Castalia Library on Substack

In the aftermath of the extremely successful launch of the Sigma Game substack, I brought up the idea of a substack devoted to Castalia Library with the idea that it might help those who somehow miss out on a) blog posts, b) the monthly emails, c) Gab and SocialGalactic announcements, and d) LibraryThing posts keep tabs on the current state of things with the various Castalia Library books, including Library, Libraria, History, the Junior Classics, and the various one-off editions.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, and since Castalia Library is nothing if not responsive to its subscribers, I duly set up a Castalia Library substack. Those who sign up for a free subscription will be kept up to date on the latest production schedules with regular emails, and it should even be possible to allow new subscribers to sign up through the paid subscription option at some point.

It should be noted that this substack is absolutely not a substitute for anything else or any other platform. Rather, it is an attempt to cast a wider net, as the primary challenge facing Castalia Library at the moment is that the vast majority of book collectors, and therefore, the vast majority of its potential subscribers and customers, have never heard of it. So even if you’re on the mailing lists and receiving the monthly emails, it’s probably not a bad idea to widen your net before you get caught in a bounce and your email is scrubbed by the mail service.

And speaking of the Sigma Game substack, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention today’s post on my thoughts concerning a female SSH and the various attempts to construct it. No offense intended to the various men and women who have thus far attempted to formulate one, but the fact is that most of those who do appear to be more interested in relating various anecdotes about their personal experiences than in an objective analysis of the complexities of female social interaction.

Not that it’s my concern or my interest, but I would point out that anyone who fails to take into account either the fat factor or the sexual availability and experience factor in what purports to be a “socio-sexual” hierarchy can’t reasonably be considered to be serious about the task. And due to the female discomfort in honestly addressing both of those issues, to say nothing of the male ignorance, and inability to grasp the details, of female competition, I find it difficult to believe that anyone will succeed in describing a functional female SSH any time soon.

DISCUSS ON SG


The Science of Female Competition

I wasn’t planning to post more than once a week on Sigma Game, but given the high level of interest demonstrated combined with my Cernovichian philosophy which dictates reinforcing success and starving failure, I’ve had to rethink my plans. So, today Sigma Game reviews an old Alpha Game post from 2011 in light of two recently published scientific studies about female competition. It’s fascinating to note the way in which both logic and science line up perfectly with observed female experience.

Due to an inept stylist over-processing part of my hair, it was breaking on one side and not the other, I had to continually cut it to even it out. It was shorter than I’ve ever been comfortable with. Now that it’s growing again I hear from women “oh, I just loved your hair shorter.” I don’t believe it. They also try to convince me to go back to my natural color (dark “dirty dishwater” blonde) instead of the color my husband prefers (platinum). Again, a suggestion I think is insincere and catty. Of course not all men prefer blondes but mine does, and women should not be taken seriously when suggesting hair styles to each other, unless they are trying to prevent the Good Idea Fairy from convincing them to “chop” their hair.

The conclusions of the two studies are highly amusing in light of the vociferous protests that greeted the historical post in defense of a woman’s right to chop her hair off, for any reason, without being forced to endure the painful knowledge that most men will find her less attractive. But I suppose that we have already been reliably informed that science is intrinsically misogynistic due to its inherent failure to prioritize feelings over empirical data.

DISCUSS ON SG


Post-Boomer Post-Feminism

Divorce rates have been in decline since 1986 and have returned to pre-feminism levels:

Divorce rates have plummeted to their lowest level in more than five decades – thanks to men being more ‘committed’ to their marriages, a study claims. The chance of a marriage breaking down is now 35 per cent, down from a high of 44 per cent in 1986, and a rate not seen since 1970.

Researchers found the decline is almost entirely down to a fall in the number of wives filing for separation. They argue that this is because men’s increased commitment means women are far happier in their marriages. By contrast, the number of divorces initiated by husbands has barely changed in decades.

