Tag: SJW

From the inside of an SJW-converged corporation:

A former senior Facebook engineer who wrote a memo earlier this year decrying the social media giant’s “political monoculture” told Fox News on Tuesday night that the company has a “vocal minority” intent on implementing “social justice policies across our mission.”

Brian Amerige, whose last day at Facebook was Friday, told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that “you can’t have conversations about … anything that’s a tenet of the social justice ideology, effectively, without being attacked personally.” He added that the company’s recent policy cracking down on so-called hate speech was a particularly sensitive topic.

“You can’t even have conversations about that policy inside the company without having your character attacked — and I’ve experienced this personally — without being called a sexist or a racist or a transphobe or an Islamophobe,” said Amerige.

Amerige drew national attention in August when he penned an internal memo, “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity.” The memo, which was later leaked to The New York Times, stated that Facebook employees “claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”

On Tuesday, Amerige said that Facebook executives had taken his concerns seriously and had worked with him to improve the hate speech policy. However, he said rank-and-file, left-leaning employees did not share his concerns.

“The real concerning thing that’s happening here is that even though this is a minority of employees in the company, unfortunately, I’m not sure that Facebook leadership knows how to push back against them,” Amerige said. “They’re unbelievably belligerent, demanding and hostile not just toward other employees, but toward Facebook leadership directly.”

On a much smaller scale, this is exactly what happened to Bleeding Cool after they ran the interview with me. It’s what happened to Google with regards to the James Damore incident and the subsequent aftermath. If a corporation’s executives do not systematically weed out their SJW infestation, the SJWs will eventually transform their influence into effective control of the corporation, even when they don’t hold the executive positions themselves.

And once SJWs metastasize inside a corporation and they take over HR or the corporate board, the corporation is doomed.

As in “tortious interference”? It looks like the Legal Legion of Evil has at least one additional party to investigate.

What am I butt hurt about, exactly? I got Vox Day’s IGG campaign cancelled, and now is worried its going to blow back on him. You’re welcome.
– Jason Yungbluth, Twitter, 6:44 PM, 12 Oct 2018

1. The existence of a contractual relationship or beneficial business relationship between two parties.
2. Knowledge of that relationship by a third party.
3. Intent of the third party to induce a party to the relationship to breach the relationship.
4. Lack of any privilege on the part of the third party to induce such a breach.
5. The contractual relationship is breached.
6. Damage to the party against whom the breach occurs.

First James Gunn, now Chuck Wendig.

Chuck Wendig@ChuckWendig
So, here’s a thing that has happened – I just got fired from Marvel. Taken off issues 4 and 5 of SHADOW OF VADER, and taken off an as-yet-unannounced SW book.

Chuck Wendig@ChuckWendig
Today I got the call. I’m fired. Because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring. Seriously, that’s what Mark, the editor said. It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.

 It’s a little soon to call it a trend, especially since Kathleen Kennedy had her contract extended, but it is a pair of very small steps forward for the Evil Empire.

No worries, Chuck. I’m sure DC will find something for you to ruin.

Just a few of the reactions to IndieGoGo’s self-destructive decision to retroactively cancel AH:Q and refusal to make payments it was obligated to make:

Chuck Dixon, the creator of Bane, and an all around comic book legend saw his Alt-Hero: Q crowdfunding campaign shutdown by IndieGoGo on Thursday without any kind of explanation.

We reached out to Dixon to get his thoughts on the matter and one thing is clear. He’s determined. Dixon already has the entire first issue scripted and a good chunk of the second issue. The series is expected to be six issues long with each issue being 24 pages. The entire story will eventually get collected into a graphic novel.

Dixon told us, “I’ll do my work on this project if I have to write it for free.”

He believes the campaign was shut down due to “politics.” And he doesn’t think this will be the last time independent creators who have differing politics will be targeted. We asked him if he believes further moves will be made against creators because of their politics. Dixon responded, “Absolutely. The left will weaponize anything to shut down free speech.”

Dixon did tell us that he will keep using IndieGoGo for other projects he is working on.

“Well, I’m used to being blacklisted. And I suppose IGG can do more. But we received funds on my other projects so they will continue on.”

However, he did note that IndieGoGo denied the funds for Alt-Hero: Q. But once again he showed his determination to get this project completed.

“Qanon will have to be completed by other means as the funds we raised have been denied us. But it WILL be completed. This is a speed bump.”

From one typical backer:

I’ll quadruple the amount I pledged for AltHero Q to 300. The 300 I gave you last time has done more than all the money I’ve given to charity.  

