Good Night, White Pride...plus rainbows and unicorns

Because it needed to be done....

I stumbled across an Anti-racist Action logo with a unicorn theme that was very cute, but not me.  So I redesigned the concept with the idea of something I'd actually like to wear.  Plus, the idea of Unicorns and rainbows kicking down racism simply wouldn't leave me until done.  I'm a slave to the Muse...

How I joined an Army of 54,000 Social Justice Warriors

We have gone where no MRA has gone before.

I suppose it was inevitable.

The toxic reach of the reactionary culture war has now officially affected over 54,000 people thanks to an Internet drama started by the jilted boyfriend of a game designer that is called "Gamergate".

According to Wikipedia, Gamergate is the latest battle in the culture war, as those fearful of change rallied behind the dubious banner of defending "video games journalism".  This was correctly debunked as a smoke screen to hide the nasty MRA and anti-semite roots of the people behind the "movement".  In other words it's the latest in a series of political scams originating from the fringe right to exploit the gullible, in this case naive gamers who think feminists are stealing their video games.  Kinda like the Gun Rights folks, but with World of Warcraft.

My experience with close encounters of the creepy sort, having been the target of a political fraud, it comes as no surprise that many of the players have been exposed as liars, Holocaust deniers or tolerant of exploiting children sexually. Oh and trans-phobia cranked up to the stratosphere. In fact this cluster of symptoms seem to be a reoccurring recipe for the Libertarian conartist with delusions of grandeur.  As I saw this toxic nightmare leaking into my Twitter feed, all sorts of alarm bells went off.  If you've been tricked and manipulated by fringe political propaganda before, and you've managed to see through it and escape, its not hard to spot.  I worried for a bit that no one could connect the dots.

Thankfully real journalists were on the ball once enough information got out.  It was all a con, from the start.  Gamergate's mainstream credibility is destroyed.   And it gets sleazier and sleazier day by day, as it embraces the MRA element publicly.  (Ironically, the Gater charade brought more attention to feminist issues in the computer and tech industries than Sarkeesian's videos ever did)  The only people left will be hardcore cultural warriors with nothing left to lose.   That's what the media needs to watch out for:  people radicalised by the Gamergate movement who will act out violently.  Nazi apologists and propagandists pioneered asymmetrical attacks with devastating results.  And it's already been proven Nazi apologists are part of the core of Gamergate culture.

So why am I writing about Gamergate now, as it's cultural relevance declines into the Internet toilet?  Because some idiot has decided to put my name on this SJW blocklist that has over 54,000 people. (!)

For those who haven't followed github, this is a response to Randi Harper's excellent ggautoblocker that made a truly amusing ruckus from Gaters who don't know how to computer.   Now they think they'll retaliate by blocking what they think are SJW(Social Justice Warrior) accounts, little realizing most so called SJW's will be thrilled not the be sealioned by Gaters. 

Making me wonder if Gaters can really be that dumb.  Or could there is another goal behind the SJW blocklist?   Like making a data base of people to stalk and harass with death threats and worse like they did with Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian?

That's why I'm finally blogging this.  It is not my first rodeo with fringe right lunatic con artists, and these people are never as clever as they think they are. As a result, I have a scorched earth policy with anyone trying to start trouble.  It didn't end well for the last conartists that unwisely recruited me into their political scam and it won't end well for anyone afterwards.

My advice to the "leaders" of Gamergate?  Only contact people who want to be involved with your "project".  Leave everyone else alone.

For once take the smart way out.



Steven Colbert with Anita Sarkeesian

L.P.D.: Libertarian Police Department By Tom O’Donnell

When ever I need a laugh at the insane antics of Right Libertarians--which, for practical purposes in the States means anyone supporting the racist, conspiracy ridden, Libertarian Party--this article  never fails to deliver:

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

Read on:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department

Found at Something Awful Forums, where one can also see it's possible to break free of Libertarian brainwashing:

 OP, I used to be you. Maybe not quite as masochistic, in that I didn't go around inflicting my terrible ideas on strangers, but everything from the content of your ideas (though I was much more hardcore Objectivist and would have sneered at your wishy-washy ancap bullshit) to the way you present them is hilariously familiar to me.

This will probably have no impact on you, but: you are wrong. Objectively wrong. Your understanding of 'society' as an entity is simplistic nonsense.

As a simple example: you are able to have this conversation because someone, at some point, thought it worth the effort to teach you to read and write. This is not a universal value, and not necessarily provided in the absence of a well-maintained society that values literacy. There are plenty of places in the world where literacy is not valued, and thus not universal. You happen to live in one where it is.

The idea that you could, in any way, discharge the debt you owe to the society you're a part of is absurd. You can't. It's not possible. You will go to your grave still deeply in the red to that society. But that's okay; the rest of us have agreed that people should be allowed to run a negative balance for their entire lives, and we include you.

I'm not going to bother expanding on this point (yet, anyway) because I have a strong suspicion that you're going to read it, identify a few key words to fixate on, argue against what those words suggest to you, and fail to think deeply about the actual content of this post.

Because ten years ago, that's what I would have done.

If by some chance I'm wrong about that, let me know and I'll give you the whole dissertation on your relationship to the abstraction we call 'society', and how the libertarian understanding of that relationship is shallow and self-serving.

 Well said.

The Strain and the "Plot Device That Must Not Be Named"

I'm enjoying the TV adaptation of Del Torro's "The Strain".  But I have to say, after three episodes, with genre savvy clues in abundance, one element strains (hah, hah) credibility:  the lack of one character using the "V" word.

