Tag: SJW

Marvel is not dissuaded in the slightest by declining sales or a customer base that hates its commitment to SJW convergence:

When asked about the films, new editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski called the movies the face of Marvel, and extended that metaphor to describe the TV shows as the arms, the consumer products as the legs that move the body along, but the comics as the heart, the muscle pumping ideas into the blood to the rest of the body.

He talked up the Marvel Fresh Start initiative as “one big tapestry, one big soap opera. And our job is to keep adding to this tapestry in new and original ways and every now and then we have to come up with new ideas, create new characters, switch up the creative teams and that’s what we’re doing now.”

The show talked about bad PR in 2017, including Senior VP David Gabriel as they put it, blaming sales slump on diverse characters. Leading Cebulski to say,

“We’re 100 percent committed to diversity, Marvel is the world outside your window and we want not only our characters but our creative talent to reflect that world and it hasn’t been an easy road to be honest with you. Going back to the 60s when Marvel were created it was created by a number of white men here in New York City who were working in our studio. But now, we do not have any artists that work in Marvel. All our writers and artists work — are freelancers that live around the world so our talent base has diversified almost more quickly than our character base has.”

Miller also talked to senior executive Sana Amanat, including the creation and publication of Ms Marvel, their first lead female Islamic character. “Ms Marvel number 1 just having that copy and knowing its a part of history. People paid attention because there’s something about the idea of Kamala Khan and it has nothing to do with being Muslim or South Asian or whatever. But something about the idea of representation and having a character like that who is totally unexpected that I think people had been craving for such a long time.”

“I hope to be very much like a lifestyle brand. And also, the other big thing that’s going to happen at Marvel is, I don’t think it’s going to be associated as a boy brand. Marvel has always been inclusive and I think it should be a place that anyone looks at that red logo and they realize, ‘Oh yeah, that’s just a really cool entertainment company.’”

This is the corporate version of being 100 percent committed to cancer. I addressed Marvel’s commitment to diversity in last night’s Darkstream, which also features an early glimpse of some of the art from future Alt★Hero issues.

Keep this incident in mind the next time some moron tries to tell you that Corporate America wouldn’t do something because it would cost them money:

ABC, in a stunning move, has decided to cancel its Roseanne revival following star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet Tuesday.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said Tuesday.

Early Tuesday, star, head writer and exec producer Barr attacked Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, in a since-deleted tweet in which she said “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” Barr subsequently apologized: “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me — my joke was in bad taste.”

Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger also weighed in on the decision to cancel Roseanne: “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing,” he tweeted.

Showrunner Bruce Helford added in a statement of his own: “On behalf of all the writers and producers, we worked incredibly hard to create an amazing show. I was personally horrified and saddened by the comments and in no way do they reflect the values of the people who worked so hard to make this the iconic show that it is.”

Barr’s tweet prompted a massive outcry across social media, with thousands condeming the actress-comedian’s comments and calling on ABC to cancel her series. The Disney-owned network’s decision to cancel the comedy marked the first time the network has taken action in response to one of Barr’s controversial tweets.

Axing the Roseanne revival was no small decision for ABC. The rebooted comedy debuted its nine-episode run midseason and finished as the TV season’s No. 1 scripted series on all of broadcast. Roseanne had been averaging a 5.5 rating among adults 18-49 and 19.3 million viewers with live-plus-3 lifts. With a full week of time-shifting, those numbers climbed to a 6.4 rating in the key demo and 22.1 million viewers. Either way, Roseanne was the highest-rated and most watched series of the broadcast season, eclipsing NBC’s This Is Us and CBS’ Big Bang Theory — which had been in a heated battle for top status.

The SJWs now running Corporate America will throw away tens of millions of dollars in order to virtue-signal against a single tweet. That is the new reality. That is the corporate cancer.

NFL owners agreed Wednesday to a new policy governing player’s behavior during the pre-game national anthem ceremony. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the owners voted to fine teams if their players are on the field or sideline during the national anthem but refuse to stand. Players will be allowed to remain in the locker room if they so choose. “This season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem,” Goodell said in a statement. “Personnel who choose not to stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room until after the anthem has been performed.”

