Narrative Warfare: No, It's Antifa

The God-Emperor has done what we all knew was coming.

The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020

Why did it take this long?

Normies.

No, I'm not kidding. You can blame your normie neighbors, co-workers, and relatives for this.

The issue is optics. Normies didn't even perceive that Antifa exists; none of my globally-extended family did. Of my friends, some did- and they're going to interrogated by the FBI soon.

The political support for going after Antifa didn't exist before these riots. The political support necessary for a whole swath of political actions necessary to prevent more of this from happening did not exist before these riots. The reason is that the arguments for giving that support rested on the ability of normies to perceive Antifa and that which enables it as a threat, and those arguments involve places they don't know or go to and interactions with people they don't know or perceive as threats. It was far too abstract a concept. So, since there was no direct smear-your-face-in-shit experience with the problem, there was no support.

Now they have it, so here it comes.

What's going to happen now is that the G-E acts swiftly and decisively to address the threat, and then follow that up with policies that will make it harder if not impossible to do it again as we've seen. Watch Barr tie this, successfully, to hostile foreigners and illegal immigration (justifying acceleration of the Wall and immigration restrictions) and more in that vein soon.

And watch the support for Antifa out itself trying to defend it from the G-E and his wrath. This narrative shift is about to backfire on them. Sun Tzu and Machievelli would be proud.

Narrative Warfare: I Can't Believe It's Not Antifa!

I've stayed up all night three nights in a row tracking the riots to see if they come my way or not. I watched the destruction happen. What follows is no lie.

AG Bill Barr:

“In many places, it appears the violence is planned, organized & driven by anarchtic left extremist groups—far left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics.”pic.twitter.com/VFlIHg54nk

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 30, 2020

This is not protesting. This is insurgency. Taken from the chans:

Insurgency is the organized use of subversion and violence to seize, nullify or challenge political control of a region. As such, it is primarily a political struggle, in which both sides use armed force to create space for their political, economic and influence activities to be effective. Insurgency is not always conducted by a single group with a centralized, military-style command structure, but may involve a complex matrix of different actors with various aims, loosely connected in dynamic and non-hierarchical networks. To be successful, insurgencies require charismatic leadership, supporters, recruits, supplies, safe havens and funding (often from illicit activities). They only need the active support of a few enabling individuals, but the passive acquiescence of a large proportion of the contested population will give a higher probability of success. This is best achieved when the political cause of the insurgency has strong appeal, manipulating religious, tribal or local identity to exploit common societal grievances or needs. Insurgents seek to gain control of populations through a combination of persuasion, subversion and coercion while using guerrilla tactics to offset the strengths of government security forces. Their intent is usually to protract the struggle, exhaust the government and win sufficient popular support to force capitulation or political accommodation. Consequently, insurgencies evolve through a series of stages, though the progression and outcome will be different in almost every case.

Insurgency is seditious and treasonous. That alone makes it Federal, but that is not necessary. As the God-Emperor points out, organizing these terror operations requires inter-state travel of operatives and inter-state commercial activity of finance and capital using the postal system. That's three crystal-clear trigger clauses for Federal intervention and as the entire country remains under a State of Emergency the G-E has broad powers to unilaterally act. Given the G-E's mindset, he's gearing up quietly while letting the state and local authorities expose their incompetence and political treachery before making his move.

And this narrative shift out of Minnesota this morning, when Governor Walz claimed this was Muh White Supremasists--y'know, the cohort of morons that can't stop doxing themselves on Discord--shows that the meme went out while he was doing the Mea Culpa Move of admitting he's an incompetent, impotent cuck (along with Minneapolis mayor and Russian Small Hat Virginian carpetbagging faggot Jacob Frey) unfit for command and wholly deserving of the scorn and derision he's getting. Now it's all over the Fake News, and with that shift everyone I know around here has bought into it because otherwise the CogDis would be too much to bear.

And this is despite the riots taking out a well-loved institution of local science fiction fandom: Uncle Hugo's.

Uncle Hugo's Bookstore in Minneapolis was burned down by rioters last night. https://t.co/hQ5J2XthAb

— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) May 30, 2020

(Note: The link to the fundraiser is here.)

What's certain is that this op glows in the dark. Already caught staging shit.

“They” staged a pallet of bricks in Dallaspic.twitter.com/jp9IoUUuRT

— Ali † opposes Antifa (@ali) May 30, 2020

And this narrative shift is more of the same. The governor of Minnesota did his shift live on the air. Everyone else with Cognitive Dissonance to resolve went with it, along with officials trying to cover their asses. With these developments we'll see tonight if my takes last night on the focus of Minneapolis terror ops on target-rich areas full of very soft and politically-acceptable targets around police precinct buildings (to provide narrative cover) hold or not. The 3rd and 5th precincts are full of soft acceptable targets. 1st is downtown, so the targets are hard. 2nd and 4th lack or are void of them, so terror ops have to go elsewhere to operate.

The protests are going on, but that's daytime ops for MSM-friendly optics and narrative reinforcement--the carrot--and the nighttime terror ops are punishment (the stick), all to force government to comply with political demands. It's literal extortion, a violent take on SJW point-and-shirek swarm attacks to do the Cancel Culture thing, because it's the same scheme to the same end with a scaled-up take and different means. If they intend to use this narrative shift to justify a tactical shift away from precints to terror ops on soft targets, we'll know after sundown.

And if this then shifts into ranging into residences and the suburbs, that will be a serious escalation. In any event, this is also a show of desperation; you don't execute like this unless you're on the backfoot. Cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless.

My Life In Fandom: Toei's Tokukatsu Channel

Need something to watch? Not afraid of old stuff? Then Toei's got you covered.

Of course it's got the dramatic premise you'd expect.

Shin Kazamatsuri, a young motorcycle racer, volunteers to be the test subject for his scientist father Daimon’s cellular research project. Shortly after, Shin sees himself turning into a murderous, bloodthirsty monster in his dreams. The research is not what it seems—the laboratory chief, Iwao Himuro, has been less than trustworthy, and the mysterious entity known as the Organization lurks behind the scenes… Shin has memories of the bizarre string of murders, but is he really the serial killer?

You'll find that and a hell of a lot more on Toei's Tokukatsu channel. All official and legal to watch--no need for Straw Hats here--so no worries.

And if you're looking to make new stuff you need to know what you're drawing from, and for a lot of superhero tropes seeing them in the form that Japan's long-running live-action serials use is going to be that blend of familiar and different that you're looking for. Even if you're writing prose, there's something here in terms of storycraft to learn (and compare-contrast with related media for sharper distinction). Just as they mixed and remixed sources to make each of these shows sufficiently distinct from one another as well as from similar offerings in other media, so will you and you've got hours of note-worthy material here.

Don't be surprised if you end up hunting down more recent shows if you like what's here.

Admin: (Riot Report) I'm Okay So Far

The rioting going on in Minneapolis and St. Paul has, as of this post, not come to my part of town. I'm keeping up with events as they happen due to livestreams showing on-the ground streaming video or scanner traffic. So far the social media accounts for those parties involved have not indicated that they're going to attempt any actions on my side, but they are talking about going from the heart of the south Minneapolis ghetto to the heart of the north Minneapolis ghetto (on either side of Downtown), and if they do and they riot then I'll be worried.

Prayers welcome. I'll be keeping watch tonight, just in case.