From another:

I will triple my backing from $40 to $120.

And a third:

Having Alt-Hero-Q on IndieGogo had a knock-on effect, I subscribed to several other campaigns. All of which I’m canceling. 

If you’re canceling support for any other campaigns on IndieGoGo, be sure to tell them why. As I mentioned previously, we expect to get version 2.0 of the AH:Q campaign up in about two weeks. As always, we’re focused on doing it right rather than doing it fast, so rest assured that work has been proceeding on the first issue regardless of when we relaunch the campaign and how we do it. As The Legend has already declared, those involved will do it for nothing if necessary.

UPDATE: We’re looking into various legal options and assessing our optimal strategy. To maximize those options, if you’re a backer, please email Indiegogo at support@indiegogo.com and opt out of their arbitration process by sending an email from your registered email address on Indiegogo let them know that you are opting out of the arbitration and class action waiver provisions by contacting them with the subject line, “ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER OPT-OUT”.

Ignore their self-declared 30-day time limit on it. That’s probably not applicable in this particular situation given the fact that their action took place retroactively several weeks after the campaign ended.

UPDATE: CC’d from a backer:

ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAVER OPT-OUT
This is to notify Indiegogo that I am opting out of your arbitration and class action waiver process, in light of your retroactive cancellation of the Alt-Hero:Q fundraiser.  As a backer of that campaign, I intend to support whatever legal action the project chooses to pursue.

This retraction and apology is more than a little amusing, in light of Mark Siefert’s well-intentioned attempt to understand the other side and play peacemaker. But as I had originally warned him, SJWs cannot understand anything and one cannot reason with them. Delenda est.

An Apology Concerning Vox Day: We Made a Mistake
Posted by Kaitlyn Booth October 11, 2018

We at Bleeding Cool wish to issue an apology.

Bleeding Cool does not support bigotry of any kind, nor will we become a bullhorn for the bigots of the world to go off.

Today one of our writers made an error in judgement resulting in giving exposure to viewpoints that we abhor. We will do better, going forward, and that is a promise. The author admits that this was an extreme error of judgement that never should have been made and that other members of the Bleeding Cool writing staff were unaware of the contents of this article.

In a first step towards that end we are announcing, effective immediately, I am stepping into the role of Editor-in-Chief and will be implementing new review policies across the Bleeding Cool teams. Yesterday an extensive interview was run with publisher, author, and political figure Vox Day.

The intention of the interview was to investigate Day’s political and ideological views, and his operations as a publisher. But these intentions do not matter. The intent of the article and interview were poorly executed, and poorly communicated.

While the intentions of the author might have been one thing, the reality of the situation is another. Bleeding Cool would like to issue a sincere apology to everyone for the article in question.

We do not, in any way, agree with the ideology of Vox Day. We do not support divisiveness in the fan community, or in our culture at large. We do not support those that try to bring down others. We support diversity in all aspects of pop culture. We support everyone fighting the good fight against bigotry and only wish we could play a part in making not only the internet but the world a safer place for all individuals. We cannot apologize enough for the people we have offended. We cannot apologize enough for the breach of trust this has had with our readers and people within the community. We hope you’ll be willing to give us a chance to win back that trust in some capacity.

We will do better.

Read the original article here. Meanwhile, John Trent of Bounding Into Comics is celebrating his new monopoly on all the independent comics news.

Your transaction has been refunded
Your transaction to ALT-HERO:Q on Indiegogo has been refunded!
Indiegogo’s Trust and Safety Team determined this campaign didn’t comply with our Terms of Use. You’ll no longer receive any perks associated with this transaction. Please visit our help center for further information on how Indiegogo protects users.

Needless to say, we’re looking into this. We’ve got everyone’s email addresses and so forth, so if we have to set up our own crowdfunding platform, we will do so. However, in light of the fact that Indiegogo has done this retroactively, we are already looking into the legal aspects of their actions. I am not yet aware of any reason, in fact, I do not even know if the scheduled payment for the campaign was delivered on schedule or not two weeks ago. I assume not, but I won’t be able to confirm that until tomorrow.

I’ve already talked to The Perfect Aryan Male, the architect of our lawsuit against GT Interactive. Suffice it to say that the band is back together!

If you’re Legal Legion of Doom and licensed in California, get in touch and join the team.

UPDATE: This lawsuit should prove educational. At first glance, it looks very similar. It’s very interesting that it was filed in Massachusetts.

Bounding Into Comics covers the mysterious case of four titles being blocked at Amazon last month:

Amazon recently took down Dark Legion Comics and Will Caligan’s Gun Ghoul issues. All four issues were blocked from Amazon’s store and unavailable to customers for a little over week. This block specifically applied to digital editions of the books. Print editions were not affected.