Granted, the researchers are being ridiculous in their customary attempt to avoid all female responsibility and culpability. It’s literally not the male behavior that has changed, nor has the female behavior changed due to any changes in male behavior. This increase in marital success is due to a) Boomers aging out and b) younger women having seen the results of feminism.

It’s true that the reduced level of marriage probably plays a role here, as some of those who would never stay married aren’t getting married in the first place. But it’s good news that a higher percentage of married couples are staying together now, and these statistics should be kept in mind whenever some bitter MGTOW starts spouting off about how marital failure is inevitable when it’s actually only one chance in three.

UPDATE: A MGTOW responds:

In your newest post, you said that, with the divorce rate having decreased to one in three, that should shut up MGTOWs. I’ll simply ask you one question: would YOU jump out of an airplane if your parachute had a one in three chance of failure? NO! Because divorce wrecks mens’ lives, marriage is still too risky for men.

To which I responded in the kind and sensitive manner for which I am well-known:

You’re literally retarded. And a genetic dead-end. If you weren’t retarded, you’d realize that your analogy is both stupid and irrelevant. Don’t be such a coward. It’s no way to live.

DISCUSS ON SG


Beware the Christmas Cakes

First, it’s probably necessary to define Christmas Cakes, technically “unsold Christmas Cakes”, which is, believe it or not, a Japanese term.

“Women are Christmas cakes” because just like how nobody wants to buy a Christmas cake after December 25th, unmarried women over the age of 25 are worthless — believe it or not, this used to be a popular saying in Japan just a few decades ago. Perhaps, the double surprise for those unfamiliar with Japanese culture is that people buy a specific type of pastry to celebrate Christmas here. When I learned about this phrase from my female boss, I was genuinely shocked. As a single woman who just turned 25, I would have been called an “unsold Christmas cake.” The slur implies that a woman is viewed as valuable only if she is either young or married. Although we still have a long way to achieve gender equality, at least we disapprove of such outright insults today. As a growing number of women are postponing or forgoing marriage and pursuing careers instead, the Christmas cake analogy seems to represent outdated anti-feminist and sexist attitudes.

Yeah, so, about that.

Almost all the women I know who are single and over 30 think they’ll eventually find a great husband to take care of them. There is no self-reflection or plan to find out what men want so they would be a better choice over a younger woman.

On average, the whole “I am a strong independent woman who don’t want no man to take care of me” phase so common to young women these days lasts past college and about 18 months into their much-ballyhooed careers. However, once a woman actually experiences, for the first time in her life, how difficult and unpleasant it is to provide for oneself, and how low her standard of living and quality of life is likely going to be for the rest of her life, her opinion about marriage and children often undergoes a dramatic change. This belated realization is very often the point at which a woman suddenly decides that perhaps the traditional life is acceptable to her after all.

Which is why women under 30, who have the intrinsic wisdom to seek a life as a wife and mother in conscious preference to one with a career, are to be vastly preferred to those women who are only settling for a traditional life because they think it will be an easier life than the independent one they previously sought.

And women under the age of 30 would do very well to recall that men possess just as much agency as they do, and that young women who make a strong bid early tend to find themselves married to higher quality men than those who keep waiting for a better option to present itself.

UPDATE: It is educational to observe that even those women who had a traditional life and threw it away to pursue the greener grass on the other side quickly come to realize that the strong and independent life isn’t particularly desirable.

“I told my friends and family I’d never get married again. I needed independence, a fulfilling career, and space to chart my own course, and I didn’t think marriage fit into that vision. I was content to look toward a future without a husband, children, or the trappings of a ‘traditional’ life,’” she wrote.

As she grew older, however, the fun, carefree lifestyle – being wined and dined, going to parties – began to get old. The pursuit of comfort and self became dull, she said. When she turned 38, terror began to take over.

DISCUSS ON SG


Hultgreen-Curie, Naval Edition

Joe Biden proposed, and the US Senate confirmed, the first woman to lead the US Navy.