My Life As A Gamer: Whiteshield

This was originally a Twitter thread. Reposted here and edited for clarity.

40K Video Game Pitch: Whiteshield

This is a Survival Horror game. You play as the bastard son of an Imperial Guardsman. You are a 12 year old boy being raised in the unit (hence the title), as your father died in battle years ago and your mother cannot be found, and you're old enough to have started training.

This is the premise for the Tutorial Stage, where you are introduced to the game's fundamental mechanics and the variety of usable gear in the game. Aside from the standard Lasgun, you also get to see and use Autoguns, Grenades, various melee weapons, various crew-served and squad-level weapons, and you get to see--but not use--Carapace and Powered Armor when you see various elites (from Scions to a Space Marine) in the background. You also get briefed on the necessary lore that is relevant to the game here.

The narrative frame is your interrogation by the Inquisitor you saw in the Tutorial after the battle is over, with the result of this inquiry to determine what should be done with you since you faced the forces of Chaos and the Warp and survived. Multiple endings are possible, but it's going to take more than "just getting by" (i.e. a C score) to do better than get mind-wiped and condemned to a Penal Battalion, and what endings are possible are influenced by what Difficulty you played at and how well you did doing so.

Gameplay proper begins when a Chaos incursion erupts. Your unit got overrun by Chaos cultists and mutants, so you're initially trying to reach a designated point to regroup. After getting there, you encounter a Chaos Space Marine for the first time. How you handle this encounter determines your first route split choice. You receive new orders, giving you a new set of objectives to pursue in the new area you're sent to.

Gameplay mechanics include emotional control and an infection meter in addition to basic combat mechanics. If you've played a Biohazard (Resident Evil) game or the Zombie Army series, then you know the score. You may choose a difficulty level. Difficulty reflected in who is after you, not just jacking stats, with the aforementioned Chaos Marine ranging from a relatively inexperienced and unarmed one (to reflect Game Journalist Difficulty) to a Daemon-Possessed Champion (on The Emperor Protects Difficulty).

Your superiors--specifically, your Commissar--expects you to make the best use of terrain, gear, and emotional control to perform the duties assigned to you and overcome opposition along the way. You may run from everything, never fight back, do the bare-assed minimum to get out alive, and spend most of your time cowering; the forces of Chaos will tempt you in subtle ways, and the environment itself can prove hazardous if handle incautiously.

Multiple route choices are present. If you take too long to decide, then the one that is worst for your possible results at that point is foisted upon you by the Chaos Marine when he shows up. With each route choice, doors open and close--literally and figuratively--regarding other possible choices and therefore possible results. Each route choice has different Opposition Forces and they also vary by Difficulty; Game Journalist Mode is mostly a jump-scare walking simulator with stupidly-telegraphed setpiece encounters, while The Emperor Protects is the true 40k Experience that a Whiteshield fighting his way back to friendly lines could expect, and the steps between

The game ends with you facing the Chaos Marine in combat. You are not expected to win, but you can if you are on the ball and you have the means. You are expected to go the distance; the encounter is on a timer, and if you are still alive when the timer expires then the Space Marine you saw in the Tutorial arrives with his squad and rescues you.

Your score and route choices determine your ending. The best possible ending requires that you kill the Chaos Marine on The Emperor Protects Difficulty. This result gets your glorified Boy Scout recruited into the Space Marine's chapter on the spot. The worst ending, possible if you get to the end as a total coward, is that the Commissar sees that you are a coward, condemns you as such, and summarily executes you. In the middle, at either side of the line, is that you can be salvaged so you are mind-wiped as a mercy and sent to a Penal Battalion or that you have proven your worth and are awarded your unit's badge and the rank of Guardsman.

Other endings include: remanded for training as a Commissar, Tempest Scion, or Assassin; variations on your fate as a Space Marine (Servitor, Serf, Librarian, Tech Marine, etc.); reassigned to an elite unit for training; taken as an Acolyte for the Inquisitor; sent to Mars for initiation into the Adeptus Mechanicus (variations feature different sub-sets thereof); deemed unfit for duty and repurposed (after the mercy of a mindwipe) into a Servitor; and a perfect score (which includes not a single death and killing the Chaos Marine) on The Emperor Protects get you into the Grey Knights.

A playable female option swaps the Space Marine for a Sister of Battle, and all variants or interactions involving Space Marines are substituted with Sororitas equivalents.

This pitch takes its form and inspiration from a 40K story where this scenario plays out, merged with the action-survivor style of gameplay aforementioned.

#StarKnightSaga Lore: The Court of Stars

MOVED to the Study.

My Life In Fandom: Anime's Mammon Problem

Friend of the Retreat Rawle Nyanzi put out a post today on an independent anime project--Kodai Senkaku Genocider--made to resemble the fantastic heroes of yesteryear.

And got sweet fuck all traction, both in Japan and in the West. Author David Stewart says what Rawle says in his post: Fandom wants the Brand.

Rawle nails it - fans want what they like to be good again. They really don't want to find something new.

Fandom is a kind of filter - an easy way to know that you're going to like something. What do you do when it's broken though? https://t.co/ypRA8YmG9k

— David V. Stewart (@DavidVStewart) May 27, 2020

Where have I seen this before? Oh, only with the Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel, DC, Biohazard/Resident Evil, The Last of Us, and so many other Western corporate properties.

There are two key differences between what's going on with anime and what's going on with Western entertainment. The first is that the Death Cult doesn't run Japan's culture industry, not the way it is in the West. The second is that the entertainment corporations don't outright hate their customers. So, instead of esoteric Molech worship we have the (by comparison) easier problem of a Brand Fan problem.

"What?"

While it is true that new properties are released and find traction with audiences, all of them come from established corporate sources and follow a business model now so well established that even international outsider observers (i.e. foreigner plebs like me) can see it in action and stay abreast of developments thanks to an Internet-focused network of fans using YouTube, Twitch, etc. to spread the word on both the business model and the players in it.

The problem with Genocider is where it came from, now how good it is, and it looks like its creator sees that; he's looking to get corporate attention now. In the short term, the best way to help this man is (a) to directly compliment and encourage him and (b) politely assist him in getting the institutional attention he's after.

The reason? For now the wealth of disruptors Western media actors can employ are not viable for anime, not yet. It's still a business that rests its legitimacy on a massive corporate infrastructure of production and distribution focused on a massive scope and scale that individuals and small actors simply cannot do; this is a barrier to entry, as we see in the fact that you can count the exceptions on one hand. This will not change anytime soon.

Now, with a quarterly level of frequency promoting disposability and an emphasis on Muh Waifus to push merch and tie-in products (and get butts in seats for live events like concerts by the voice cast), while you do get big hits you also get a disdain for anything not current and scorn for anything older than 2000; very little has the lasting impact of Zeta Gundam, and certain genres and styles get favored due to extensive A/B testing via things like Shounen Jump's ranking system by the readership at the detriment of long-term overall cultural fertility. This has long-term implications and we'll see soon how bad this gets.

The tools to disrupt anime production are present, and one-man projects like Astartes and Otaking's Star Wars and Doctor Who short fan films are Proof of Concept that a determined creator can compete on quality. The issue, therefore, is the audience; they are long accustomed to the established way of doing things and find no reason to change away from that.

