you think sounds cool, clever, witty, funny, or will “cause heads to explode”. Rhetoric is about what observably causes emotional pain and distress to its target.

If you think calling the Left, which has supported every terrorist movement since the Irgun, the IRA, and the PLO, “terrorists”, is going to cause them any emotional pain at all, then you are even dumber than I already think you are.

Spacebunny sent me this useful and amusing summary of the God-Emperor’s speech, composed by someone on Facebook.

I guess it’s that time again. He always makes these speeches so long. Anyway, here’s a summary of each paragraph of Trump’s 2018 UN speech

1. Listen up, bitches
2. I pretty much already covered all this shit last year, but I guess it bears repeating
3. Check it out, I’ve been on a roll
4. My administration is better than all the other presidential administrations the US has ever had. I’ve made these last two years my bitch
5. Why’s everybody laughing at me?
6. Not to brag or anything but I basically saved the entire economy. Even minorities have jobs now.
7. Taxation is theft and we’re building The Wall
8. You thought our military was fucking hardcore before? Sheeet, wait until you see them now that we’re actually paying them
9. Thanks to me, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
10. America First
11. Globalism is shit
12. Cultures are distinct, so act your culture
13. America likes to declare independence. We’re gonna declare independence from the rest of you globalist sons of bitches
14. Do you, boo
15. Let us do us
16. So I just got back from a world tour and everybody who matters likes me
17. I even got the Norks to chill the fuck out
18. No shit, there I was: Staring Rocket Man in the face
19. It’s alright though, I smoothed it out
20. Dude’s getting rid of his nukes and giving us back our dead bodies we’ve been wanting back
21. Not too shabby, Li’l Kim. (Don’t fuck this up)
22. Everybody who helped out with that is cool in my book. It was pretty much the greatest peace talk ever talked. Just sayin’
23. Shout out to Real Korea, Japan, and China

24. Oh, and I’m fixing the Middle East, too
25. I put most of the countries there to work fucking over Iran and ISIS
26. They’re spending money to help with Syria and Yemen, too. Ya hear that Iran? We can outspend your fucking Obama money
27. But, I don’t really want to get involved
28. Except when I do, so I’ve been delegating to the less fucked-up sand countries
29. I FUCKING KILLED ISIS!
30. Syria’s a damn shitshow. But so help me, if I see one more chemical weapon attack…
31. Glad to see Jordan is taking in refugees from Syria. Better you than me, Abdullah
32. But seriously, it’s a lot better than flying them all the way over here. RIGHT, EUROPE?
33. Iran’s trying to get away with its involvement? YOU THOUGHT!
34. Fuck you, Iran! I know what you’ve been up to, you garbage-ass regime! All you do is ruin everything else for everyone else, you miserable sons of bitches!
35. Seriously, even your own citizens are sick of your shit, Iran! Where’d all that Obama money go, eh Iran? Terrorism? Yeah, I’m sure your people are just THRILLED about that! 0/10 all around, Iran
36. The Iran Deal was shit, and everybody knows it
37. We basically funded their military dictatorship, nuclear weapons programs, and terrorism. Thanks, Obama
38. -But then I came to tooown- and let Iran know who’s boss. DEAL’S OFF, BITCHES!
39. Like, seriously, who the fuck thought letting Iran have nukes was a good idea?
40. Everybody point and laugh at Iran’s government. Their people are cool, though. #IranProtests
41. Jerusalem? More like Jew-rusalem, amirite?
42. Let’s clear some shit up about the Israel conflict, alright? Israel has a right to exist.
43. Fuck what you used to do, we’re being pragmatic, here.
44. You ain’t gonna take advantage of the US anymore, you freeloaders.
45. I’m sick of all this “made in China” crap
46. We buy all their shit and they don’t buy all of our stuff and they do all that skeezy, nerdy, accountant stuff to take advantage of us
47. No more, I say!
48. So I made some great deals with Mexico and Real Korea. Expect yuge discounts on taco bowls and Samsung phones
49. The WTO is a fucking joke.
50. China took all our manufacturing jobs
51. THAT SHIT ENDS NOW, CHINA!
52. Would you like some tariffs with your rice?
53. America First
54. The UN Human Rights Council is a fucking joke, too
55. Y’all wouldn’t listen to Nikki Haley when she told you that
56. So deuces, we out
57. Same with your International Criminal Court. It’s all bullshit
58. You have no power, here, G̶a̶n̶d̶a̶l̶f̶ ICC
59. Everyone should leave the EU. Run your own damn countries
60. America’s killin’ it in the energy industry
61. We have so much energy to sell
62. Those other oil-producing countries will rip you off and that makes me angry
63. Seriously, it’s a scam. They’re like the Comcast of countries. Stop falling for it.
64. Poland is way smarter than Germany
65. Men of the West! Protect yourselves from foreign influence!
66. The Monroe Doctrine is back and better than ever!
67. Now about those Mexican immigrants, they’re being trafficked. Lame
68. It’s all the street gangs and cartels. Getting rid of them, and building The Wall, are the only ways to fix things
69. Your country, your immigration rules. Our country, our immigration rules. Fuck that “global citizen” malarkey
70. Make Your Countries Great Again
71. SOCIALISM. DOESN’T. WORK.
72. Venezuela used to be great, but then along came socialism. Now it sucks.
73. Socialism and Communism have never worked, never will work, and only ever result in tragedy. It’s the Goddamn worst
74. We’re making Venezuela great again by hitting Maduro and his entourage in the pocket books. We were able to identify their pocketbooks because they’re THE ONLY ONES IN THE COUNTRY WHO HAVE THEM
75. The UN tries, we’ll give you that
76. But the US is still better at charity. Seriously, we give and give and nobody ever returns the favor. So we’re gonna be a lot more stingy with our wallets until the entire world stops taking us for a ride
77. So we’re only going to give money to the cool kids. And we’re not going to protect you guys, either. Time for you to buy your own militaries
78. The UN could be cool if it just changed everything about it
79. And we’re only going to pay for the stuff we like, now, too
80. Start pulling your own weight, you damned freeloaders
81. The UN is good in concept, terrible in execution
82. Every country has something to contribute
83. India’s doing great
84. Saudi Arabia’s shaping up
85. Israel’s still here, bitch!
86. Poland’s had enough of your shit, EU
87. All cool things, if I do say so myself
88. Distinct borders and cultures make the world a better place
89. Things just work out better with cultural homogeneity
90. America’s gotta America
91. America, FUCK YEAH!
92. Love your country like Americans love America
93. Patriotism: It’s what’s for dinner
94. Shhhh. Don’t fight it. Just let it happen
95. In order to make it work though, YOU NEED A BORDER AND SOVEREIGNTY
96. You’ll do better, the world will do better. Everybody wins
97. MOTHAFUCKIN’ FREEDOOOOM!!
98. Well, time to hit the ol’ dusty trail
99. You’ve been a great crowd. Thank you