The US Senate has confirmed three high-ranking military nominations, including Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who becomes the first woman to lead the Navy. Senator Tommy Tuberville allowed the votes to go through after months of blocking all confirmations in an anti-abortion protest.

Franchetti, 59, was sworn in as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) on Thursday, following a 95-1 vote on Capitol Hill. The four-star admiral also became the first woman granted a seat at the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff. President Joe Biden nominated her in July – reportedly against the advice of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Since her nomination she has been serving as acting CNO, due to Tuberville’s obstruction.

First woman approved to lead US Navy, 3 November 2023

To say this bodes ill, particularly in the current circumstances, is probably the understatement of the year. But if the limits of imperial overstretch have indeed been reached, it would be absolutely appropriate to have that critical historical moment overseen by the first female Joint Chief of the Navy.

DISCUSS ON SG


Mailvox: SSH and Non-Solipsism

Prompted by your post today on seeing your neologisms in common usage, I thought it might interest you to know that middle schoolers at a Methodist church in Orlando, FL are using your expanded SSH terms casually in conversation with each other. I’m a parent and small group leader, so I’ve been able to have some interesting conversations. Without giving away that I was aware of the terms, I asked what they meant (as if they were any inscrutable zoomer slang), and they were using them more or less correctly.

The ideas, they disseminate. It’s encouraging that the younger generations will have the opportunity to understand and utilize their behavioral patterns in a way that their predecessors did not. Like most information, it can be used for good or for ill, but making informed decisions tends to lead to better consequences than uninformed ones. And before one can surmount one’s flaws and weaknesses, one must be aware of them.

Speaking of surmounting one’s flaws, a woman on SG seeks to understand what not being solipsistic is like.

Does male non-solipsism mean that when a man gains any information, he does not by default consider its relevance to himself? Sincere question from a mystified woman. #womanposting

That’s correct. It should be readily apparent, in fact, by the way men have a habit of turning themselves into subject matter experts in their particular areas of interest which have nothing whatsoever to do with the man involved. When I was working out the details concerning whether Lionel Messi was the greatest soccer player of all time – and he quite clearly is – the thought of comparing myself to him, or to Ronaldo, or to Pele, never crossed my mind. I simply wasn’t relevant to the topic. It never occurred to me to work out my own career goals-pens+assists per-game average.

Men tend to be more interested in the idea, the subject, or the event for itself than in its potential relationship to himself. This, by the way, is why so many men find women to be tedious and seldom enjoy talking with them, because the female tendency to turn every conversation toward herself is readily apparent, mildly annoying, and generally uninteresting.

For example, let’s say that you took in a family of Ukrainian refugees after the start of the special military operation. Do you mention that every time the topic of the Ukraine war comes up? It might be relevant if the discussion is about refugees or the depopulation of Ukraine, but most of the time, it won’t be. There is a lot to discuss about the war that doesn’t have anything to do with you or your past actions. Every mention of a subject that has something tangentially to do with you is not an invitation to start talking about yourself, and should not be taken as one. In most cases, you would do well to resist that solipsistic urge.

One thing I would encourage women to do, if they want to be held in higher regard by men, is a) to be aware of the conversational context, and b) to never talk about themselves or to mention people that the men don’t know. To better understand the desirability of this try silently counting the number of “I” and “me” used by your interlocutors when they engage in a conversational soliloquy. It can be very enlightening.

A good conversation is not two or more people waiting to talk and exchanging unrelated monologues. Try actually listening to people, no matter how tedious or stupid they are. You really can learn a lot from them, even when what they’re talking about is of zero interest to you.

Gammas and Lambdas are the most solipsistic men, which is why they are also the men who most enjoy talking with women and who are most likely to be a woman’s best male friend. Show me a man who is a woman’s best friend, and if he isn’t gay, nine times out of ten he’ll be a gamma who secretly pines after her.