See, conservatives, that’s what actually putting your money where your mouth is can accomplish! Now how about you stop handing over your money to Disney and other Hollywood Values companies?

Arkhaven and Dark Legion are not alone:

Jawbreakers made history with one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever. The industry professionals who worked so hard to create a left-wing echo chamber, however, would not let this stand.

A Harassment Campaign Against Meyer

Once the project funded, Mark Waid opened fire on Meyer again, posting several rambling Facebook messages. “I have a call in to Antarctic Press,” Waid said. “Curious as to how they feel about publishing creators whose marketing strategy is to allegedly (*koff*) encourage their fans to threaten the employees of stores, and/or harass and one-star-review-bomb stores, that don’t offer their product.” There is nothing written on Meyer’s public social media profiles that come anywhere near the accusations Waid made. Waid did, however, encourage the industry to attack Meyer.

“Gee, I can’t imagine why publishers wouldn’t want to affiliate with this audience,” tweeted Gail Simone, a feminist icon in the industry.

“Is that the thing where those twits started bullying female Marvel editors after Flo’s memorial? Yup, that was creepy,” said Neil Gaiman, speaking of #ComicsGate and citing left wing op-eds as his source for his alleged facts.

“The game plan of targeting, attacking, labeling, threatening, and harassing people followed by ‘if you don’t buy MY book I’m going to attack, label, threaten and harass YOU!’ Seems a problematic one,” commented Erik Larsen, founder of Image Comics, who published a book by Michelle Perez, earlier in 2018, mocked Richard Meyer’s prior military service and publicly wished he had been killed in combat.

These creators inspired retailers to make tweets about refusing to carry Jawbreakers. Left-wing activists then became involved, sending a flurry of hatred against Meyer and his team. “Hate speech is not free speech & fascists like [Meyer] have no place in this diverse, inclusive industry,” posted one woman, who claims in her Facebook profile that she works for Planned Parenthood.

Conservative Creators Speak Out

The industry stood firm against conservative creators because they are outspoken against the extreme politics in comics, and as the left is wont to do, mischaracterized them in an effort to delegitimize their product. It worked to some extent, as Antarctic Press was pressured into backing out of publishing their book for comic store distribution.

I’m very pleased that Jawbreakers II got such strong support; it sends a clear message to the industry that the success of Alt★Hero was not a unique one-off and that there is a real market for non-SJW comics. However, I do wish they had decided to bring it to Dark Legion rather than trying to set up yet another new independent publishing company, because after spending the last three years building up a team and distribution channel, I am well aware of how much work is in store for them. For the record, I’m not simply saying this out of self-interest; I told Team Milo the exact same thing when they elected to try setting up their own publishing company on the basis of Simon & Schuster’s success with Dangerous. Even starting with a #1 bestselling hit is no guarantee of short-term survival, let alone lasting success.

But this is one of the ongoing challenges that will be faced by the Right as our options for working with SJW-converged institutions continue to disappear. Everyone who is successful tends to want to do their own thing and maximize their short-term interests, which is why we tend to have so much trouble successfully building strong, stable, alternative institutions. I don’t blame creators who prefer to go their own way, indeed, I freely admit that it is often to their short-term interest to do so right now. But I won’t shed any tears when they eventually discover why institutions are important either.

It is, however, a little frustrating to see one creator after another soar, Icarus-like, sunward on a solo flight, only to crash into the sea before long. Especially when I think about where Castalia might be right now if I had been able to convince some of them that they would have been better off in the long-term by working with us rather than going it alone.

This is almost unbelievable. SJWs are running completely amok.

It just goes to show that they will come for you eventually, no matter how minor your offenses against the Narrative may be.

Larry Correia responds:

So I’m no longer the writer guest of honor at origins. My invitation has been revoked. It was the usual nonsense. Right after I was announced as a guest some people started throwing a temper tantrum about my alleged racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever (of course, with zero proof or actual examples), and the guy in charge (John Ward) immediately folded. He didn’t even talk to me first. He just accepted the slander and gave me the boot in an email that talked about how “inclusive” they are. I actually heard about it on facebook before I even saw the email.