Amazon claimed the books might have had a possible copyright infringement. However, upon further review they discovered there was no copyright infringement and the books were once again available to be purchased.

This isn’t the first time that one of Vox Day’s publishing companies has had their books removed from Amazon. Vox Day tells us that Johan Kalsi’s Corrosion was unpublished multiple times when it was released in 2017. At the same time Gun Ghoul was taken down, Amazon also removed Corrosion from their store citing misleading information. However, that book has also been restored and is now available on Amazon.

If you’re targeted by SJWs, you have to expect there will inevitably be shenanigans. Don’t freak out, don’t worry, don’t be surprised, and don’t lose your temper. Often, upon investigation, the SJW will turn out to have crossed a line and even the most SJW-amenable authority will force them to retreat.

SyFyWire isn’t quite sure what ComicsGate is, when it started, or why it started, but they know a) it is Very Bad, and b) Ethan van Sciver and Richard Meyer are ComicsGateNaziHater He-Men Women Harassers.

In the current climate of internet discourse, the latest story of online harassment is always just around the corner. That’s especially true in the comic book industry. If you’ve been following most comic creators during the end of August, then you’ve likely seen the latest developments in the ongoing saga of what’s become known as “Comicsgate.”

Comicsgate, for those not in the know, is the name of a group of comics readers who believe their beloved medium has been corrupted by political correctness. It is their stated belief that Social Justice Warriors (SJWs, or people with vested interest in women, POC, and members of the LGBTQ community) have infiltrated the comics industry and are simultaneously profiting off of it and destroying it from the inside. In order to combat this invasion, they have taken to their keyboards to harass, dox, and threaten any creator they believe to be a part of the problem.

The actual timeline of Comicsgate — tracking down where and when it started, who exactly started it, and what the inciting incident may have been — is complicated, to say the least. It may have begun as many as three or four years ago, coinciding with the rise of its mutated brethren Gamergate and the Sad Puppy take over of the Hugos. It may instead have begun when Chelsea Cain completed her run on Marvel’s Mockingbird, or when Heather Antos, formerly an editor at Marvel, posted a photo of herself and other staffers enjoying an evening of milkshakes. We did our best to track the start of this so-called “movement” earlier this year, but wherever you believe it started, Comicsgate has now entered a new chapter. Much to the chagrin of those involved, many of their heroes are now denouncing them altogether.

In the final week of August, countless comics pros began posting a copied and pasted message to their social media accounts. The message was one of solidarity with marginalized creators who had been experiencing extended harassment, many for more than a year. The message read, “I believe comics are for everyone. There is no excuse for harassment. There is no place for homophobia, transphobia, racism or misogyny in comics criticism.”

Whatever. The Evil Legion of Evil is not ComicsGate, we’re not on Twitter or Facebook, and all this back-and-forth online harassment is simply Not Our Problem. We have more important things to do. For one, publishing three of the top 50 bestselling superhero comics and graphic novels. That’s not Kindle either, that’s everything. It’s fascinating to see that some of the print editions are actually outselling the Kindle editions on Amazon, particularly when we know how well they are doing on Arkhaven Direct.

For two, we’re now entering the final stretch of the Alt-Hero: Q campaign. Trust the Plan. Join the Win. Get on Board. Crush the SJWs. If you’re still on the fence about this one, today is the time to jump. There are just 17 hours left.

ComicsGate is making the same mistake as the Sad Puppies and trying to make nice with the SJWs who hate them. But cowering, cringing, and smiling hopefully in an attempt to convey your harmlessness is not going to stop an SJW media swarming any more than wagging its tail will permit a puppy to fend off an attack by a school of ravenous flying piranha.

UPDATE: A rare Brightstream addressing the closing hours of the campaign. Also, I’ll be on with Alex Jones at 1 PM Central.

The thing that you have to understand here is that this can happen to anyone. SJWs will abuse their positions if given the opportunity. Once you become a target, for whatever reason, however harmless you are, however harmless you believe yourself to be, however moderate you believe yourself to be, they will attempt to monkeywrench. It’s guaranteed, and again, it’s not just people like me, you know, actually, someone like me doesn’t get attacked that much because the SJWs know perfectly well that I’m not going to give in to them. I will actually go to the trouble of doing the exact opposite simply because I’m not willing to let myself be manipulated by them, but if you look at what’s happening with the Linux kernel….