DISCUSS ON SG



The Unexpected End of Feminism

Feminism never made any sense. It was another seductive, but destructive Jewish ideology that was more incoherent than communism, more bloodthirsty than nazism, and more histrionic than facism. Its eventual collapse was always inevitable. But it is a bit of a surprise that it is not collapsing under the weight of its own internal inconsistencies or its long-term consequences, but rather, the expanded application of Enlightenment natural rights to a new class of victims.

The campaign to cancel Natalie Bird began with an item of clothing.

She was standing in the sandwich queue when a woman marched over asking ‘Why are you wearing that T-shirt?’

The T-shirt in question had the words ‘Woman: Adult Human Female’ emblazoned across it. To some, an indisputable fact. To others, a red rag to a bull. Either way, it proved a provocative choice for a Liberal Democrat gathering.

‘I told the woman I was wearing it because I wanted debate,’ says Natalie, 45.

‘She asked me if I was an approved party candidate and I said yes, and she said: “Well, we’ll see about that.” ’

Days later, in December 2018, Natalie received a letter telling her she was banned from standing as an MP or holding party office for ten years.

Now it’s ordinary women like us who are being CANCELLED by the trans lobby! 

It would be amusing if it weren’t indicative of our society’s further descent into satanic degeneracy. As awful as the feminists are – and they are indeed devotees of of the very worst ideologies to ever be adopted by a group of human beings – they were just another domino that is now in the process of falling amid the ruins of Western civilization.

Defending feminism against the trans lobby might be the usual conservative response, but that is merely the acceptance of previously lost ground. Indeed, Western civilization cannot recover unless it rejects the very concept of Enlightment rights, going all the way back to freedom, free trade, free speech, and equality.

DISCUSS ON SG


Playing the Divorce Hand

From a discussion of an incipient divorce on SocialGalactic:

Son’s wife is definitely going to divorce him. Said they could do 50/50 custody. Son taking Vox’s advice, says he’s not going to play the custody game and argue over every little life decision with her. If she wants her “freedom,” he wants full custody, if she won’t give it to him, then she can have full custody and responsibility for the two kids 24/7/365. Says she was shocked to hear it, thinking she was going to have a nice set up. Says she’ll take full custody then. I think she thinks he’s bluffing.

My wife is aghast that he’s taken this position, but I agree it’s the right course. His wife can’t manage without him pitching in considerably. No way she’s going to do it without him in the picture helping out, working full time, and trapped at home every night as the kids sleep. She has no local support network. Even if she goes through with taking full custody, I can’t see her keeping it.

It’s a brutal and difficult decision, but it is the right one in the situation of a wife-driven divorce. Given the way the legal deck is stacked against men in the USA, she will have de facto full custody regardless of what the court-ordered custody structure is, only she will also have effective practical control of him as well.

This all-or-nothing approach leaves him a mostly free agent who has room to operate when she slips up somehow or tires of bearing the sole burden of single parenthood, as she probably will. A positive outcome is absolutely not guaranteed, but the probability of one is in his favor given what is known of her character.

The fact that she was shocked is good. It means she never even contemplated what is now the most likely outcome. And the possibility of turning all the responsibility for the children over to her ex-husband is going to grow more and more tempting to her over time, especially when she wants to pursue men who will be actively dissuaded by her having children.

Son’s wife definitely is not getting it. She made a list of what she wants in the mediation agreement. After listing several household items, she included “100% legal and physical custody” of the children. She then went on to list that visitation will be decided at the beginning of each month, with her getting at least one weekend with the girls. My son is resetting her expectations that she will have them every weekend, all weekend, and every evening as well.

Notice the wife’s incoherent desires and her inability to understand what 100-percent custody means. It’s simply not wise to base one’s strategy on such a creature’s ability to recognize, let alone be reasonable about, the best interests of the children.