A large part of that reluctance does come from the fact that, to date, this corporate infrastructure actually works as intended for the benefit of the audience. If there is a flaw to be had here, it is a blind faith that this system performs good stewardship and cannot degenerate into mindlessly pleasing the most insistent (who become like Veruka Salt) or be gamed to produce desired outcomes- states that should be guarded against.

Remember that good stewardship is not just limited to literally land and livestock. It applies to the things of the soul also, and that means works of culture. Just as it is wrong to pervert such a thing into a propaganda outlet for Satanic propaganda, so is it wrong to blindly use it to serve up whatever is demanded without thought for the common good or for posterity- and it is this latter trap that I see as the current flaw in the design for anime, and that flaw is a sign of a problem with the Mammon Mob.

These are not insurmountable challenges, but they cannot be overcome by doing what's being done.

Signal Boost: The Next Combat Frame XSeed Campaign Is Live

My editor and Friend of the Retreat, Brian Niemeier, has launched his crowdfunding campaign for the next Combat Frame XSeed novel.

And if you haven't gotten into this series, then you can buy a backlist bundle as a Perk when you choose to back this campaign; dive right in while you wait for the new book to arrive in your inbox or at your door. The very popular Build-a-Mech Perk is back, but you've got to act fast; limited slots, and two are already gone as of this post. Further, you need not worry about it not happening; the goal's already met, so this is going to go down and now it's all about those Stretch Goals.

While you're waiting for more Star Knight, XSeed will keep you thrilled and entertained. You won't be disappointed. Back this today.

Narrative Warfare: Motte & Bailey Defined & Demonstrated

This video focuses on the examination and employment (especially in practice, with examples provided) of a dishonest Rhetorical technique commonly used to trap targets in the manner of a Franz Kafka horror story. This goes on frequently online, such that "online debate" is synonymous with "virtual lynching" and as such you see online cults form around such Rhetoricians and be weaponized against designated targets. This is the basis for deplatforming attempts, failed and successful alike, and you will see this narrative warfare used in mainstream media once you see how the magic trick works.

Why? It works. Quoting the video's creator: "A lot of people are naive about the damage done to your reputation by these smears. I've reached out to multiple people for interviews who have told me privately they can't associate with me even tho they have no personal problem. Everytime the accusation is thrown, the stench of the smear gets a little stronger."

This is about power, and this tool is a core component to how men like Saul Alinksy seize and hold it.

#StarKnightSaga Lore: Terra, Center of Galactic Christendom

MOVED to the Study.

Narrative Warfare: Pooh Steals While The West Is Distracted

When Corona-chan began her world tour, observers noted that this would be exploited by hostile actors to advance their interests. The most obvious example has done so.

Prior to the aforementioned world tour, the protests in Hong Kong against a pro-CCP local government and its Beijing masters were loud, frequent, and massive. That momentum got broken overnight (as was the case with the Yellow Vests in France, but that's another post), and with the pandemic came the excuses needed to expand state power and lockdown all of the opposition therein.

Recently the local government, with its CCP plants, blatantly used thugs to keep out anti-CCP members and elements as it rammed through measures with dodgy legality to give the state legal sanction to use whatever force is required to exterminate the protests and all other forms of dissent in Hong Kong. Decades before the "Two Systems" agreement would expire, Beijing has ended it unilaterally while the West is unable to stop it from doing so.

As Black Pigeon notes, this is not done out of a position of strength. It is weak and vulnerable, and this move does not end this threat but only snuffs out the most obvious and closest instance thereof. It hopes to use the Social Credit system to psychologically condition, Pavlovian style, to obedience; Beijing is not wrong, as Chinese history is full of successful examples of state power used to subordinate the population to obedience via coercion by means of access to libertine indulgences. (Seriously, it's replete in their own media, current and pre-CCP.)

And Taiwan is noticing. While Beijing has neither the naval nor the air power needed to make a military invasion viable, that is not necessary. Economic warfare is sufficient, as is information warfare, and Taiwan knows it. Expect a change in attitude to come out of that state in the near future, reflected soon thereafter by attitude shifts to Taiwan, especially as the economic weakness of the ChiComs becomes openly acknowledged in the media and with it a lack of fear or concern of appeasing the ChiComs- in other words, for more states to act as Trump has and get hard-nosed about dealing with them.

But that's not yet reflected in Western media. It will once it becomes clear that the pro-Beijing narratives aren't going to be born out by reality, so expect the narrative to shift against them around the time Summer turns to Fall.

Narrative Warfare: A Man's Simple Wish

It's Memorial Day Weekend. Time for a simple post.

That's it. Enjoy the holiday, my fellow Americans, and purge the Truhits.

The Business: Tabletop Game Companies Dropping The Ball

The other day I posted a new BattleTech lore video. I mentioned that the channel posting that video did more to promote BattleTech than anything that the current owners of the property--Catalyst Game Labs--have done. All of the other lore channels and battle report channels contribute to this effort, and it helps that Harebrained's adaptation is very close (but not identical, which it should have been) to the tabletop game, but there's sweet fuck-all for marketing from the company itself.

This is a mistake.

Compare this to Wizards of the Coast. While not good for getting how play actually goes across, and its effectiveness in converting watchers to players is dubious, there is no doubt that promoting livestreaming of tabletop play online at places like Twitch or YouTube has done a great deal to promote the game and brand to the population of gamers. This is critical now; if you do not have an active, if not agressive, online presence and build your products to use online then you're leaving money on the table and gimping yourself- even Games Workshop are getting the memo now and they're utter Boomers about it.

Yes, that's a brand new trailer for a brand new (9th) edition. Yes, that debuted in a livestream event. Yes, it's there to promote the game via new developments and revisions (and model releases). This is the effort that is now necessary--not in specific media, but in attention to detail and expression of care--to promote a tabletop game because tabletop games not only compete with others of its niche, but with all other entertainment options worldwide. Catalyst Game Labs could achieve the same end cheaper just by making stronger use of social media, as Wizards of the Coast made use of streaming media to get the same end cheaper, via curating the best miniature painters, lore videos, product reviews, cosplayers, etc. and use their power of Officialdom to make those fan expressions go viral.

But no, because reasons.

Those reasons inevitably come down to "I don't wanna" and "I don't get it".

Is this a business or not? If it is, then "I don't wanna" isn't an option; you do what is required of you or your business takes a dirt nap. You either learn what is required or you hire someone who knows what you need and delegate the task to them. Tabletop gets away with so much incompetence because the barriers are low, manpower needs are low, and you can reliably substitute crowdfunding patronage for actual business acumen for a very long time.

Yes, I just threw a shitton of shade. Deal with it.

The fact remains is that this is a struggle for attention. We are now in a business environment where online attention is necessary to success, and logistics tools are now available to ensure that people can play the fucking game at any time with anyone anywhere sourcing physical components from anywhere to ship to anywhere. Small companies, and that is all tabletop companies that are not Games Workshop or Wizards of the Coast, need to make full use of what audience they have to promote their game products and that means that having a good man managing the social media outlets is vital.

If your game has a strong and distinct visual presence, one that lends itself to cosplay, then encourage cosplay at public gaming events (conventions, usually) that flies the flag and promote the best of them on your social media accounts. (If your game doesn't have such a thing, make one; you're screwing yourself good and hard.) If your game instead lends to modelling, encourage and promote modellers to model your stuff and promote that. As soon as you can, get sanctioned costumes or model kits out there. Encourage your audience to repeat your curated posts and share your videos.