Now, we all thought that the Linux kernel was unassailable because Linus Torvalds had established such a ruthless meritocracy, with no respect for feelings whatsoever. Now, suddenly, what we’re seeing is that thanks to the cancer known as Coraline, SJWs have managed to successfully oust Linus and they’ve managed to establish a code of conduct that they’ve already weaponized. They’re already using it to go after non-SJWs and try to eject them from positions of influence within the project, and so, you know, you have to understand that this is not a figment of my imagination!

I wrote about this back in 2015. Nothing has changed. I even specifically warned about this in SJWs Always Double Down, I specifically warned of the danger of codes of conduct and about this Coraline creature. Specifically! And now we’re seeing Linux, of all things, being converged, and you see people like Roosh whose books have been under attack, and the thing is that virtue-signaling and trying to get back in their good graces like we’re seeing some of the ComicsGate people do is not going to work. It’s not going to work because it’s not about you, it’s about them! They need to be oppositional. You know, once they have you as a target, you are of use to them, and if you are a target who is willing to virtue signal, what you’re doing is you’re painting a target on your chest. You’re not signaling virtue to them to them you’re signaling weakness and they’re going to keep pushing at it and they’re going to keep coming after it.

In the Darkstream, we also discussed the optimal timing of the next major Arkhaven campaign, which will be for a new series totally unrelated to Alt-Hero or any of our existing comics. This comment by a strong ComicsGate supporter was informative.

The indigogo fatigue is real, I started feeling it a few weeks ago. I’ve backed 19 of the indigogo comics so far though so perhaps that has something to do with it. I remember watching Mike S Millers stream some months ago where he interviewed a friend/colleague who recommended against launching close to: tax time and both before and after christmas. Like you said Vox, most people want their gifts in time for xmas and probably would be broke afterwards due to paying off credit cards. I live in Australia so I am unware of tax time for Americans and Euros. I’d say Feb-Nov would be a safe bet for indigogo campaigns, taking into account regional tax periods. 

Quarterly campaigns (4 times a year) also seem like a safe bet. Though apparently launching a fresh campaign while leaving another uncompleted or unfulfilled is a big crowd-funding “no no”. Several Comicsgaters chided Diversity and Comics for launching Iron Sights whilst leaving Jawbreakers unfulfilled. However this may not apply to you as you have a history of fulfilling campaigns and Arkhaven has already a reputation for providing its products.

Share your thoughts, especially if you’re an Alt-Hero backer. We’re well aware of the fatigue aspect; it hasn’t escaped our attention that AH:Q has about half the number of backers that the original AH did. Keep in mind that for us a) these campaigns are as much to test the strength of the demand as to raise the resources required, and, b) we have different art teams on the different series, so there is no impact whatsoever on the speed with which the current projects are being completed.

That being said, I’m leaning towards mid-January at the soonest. I just don’t see how it would be a good idea to do anything before then and we’d like to see Alt★Hero: Q finish strong. Plus, waiting will give us more time to put together some truly killer campaign resources.

Marvel is doubling down more often than a reckless backgammon player.

Marvel Comics announced a brand new Miles Morales series will debut in December from writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Javier Garrón…. Writer Saladin Ahmed elaborates that Miles be “facing threats against the neighborhood rather than the multiverse.” He continues, “Super Villains, yes, but also other threats that speak to our times. He’ll be doing that while also trying to while dealing with bullies, assistant principals, and canceled teen dates. It’s going to be hard!”

“Threats against the neighborhood” = Donald Trump’s unconscionable assault on DREAMers.

“Bullies” = racist neo-Nazis

Assistant principals” = white supremacists

Canceled teen dates = neo-Nazi white supremacist girls named Becky Johnson who are too blonde and racist to go on a date with a teen Hispanic hero.

Sure, barely anyone is going to buy another failed comic series written by a failed SF-SJW. But don’t worry, Marvel will ship it to your local comic store and count it as a sale anyhow.

Like Iceman’s power set itself,  I’ve received double over ships on the new Iceman. Apparently nearly everyone did. I’m not sure if this is an attempt to spike the unit number but I think this is a failing publisher strategy, particularly for a limited series.

The marketing goal here is to give more capacity to retailers so that they hook new readers who were otherwise going to give the title a pass. Traditionally speaking I haven’t seen this ever work in my shop, but other shops have reported some success with it.

In the future, kin mind that when we talk about our sales, we are talking about actual sales to actual customers. The numbers reported by Diamond and Comichron are merely distribution sales into retail, which historically average about a 60 percent sell-through… and that percentage is declining.

So, our 10,000 units sold is the rough equivalent of 16,667 in the Marvel world.