Yeah, I don't call myself one either
Mr. John Scalzi explains, in considerable detail, why he does not call himself a feminist. Even though he is. He just doesn't deserve to call himself one. But don't think he cares what anyone thinks, because he doesn't. And if you don't believe him, he'll write another 12 posts about himself just to prove you're wrong.
This is the best part: "I am delighted to annoy this category of status-anxious, woman-fearing moron." The President of the SFWA calling anyone "status-anxious" and "woman-fearing" tends to strike one rather like Charles Manson saying that someone else is "a little out there".
I am a feminist in the most general sense of believing that women are entitled to the same rights and privileges as men, with everything that implies in terms of access to education, economic opportunity and personal liberty. However, as far as I know most people don’t use the term “feminism” in this most broad of definitions, either positively or negatively. This is another reason I don’t tend to use the term to apply to myself.Ye cats. This post was poorly titled. It should have been "Quick Notes on My Personal Effeminacy" or perhaps "Delving Into the Depths of My Navel: the Self-Portrait of a Gamma Male". Anyhow, if John wants to call himself a feminist, he's certainly got my permission. I don't happen to call myself a feminist because feminism is the only ideology that is more intellectually incoherent than communism and more societally suicidal than the Skoptsy.
A third reason I don’t apply the term feminist to myself is that, again to be blunt about it, I don’t think I deserve to. I know myself well enough to know where I fall down on the subject. On a very superficial level, I’m wary of touting myself as a feminist and then doing something that shows my ass on the subject in a very public way. Best not to set myself up for such a fall.
On a slightly deeper level, I know the personal journey I’m taking in terms of my relationships with women, individually and generally. I’ve always tried to be a good person to women in my life, and to women in general, but there have been times I’ve fallen short of those goals, through ignorance or through being (for lack of a better term) a dick. I work at these things. I keep working at them.
This is the best part: "I am delighted to annoy this category of status-anxious, woman-fearing moron." The President of the SFWA calling anyone "status-anxious" and "woman-fearing" tends to strike one rather like Charles Manson saying that someone else is "a little out there".
Labels: freakshow
98 Comments:
It's one thing to work on treating the fairer sex in a gentlemanly way, with a sort of bemused interest.
It's quite another subjugate oneself to the whims of a lady.
There are somethings which you don't have to work on. If you have to "work on them", then it's probably not a natural behavior.
Testosterone Poisoning...
tee hee hee
I can edit it down to four words: I lack a dick.
I vomitted in my mouth and then cried at how ashamed his father must be.
This new age is all about encountering on a daily basis the "where do they find these people" people.
Holy cow. What the hell happened to that poor slob? I mean, geez, that level of pussywhippitude is just embarrassing.
Men tend to have pity on poor, whipped souls like Scalzi, but women find weak, passive men nauseating. My wife once told me, "You know why I married you? Because you are the only man who ever had the balls to tell me to go to hell."
We're now entering our third decade of happy marriage...
The reference to Skoptsy was the only interesting thing about this post. The wiki page proved fascinating reading.
It's the little things that keep me coming here.
Vox you are the master of the riposte. Nicely said.
"The Skoptsy huh? Never heard of that. Think I'll just Google it and read up on-OH GOD! OH GOD WHY! DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN, NOOOOOOO!"
Speaking of gamma males, there's enough of them in the computer programming world too. The latest drama as a result of vocal white nerds standing up for the perceived downtrodden: Brit Ruby Conference 2013 cancelled due to lineup of presenters being all white males.
And all it took was a tweet of criticism by one gamma watchdog to set things off!
https://gist.github.com/4106776
The instigator here: https://twitter.com/joshsusser
There wasn't even an actual complaining "victim" either. A white programmer in San Francisco made one tweet after looking at the lineup and the whole drama ensued! If that's not a community of gammas, I don't know what is!
Only from McDonalds. Special sauce withheld for liability reasons.
Vox, some knowledge needs to be lost and burried forever, because of what you mentioned I just saw a woman with her tits cut off on a Wikipedia page, what the f**k man?
That was like your dad giving a blow by blow account of your night of conception, some things should not be known, ya know.
"..woman-fearing moron."
It's always the fear-as-Projection-thing with these spiritually infantile, Nature haters.
