A few days ago, racist skeezeball fantasy author Vox Day noted on his blog just how nice it would be to have a handy public list of all the people he hates. Sorry, a list of “confirmed SJWs.” It would be a handy resource, he said, both for SJWs looking to hire other SJWs, as well as “for those who wish to keep their organizations free of the creatures.”
You can probably figure out which of these two reasons is the real reason for the list, and which is the utterly transparent fig leaf.
Vox helpfully suggested that anyone seeking to make such a list could start with the names of those who signed a petition condemning a scheduled speech by programmer Curtis Yarvin at the upcoming LambdaConf, on the grounds that Yarvin, also known as Mencius Moldbug, is not only a programmer but is also “a founder and advocate of an ideological movement that promotes racist bigotry,” not to mention “an apologist for slavery.”
No sooner had Vox made this suggestion than a such a list appeared, in the form of a Wiki (archived here), featuring the petition-signers and a handful of other alleged SJWs. Vox claims not to have a direct hand in what the site rather misleadingly calls The Complete List of SJWs, attributing its sudden appearance to his followers — or, as he likes to call them, the “Dread Ilk.” But this is clearly the beginnings of the enemies list of Vox’s dreams.
So how does one get on such a list? The listmakers themselves don’t seem altogether sure. At first, they declare that
[t]he SJWs listed should be on the record supporting censorship of some kind (no platforming, government censorship, or disemploying people). This is not a place for grudges.
In the wiki’s FAQ, they reiterate this point, saying they will only include those who have
publicly called for someone to be fired, disinvited, shunned, no-platformed, or otherwise punished or silenced for refusing to submit to the SJW Narrative. The particular incident is linked to your name in the list.
Immediately after this pronouncement, though, they declare that the list will also contain the names of those who have declared themselves SJWs, as well as journalists who’ve published “articles that support the SJW Narrative” — whatever that means — “or an SJW attack campaign.”
So far they have not been following these rules very carefully. Some names appear on the list with no information given about their alleged “incidents.” Others are included, well, apparently just because Vox and his Ilk don’t like them.
The list also maliciously deadnames several trans women, attempting to justify this despicable policy by suggesting that these women are using “pseudonyms in place of their actual, legal names in an attempt to obfuscate their identities.” This is obvious nonsense.
So who makes the list?
The vast majority of the names on the list are simply people who signed the LamdaConf petition.
But there are some other, more recognizable, names. John Scalzi, a science fiction author who has long been Vox’s greatest nemesis, makes the list, naturally; the listmakers blame him for Vox’s expulsion from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, though it is perhaps more accurate to say that Vox was expelled for being a huge racist dickhead.
Cartoonist and memoirist Alison Bechdel is included on the list because, 30 years ago, she drew a comic strip in which one of the characters said she only went to movies that featured at least two female characters who talk to one another, at least once, about something other than a man.
This comic strip is the origin of what’s now called the “Bechdel Test,” but Bechdel herself never publicized the “test,” the idea for which (as she freely admits) she got from a friend.
Actor, writer and geek icon Will Wheaton makes the list for Tweeting comments defending actress and Geek and Sundry founder Felicia Day, a friend of his, after a Destructoid writer, apparently drunk, made some ignorant and misogynistic remarks about her. The writer was fired, as drunken dickheads who do stupid things when they’re drunk sometimes are. “This tweet exemplifies [Wheaton’s] SJW status,” the listmakers sniff.
Writer, and former Jeopardy champion Arthur Chu is on the list because he jokingly referred to himself as “a social justice stormtrooper” and because “he is alleged to have been responsible for the bomb threat that disrupted the #GamerGate meetup in Washington D.C. on May 1, 2015.”
That’s right” “he is alleged.” There is absolutely no evidence, or even a good reason to suspect, that he had anything whatsoever to do with the alleged bomb threat. Gamergaters essentially decided to accuse him of making the threat because they don’t like him. And that’s good enough for Vox’s listmakers!
And then there’s Carpenter Brut, a composer included on the list because he objected to his music being used without permission in a virulently anti-refugee “documentary” titled “With Open Gates: The Forced Collective Suicide of European Nations.”
This 20-minute propaganda film is essentially a collection of out-of-context video clips edited together into a melodramatic montage by an 8chan user who debuted it by posting it to the notoriously racist /pol/ board; it’s been pretty thoroughly debunked by, among others, Snopes.com (which declared it “deceptive”) and Vice (which described it as “a mishmash of comically fake and out-of-context footage, bad subtitling and Islamophobic propaganda”).
Brut objected to having his music in this piece of garbage, so now he’s on the list.
