Narrative Warfare: Gatekeeping is for Losers

Neither the Left nor the Right has a monopoly on Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism. Both of these reprehensible expressions of weakness and the resulting fear it generates, and one of the ways it manifests is by the practice of "gatekeeping". This means occupying positions within a social, legal, or cultural institution where one can engineering the body to one's liking by keeping out unwanted elements in favor of desired ones. This, in practice, is how ideas and peoples who otherwise cannot win the argument or peacefully integrate seize and hold the power necessary to prop up their existence- with the aim to hold on long enough for generational turnover to do the converting for them.

This is not reliable. Gatekeepers become obsessed with rooting out and extinguishing alternatives because it directly threatens their control, and no more obvious examples exist as when new technologies come along that threatens the existing gatekeepers. The printing press, the telephone, radio, television, and now the Internet all challenged the existing gatekeepers. The gatekeepers changed. Sometimes they got replaced, sometimes they adapted in time, but the overall issue--that gatekeepers exist--remained.

So, why is the Internet--so far--different? Because it is not just one form of tool, but an entire infrastructure. It's not the press. It's the road. Such a fundamental change in how we can communicate exists due to the Internet that even now the elder generations don't fully comprehend what it is, nevermind how it works, and so far are using old methods--financial power and state pressure to install like-minded agents or convert vulnerable individuals--but even that won't work for long.

You see, all of these can be and will be replaced with network-based alternatives that are decentralized and route around damage dynamically, and gatekeeping is damage.

Below I embedded Sargon of Akkad's episode of This Week in Stupid as an example of this is action. He's using YouTube, but should that get suborned or destroyed an alternative will arise that replaces it and surpasses it. The Internet Gun Community already has one in Full30, and there are others in the works for other needs and communities.




Other sectors are dealing with this in the predictable manner, which is to freak out. Specifically, it means lying, double-down, and projecting those fears upon those you fear in a desperate attempt to stop time from moving. Author Brian Niemeier explains how the gatekeepers in Science Fiction/Fantasy print publishing are (not) handling this:

Predictably, my recent post about how advances in media technology are driving the Sad Puppies phenomenon--and the hostile reactions of its detractors--drew hostile reactions from SP's detractors.

I argued that new tribes of science fiction fans are forming around movies, video games, and eBooks; leaving the New York publishing establishment ever more obsolete.

That's not to say that the folks in charge of NY publishing are politically neutral. To the contrary, the clear pattern of behavior on display at the Big Five leaves little doubt of their left wing bias. But that's tangential to the real casus belli.

The main reason why the NY establishment's knickers are in a twist is that the medium they control--books printed on paper--is losing cultural prominence.

The gatekeepers' identities are invested in their control over mainstream publishing. Any serious threat to their control causes cognitive dissonance: a physiological; not a rational, response. As independents who threaten the gatekeepers' identity, the Sad and Rabid Puppies are convenient scapegoats for their irrational frustration.

Brian goes on to give a detailed example later on in that post. Read it for a good example of how gatekeepers and their followers react, as it is quite illustrative of what you're likely to encounter.

The gun grabbers are still freaking out over 3D Printing and other new and improved home tools capable of manufacturing high-quality firearms and ammunition casings from billets and sheets, making gatekeeping there irrelevant in due course. (Now to just make it easy to make powder and primers from scratch, returning ammunition to the user as it was in the days of black powder and smoothbores.) Knives, swords, and other melee weapons are already easily done at home as the tools are now affordable and learning the skills easily done. (I have one such homemade weapon as a gift made for me.) Bitcoin may not be the future, it will pave the way to a decentralized banking system (which is the real killer app; a way to kill off Banksterism and Central Banking forever).

The Internet is the way to kill off gatekeeping, as it exposes gatekeepers for the losers that they are. Defend the Net. It's where the next stage in Civilization will come from.