"Traditional conservatism exists to prevent women from believing their own BS." (I wish I had said it first, and unfortunately I don't recall who did, although quite possibly one of the ilk).
Beaver
Latin name: Castor
Other names: Bievre, Fiber
Hunted for its testicles, it castrates itself to escape from the hunter
Allegory/Moral:
If a man wishes to live chastely he must cut off all his vices and throw them from him into the face of the devil. The devil, seeing that the man has nothing belonging to him, will leave the man alone.
--- The Medieval Bestiary
Speaking of gamma males, there's enough of them in the computer programming world too. The latest drama as a result of vocal white nerds standing up for the perceived downtrodden: Brit Ruby Conference 2013 cancelled due to lineup of presenters being all white males.
And all it took was a tweet of criticism by one gamma watchdog to set things off!
https://gist.github.com/4106776
The instigator here: https://twitter.com/joshsusser
There wasn't even an actual complaining "victim" either. A white programmer in San Francisco made one tweet after looking at the lineup and the whole drama ensued! If that's not a community of gammas, I don't know what is!
There is simply no way that his wife is not cheating on him. None. Whether it's with a man or a woman is difficult to determine however.
He needs to wear a shirt that says "Unworthy To Call Myself a Feminist" -- just to show that there is something more abject and self-abasing than a man wearing the "This Is What a Feminist Looks Like" shirt.
A few days ago I posted on this exact topic. My point was not so much that everything Scalzi says about women/feminism is wrong. ( Scalzi loves the straw man: Usually he combines a few reasonable statements with a broad generalization that cannot be defended.)
However, the tone and frequency of these posts strongly suggest a self-serving motive.
On a related note, Scalzi has a tendency to assign the blanket labels of "moron" etc. to anyone who dissents from his hyper-politically correct pronouncements. As readers of his blog will know, Scalzi has cultivated a following of like-minded individuals that chime agreement with everything he writes.
When a dissenter posts an argument that Scalzi cannot refute, his immediate response is to apply his "mallet."
I don't know if Scalzi read my post; but the timing is worth noting.
http://onewordtrimnell.blogspot.com/2012/11/john-scalzi-you-doth-protest-too-much.html
You know that when a guy uses the term "personal journey", he is far beyond help.
However, the tone and frequency of these posts strongly suggest a self-serving motive.
Without question. In the linked post, the entire subtext underlying "why do I not call myself a feminist" is "how is it possible that I do not when I am indubitably the paragon of a public champion of women".
Which, of course, is why I find his status anxiety projections to be so transparent and amusing. He's got all the classic poor scholarship kid made good issues; I don't recall his family background but he shows every sign of having been raised without a father.
Ed: The use of the word "assbag" is a good indicator also. Is this guy 13?
Sca cannot be serious. Is this attention seeking or a complete refusal/disconnect from reality?
What is this man's obsession with his ass?
What little I know about Scalzi leads me to believe that he's a broken "Venus in Furs" fanboi.
When a man goes to this lengths to try to justify himself and his beliefs as not being a feminist, you know he is.
Just pathetic. And I second Spacebunny's comment about the cheating wife. Probably why he is trying the justification route. Reality cannot be faced yet.
"I vomitted in my mouth and then cried at how ashamed his father must be."
Castricv
Ha ha. Me too. And then I pondered what his father must be like.
Well, I just had to. Here is a copy because I doubt it will be there long.
Let me get this straight. You admit ignorance on a topic yet appear to prostrate yourself and worship at its altar while simultaneously claiming that men who do claim to have more knowledge then you and are willing to put it out there for everyone to see and critcise are some how lacking?
And yes, I know, you won't get this.
Those times when you were "being a dick" were probably the only times you appeared to have one and were at your most attractive to women. We heterosexual women are not attracted to other women nor those who walk around trying to appease every single one of them. We see it as a weakness, we find it unattractive in a man that we want to be sexually active with and form a long term relationship with. That is why this type of nauseating placating is fine for a Mother/Son relationship (for awhile) but not for a Husband/Wife one.
But we will be happy to have you cheer us up on the days we feel fat and to carry furniture for us.
Ah, that is better. Now I shall take on my day.