This is a time where Word Of Mouth is easy to engender if you put for the barest amount of effort, and it is appalling that so many tabletop companies can't be bothered.

Let them burn. Just as you don't give money to people who hate you, don't give money to people who can't be bothered to try. Wizards may be pozzed, but they still try.

My Life In Fandom: The Shadowcast Talks '70s Comics & More

The Shadowcast returns for another episode.

In episode 6 of The Shadowcast, we review the legendary Denny O'Neill & Mike Kaluta DC Comics Shadow series form 1973... and discuss what the new Doc Savage TV Series may mean for The Dark Avenger!

Yes, there are other podcasts about The Shadow, but Razorfist's series here is still worth subscribing to and keeping up with even if you otherwise don't care for the man's opinions. Also, if you want those Shadow reprints before they go out of print, you want to go here and order direct.

My Life In Fandom: (BattleTech) The History of the Clans, Part 2

Black Pants Legion premiered a new Ted Talks Battletech video, Part 2 of the history of the Clans. Put your regular shows on hold. This delivers.

Seriously, this man and his pals has done more to sell BattleTech than Catalyst Game Labs has and CGL should be cutting him a fat check for doing their marketing for them.

And if CGL had the sense God gave a gorilla with Down's Syndrome, they'd be doing whatever it takes to start putting out BattleTech comics (Webtoons-friendly stuff, meaning vertical panel flow) to build hype and brand presence they could take to Netflix for an anime adaptation deal. But no, CGL's run by morons who make Capellans look brilliant, so we're just going to get a barely-functional business for the tabletop and some occasional instances of decent videogame adaptations.

This is why, in time, Brian Niemeier and I will surpass these aging mecha properties.

Narrative Warfare: Deer Humiliation Follow-Up

The following comes from Anonymous Conservative's blog post today.

In the comments yesterday, about the story of the transgender who identifies as a deer being promoted to an oversight position on a social media platform, Uncompliant writes:

Stories like this lend real credence to your argument, AC, that Cabal controls hiring and careers. People all over struggle to find jobs. But now we read that being a transgender gets you a job and, importantly, self-identifying as a female deer does not disqualify you from getting a job. Amazing. Promoting these sorts of stories are, of course, helpful propaganda to spur the mentally weak into considering transgenderism.

That tripped the old memory of the cognitive neuroscientist who showed up on 4Chan. He said, decades ago he had been hired on with a team of PhDs, to a research project on monkey social behavior. He later realized it was a Glowie project which had gone on to infect all of our culture, from movies to news stories.

He said they discovered and documented how primate brains were wired to mimic whoever they saw in a leadership or dominant position, and it happened in many without thought or conscious awareness. They saw a leader, and whatever that leader did, they absorbed it unconsciously and began doing it themselves – and wanting to do it themselves.

He said they concluded it evolved as a cognitive shortcut, so rather than have to expend all sorts of brain power to think and understand, you could just look at those who succeeded, and do what they did, and that would kind of lead you to the same successful outcome.

And now we have a culture where people who are more dysfunctional than anyone else could possibly be (so dysfunctional they should be unable to attain any type of success), advertise their dysfunction openly, accomplish no real accomplishment or apply no real effort, and all of a sudden life-successes, resources, and societal accolades, and even leadership positions over mere plebes, just fall in their laps, as the unseen hand lifts them effortlessly up the ladder ahead of everyone else.

Then picture social media influencers, who don’t show years of hard work building important things for no immediate pay or recognition, but rather show that you snap a couple of pictures, act vain and narcissistic, and millions of dollars and national accolades rain down on you instantly.

And all over a plethora of weaker minds subconsciously begin examining all of them, and developing a deep psychological desire to exhibit the most obvious traits they exhibit. It is fascinating how they are setting up hundreds of millions with neurons designed to fail and be unable to succeed, and none of the victims will ever figure it out, or be able to stop them.

(AnonCon does Wall-o-Text on the regular; I took the liberty of cutting up the source wall into more digestible bites and linking to yesterday's post so you can scroll down--way down--to read the comments yourself.)

It's weaponized Monkey-See, Monkey-Do.

This works. Advertising and marketing wouldn't be a billion-dollar industry for a century now--and it has been a century--if it didn't. The praxis of psychology is propaganda, and advertising is propaganda, so weaponizing it would inevitably result in it being turned to Satanic purposes by inverting everything a functional civilization requires to be at all and turning it into a vehicle for annihilation.

As stated previously, this inversion also works to conceal the network that makes this dysfunction persist. While it's literally playing Point Deer Make Horse with us (and it is, all but literally, right now) it's putting people in their network into positions they want covered. By removing merit as a criteria, any bungler who kisses sufficient ass can be elevated; most of the network relies on the network for advancement, as they are routinely incompetent in themselves, so by humiliating the general population and demoralizing them the network conceals itself in the rising pool of piss-poor performers united only in keeping the rest under their boot.

If AC is correct, and he usually is, then we can expect an explosion of dangerhaired weirdos and converts thereto to push up into public view at Twitch while they're normie-looking counterparts quietly reshape company policy to favor them first, then the whores (i.e. Alinity will have to work harder for that special treatment), and drive out anyone with the sense God gave a diseased and retarded Rhesus monkey. It will take the form of a Preference Cascade; so it won't come immediately, but down the road all of a sudden it's Clown World: The Streaming Site and any pretense of it being about gaming will be gone- and by then you can count on YouTube being non-viable as well.

The way the network runs is to not be public-facing about this until the backend is secure, but the network is also filled with incompetent bunglers. If it weren't for its size, the network would not be able to work at all; this means that there are effective ways around the problem. Start with cutting Twitch out of getting your money; don't use Turbo, don't subscribe to streamers directly (Twitch gets a cut), don't use Bits (ditto)- find another way to give streamers you support your money that cuts Twitch out. If the streamer doesn't have any such options, push for it; most will be happy to accomodate you. (Yes, it will likely be PayPal or some other compromised method; we have to work with what we've got.)

DLive and Mixer are not ready for prime-time yet, but they exist and will be happy to pick up Twitch and YouTube's slack. I'm on DLive nightly for the Killstream, so I'm already there; Mixer has Microsoft issues, but if they are serious about taking advantage of Twitch's inevitably upcoming mistakes they'll refocus on strictly gaming and brand accordingly- and stay that way.

So don't despair over the Fake Deer. It's a sign that corporate cancer is real, and Twitch has it bad, but if it kills Twitch that's not the end. And remember:

Narrative Warfare: The Fake Deer Signals Far Worse To Come

Author and friend of the Retreat Brian Niemeier wrote a post his blog today on Twitch's new Head Witch of the coven that is their Trust & Safety Council.

Translation from the Death Cult ritual cant: pic.twitter.com/36Fbf0Efvg

— Brian Niemeier (@BrianNiemeier) May 20, 2020

This is, in itself, as comedic as it looks. What people are missing is that this is the signal for an upcoming campaign intended to humiliate its users, a campaign of witchcraft, and witchcraft requires witches to work. The enemy, for whatever reason, has to signal to a target that the attack comes before it's done; this announcement is just such a signal, and the appointment is meant to be to put willing operators of a machine into position before turning it on.