Oh well.

They did this to John Ringo at ConCarolinas a little while ago, and took a lesson from it. This is just another new way for bullies to target people who disagree with them. Throw a fit, make up some accusations, and cry about how you feel unsafe. Now that they know it works, it is just another tool in their tool box.

For the record, I’m not any of the things they accuse me of. Despite writing a whole bunch of books, and a ton of political articles, and all of my many personal interactions with fans (I’ve done up to 15 cons and events in one year), none of these people can ever find any actual examples of me being sexist, racist, or homophobic (and the Guardian looked hard and still came up with nothing).

That’s because in reality, I’m a libertarian who does not give a shit who you are, or what you do, and it is none of my business, as long as you stay off my lawn. ?

This time they kept calling me a “rape apologist”. They dug up that classic that John Scalzi created about me several years ago. It’s total nonsense. I spent many years teaching self defense to women, and I’m all in favor of every rape attempt ending with the rapist receiving a couple hollow points to the chest. But that just goes to show the power of lies, rumor, and narrative.

So years later, complete strangers come out of the woodwork to talk about how evil I am. Yeah… That does get tiresome. It is wearying.

I’m really sorry for any fans who were planning on seeing me at Origins. Hopefully I’ll get to meet you at some other event.

For me personally, meh. I go to enough events. I’ll just do something else fun that weekend.

The saddest person in all of this is my son, who was my plus one. He was looking forward to playing a bunch of games, and then we were going to go to the zoo on Sunday. (they have manatees there!).

One gets the impression that Larry is simply too worn out with the Culture War to feel like fighting the SJWs anymore. And, let’s face it, like John Ringo, he is too independently successful for their antics to do him any real harm. For now, anyhow.

A Marvel insider reports that Mark Waid has gone off the deep end again:

I work at Marvel; some information for you guys

Waid was ordered to delete fucking everything social media-wise by Cebulski. Cebulski got some VERY angry emails from Antarctica Press. Lawsuit threatening letters in terms of Waid explicitly using Marvel’s name when he threatened them to dropping “Jawbreakers”. Along with threats of physical violence being committed against people at Antartica Press, if they did not do what Waid ordered.

Cebulski called Waid and basically demanded he kill all of his social media profiles and basically go off the grid. Basically, he’s in an internet time out which he has zero choice but to honor, lest he get blackballed from ever working at Marvel again.

As it stands, Waid’s career at Marvel is pretty much dead now. Not even Waid’s chief protector (Brevoort) can save him, since Cebulski is beyond the pale angry. Cebulski gave Waid one final chance when he took over. Don’t expect Waid to be writing any more comics from Marvel at least as long as Cebulski is in charge.

It did seem bizarre that Avalanche dropped Jawbreakers when they had already published Magademia and Barack Panther. But this simply goes to show that even the most SJW-converged company will eventually find itself having to eject its most extreme SJWs or risk imploding.

Of course, the fact that Marvel didn’t simply fire Waid for this behavior illustrates that its management is still in denial and is afraid to address the fact that it has the corporate version of cancer.

So, Wolverine is a woman. The President of the United States is a woman. And a superhero. And a Muslim. It just keeps getting better… check out who is the President in the ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #33. Needless to say, the Comics-SJWs just love it.

As to what we’re doing to take advantage of this nonsense, I’m pleased to be able to say that the first TWO issues of Alt★Hero are now illustrated, the first issue is colored, and we are rapidly approaching the print layout stage. So, here’s the question: do we maximize the potential audience by using the smaller format and selling the single issues for $2.99 or do we go out with the larger format at $3.99?

If you’re an Alt★Hero backer or if you’re intending to buy the single issues, please share your opinion. I go back and forth on this one. Keep in mind that the graphic novels will be in the larger format regardless. And backers will receive the digital editions for free, of course.

We will have another print release on Monday. Possibly two, as a matter of fact.

China unveils the next step in Big Social:

China said it will begin applying its so-called social credit system to flights and trains and stop people who have committed misdeeds from taking such transport for up to a year.