Susan,
I hate to say it but it kind of sounds like he found out she is cheating and he is trying to figure out how to fix himself so that he can be a better man. I have seen it happen before.
I do not wish it on him, just it smells that way.
And as for his Father, let's just say that this underscores the need for Fathers in the home and involved and RUNNING things big time.
Experience has taught me not to Google anything unfamiliar in one of Vox's posts at work.
You know that when a guy uses the term "personal journey", he is far beyond help.
Hey... I have a Deeply Important Personal Journey every morning around 10am. That is when I retire to my fortress of solitude to engage in profound contemplation.
I can edit it down to four words: I lack a dick.
I'm pretty sure he's also missing a pair of balls.
Went back for a second reading of the post and found myself thinking that Scalzi's words have the same pathetic tone that Phil Donahue or Alan Alda would spew back in the day.
It is so sad when a man gives up his man card to try to please femogynists.
I seem to recall a time - maybe it's a figment of my imagination? - when Vox had a vaguely positive attitude towards Mr. Safwa.
femogynists
Department of redundancy department approves.
But if we are into neologisms, I'd propose "supremagynists".
"Heh November 19, 2012 8:45 AM
...
Hey... I have a Deeply Important Personal Journey every morning around 10am. That is when I retire to my fortress of solitude to engage in profound contemplation."
...and drop a deuce.
What? That's what fortresses of solitude are for.
I seem to recall a time - maybe it's a figment of my imagination? - when Vox had a vaguely positive attitude towards Mr. Safwa.
I kept an open mind and gave him a chance. There is no point in completely dismissing someone simply because we met in conflict. But once he stopped criticizing me and started casting ludicrously false aspersions on the entire readership of this blog, I was done with the little chump.
He's much more amusing than PZ, in that PZ knows perfectly well that he's overmatched. PZ just can't resist the temptation to take a shot from time to time, which is fine. I'm not entirely sure that the Scalzoid does. Johnny's never quite recovered from being the smart scholarship boy looking for validation from his female teachers; now women are patting him on the head and telling him how brave he is, so how can he possibly be wrong?
@AP,
Was it not clear that dropping a deuce was exactly what I was talking about?
Sometimes the world asks a load of questions.
Seems like the world knows nothing at all.
The world is near, but it's out of reach.
Some people touch it, but they can't hold on.
-- David Byrne
Ya wanna define... so say so, so say so.........
Vox,
Somewhat related: here and here.
VD said: "Johnny's never quite recovered from being the smart scholarship boy looking for validation from his female teachers; now women are patting him on the head and telling him how brave he is, so how can he possibly be wrong?"
Yes, they are patting him on the top of his head, but no where else. Being a recovering White Knight, it is disgusting to recognize it in other men.
But once he stopped criticizing me and started casting ludicrously false aspersions on the entire readership of this blog, I was done with the little chump.
We love you too.
I don't recall his family background but he shows every sign of having been raised without a father.
This is true - his "complex" relationship with his single mother has been detailed over the years. He openly tolerates her Christianity as he would a mild mental illness. He was pretty insecure about their poverty and his status vis a vis an ability to be "worthy" of other women.
Back in my dating days, I would judge manliness based on how safe I felt with the guy walking somewhere at night - adequate protector and all that. I certainly wouldn't feel safe walking with Scalzi. Good grief. It's hard to read that article without eyerolls.
Scalzi is so creepy.
Back in my dating days, I would judge manliness based on how safe I felt with the guy walking somewhere at night - adequate protector and all that. I certainly wouldn't feel safe walking with Scalzi.
I'll bet he would feel safe with you, though.
"Ye cats..." I picture Mr. rapistlike-wit, drinking tea, with his head serenely placed upon his woman's shoulder, wondering how wonderful it would be to have ovaries. That would make a great poster.
The only think funnier that Ye cats was the picture that popped up on google when I had to look up Skoptsy.
let's just say that this underscores the need for Fathers in the home and involved and RUNNING things big time.
Agreed. Maybe he's jockeying for position in what he perceives as the inevitable ascendence of a matriarchal society.
Recommended reading (PDF download): The Garbage Generation ~ Daniel Amneus.