And I don't mean "Voldemort". 

Perhaps it's set in a world without Ann Rice.  Or any vampire legends whatsoever.  But it's starting to get a bit silly:

I'd expect a snarky gallows humor joke about the V-A-M P-I-R-E-S by now.  

I am enjoying the show, especially the subplot between the Holocaust survivor and the Nazi(boo, hiss).  But I'm looking forward to a character who will state the obvious...this looks like VAMPIRES.

Maybe it'll happen tonight.

Rita Skeeter covers the 2014 Quidditch World Cup Finals

 Well, it had to happen.  What ever else she is, that woman is a survivor.

In JK Rowling's recent Pottermore story, Skeeter covers this year's Quidditch World Cup, though some muggle at Today Books claims this is an imaginary sport event.  Well, if it's so imagniary how come I've got advanced tickets, huh? 

Oh, muggles are supposed to think it's imaginary.  My bad.  Fortunately the Ministry of Magic hasn't discovered the Internet or I would be so in trouble with the Wizard Cops. 

Catch up on the latest gossip about the Boy Who Lived...happily ever after!

Dumbledore’s Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup Final
By the Daily Prophet’s Gossip Correspondent, Rita Skeeter

READ IT HERE.

 

The Disney Animal Run

 Needless to say I was cursing the lack of a camera during this event.

 Everyone is familiar with the musical singing Disney princess trope:  animals popping up to be helpers of our heroine in her time of need, or just to be a Greek chorus of moral support.  Even people who have never seen a Disney fairy tale movie know about them. Perhaps they ventured down the Aisle of Deadly Pink in the toy department.  Few return from that dreadful place unmarked.

But rarely does one expect a Disney animal ensemble during one's morning jog. 

Mind, the animals weren't actually singing, at least not so's I could hear.   Nor were they particularly helpful or encouraging.  They were just there... strangely tame-like.  Perhaps they were taking a break from someone's else's musical in progress.

First there was the squirrel in the small play park where I do my pullups and situps.  She or he was cheekily sitting on the top of a garbage bin, watching me go to and fro from the water fountain... right next to it.  I suppose it's used to being fed, but at 6:00 in the morning?  There were other squirrels ...wising keeping a proper distance of several yards between them and the human.

When I went to get my last drink before resuming my run, this little bugger disappears inside the garbage bin.  Keep in mind this is one of those bins with a round hole in the center of a metal lid.  I peered in to see the hint of a bushy tail underneath a pizza box. 

Not quite the same can, but just as cheeky

Okayyyy.  This was probably the exact same squirrel holding a burnt out firecracker several weeks back.  Running with a rough crowd , so it is.   It'll come to a bad end, mark my words.

On I go, the birds chirping in the air.  okay, it's morning, we expect the birds to chirp.  What we don't expect is a vole to scamper from a field in front of us and back.

A vole?  Now these rodents aren't that high on the food chain and have it in their interests to avoid loud lumbering animals...like the jogger huffing and puffing up hill on the gravel path by it's field.  Why would it even go in my direction... unless it was about to burst into song?   Obviously it forgot it's lines and was so embarressed it ran off.

He just wants to SING

Then the Pièce de résistance, the big Rogers and Hammerstien finish... with a small flock of crows.  I'm nearing the house and two are on the street, one is on a power line, all cawing away.  Then they fluttered a short distance to a different power line.  A ginger cat bursts from the foliage(aidez moi?) and the crows do another chorus.     And they followed that cat across the street and up a hill.

Not so much singing as bitching

Now most people might think this could all be explained  by something silly like the cat had wandered near a tree with a nest and the crows were chasing it off.

But I know better.  It was at the end of my run, so it  had to be the big musical finish of my Disney Animal Run.

Marilyn Manson's Mother Passes Away

I just heard that Marylin Manson's mother passed on:

Marilyn Manson is mourning the death of his mother, Barbara J. Warner, who died Tuesday at the age of 68 after suffering a long battle with dementia.

 An obituary published on the CantonRep.com website notes "Barbara J. Warner, age 68, passed peacefully on Tuesday after a long battle with dementia. She was a wife, lover, mother, and friend who will be missed forever."

 I've been a "fan in absentia" of Marylin Manson ever since his eloquent interview in Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine":

Michael Moore: If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?
Marilyn Manson: I wouldn't say a single word to them I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did.

And:

Marilyn Manson: The two by-products of that whole tragedy were, violence in entertainment, and gun control. And how perfect that that was the two things that we were going to talk about with the upcoming election. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky and we forgot about, uh, the President was shooting bombs overseas, yet I'm a bad guy because I, well I sing some rock-and-roll songs, and who's a bigger influence, the President or Marilyn Manson? I'd like to think me, but I'm going to go with the President. 

He shoots and scores. 

I don't know how many idiots I've met who confuse pop culture influence with actual political power.  I suppose it's easier to blame an entertainer--Manson, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton--than buckle down and write ones congress critter or learn how to politically organize.  Manson nails it: his influence on popular culture is unquestionable, but to conflate that influence with the power of passing legislation or declaring war shows the politicians and pundits using Manson as a scapegoat were being deliberately dishonest and obtuse...because they knew better.

All water under the bridge....though I should probably get around to actually listening to Manson's music one day.

Many sympathies for your loss, Sir.   

RIP  Barbara J. Warner.