Saturday, March 18, 2017

Vox Day, who might have been great

Here is a recent photo of blogger Vox Day. That's him on the left, the man whose biceps burst from the sleeves of his red tunic. On the right we see one of a certain type among his followers.

It is unfortunate, really. Vox might have been great. Indeed, few have done so much for the Alt Right as Vox has done, for Vox acts while others (like me) merely talk. It's too bad that Vox persistently insists on being such a stinker.

Now, you had better not agree with anything I just wrote. If you do, then Vox will breathlessly remind you that his blog has more readers than you do, whereupon that fellow on the right will dart forward, point the pudgy finger of indignation, and curse you for being such a Gamma.

24 comments:

  1. Greetings @cheddarman:

    I had misjudged the mood over at Vox Popoli. The crowd over there like to build egos upon insults, which is normal enough. I don't mind that locker-room approach—it even has its uses—but that was never really my style, I admit, even when I was locker-room age.

    Through sheer persistence, coupled with bravado, Vox is indeed winning, after a fashion. That it is so important to him to prove that he and I are not on the same side is kinda funny; but, hey, let Vox do his thing. It helps.

    See, that's the problem with the Paul Ryans of the world, isn't it? They're good men at heart (though Vox would probably curse Ryan to eternal Gammahood), but Ryan and his sort are unable to let the likes of Vox Day do their own thing for their own country in their own way. That's the real problem here.

    Anyway, obviously, Vox doesn't need me to defend him. He needs me to serve as a target of his invective, rather. Oh, well.

    He reminds one a little of the late Lawrence Auster that way.

    Thanks for the comment.

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    1. What leads you to believe that Paul Ryan is a good man at heart?

      Anyway, imperious Theodore and his vile ilk, a mob of niggling, delusional midwits, do comprise a pathetic but hilarious cult. I find their indifference to their own logical fallaciousness and immaturities to be quite entertaining. :)

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    2. What leads you to believe that Paul Ryan is a good man at heart?

      Good question. Several things lead me to believe that.

      1. Like you, perhaps, I personally know too many center-right liberal-conservatives to fail to appreciate their genuine love of country and particular devotion to duty. Those people are disastrously wrong on race and immigration, but in my experience they truly mean well. Indeed, they are the backbone of the country. Ryan seems the very example of the type.

      2. It is a rare thing to see a politician elevated to a high office he apparently never sought. The way in which Ryan became speaker was amazing. It is hard to believe that that does not say something attractive about his character.

      3. The job of speaker today looks nigh impossible to do well, with the House so deeply divided between bitterly opposed factions. If Ryan stumbles a bit or more than a bit, I'll not soon blame his motives.

      4. Federal finances are so badly out of balance that Ryan can be forgiven for believing (falsely) that the budget deficit is the most pressing problem our country faces.

      5. As a habit, I generally credit other persons with good motives until they have thoroughly proved me otherwise.

      6. Ryan's constituents in Janesville, Wis., who know him better than I do—and who (unlike Nancy Pelosi's constituents) seem like pretty decent, normal folks—appear to like and respect Ryan. That's not nothing.

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    4. 1) Those people truly mean well? Then why do they lie so much, knowingly? If they won't give up their precious policies even after seeing the destruction they've opened America up to, I can't see any good reason why we should believe they mean well. In fact, I say that we should conclude the opposite about them.

      You have different standards than I when it comes to judging people.

      2) Being a reluctant leader doesn't suggest 'goodness' to me. There is no rational justification for that conclusion.

      3) It's clear to me that Ryan stumbles because he's not a strong and honest leader with admirable convictions.

      4) Yeah, Ryan's and his type's complicity in running up the debt with Obama says they're oh-so-painfully concerned about our financial state, doesn't it? LOL :D

      5&6) Human history is replete with 'good guy' politicians who deceive their supporters, often for long periods of time, isn't it? Since this is the case, why trust the voters' judgment when it comes to assessing a representative they're happy with?

      Ryan isn't notably atypical. He's mealy-mouthed, a known liar. IOW, he's a sociopathic fraud. Your habit of giving weaklings like Ryan the benefit of the doubt isn't wise, it's dangerously naive.