It's an older book (1990), but still relevant and well worth reading. I had a few minor disagreements with the author, but I'd have to read it again (I will. It's been 20 years.) to remember exactly what they were. If you read nothing else, read chapter one and it's annex.
Those who are like Scalzi and call themselves feminists know absolutely nothing about the past.
My grandmother, b 1900, held a bachelors AND a masters in mathematics. She was born in a line shack on the OK-KS border. She grew up is early OK, a real man's world. Yet, nothing held her back. The claims of the feminists and the libruls (sic) are bogus crap.
Just within my family I have a multitude of these same stories. Women consistently doing whatever they chose throughout the 20th century.
I applaud those feminists who choose job over family. Their sacrifice will improve the human race because they remove themselves from the gene pool.
"More intellectually incoherent than communism..."
Hear hear.
"More societally suicidal than..."
I am unfamiliar with that word. I wonder what... what the fuck... I don't even...
Who?
There is simply no way that his wife is not cheating on him. None. Whether it's with a man or a woman is difficult to determine however.
Good grief, you mean he's married?!!? That's even worse. I can understand a loser without a woman in his life going on in Scalzi's fashion out of ignorance and subjected to the yammering of pop culture, but living with a woman in the house ought to cure any man of such idiocy.
Roundtine and DT
I can edit it down to four words: I lack a dick.
I'm pretty sure he's also missing a pair of balls.
Actually I'd say he's All Dick and No Balls.
I am unfamiliar with that word.
I, for one, call that entrapment.
There is simply no way that his wife is not cheating on him. None. Whether it's with a man or a woman is difficult to determine however.
they probably just call it an open marriage so it sounds like his idea.
there is soemthing so revolting about a proudly weak man. If he can't stand up to his woman, how can he stand up for her?
Scalzi is the sort of assclown who ruins things for all men, because stupid women start believing his bullshit. My fervent hope is that he spent his youth getting stuffed in lockers, and at least has an excuse for being the pansy he's become.
Back in my dating days, I would judge manliness based on how safe I felt with the guy walking somewhere at night - adequate protector and all that. I certainly wouldn't feel safe walking with Scalzi.
Back in grad school, a girl told me about another guy who had insisted that SHE walk HIM home late at night through a vibrant urban area.
I questioned her sanity.
I did not question his manhood - I knew for a fact he had none. That was the single most dickless male act I'd heard of in my life. Any man with a single atom of self-respect would set himself on fire before asking a woman to walk him home.
(Yes, he was a short and puny weakling but that is no excuse.)
@VD: "I kept an open mind and gave him a chance. There is no point in completely dismissing someone simply because we met in conflict. But once he stopped criticizing me and started casting ludicrously false aspersions on the entire readership of this blog, I was done with the little chump."
Scalzi was always left of center. However, there was a time when he could maintain at least a glimmer of an open mind on things. His blog used to be frequented by commenters of all political persuasions, and he generally allowed dissenting viewpoints. The Whatever *used* to be a place of genuine discussion.
What has happened over the last few (4~5) years is that Scalzi's loyal commenters have moved him even farther to the left. Now, instead of thoughtful people who happen to be politically liberal, you have leftwing wingnuts. The conservative opposition is pretty much gone there. He might allow a softball token rebuttal or two; but any comment that seriously challenges his worldview is dismissed as racist/sexist/homophobic/insert-your-favorite-smear-term-here.
I think that part of this is calculation on Scalzi's part: The popularity of his blog has been the driving engine behind the sales of his novels, rather than the other way around. Also, consider the leftwing junta that dominates the Tor/SFWA establishment: Cory Doctorw, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, etc. All of these folks tilt far left. China Mieville and others in the British SF establishment are explicitly Marxist.
In short, it is very convenient to be of the far left persuasion if you want to have a dominant role in the science fiction publishing establishment at the moment. Scalzi was savvy enough to pick up on this.
I do seem to recall one of his posts talking about growing up in a single parent household with his mother and also being very poor somewhere in California.
However, there was a time when he could maintain at least a glimmer of an open mind on things. His blog used to be frequented by commenters of all political persuasions, and he generally allowed dissenting viewpoints. The Whatever *used* to be a place of genuine discussion.