There are several videos covering this man's confession of an eagerness to wield that power against his enemies--against us--and despite Twitch's claims that he has no power to ban or restrict users, the reality is that Trust & Safety is taken as gospel by the enforcers and acted upon without question. Few of them do more than mention his connection to, and affiliation with, the Anti-Defamation League.

This, folks, is why he is there. He's the link to the ADL and its vast network of media-savvy influencers and narrative-shapers.

Consider this to be a sign of worse to come. This is happening just as EA is working on an "anti-fascist" campaign in the EU to do the same thing there that we're seeing with Twitch. That the announcements are coming out now means that the behind-the-scenes scheme is done; they're operational now, and the push to make monsters out of ordinary men, to make "Yes" into "No" and other inversions of reality will soon be thrust forth like a Chaos incursion.

And yes, FanTube--in typical fashion--misses the threat and thus doesn't see the frame for what it is outside of some simpering optics-cucking.

Refuse to accept the man's frame of being female, nevermind being a deer. You cannot win if you can't declare the truth, and the truth here starts with calling this sick man what he is and condemn who he is.

Narrative Warfare: Intellectual Property Is A Weapon

The Excellence of Elocution cut a video on the Public Domain.

He's not a fan.

It's not a bad argument. The position that weakening intellectual property protections--he talks mostly of patents and copyrights, but this can be applied to trademarks also--is a major reason for American decline in critical fields isn't one to be dismissed easily. The cause-and-effect relationship between strong enforcement and speed of development is present, but I think that's more due to being a signal over government confidence than anything else; the comparison between ChiCom domestic enforcement vs. international predation is the point that is most telling of this being the case.

But I'm reminded of Beige Shiba and that dog's Schmitt posting of late. That's Carl Schmitt, by the way, the man who had to do the work to break down intellectually what most people do by instinct.

The degree to which intellectual property is respected is subject to friend/enemy distinctions. In most political operations, enforcing or denying them is a signal that a target is a friend or an enemy, and the actual effects of (non-)enforcement are either ignored or desired. The ChiComs enforce the rights of those subservient to them, and deny those of enemy actors or designated prey. The West is more sly about doing this, but does it nonetheless; the entire legal framework for reverse-engineering is evidence of this.

The only thing protecting most small-timers' IP is the need to maintain the confidence with the public that the system works. This means just enough general enforcement has to happen to keep the machine churning, but push come to shove if you're on the wrong end--even if your ducks are in a row and the rules say you're more solid than granite--you're going to get screwed Because Reasons without being strong enough to do your own enforcement the old-fashioned way.

That's the reality here. The drug patents are being targeted because the political conflicts push the pharmaceuticals into an enemy distinction, and enemies don't get the protection of law. We see this with ChiCom copies of Western technologies (badly done, most of the time), including Russian ones; we saw this previously with American copies of enemy technologies (e.g. illegal copying of the Mauser rifle design), and there are others. Further complicating matters are that judges and lawyers, in addition to often being tech-illiterate, are just as vulnerable to friend/enemy distinction as anyone else and acting accordingly; this reality makes blindly trusting the courts to be a foolish thing. (Let me emphasize "blindly" here; it's something else to know what you're dealing with.)

But, so long as that distinction isn't tripped--this is a disagreement between insiders and not in/out conflict--then Razorfist's argument has its merit. Public Domain has not been kind to what is within it, save for those faithfully reproducing works falling within it to keep them being available, and those faithful are few and far between. Keeping a work perpetually under copyright may be better in the long run, but that's something to be seriously argued once the present Civilizational crises are resolved.

My Life As A Gamer: The Pundit On Theater of the Mind

The RPG Pundit, Final Boss of Internet Shitlords, has an opinion on Theater of the Mind.

I've come to find that most people actually play the game as a game--as it's meant to be played--when the table looks like a game. That means a map, tokens (if not miniatures), and adherence to procedure. They associate the seeming with the substance, and while you can work around it using Theater of the Mind you're going to waste a lot of time not-playing because players won't pay attention when they should and you have to recap the situation time and again- something having that physical presence on the table prevents.

And yes, you can do that on the cheap. Paper map, paper tokens, pencil (not pen) to show facing/field of view. Get yourself a sheet of grid paper (a blank Car Wars map will do) and use paper tokens instead of any permanent markings to extend useful lifespan; collect tokens of all sorts to use with it and you're good for decades.

You can find Star Adventurer at DriveThruRPG here.

Narrative Warfare: A Psychology Made Manifest

Independent author Misha Burton had a good Twitter thread (starting here) that identifies why contemporary fiction sucks harder than a Hoover on overdrive. Reproduced below; emphasis mine.

There is a significant difference between fantastic fiction of the form "what if I fought a dragon" and "what if I were a dragon".

For this discussion I don't mean "dragon" literally--it could be magic spells or handwavium mutant superpowers.

But the old form of SF/F fiction pitted essentially ordinary people against extraordinary threats. The protagonists might be considered unrealistically competent by today's standards, but they were essentially human beings driven to achieve the impossible.

That has changed. The likes of the Vampire Lestat, the X-Men, and Harry Potter have become the new normal in fantastic fiction. The heroes no longer battle dragons, they are the dragons.

And I believe that we are poorer for it. The old heroes triumphed through their own efforts and so inspired their readers to greater effort. A child who grew up wanting to be like the Lone Ranger or Conan or even Batman could work harder to become great.

A child who grows up wanting to be Harry Potter sits and waits for a letter from Hogwarts. One can't become Phoenix through study and hard work, all you can do is wish for mutant powers. It's Lottery Ticket Fantasy, a dream that something will happen to you.

The winners are not those who get good at the game, the winners are those who get handed the cheat card. And in my opinion that's why so much modern fantastic fiction lacks any real tension. It's not about the character's efforts, it's about the character's identity.

This follows a rant I had earlier this week on how the Right routinely misses the true value of university education where colleague Rawle Nyazi pointed me to an article a few years back in a lefty rag about how the SJWs are a thing arising out of the very middle class that SJWs--being tankies--routinely claim to attack but actually serve because it's in their interests as a class.

Which, in turn, follows a common thread of commentary at Anonymous Conservative regarding Cabal moves to destroy everything merit-based (i.e. who you are) in favor of ID-Pol schemes where what you are determines if you get in or not. (Hint: Cabal's cohorts are not the bright bulbs; destroying meritocracy makes it easier for them to mask how utterly incompetent they really are since they rely on birthright to network their way through life, and they let competent plebs do the work they steal credit for.)

In short, what we're seeing here is a vast machine of patronage from top to bottom, start to finish, by one class--whom the lefty linked rightly calls "the professional managerial class"--against the rest. They adopted Lefty politics because it gets them in front of the threat of a worker's revolt, use SJWs as weapons to confine and control the rest, and don't give two shits about competence so long as they remain in control. It's r-selection made sentient, and can only arise in environments where r-selection is viable on a mass scale.

The literature Misha decries is this class's psychology in literary form. They win because it's their birthright to win; they are selected from above, not elected by peers or from below, so they don't need to put in any work other than what is required of them by their patron- and then only as directed by said patron. No amount of work put in by any outsider will avail them unless and until it violently crushes the network and they can't buy off the outsider.

It's no surprise, then, that the network simultaneously attacks all forms of social cohesion for outsiders while maintaining it themselves among their shot-callers and mitigating it for their chief assets. They fix the game from the start, execute double-standards with shameless aplomb, and laugh at the outsiders all the while behind closed doors as they mouth the platitudes aimed at keeping the rubes (us) in line.