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    5. I dont speak for Vox, however, he would probably just ask you to aim your fire to the left.

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    6. @cheddarman: Vox's way of asking me to aim my fire to the left was colorful, to say the least.

      But, yes, that is exactly correct. Aim fire left.

      The spectacularly conceited Vox, of course, will [a] label me a Gamma for agreeing with him (it's all about him, see) on this point and then [b] instruct me what to do with certain parts of my body; but I suspect that I'll survive the insult.

      Aim fire left. Good rule.

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    7. I posted this on his site but I figured I'd pile in on you too to make sure you got the Message Howard. I don't give a shit whether you agree with me or not. (heyyy I'm open minded) What I do care is whether you recognize the sense of urgency required to mobilize a civilization that is rapidly running out of time...

      Howard, I actually share a lot of your instincts when it comes to Vox. He makes a virtue of what he has. God knows whatever it is in abundance it comes. And moniker, long history of every permutation of offensive utterances and general degeneracy aside, I am a polite and considerate person. So it galls me to see Vox lashing out at you, an honest pilgrim who only wants to help!

      I feel your pain, believe it or not. But you know what? As an empathetic but genuinely curious person I sought out other points of view.

      You know what I found? A PACK OF HYENAS who are ready to believe any calumny, and act on it. As a law of nature this implies that they MUST believe the lies or they will be severely punished. These people are straight out of 1984. I describe their behaviour to my ex-girlfriend and she says that's exactly how the soviets (Among whom she numbered) operated.

      So on one side we have serious, sophisticated long term strategic thinkers who will domineer and kill our men, rape your children and trade your women using computer algorithms to track their depreciation as a fungible asset.

      On the other hand, we have the same disregard for truth, a massive herd of well educated faggots who are bereft of shame.

      We have a serious time preference problem. I reaally want the bad stuff to happen later and all the good stuff now. But man to man, the longer it takes for us to get our shit together, the worse the depths we reach as the system goes down...

      Do you think being nice will convince muslims their prophet is a degenerate, or deter the bolshevik mob from insisting you act as though you believed the big lie? The mind diseases our culture has developed are fucking terrifying. I'll take a Colonel Kurtz as an angel straight from heaven.

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    8. Heck, @VC, I don't have the answers, but you're asking the right questions. I honor your fighting spirit. More of us should have started asking such questions a long time ago.

      Unfortunately, I fear to pursue this conversation over the brink of U.S. sedition law, which remains lenient but nonetheless exists. You and I are still on the right side of that law; I don't want us to get to the wrong side. (And even if you hypothetically objected, Howard, someone has got to get to the wrong side, I would note that an unencrypted blog might not be the place to do it!)

      Thank you for your remarks, which have been far more interesting than my reply. I am glad to hear from you any time.

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    9. And to clarify, @VC, my last comment was in no way a rebuke. Quite the contrary. Take it rather as an expression of appreciation and an admission that there are limits to my own courage.

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  2. According to Blogspot, my post above is now the most widely read post in The American Paleoconservative's short history. That's pretty funny.

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  3. Darwin is a Harsh MistressMarch 19, 2017 at 6:40 PM

    Vox is a piece of work to be sure. His writing is always interesting but make no mistake, it is all about him and whatever catches his attention at the moment. As annoying as his following is, they are fighting the fight in their own way and that's net positive.

    Moreover, some of Vox's ideas are quite good and deserve a larger audience than the sf/f nerds that frequent VP. That's his Achilles Heel and his limiting factor although he's self aware enough to know he can't be all things to all men. He's got his niche and he does well in it. Bully for him!

    Still, being a cocky prick only works within a narrow range and the current emasculated American culture can't tolerate it in the slightest. I'd rather a country full of arrogant Vox Days than milquetoast, God-awful annoying #fakeamericans like Ryan. I have no idea if that makes me a gamma or just a guy in a situation much the same as yours with real mouths to feed and all that goes with it.

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    1. The Gamma insult is so funny that it's not even tiresome. I suppose that many of those VP kids will eventually navigate the intersections between chasing skirt, getting married and raising a family, after which they'll look back and see the humor you and I see now in it.