People who would be put on the restricted lists included those found to have committed acts like spreading false information about terrorism and causing trouble on flights, as well as those who used expired tickets or smoked on trains, according to two statements issued on the National Development and Reform Commission’s website on Friday.

Those found to have committed financial wrongdoings, such as employers who failed to pay social insurance or people who have failed to pay fines, would also face these restrictions, said the statements which were dated 2 March.

The move is in line with President’s Xi Jinping’s plan to construct a social credit system based on the principle of “once untrustworthy, always restricted,” said one of the notices which was signed by eight ministries, including the country’s aviation regulator and the Supreme People’s Court.

China has flagged plans to roll out a system that will allow government bodies to share information on its citizens’ trustworthiness and issue penalties based on a so-called social credit score.

This is a brilliant application of what Big Social is doing, only instead of allowing the hand-picked SJWs of the Twitter Trust and Safety Council or the Facebook-endorsed SPLC to do the restricting, the Chinese government will do it. And why not? The basic principle has been established and broadly accepted, from Twitter to the Her Majesty’s Government. As Q said, “why are trips allowed?”

Imagine if the God-Emperor and his Grand Inquisitor were to launch a similar program in the United States. After all, who has proven themselves more untrustworthy than Facebook? How could the SJWs legitimately complain if Mark Zuckerberg and his executives found themselves placed under permanent restriction? This principle of “once untrustworthy, always restricted” is merely an adaptation of Facebook’s own approach to banning thoughtcrime and legally controlling the public discourse, and it represents a welcome return to pre-Enlightenment philosophy on the part of a people who were always rightly dubious about it being genuine. There can be no “freedom of speech” in any non-Western, non-Christian, non-American society, because the concept doesn’t even make sense in any other context.

If you wanted to keep what passed for free speech in America, then you shouldn’t have permitted entry to Catholics and Jews, followed by wave after wave of various peoples whose beliefs and cultural traditions are entirely antithetical to the concept. And given those waves of immigration, you can’t be surprised that it’s no longer even possible to publicly state that a man is not a woman without negative legal and social and employment and financial consequences.

The devil, of course, is in the definitions. But the devil is out. Let’s not shed too many tears for the SJWs once they discover the difference between “influence” and “power”, for as another Chinese leader once said, “power comes from the barrel of a gun”.  It does not come from control of a momentarily popular software application.

The Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance is alarmed over a recent mass deletion of Amazon book reviews:

Amazon frightened many conservative authors this week in a mass deletion of reviews. Some authors lost almost 100 reviews on their published works. Others lost all the reviews they had ever written on Amazon. Some lost both. Information about the purge began to trickle out in the closed Conservative Libertarian Fiction Alliance (CLFA) Facebook group. Member after member began reporting the losses at the same time. Marina Fontaine, whose credits include the dystopian Chasing Freedom, the pro-Trump fiction anthology MAGA 2020, and moderating the CLFA page reported many members experiencing losses. A coordinated effort was launched to contact Amazon for explanation. Jon Del Arroz, a science fiction author who was banned from Worldcon earlier this year, contacted Amazon directly asking for his reviews to be reinstated. Amazon responded:

At this time, we’ve reviewed your feedback and ensured that appropriate action is taken.  There may be times that reviews must be removed from the site.  Unfortunately, we won’t be able to discuss the specifics about why the reviews were removed as we’ll only be able to discuss that with the individuals who posted the reviews.  They’re welcome to contact us if they’d like additional information.

Del Arroz’s reviews were reinstated but the corporate response is less than satisfying to conservatives who know their freedom of speech is under constant attack from SJWs in a big tech industry that rules the socials and platforms writers need to connect with their audience.

Of course, the mere fact that there is a closed alliance of authors with personal relationships who pay very close attention to reviews may explain at least a reasonable percentage of these deletions, given the terms of service. I checked out my reviews and it looks like ten or fewer reviews were deleted across all my various book listings. Not only that, but several of the reviews were one-star fake reviews, so two of my average ratings actually increased. This made me suspect that the deleted reviews were likely in open violation of Amazon’s terms of service, which Amanda Green’s investigation appears to have generally confirmed.