And they get a perverse glee at symbolically smearing your faces in it such as by that very literature Misha decries. This ain't accidental at all, not after what they used the CIA to do decades ago (and still do to this day, via other means). Yes, even the famous ones, because humiliating the outsiders is part of how they exercise their power.

The Business: Post-Mortem on the RoboToad Campaign

The leading Hispanic voice in science fiction, Jon del Arroz, does a post-mortem on the RoboToad campaign in this video.

I'm making this post because independent creators are going to need to rely on crowdfunding as one form of patronage going forward, so it's good to look at what worked for others when preparing your own campaign- especially if they are in the same medium, same genre, or same cultural niche as you are.

Jon's analysis is a good one. First is that he doesn't get wrapped up in the numbers; he kept his objectives firmly fixed in mind when looking over the results. Second is that, being that he's done this before, he can quickly isolate why the results differ between past campaigns in the same category (past comic campaigns this time) and deduce how to make best use of those findings going forward. Third is that by making certain he had his ducks in a row before launching he made the risk of failure low, and the consequences thereof low, so that if he somehow fell short it wouldn't devastate him; risk management is not to be ignored.

I'll be keeping this in mind when I put my next one together.

My Life In Fandom: Sieg Mein Kaiser!

Thanks to the Trumpbux, I got something I otherwise would not have been able to get.

That's the limited edition premium boxed set for Legend of the Galactic Heroes offered by Sentai Filmworks. Yes, that price is equal to what you spend for a decent AR-15 or high-end revolver, but (a) you aren't charged for shipping and (b) no sales tax collected either. (Don't tell the government.) It arrived two days earlier than their email notifications or USPS's tracking indicated, which is great, and they put in a hand-written Thank You card for making the order.

Great experience. Would buy direct again.

Also, it's Thursday. That means a new Sabaton History episode. Yang Wen-li would approve.

Now to finish collecting the light novels.

Signal Boost: The #Killstream Gets McAfee

The Man You Can't Abort, Ethan Ralph, scored a big deal today with a live interview of John McAfee. This is the Killstream. Expect things to be salty and blue. Even if it didn't go as planned, that John appeared at all is a big win for Ralph and the Killstream. This right after getting Laura Loomer on just as she's running for Congress. You can't call the Killstream an irrelevant stream if it can--and does--score folks who get bigger media to pay attention to them.

The Killstream has had its up and down, and it is often rude and crude, but Ethan Ralph and his crew consistently deliver the spirit of the Virtual Wild West to those who miss its formerly omnipresence online and for that it's good that it's still around. Glory to the #Killstream. You Can't Abort The Retort. (If you need an alt link for the replay, here you go.)

N.B.: Due to past history with YouTube, Ralph streams on DLive. The YT channel is a volunteer associate that restreams and archives. I recommend the DLive link if you're going to be listening live.

The Business: Webtoons Proves Its Worth To Arkhaven

Below is a screencap from Webtoons regarding where Alt-Hero lies in the rankings.

And the Supreme Dark Lord had this to say about it:

Episode 3 of Hypergamouse is now live on Webtoons. Don't forget to subscribe to it, as that is the primary metric there and it will alert you when a new episode is uploaded. As you can see from the screencap taken this morning on the left, the more subscribers, the more the algorithm favors the comic, and the virtuous cycle continues. What is remarkable about that #4 ranking is that the number of episodes for the other top 5 comics range from 95 to 220. AH is on Episode 5.

That's a big deal. The SJWs have noticed; they're brigading Webtoons, and I expect (as does the SDL) that they're going to go for a Point-and-Shriek swarm attack hoping for an amenable authority on the inside to do the dirty work of deplatforming Arkhaven. While I expect most SJWs in SF and comics to be behind the curve, a review of Webtoons' public-facing personnel shows all the usual Tech Culture signs of them being likely to bend the knee under such pressure if applied.

(Which means that Webtoons stands a good chance of being forked if that happens, since the SDL and his tech minions have already figured what to do to clone Webtoons.)

The other takeaway here is that the SDL, and thus Arkhaven, enjoys a tightly-disciplined audience that is willing and able to concentrate effort to achieve extraordinary ends in extraordinary timeframes. This is a measure of enthusiasm and loyalty that cannot be discounted; it is to be treasured and nurtured, and the SDL does. He gets the importance of morale, and he makes certain it is high at all times. This is what makes the SDL bulletproof and he acknowledges it. Count on the subscription rates of Arkhaven's offerings to go up a little more now that the importance of subscriptions to the site metrics got made plain.

Two lessons: new disruptive technology should be embraced for competitive advantage, and disciplined audiences are far more effective than mobs of meh. This Webtoons episode shows that Vox Day understands both lessons very well, which is why Arkhaven--like Castalia--punches well above its weight class. Learn from this and apply as you can.

Signal Boost: "Galaxy Ascendant 7" On Kickstarter

Israel's leading voice in science fiction, Yakov Merkin, has a new crowdfunding campaign for Book Seven in his Galaxy Ascendant series.

For a whopping $14 you'll get all of the books in the series, including this seventh one when it's ready, in the ebook format you prefer. That's a steal. Go up to $27 and you'll also get the first book in print; for the same price, you get the option of getting the seventh in print instead of the first with your ebook bundle. There are Art Sponsor, Ship Builder, and self-insert Perks available. Click on the image and give Yakov some money; he's making the Space Opera that the Devil Mouse won't.

Signal Boost: The Pundit's New RPG & Arkhaven Goes Digital

Two things to signal boost today. The first is that the RPG Pundit has a new offering up at DriveThru RPG: Star Adventure.

The blurb says:"Celebrating the 100th issue of RPGPundit Presents, Star Adventurer is a concise exciting OSR game for running "space-opera" style adventures. Based on the mechanics of the world's first RPG and the rule-set of RPGPundit's Lion & Dragon RPG, Star Adventurer contains rules for creating unique OSR characters, alien archetypes, sci-fi backgrounds, psychic/mystic powers, space-operatic starship battles, and more!"

Click on the image to get to the store page.

The second is that Arkhaven Comics is now on Webtoons. Chuck Dixon's Avalon, Right-Ho Jeeves, Hypergamouse, and Alt-Hero are all there and updated weekly.

Vox Day had this to say about the recent launch of Arkhaven titles on this platform:

"As Arkhaven has embraced Webtoons - and if the backers want it, we are even considering our own custom site and app, which would be considerably simpler than SG2, UATV2, or Infogalactic - Marvel is retreating from web-based comics. (...) Vertical panels are the future since they display much better on smartphones. All of our comics are now being created and constructed with that in mind, even if they're not designed specifically as panels for vertical digital display."

Leave it to the Big Two to find a way to further shoot themselves in the foot by retreating from digital publishing in the wake of a collapse of their print business model. Arkhaven is wise to add Webtoons to their array of content delivery options, for the reason I quoted above.

I concur that going forward--and so long as the mobile tech remains focused around smartphones--vertical panel flow has to be accounted for in comics publication. If other big publishers elsewhere in the world get on board with this then the Big Two are done and dusted no matter what they do; they are unable to react fast enough to survive.

If you're into the indie comics scene, and you're not paying attention to Webtoons and others like it catering to smart phones, then you're leaving money on the table. If you're looking to get a comic adaptation of a book done, you're foolish to not account for this new media variation.