Yes, I remember. I even used to link to it. But I stopped reading it when he began heavily farming out the content to others in frequent Big Ideas posts. I have the vague sense it was sometime in between that quasi-hiatus and his election as SFWA president that things went a bit loony.
In short, it is very convenient to be of the far left persuasion if you want to have a dominant role in the science fiction publishing establishment at the moment. Scalzi was savvy enough to pick up on this.
And yet not savvy enough to realize that the publishing establishment is rapidly becoming irrelevant. I would think that for him, being embraced by the establishment is more important than critical or even commercial success. I liked Old Man's War, though I didn't love it. But the two novels after that were bad; I didn't review them out of courtesy. He's really a gimmick writer, in my opinion. Which is fine, but it's just not something I find interesting.
Skoptsy: The former leader in societal suicide. Now, number two. They gotta try harder.
I could be wrong but me thinks Gamma dude is a Janidhu and a bit paranoid-schizophrenic, and was probably raped or abused as a child. Whatever the case I laughed my head off reading this post and his fucktard rants.
Razoraid, I'm reporting you to the Thought Police. You'll have to spend time in Re-Education Camp, and apologize to fucktards everywhere. You have sorely insulted them in comparing them to John Scalzi.
Heh, I'm sure I've already been reported duckman. Waiting patiently for the drones!!! [I luld tho]
Vox Day’s blog is cathartic for those of us who used to frequent the Scalzi blog, but now find ourselves in need to release Scalzi and his kind’s useless confabulations through our posterior and see it disappear in a whirlpool where all the inane ideas of the ineffectual should go.
“I imagine, there is a high correlation between the sort of dude who calls me a feminist, and who calls me a ‘beta male.’”
No, we think you’re a gamma male.
Spacebunny said it best, “How is his wife not cheating on him?”
Women find men like Scalzi repulsive.
It would not surprise me if the women in his life have him so well trained that he sits when he pees.
...by the way, thanks for the whole Skoptsy thing. Good Lord!
But the two novels after that were bad
I made a huge mistake picking up Zoe's Tale based off what I thought was a promising debut in Old Man's War.
Consider it - literally - Old Man's War: Teenage Girl Edition, in Young Adult Novel* form.
Holy cow. Nothing sucks adventure out of warfare and space travel like a main character whose chief concern is if her friends think she's hot. The fact that Scalzi could embody her so effortlessly is interesting...what is hilarious is that he wrote a note somewhere that writing Zoe was the hardest thing for him to do, not because he couldn't identify with a teenage girl, but because he could and he was worried he didn't have a right to exercise that gift.
The dude's got his hands full, mastectomy or no.
*No - I am unfortunately not talking about that long-forgotten but absolutely brilliant novel of the same name by Daniel Pinkwater.
what is hilarious is that he wrote a note somewhere that writing Zoe was the hardest thing for him to do, not because he couldn't identify with a teenage girl, but because he could and he was worried he didn't have a right to exercise that gift.
It's fascinating that his concerns often revolve around whether he has a right to be as wonderful as he believes himself to be....
[I lulz tho] /facepalm
Testing the SB hypothesis:
Exhibit A:
So, Krissy was out last night at a bar with some friends, and while they were there, some ambitious drunk got it into his head to start trying his luck with her, making all sorts of rude plays for her attention. She basically ignored him for most of the evening, until the point where the guy actually tried to touch her. At which point she shoved him up against a wall, jammed her arm into his throat and said, “I have had enough of you being rude and disrespectful toward women. The next time I see you, you will be polite and show respect.” At which point the dude started blubbering all sorts of drunken apologies.
Krissy let him live.
My wife rocks.
-- Raper John
"It would not surprise me if the women in his life have him so well trained that he sits when he pees."
The Herrentoilette awaits to be overtaken by Scalzi's conquering ethos.
Daniel-
Sounds less like somwthing that happened than Il Castrati getting carried away in role playing with his wife. Though to the positive is all this inspired me to get back to the gym after a few weeks absence
The popularity of his blog has been the driving engine behind the sales of his novels, rather than the other way around.
The annoying, smug, self-righteous leftiness of his blog (which I stopped reading in 2008 at the latest) is EXACTLY the reason I never bought any of his books. There was simply no way I was going to reward that obnoxious creature with my money. It also seemed odd to me that someone who wrote "military SF" would gratuitously offend a significant natural fan base (non-Leftists).