It’s mildly annoying to see conservatives, libertarians, and cuckservatives gleefully pointing out the examples of left-wing anti-semitism that increasingly occur these days. First of all, it’s hardly news that the global Left is historically less than entirely keen on Jews; National Socialists and the Palestinian Liberation Organization were not exactly of the ideological Right that reveres God, King, and Country.

Second, you may recall that Workers Parties tend to oppose bankers. Which identity tends to stereotypically fall into which group?

And third, what is the point of trying to shame the Left? Yes, they’re hypocrites. So what? We know that. They know that. “Dems are the Real Anti-Sems” is not going to be any more effective than “Dems are the Real Racists” did.

As rhetoric goes, it’s toothless. Perhaps these right-wing virtue signalers should simply contemplate the radical idea of not reacting to charges of racism, anti-semitism, ethnonationalism, theocracy, and white supremacy like vampires to crucifixes carved from garlic.

A few days ago, despite my constant refrain of how to deal with the media, I received an email from someone asking if he should talk to the big media organization that wanted to ask him some questions, that wanted to let him give his side of the story. I can’t help but notice that in the entire written history of the mainstream media, no reporter has ever asked anyone to answer questions in order to publicly sacrifice his name and reputation to the reporter’s editor’s preconceived narrative.

My response to him was about what you’d expect: “What part of never talk to the media do you not understand?” There are no exceptions for special clever boys. There are no exceptions for narcissists, drama queens, or attention seekers. There are no exceptions.

However, in retrospect, I think I could have provided him with wiser and more effective counsel, which I shall share with all of you in case you find yourselves in similar circumstances someday. When an interview is requested by a mainstream journalist, or a reporter wants to talk to you in order to get your side of the story, just respond to him – or her – as follows:

“I don’t talk to enemies of the people.”

That’s it. Nothing more and nothing less. Don’t respond to the subsequent denials, protestations, assurances, accusations, and demands.

“I don’t talk to enemies of the people.” Drop the mic and walk away, mission accomplished.