Checking reviews is part of my monthly “business” I take care of along with paying bills, etc. That’s why seeing so many folks up in arms on Facebook and elsewhere about it brought me up short. It also had me thinking about who the people were, what their relationships with one another might be and then it sent me scurrying to the Amazon TOS for authors and for reviews.

In this case, all my questions were answered in the “Customer Reviews Guidelines Frequently Asked Questions from Authors“. If you haven’t read these FAQs recently, I recommend you do so. Amazon makes it clear what their rules are. Below are a few of the most important ones.

2. Are authors allowed to review other authors’ books?
Yes. Authors are welcome to submit Customer Reviews, unless the reviewing author has a personal relationship with the author of the book being reviewed, or was involved in the book’s creation process (i.e. as a co-author, editor, illustrator, etc.). If so, that author isn’t eligible to write a Customer Review for that book. 

3. Can I ask my family to write a Customer Review for my book?
We don’t allow individuals who share a household with the author or close friends to write Customer Reviews for that author’s book. Customer Reviews provide unbiased product feedback from fellow shoppers and aren’t to be used as a promotional tool.

However, the fact that Jon Del Arroz’s reviews were restored upon review by an Amazon manager, as were some of the reviews of Declan Finn’s books, indicates that there was probably more going on than just legitimate TOS policing. My guess is that a rogue Amazon employee took it upon himself to take advantage of the opening being given to him by TOS-violating reviewers, but got carried away and ended up deleting a number of reviews that were not in violation of the terms of service as well.

This leads me to two conclusions. First, reviews are considered very important by SJWs. Therefore, culture warriors should be diligent about posting Amazon reviews of books that they read. Even if it’s only a short, one-paragraph review that only takes a minute to post, it will help build up the total number of reviews as well as bolster the book’s average rating against fake reviews meant to lower it.

Second, when you are dealing with an SJW-amenable authority, or even just an authority that happens to employ an SJW, you must keep your nose clean. Don’t push the envelope with regards to the posted rules and regulations. Don’t give them an excuse to crack down, because when they do, they may not stop with your infractions, but cross the line themselves.

A short-term perspective is why corporations believe they are free to take political action against the beliefs, interests, and values of their customers.

Within hours of announcing its decision to end a credit card relationship with the National Rifle Association, the First National Bank of Omaha found itself thrust into the center of the resurgent national gun debate.

Its Twitter and Facebook pages were flooded with comments. Some customers applauded the 160-year-old bank’s decision. Others said they would take their business elsewhere.

In the aftermath of the deadly school shooting in Florida last week, businesses were making the same financial and moral calculus, quickly discovering that there is no neutral ground. As pressure mounted across various social media platforms on Friday, a number of corporations, including several car-rental companies, MetLife insurance, Symantec security software and the car pricing and information site TrueCar, abruptly announced plans to cut ties with the organization.

The actions continued on Saturday. Delta and United Airlines both issued statements saying they were ending discount programs with the N.R.A. and would ask the association to remove their information from its website.

Over the last couple of years, social media has become the preferred vehicle for the rise of consumer activism, turning the everyday purchase of dresses or shoes or, now, renting a car or buying insurance, into a form of protest or demonstration of ideology.

Marketing experts say it’s difficult to determine whether calls for boycotts can truly have an impact on a company’s business. Rather, they say, once-angry customers either forget or move on to the next event or debate.

“Memories fade. The intensity of the feelings that people have on this subject right now will feel different one month or five months from now,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of operations, information and decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

This is why it is a tremendous mistake to make unprincipled exceptions because you really like Disney movies or find a cheaper flight on Delta or have a hankering for Kentucky Fried Chicken. That is precisely the mindset that converged corporations are counting on you to have in order to permit them to continue converging the wider society and culture.

Those of you who went and saw Black Panther or The Last Jedi in the theater helped make it successful, even if you made snarky critical remarks about it later. By doing so, you increased the ability of Disney and Marvel to continue making more movies like that. By supporting the convergence, you ensure that there will be more of it.

Actions have consequences. Don’t support those who are trying to destroy your culture, your faith, and your nation.