Oh well, when I vote my pocketbook, Scalzi's loss is John Ringo and Tom Kratman's gain...
He should get paternity testing of his children (bc they are unlikely to biologically be his) and figure out who to draw child support from. Then he'd be a feminist.
"Heh November 19, 2012 9:49 AM
@AP,
Was it not clear that dropping a deuce was exactly what I was talking about?"
I like clever implicative humor as much as the next over-educated slow wit. I use it all the time and many many people completely fail to pick up on it.
But I also cherish being a master of the obvious and sometimes the obvious needs to be stated for the full effect to take hold. Like ripping a fart in an elevator and then proudly owning it with a crazy grin on your face while telling everyone what meal caused the nasal assault.
Besides, you left off the punch line, seemingly on purpose. I saw that as you being generous to your fellow ilk so that one of us could provide it and be seen as humorously clever, if only in a small way. Oh how we love that, yes we do.
Yes, all those things.
One of his castrati cohorts spent some 1200 words trying to explain his own reasoning for joining the sisterhood.
http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/10/fanmail-faq-the-f-word/
“ladies shouldn’t feel obliged to shave their armpits just because of some fucked up societal pressures that started due to marketing campaigns back in 1915.”
Maybe Rothfuss likes turning around in bed and seeing pits that look like Kobe hitting a three.
@ Heh “It also seemed odd to me that someone who wrote "military SF" would gratuitously offend a significant natural fan base (non-Leftists).”
I still think he needed some kind of proxy to write military SF…..wait, Heinlein. It does make sense after reading his blog; he really did need to plunder the work of a much superior writer.
I can think of a word starting with the letter "F" that describes him perfectly.
If you're so "done with the little chump" why do you spend so much time responding to his blog posts on your blog?
If you're so "done with the little chump" why do you spend so much time responding to his blog posts on your blog?
Because he repeatedly makes reference to my blog, sometimes direct and sometimes implied, that people keep bringing to my attention. Do you truly not understand that Scalzi has, from the very first, been the one attacking me and my blog?
When I said that I was done with him, I meant that I stopped reading his blog. I haven't in years now. Unlike Scalzi, I don't even read Google alerts or whatever to inform me when other people write about me. However, people who do read blogs like his and Myers occasionally bring things to my attention, and sometimes I respond to them if it seems likely to be an interesting post for the Dread Ilk.
I'll take the blame for being one of the people who brought this blog entry to Vox's attention. No apologies for it either. In a round about way Gamma boy brought me to Vox Popoli. Scalzi linked to an article that was shitting on Vox once, so naturaly I thought, "well, who is this Vox guy?" So I can thank John Scalzi for making me aware of this blog. Thanks John.
Guys...a feminist is someone who believes women deserve to be treated like human beings. Who can disagree with that? I've been out logicked...bumper stickers FTW.
Because he repeatedly makes reference to my blog, sometimes direct and sometimes implied...
He seems much less aware of you than you are of him. Just saying.
Do you truly not understand that Scalzi has, from the very first, been the one attacking me and my blog?
I have no particular opinion about this, I simply wondered why, since you appear to find him so annoying, you bother to read and engage with his blog posts. But, if people are bringing them to your attention, then that would be why...
He seems much less aware of you than you are of him. Just saying.
That's because he pretends and I don't. Things are not always as they seem. John is a sensitive status-seeker who is very, very concerned about what people think of him. Me, not so much.
Me, not so much.
After reading this blog for a year, I disagree.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oops, typos in that last one.
We also like to read about the opinions expressed on socio-sexual hierarchy here, and we like to read examples of such. Scalzi is a gamma in that heirarchy and he likes flash his mangina whenever he has the chance, so we, liking examples and laughing at said example's expense, find it perfectly reasonable.
And yet Scalzi the gamma is happily married, happily friended, is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author (even though his books don't float my boat), presides over a popular and heavily-trafficked blog, and is pretty financially comfortable as well. Sounds like a pretty damn successful life to me....
Guys...a feminist is someone who believes women deserve to be treated like human beings. Who can disagree with that? I've been out logicked...bumper stickers FTW.