As Sun Tzu says, to win, one must know the enemy as well as knowing oneself. This is why Deltas so often lose in situations they could easily win, as they make no effort to understand or anticipate their opposition, but are more concerned about being seen to be doing the right thing. Howeve, the last thing a woman who is ending her marriage in search of fun and freedom wants is to be tied down full-time by her children, with even less time for fun and games than she had when she was married.

It may sound callous and counterintuitive, but the observable fact is that in certain situations, the best way a man can protect his children is by demonstrating that he is willing to walk away from them.

DISCUSS ON SG


Spain 1, Lesbianesses 0

Spain won the Women’s World Cup despite its Football Association needing to crush a player revolt by 15 of its top female players by ejecting 12 of them from the national team.

Spain won their first Women’s World Cup final vs. England on Sunday 1-0 but did it without a handful of top players because of an ongoing protest against the Royal Spanish Football Federation.

In September 2022, 15 players sent the federation separate but identical emails asking not to be called up to the national team, citing a lack of professionalism that each player wrote had an “important effect on my emotional state and by extension my health.” They demanded “a clear commitment to a professional project with attention paid to all the aspects needed to get the best performance of this group of players” in the email.

The 15 players were Aitana Bonmati, Mariona Caldentey, Ona Batlle, Patri Guijarro, Mapi Leon, Sandra Panos, Claudia Pina, Lola Gallardo, Ainhoa Moraza, Nerea Eizagirre, Amaiur Sarriegi, Lucia Garcia, Leila Ouahabi, Laia Aleixandri and Andrea Pereira. Three additional players who did not send emails voiced their support for the others: Alexia Putellas, Jennifer Hermoso, and captain Irene Paredes.

According to The Athletic, among the players’ complaints was insufficient preparation for matches, from arriving to host cities too late and traveling by bus when planes would be considered the practical choice. The players also reportedly had issues with several coaches, alleging they were asked them to keep their hotel room doors open until midnight and inspected their bags after they went on excursions during camps. The players never explicitly asked for head coach Jorge Vilda or his coaching staff to be fired, but it was clear the relationship between them was fractured.

Instead of taking the players’ complaints seriously, though, the federation instantly backed Vilda and criticized those who protested. Ana Alvarez, head of women’s soccer at the federation, said that players would need to apologize before they were welcomed back onto the team, and added that “the federation comes first.”

It’s interesting to see how the players revolt – so celebrated in the early stages of the tournament when the team lost 4-0 to Japan in the last round of qualifiers – is being minimized here now that Spain, under the much-vilified Vilda, has won the tournament. Leaving 12 internationals out of the national team in a sport that starts 11 is hardly “a handful”. The media made a lot out of the current players turning their backs on their coach and refusing to celebrate a quarterfinal victory with him, but the observable fact is that there is no way the Spanish team, which had never even reached the quarterfinals before, would have won the World Cup without him.

Female teams are particularly fragile and are much given to self-destructive drama. I doubt it is an accident that Vilda didn’t select 12 of the 15 who initially declared themselves unavailable, as they were troublemakers and drama queens. And it was impressive that he didn’t hesitate to sit down the #1 goalkeeper when she wasn’t playing well, and that he left his star player, arguably the best in the world, on the bench for most of the tournament because she wasn’t 100-percent recovered from injury. Whether they like him or not, his players went on to dominate an English team full of the very sort of troublemakers and drama queens that he ejected from the squad.

A lot of NFL players don’t like Bill Belichick either. But there is no denying he gets the most out of them. Or that he wins championships.

It’s a bit amusing to see some of the bigger names who were left out whining about how they didn’t get the chance to win a World Cup. “What saddens me the most is that I really have to miss out on something when I could have earned it and contributed. It’s a shame.” But it’s not a shame, you didn’t earn it, you didn’t have to miss out, and your contributions were obviously unnecessary.

The lesson of the unexpected Spanish triumph at the Woman’s World Cup is this: the players are never bigger than the team.

DISCUSS ON SG