      Paul Ryan is indeed annoying. If he weren't, then we wouldn't need Vox.

      Real mouths to feed and all that goes with it: I couldn't have said it better.

      The unfortunate fact is that our generation, and our parents' generation, have really screwed up these kids' inheritance. Also, we forgot (I mean, our generation forgot) that the kids had brains and would grow up to think for themselves. To the new generation, the mores of 1968 are simply lunatic. To the new generation, those mores don't even make contingent sense.

      Thanks for the excellent comment!

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    2. I saw this post of yours, and feel compelled to ask you why you care what VD thinks about you. Who do you think he and his vile cult of unapologetically abusive, delusional midwits are in God's eyes?

      "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." Psalms 118:8

      You don't need them, and they don't want you. Look to better locations for your edification; ignore those who don't have the love of Christ for you in their hearts.

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    3. Detective: Guilty as charged. I accept your rebuke. As far as I know, you are quite right.

      Still, it seems to me (I may be wrong) that VD has a limited point of sorts. We on the Right have had this bad habit: we expend more energy purifying our own ranks than we do in opposing the Left. You saw this during the recent U.S. presidential campaign, for example, when respectable Republicans behaved as though Donald Trump were more of a threat than Charles Schumer. The legacy mainstream news media, realizing that we on the Right have this weakness, manipulate us mercilessly. In some small, crude way, is VD not an antidote?

      So, I don't actually care what VD per se thinks about me. However, the Alt Right (though small) is real. As long as politically correct society refuses to address the questions the Alt Right raises, as long as the respectable Right enthusiastically promotes the displacement of European man by wretched equatorial peoples, we're going to have to deal with the likes of VD, and even (whether we like it or not) to take him increasingly a bit seriously. Unless and until our statesmen stop fiddling, like Nero, while our civilization burns, the Alt Right may grow in influence.

      After all, this isn't about Vox Day. It's about the spiritual cancer that afflicts the rest of us.

      But, yeah, VD is a moderately successful, high-grade moron. Moreover, his minions need to learn more self-respect.

      There is one other point. Most decent American Christians would find, falsely, that I were a moral reprobate because [i] I believe that the races substantially differ; [ii] I suspect that, in retrospect, U.S. desegregation may have been a gruesome mistake; and [iii] I would prefer my children to marry among their own race. (They would find me a reprobate, that is, if I told them what I think. Of course, for social self-preservation, in real life, I almost never tell.) Maybe you, too, will now find that fault in me. From my perspective, though, the trouble is this: if I have well-meaning Christian promoters of civilizational suicide to my Left; and a cult of unapologetically abusive, delusional midwits to my Right; then to whom shall I turn?

      No man is an island. It gets pretty lonely out there.

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    4. Oh that personality typology stuff is for the birds. I mean, yea it can be instructive for illustrative purposes, but after that leave it for the birds. That ain't red meat.

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    5. Part1:

      Detective: Guilty as charged. I accept your rebuke. As far as I know, you are quite right.

      I didn't see it as a rebuke, but as a friendly reminder/thought stimulator. :)

      I will add that you should be more confident about what you know. You're a person of true faith, aren't you? Don't be hesitant to exercise it.

      Still, it seems to me (I may be wrong) that VD has a limited point of sorts. We on the Right have had this bad habit: we expend more energy purifying our own ranks than we do in opposing the Left. You saw this during the recent U.S. presidential campaign, for example, when respectable Republicans behaved as though Donald Trump were more of a threat than Charles Schumer. The legacy mainstream news media, realizing that we on the Right have this weakness, manipulate us mercilessly. In some small, crude way, is VD not an antidote?

      So, I don't actually care what VD per se thinks about me. However, the Alt Right (though small) is real. As long as politically correct society refuses to address the questions the Alt Right raises, as long as the respectable Right enthusiastically promotes the displacement of European man by wretched equatorial peoples, we're going to have to deal with the likes of VD, and even (whether we like it or not) to take him increasingly a bit seriously. Unless and until our statesmen stop fiddling, like Nero, while our civilization burns, the Alt Right may grow in influence.