Wrong. From what I've perceived about feminists and feminism in general, it's someone who believes that women should be treated as precious, fragile, spoilt little children. No sense of responsibility. Everything must cater to their needs. It's all about "MY feelings, MY body, MY needs, MY interests, MY concerns!"
"And yet Scalzi the gamma is..."
Nothing of what you subsequently mentioned has anything to do with being a gamma. There's lot of successful men out there who are gammas as well.
After reading this blog for a year, I disagree.
That's fine. But ask yourself this question. If I am status-seeking, why in the world did I become a libertarian when my family was Republican inner circle and they wanted to groom me to eventually run for Congress? Why would I oppose mainstream economics when I would be writing for the Wall Street Journal if I simply parroted either Friedmanite jargon or Krugman's saltwater version?
If I'm attention-seeking, why do I never do TV interviews, book signings, most radio interviews, or even attend any SF/F conferences? My publisher had to twist my arm just to get a picture out of me for my next book.
And if I'm concerned about what people think, then why do I defend so many ideological positions that every bien-pensant believes to be hopelessly Neanderthal? I mean, come on, I openly express doubts about evolution. Do you seriously think I don't know what every college-educated person thinks of that? Or do you imagine I'm just more concerned with my standing with Bible thumpers in Alabama?
Sounds like a pretty damn successful life to me....
That has nothing to do with his position on the socio-sexual hierarchy. John is extremely driven to pursue success because he needs it for validation. That's neither good or bad, it simply is.
John and I have very different perspectives on success because he grew up poor, but went to a private academy and was exposed to a more comfortable life. Like most poor kids in that situation, he desperately wants that. On the other hand, I went to a private academy and knew my father could have bought me 100 Ferraris when I graduated from high school. And I not only wanted to get as far away from those people as I could, I have repeatedly put entire oceans between me and them. Think that's a coincidence?
It's little wonder we don't see eye to eye. John was an outsider who wanted in. I was an insider who wanted out.
"There's lot of successful men out there who are gammas as well."
Is a 'gamma' like that giant radioactive turtle in the Japanese monster movies?
Just tryin' to get a grasp of the nomenclature here.
"John was an outsider who wanted in. I was an insider who wanted out."
RIFF RAFF/MAGENTA: We ask for nothing.
DR. FRANK: And you shall HAVE it, in ABUNDANCE!!
Doesn't have a direct bearing on the topic, I just love any excuse to spotlight that line.
Gawd, what a fun little movie.
Not to mention this blog is about as politically incorrect as you can get. Which makes it entertaining and enlightening, but I imagine it’s far from the type of stuff that garners you respect and adulation with the other members of the SFWA.
Status in a niche group is still status.
"A third reason I don’t apply the term feminist to myself is that, again to be blunt about it, I don’t think I deserve to. I know myself well enough to know where I fall down on the subject. On a very superficial level, I’m wary of touting myself as a feminist and then doing something that shows my ass on the subject in a very public way. Best not to set myself up for such a fall."
Logically-related statement heard by some people that couldn't be more different than the author:
That's when people explicitly inclined toward Objectivist thinking call themselves "Students of Objectivism" rather than Objectivists, something Ayn Rand herself encouraged. I'm surprised noone else caught this.
And hes still at it over there in a new post. Also he can't seem to grasp how his constant commenting on the subject is incongruent with his claim of not caring
"I've been out logicked...bumper stickers FTW."
Most anything from the left (or political cultists in general) is a heart-on-sleeve bumper sticker ideology. Folks tend to choose their politics and wear them that way since actual, unpredictable conversation is a bit too scary and difficult for most Bubble Boy adherents, and may lead to rethinking the logic of said tenants.
Hence why Vox tends to highlight the end-result of most SWPL ideology, particularly feminism, by reminding them that the future belongs to those who can (or even bother to) show up for it.
"That's when people explicitly inclined toward Objectivist thinking call themselves "Students of Objectivism" rather than Objectivists, something Ayn Rand herself encouraged. I'm surprised noone else caught this."
In order to catch it, first you'd sort of have to give a sh#t about things that "Ayn Rand encouraged." And in order to care about anything Ayn Rand had to say, you'd have to be a silly person.
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