My Life In Fandom: "Shining Lights of Life", a Universal Century Tale

To quote where I found this: "This is a special feature that was made exclusively for certain re-releases of old Gundam titles in Japan. I think it's a brilliant video that everyone that wants to get into Gundam should see."

This special incorporates footage (however slight) from every Gundam film or series to date, including stuff from the first Hathaway's Flash movie, so this is new and it is likely meant as a 40th Anniversary thing. Most of the commentary is between Amuro and Lalah, and the perspective seems to start and end around Turn A Gundam's era.

But that's not the interesting point. What is interesting is that this attempt at focusing on the themes linking it all together, starting with with the calendar shift from A.D. to U.C., inadvertently echoes the core theme of Gurren Lagann right down to Man's spirit being the driving factor (and weaponized by mecha). It even invokes evolution, down to an implied spiral, to end on all of this suffering be ultimately redemptive and the future to come being something truly wonderful.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

And Amuro, being the downbeat voice, does point out how all of this seems pointless. He's doing something important. He's pointing out that there is a missing, necessary, component that Lalah blithely ignores- again, by implication.

This isn't just two characters in dialog. This is a national culture arguing with itself, and not wanting to look at the long-haired foreigner inviting them over to fulfill that need, but they're going to sooner or later.

And I just found out how the Church brought Space Japan on board in Galactic Christendom's backstory.

Narrative Warfare: Failed Bombings Are Still Bombings

And now, a bit of good news, courtesy of The Quartering.

Filed under "Get Woke, Go Broke", it's good to see that this pozzed variant crashed and burned. Some good news on a Friday is a welcome thing.

But.

The Death Cult finds this acceptable insofar as they retain control over the company, even if their Humiliation Ritual-as-Boardgame didn't go as desired, because crashing the organizations that they converge is part-and-parcel of the praxis of their creed. That's because these moves are cultural suicide bombings, and even failed bombings make an impact upon the target.

So long as the pushback doesn't cause them to lose ground on the moral level of conflict-which is where the Death Cult operates from--then it won't hit them where it hurts them because pain is not damage and they care about pain. Fortunately, we can do both.

Until a critical mass of opposition is willing to actually fight back and not just complain, these moves by Hasbro and others (e.g. Naughty Dog) will continue. Once people get comfortable with actively tracking where their money goes, we can make more moves of our own and make them stick.

My Life In Fandom: The Living Goddess of Music Has a YT Channel

In case you missed it, there is an official YouTube channel for Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts.

Late last night/early this morning (Central Time) these two videos went up on the channel. Since it opened last week they've done four of these at-home performances that Yoko produced into the videos you see, plus the one they did with a whole bunch of others for a Cowboy Bebop tribute. Watch for yourselves.

Yes, in all three Yoko appears. No, she doesn't sing, and for the "TANK!" video she's literally toasting half a bagel and eating it while chilling in her bathrobe as she plays on her keyboard. That's a level of amused mastery that most men never achieve.

That spirit is how I picture her doppelganger behaving in my books, and it's good to see it in action. More of that to come.

Subscribe to the channel, and if you're a musician that's keen on getting in on the action then you'll want to follow the link in the Description.

Narrative Warfare: "Centralized Quarantine", Sure Jan

If you want to see what's being seriously discussed in the mainstream media regarding dissenters and Corona-chan, here you go.

The author is a lefty journalist expat living in Hong Kong, so he's got direct contact with what both the local Hong Kong government and the ChiComs in Beijing are doing to the population there, and as a review of his feed shows he's taken quite well to Chicom Totalitarianism. Being a good little Baizao, he's all set to use plausible deniability as a cover to push a narrative of all-seeing social controls coupled to economic controls (financial and physical) as being necessary and proper for all governments to corral and control all populations everywhere at all times.

No, that's not much of an exaggeration.

Yes, he's claiming it's a temporary measure and that you'd be confined to a hotel room--paid, well enough--for your quarantine stay, but we can see from the stick he's getting that everyone with two brain cells to rub together knows what this really would be used for: pretext to, and means for, disappearing dissidents. As there are plenty of Karens out there ready to be Stasi Suzy, we have a ready-to-go ratline network to ID them so this is no hypothetical threat.

We can see the scam for what it is. Using historical events, and previous quarantines, to sell--yes, sell--this poison pill to the gullible while signalling to fellow travelers to pick up this ball and run with it if it makes any gains is a basic tenant of Narrative Warfare. We'll see soon enough if this gets chosen to push when other word-whores put out their own (not-so-)plagiarized hot takes on the idea.

But make no mistake, the folks using Corona-chan's wild world tour as pretext to be yet worse tyrannical shits has them all taking off their masks and revealing that they are petty tyrannical shits fit only to be taken to Minecraft servers, given peaceful sunsets, and then--like the stick-bundles they are--show the warm embrace of the pyre.

Narrative Warfare: Convergence As Leverage

Dictor Von Doomcock, FUTURE RULER OF EARTH, wasn't in good spirits in his video today that talked about Culty Kathy's new Mouse Wars show. I agree that there is a power struggle going in Lucasfilm and the Devil Mouse, but what I want to address is what is only briefly talked about in FanTube, and that's the concept of leverage.

If the question is brought up at all, it is speculated that Kathy's got something on Iger that he would rather keep quiet and the price for Kathy's silence is his acquiesce to her plans. Given that we are talking about the CEO of one of the most powerful mass media corporations on the planet, that cannot be dismissed out of hand, but I think there is a more likely alternative.

As RetroBlasting pointed out over the weekend, corporate types have a certain psychological profile to them that makes them very susceptible to joining the Mammon Mob. This same psychological profile also makes them easy for a Death Cultist to manipulate them, and this manipulation involves some good ol' fashioned gaslighting.

Consider that Bob Iger, being a CEO, lives in an environment as divorced from the everyday reality of common people as any of the celebrities that he does photo ops with during PR campaigns for major company launches. Culty Kathy, being someone else who swims therein, knows that environment. Consider also that both Iger and Kathy know the social norms of this environment, which rely heavily on optics and persuasion to build and maintain one's face with the public- especially with the media. Now consider just how converged by the Death Cult this environment is, and whom said Cult proclaims is more worthy in its dogma.

All it would take is a text from Kathy to any friend, protege, ally, or famewhore looking for a crumb of clout that Bob terminated her contract and kicked her out of the Devil Mouse and within 15 minutes there would be the first volley of a constant stream of coordinated hit-pieces in every mainstream media outlet attacking him. Social media gets on board, and suddenly Facebook and Twitter (etc.) go full retard against Iger and for Kathy. If he did this at 5pm Eastern time it would all over the news online before 6pm and all over network TV and radio by 11pm Eastern; if he did this on a Friday, come Monday morning Disney stock would be tanking hard when the stock market opens and the orders go in- and that gets him nastygrams from the Board of Directors.

If Iger doesn't outright own that board, there is no direct action Iger can do to get rid of Kathy without blowing himself up, and I think we can guess that he doesn't by his actions. If Iger wants her gone, then she's got to be seen as the Head Bitch In Charge and she gets the blame for Lucasfilm's failures while more favorable parties (whose face, right now, is Favearu and Filoni) quietly please the actual customers and thus give Iger something to point to when the time comes to mercy-kill her tenure and boot her out the door- taking the Yay Ray Crew with her.