      After all, this isn't about Vox Day. It's about the spiritual cancer that afflicts the rest of us.

      But, yeah, VD is a moderately successful, high-grade moron. Moreover, his minions need to learn more self-respect.


      I agree with you that this ultimately is not about VD, yet you did ask him how he saw you, which is what prompted my current interaction with you, so here we are... I don't dispute at all that VD offers a lot of positive value, but he's just a man, with glaring flaws that should not be glossed over. It's cowardly to avoid discussing them.

      Your Church teaches that calumny/detraction/pride/rash judgmentalism are at least venally and sometimes mortally sinful, doesn't it? VD's pigpen is rife with that unChristian behavior, and as you know, "they don't care." That spiritual rottenness flows from the head. Theodore is offputtingly arrogant; he's a sadistic, control-freaking hypocrite. How counterproductive is his rudeness and deceit to his stated causes? More than he and his vile cult are able to admit.

      How necessary is he really? How many of Trump's supporters know who VD is? Don't forget that the deplorables weren't cowing to the Leftards as they elected Donald. :)

      I self-identify as an alt-Rightist. I really don't care who accepts my definition of the term or who sees me as an ally, which is how it should be; I'll continue to do what I believe is best while dismissing foolish nigglers, who don't put doing God's will first.

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    6. Part 2:

      There is one other point. Most decent American Christians would find, falsely, that I were a moral reprobate because [i] I believe that the races substantially differ; [ii] I suspect that, in retrospect, U.S. desegregation may have been a gruesome mistake; and [iii] I would prefer my children to marry among their own race. (They would find me a reprobate, that is, if I told them what I think. Of course, for social self-preservation, in real life, I almost never tell.) Maybe you, too, will now find that fault in me. From my perspective, though, the trouble is this: if I have well-meaning Christian promoters of civilizational suicide to my Left; and a cult of unapologetically abusive, delusional midwits to my Right; then to whom shall I turn?

      No man is an island. It gets pretty lonely out there.


      I may not agree with all of your opinions, but so what? You don't really need my or anyone else's validation for them, do you? Anyway, like God, I don't judge people by their opinions. And you should keep in mind that there are many others out here who think like me.

      You may feel lonely, but you shouldn't when considering you're not actually alone, correct? God is always there for you to lean on. So is His church. :)

      "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3:5-6

      "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." -Romans 8:28

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    7. Detective: you mention validation. Validation is not the main point, but I suppose that I would like some minimal degree of validation from time to time. Excessive validation is embarrassing, of course; but the us-against-the-world mentality Vox and his crew cherish is not for me.

      All your other points (actually, all your points) are well taken, of course.

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  4. Vox likes to make an example out of commentators he thinks are dumb. I agree it seems petty and unnecessarily spiteful but I don't think he means it personally. Some people read a lot of malice into what is more like pedantic autism. When you call him out for perceived malice, you get actual malice.

    He's just a prickly online persona. Probably a lot more normal in person. Might as well deal with it if you're going to comment there.

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    1. Uh yea yea, definitely a grain of truth in that. But as far as I'm concerned, I really don't care if it's intentional or not. The conservatives have failed politically. The culture leads politics, and conservatives have lost academia, public education, the bureaucracy, the news media, the music industry... Okay? And at the same time, our opponents are adapting rapidly, annealing their systems, pre-programming their adherents and getting ready to rumble.

      The conservatives are trying to be polite. I'm sorry, but if all we have is Don Quixote, it's to war against the moor with Don Quixote we go. If people have to be bullied, cajoled, seduced, I'll accept what it takes. Vox is annoying at his worst. The enemy is out to destroy us utterly, and time is on his side.

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    2. @VC: What a moniker!

      Unfortunately, one suspects that you are more right than wrong. I would promote a different captain than Vox, though, as long as I had a choice.

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    3. B.J.: That makes sense.

      That I had commented at Vox's blog at all was a happenstance. Obviously, I was not expecting the reaction I got! I had misgauged the audience's mood, hadn't I?

      Fortunately, Vox and I, and everyone else involved, will survive this experience. As to next time: forewarned is forearmed.

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