John Scalzi laments that the Evil Legion of Evil has shown people across the Right that there is no information value in rhetoric and that SJWs exist solely for the skull-taking:

It’s really frustrating to me that more people don’t understand that racist/alt-right people have gamified their rhetoric; they’re not interested in discussion, they’re slapping down cards from a “Debate: The Gathering” stack, and the only goal is taking heads.

They gamify their rhetoric because essentially this shit is a low-stake game for them, whereas for other people it’s their actual lives. That’s an advantage they have. If they lose, they shuffle their cards and go on to the next thing. If others lose, their life takes a hit.

And because their rhetorical strategy is essentially card-based, actual knowledge of issues is unimportant and probably a hinderance. They don’t want or need to understand the issues that affect others, they just need you to play their game so they can win.

I don’t have time anymore to diddle about with children who think other people’s lives are some sort of turn-based game, especially when all they want is to hurt other people. And it bothers me more people, especially those with power, don’t understand this shit.

I’m not going to tell people not to engage with these chuckleheads. But don’t engage with them on their terms. Engage with them on your own. One, they hate that, and two, it exposes what they’re doing as a pointless, hateful exercise, and them as awful people.

In sum: Understand what these folks are doing. Refuse to play along. And if you choose, point out to others the hollowness of their game. Because their “game” is to hurt other people, and then go on to the next target. Their game is other people’s lives.

The amusing thing about this is the complete lack of awareness McRapey shows regarding why we have no stakes in their game. We’ve already been disqualified. We’ve already been counted out. We’ve already been expelled. So we don’t give a quantum of a damn for their opinion, their rules, their careers, or their lives any more. We are coming after them, relentlessly, and it costs us absolutely nothing to do so. Indeed, we will profit by it.

We aren’t interested in discussion. We aren’t interested in debate. And we know they aren’t either. They never were. So now we seek only to expose them, to ruin them, and to take their sad little skulls as trophies. Metaphorically, of course. (whistles innocently, kicks a suspiciously round object out of view of the webcam)

It doesn’t matter how they engage with us. It doesn’t matter if they engage with us. We are winning and we are going to continue to win until they are no more. We’re not locked in here with them, they are locked in here with us. And the VFM are hungry.

UPDATE: RIP Whatever:

So, I don’t know if you know this, but next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the existence of Whatever. This is a fact that among other things is causing me both practical and existential reflection on what this place is, and what it means to me, and what is the best way to keep doing it moving forward, particularly in an age where “blogs” are not the center of online gravity that they used to be…. I’m not calling it an official hiatus mostly because I have enough going on that it doesn’t make sense to go away completely, but I also don’t want y’all to worry if you don’t see me posting a lot here between now and September.

WE. ARE. AMUSED. Everyone who remembers the old school blogosphere knows what this post means.

I understand that the elite in Washington thinks Americans are stupid. But how dumb do you have to be to preen and posture about “self-determination” and “spreading democracy” for nearly 100 years, only to turn around and reject the overwhelming results of a free and fair referendum:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Wednesday saying the US “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.”

“The United States calls on Russia to respect the principles to which it has long claimed to adhere and to end its occupation of Crimea,” the statement reads. Pompeo is also expected to state in congressional testimony Wednesday that the United States will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia, a European diplomat briefed by the State Department told CNN.

Pompeo’s declaration comes after President Donald Trump had appeared to cast doubt on his administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s claims over the peninsula. Asked by reporters on Air Force One at the end of June whether the United States would recognize Russia’s claim on Crimea, Trump ambiguously responded: “We’re going to have to see.”

Perhaps it’s just a negotiating point. Perhaps it’s just for show. Regardless, it’s stupid and totally unconvincing. Self-contradictory rhetoric is the worst and least effective kind of rhetoric.

The God-Emperor humiliates CNN on the world stage:

President Donald Trump found time to attack CNN, NBC and the British tabloid The Sun, and offer fashion advice to a fourth news organization, while talking to reporters Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The leaders faced sharp questions at a news conference following their talks, which came between a reportedly contentious meeting of NATO representatives and Trump’s upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Frequent Trump foil Jim Acosta of CNN tried to ask a question at one point and was rebuffed by the president.

“CNN is fake news,” Trump said. “I don’t take questions from CNN.

“Let’s go to a real network,” Trump said, pointing to John Roberts of Fox News Channel. Roberts asked if there was any way that relations with Russia would improve as long as the country occupied Crimea.

Hilarious. I hope he never changes. If you must talk to the media, that’s the way to do so.