That's the leverage I speculate is in play here: Kathy's using her superior status in the Death Cult, which dominates the Devil Mouse empire, to make Iger do as she wants. Iger knows the game, so he's got to craft a narrative where she forces his hand, and he's got to give her rope to hang herself with until that point gets reached--likely due to a shareholder revolt--and until then all he can do is keep Favearu covered.

There's a lot to take in here, but we can start by not giving Culty Kathy or the Devil Mouse money because they hate us. Get yourself a copy of the book for more.

My Life In Fandom: #MayThe4thBeWithYou To Something Better Than Mouse Wars

The Devil Mouse wants to leverage its influence in the Pop Cult via some social media campaign. It wants you to be good paypigs and give them your money.

No, my fellow disappointed fans, you should be shunning Culty Kathy and the Yay Rey Crew. Walk away and go elsewhere, to places where the spirit of Uncle George's former glory found new places to flourish. What those authors wrote varies, as some like this part of George's space opera and some like others, but nonetheless you'll find something familiar as you explore the new- as George did in the '70s when he took the spirit of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, the Lensmen, John Carter, and the other greats of yesteryear to make that which is now defiled and ruined by a treacherous witch and her coven of craven collaborators.

Narrative Warfare: Half-Savage Bullshitting

The leading Hispanic voice in Science Fiction, Jon del Arroz, has words about Tor darling N.K. Jemisin.

OldPub is a shitshow due to all the race-baiting bullshit going on, and Jeminsin's Hugo wins--while routinely getting shat upon in the marketplace by indies--underscore just how converged the legacy paper-based business is these days as well as how useless winning the Hugo has been for a score of years now.

And Jemisin has done nothing to dispel the notion of being a half-savage half-wit, but rather to confirm it. She's a house pet for Tor and its dominant clique, a status that will endure until either she is no longer pleasing to her owners or her owners have their paper distribution monopoly collapse out from under them, after which she will be swiftly forgotten in favor of competent counterparts.

And everyone knows that the real heart of Afro-Futurism is in the music world.

Nah the problem is there's bullshit afro futurism that's written by fat black school marms in upstate New York babbling on about victimhood, and then there's what the male black public really wants in their afro futurism: pic.twitter.com/pVKltja7Gy

— Grames Barnaby (@overunderwriter) May 3, 2020

Because SJWs don't sell. Indies writing for actual readers looking for entertainment sell, and those readers don't give two shits about what SJWs peddle. That's why they hate #20BooksTo50K. Someone badly needs to say this to these SJWs. Might as well be me.

Narrative Warfare: A Profile On The Mammon Mob

RetroBlasting cut a video that nails the psychology of the Mammon Mob that feeds into the Death Cult and how the former enables the latter.

To quote Brian Niemeier, author of Don't Give Money To People Who Hate You: What sets the Mammon Mob apart from political ideology and into the cult category is its adherents' elevation of practical political matters to articles of faith. Ignoring clear and obvious winning political moves such as supporting student loan debt forgiveness on the grounds of National Security (which is the case, due to economic predation by hostile traitors and foreigners) is one current expression of this cult's dogma. Brian's gone into others in the linked post above.

It plays into the Death Cult because, like the Pop (Culture) Cult, it is ultimately a false materialist psuedo-religion that ends in nihilism and nihilism is the Death Cult and it is no surprise that Mammon Mobsters are the sorts described in the Retroblasting video: men ultimately of Gamma mindset (whatever their relative status where they are) and the women they enable, running on the same envy and spite that Death Cultists run on- and thus ultimately stemming from the same deficit of character, and thus spawned from the same source.

This is why "Get rid of the SJWs" is not sufficient. They'll just recoverge down the road because they know how to seem agreeable to corporate Mammon Mobsters, as they are all fellow travelers serving the same end via different means. You have to purge the business environment itself of the Mammon Mob, and that means far more fundamental restorations of old prohibitions--including their severe enforcement mechanisms--such as Usury being banned and regular debt jubilees. In short, you can't have this problem if you salt the soil upon which it grew.

In the meantime, we can stop being paypigs--which is how the Mob sees us--and do as Brian's book says. Speaking of which, you find a link here to buy yourself a copy.

Narrative Warfare: "Fuck You, Dad!" Drives Convergence

Midnight's Edge has done a lot of good reporting this week on what's going on with the Devil Mouse, but this video is where it comes together.

This is not me coping with the murder of a franchise. This is me giving confirmation of what Brian Niemeier puts forth in his new book, Don't Give Money To People Who Hate You.

There is no other way to put this: Kathleen Kennedy hates George Lucas, and once she got what she wanted out of him she turned on him and set about destroying what he built in an envy-driving orgy of "Fuck You, Dad!" destruction. Rather than make this about Mouse Wars specifically, let's take this up a step to the pattern of Death Cult destruction in general, as what we see here (and in gaming we're seeing now with The Last of Us) is hardly unique or even uncommon.

The drive for the Death Cult, and its SJW front group, to destroy cultural icons great and small is entirely out of envy and spite. The replacement of those icons with their own propaganda wearing those icons as skinsuits is not either; it is the expressed goal.

pic.twitter.com/kDEJQepPmb

— Resetera Takes 🏳️‍🌈 (@ReeraTakes) April 30, 2020

Kennedy's goal with Mouse Wars was to kill Lucas's creation, skin it, and use it to clothe Death Cult propaganda for future generations as a tool of indoctrination. That insiders are now coming out to confess that she--not Rian--was the driving force behind The Last Jedi is as hard a confirmation as you're going to get short of hearing it straight from her mouth. (That the women are deliberately defeminized to appease the trannies remains a rumor, however it's hard to argue against it given what's been going on recently.)

Industry Veteran States Women are Made Ugly to Appease the Trans Community | #GameDev #IndieDev #ArtistDev #Convergence #Rumor #RumorWatch https://t.co/jZFMZrsHzK pic.twitter.com/55Byrl8sVh

— One Angry Gamer (@OneAngryGamerHD) April 29, 2020

The pattern is a simple one to follow now that we've seen enough of it. A lying, bitter, but either connected or charismatic Death Cultist takes over a property. They hate all that it is about because it expresses some combination of healthy, normal morality in action so they set about replacing established characters with new ones that express Death Cult ideology or change the existing ones into such. The holdovers are often killed off literally or metaphorically to make way for the new Woke versions. The result is either that the audience--which is also intended to be a replacement for the existing one--embraces this as It or (more likely) that it crashes with no survivors and leaves a ruined crater as the audience abandons it in disgust. It's hardly a new pattern; it's as old as Mankind itself.

EITHER RESULT IS A SUCCESS FOR THE DEATH CULT

Sure, they'd rather have the propaganda outlet, but mere destruction is acceptable so long as it denies us some source of strength by which we can resist them. That's why it is folly to rest your identity in popular culture instead of far stronger stuff, backed by far more powerful forces; the Death Cult uses the Corporate IP Death Cycle to its advantage because it is the path of least resistance, and they converge in a now-predictable pattern for the same reason. There's a lot to be done, but the second part (after not giving them your money) is to become a hard target across the board.

It's an anti-religion of envy and spite born of thwarted pride, echoing history's original Gamma: Satan. Now that we have the profile, we can deal with it. Handle that shit.