Perhaps the list should be renamed The Complete List of Really Pretty Decent People Who’ve Offended Vox Day by Being Really Pretty Decent.
I note that David isn’t on the list, even though his “Beale hates me” credentials are better than almost all of the Lambdaconf petition signatories. (Including me, though I’m not on the list for some reason; I signed it early and everything.)
The thing that I find the most amusing about this is that most of the people behind the list would consider themselves to be against ideological purity and “call-out culture”. I’d like to be on a list of people who are enemies of that level of hypocrisy, but it wasn’t to be this time.
@David, you’re more or less correct about the etymology of “social justice warrior”. The Urban Dictionary entry states:
Social Justice Warrior. A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will “get SJ points” and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are “correct” in their social circle.
The SJW’s favorite activity of all is to dogpile. Their favorite websites to frequent are Livejournal and Tumblr. They do not have relevant favorite real-world places, because SJWs are primarily civil rights activists only online.
In other words, some of them are dropping the pretense that there’s any kind of high minded ideals behind libertarianism and just admitting they want to be a selfish asshole and do anything they like with no consequences?
I love how these whiners keep going on about “no platforming”, as if people are entitled to a platform to speak from. College campuses may indeed be a place that champions the free exchange of ideas, but no one is entitled to be able to speak on a college campus (certainly not for a fee). The revocation of a speaking gig is not an infringement on the rights of anyone, bc there was no such right to begin with!
Sort of makes sense. Intellectual property is something that can only really be defended by on a national and international level, not by sitting on your porch with a shotgun.
On the website, it has a link to a page of “resources” for those who have supposedly been “victimized by SJW mob attacks.” Oh the irony.
I will never, ever understand the alt-right. Or the right at all.
@Dalilama
“Right” libertarianism is the only libertarianism; “libertarian-socialism” and its assorted Bakunin/Chomsky-flavored variants are bullshit, so far as I’m concerned.
Relating to “SJW”-I have debated with a lot of right-wingers, racists, and misogynists. Both online and at my school. Every time I ask them the question of why social justice is bad when all it is is about helping people who are disadvantaged, they always without fail give some vague explanation that usually boils down to “freeze peach” and “I should have the right to do whatever I want, whenever I want, to whoever I want. And you should have to right to ignore it and/or object to it.”
*no right. Damn this new computer…
Hey, David? Wil Wheaton spells his first name with one L, not two. I’m sure it’s a common mistake, but as someone who spent years getting her last name misspelled, I tend to notice that sort of thing. 🙂
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-emblem-anti-american-judge-flag-case-38349889
I guess unless they are also confederate fanboys they won’t claim that the SJW’s
/dun dun dun
are slowly taking away their culture (of racism).
“No platforming!” say the people who would probably delete all the comments that disagree with them on their websites.
Blockquoting Mammoth got to me, I guess.
I’d probably be on the list for my heavy mockery of hyper-masculinity, all of which can be summed up as:
Beards Suck, Bacon Sucks, and Batman Sucks.
Because if something so much as a razor or a vegetable can utterly destroy your fragile masculinity, then are you really a man in the first place? Likewise, if you’re so damned scared about people who are not white and male being treated like human beings, were you even a decent human being in the first place?
Also, I just think superheroes like Batman are ridiculous… And well, kinda lame.
Translation: Spouting whatever obnoxious shit is currently the vogue in neo-Nazi circles.
Also, wow, is Teddy-boy ever butthurt about “narratives”. Surely not because he’s a crappy fiction writer whose ass got kicked nine ways till Friday by a much more competent author who happens to be politically to the left of him? And because he himself got no-platformed at the Hugos because, well, he’s a crappy dreck writer in general, and a crappy right-wing dreck writer in particular?
This is sort of your problem, @Dustin!
Your opinion does not define whether something is valid or not. It does that on its own.
Hey, Dusty…
Also,
Your opinions = stupid boners, as far as I’m concerned.
Beards and Batman are amazing! How dare.
/sarcasm
Oh wow, Dusty’s back? I didn’t even see you there, Hi Dusty!
Looking forward to the entertainment you always bring. Go ahead, tell us another opinion!
*gets popcorn
Heeeeeeeeeeey, I like beards, bacon, and Batman! Or rather, beards can be nice but have to be maintained, I like bacon but it has to be cooked to my taste (it’s not good just because it’s bacon), and I think Batman is pretty neat. Of course, it’s easy to write him as The Almighty Gary Stu that Always Wins Because HES SO EDGY N XTREEM.
I recall Arthur writing about postmodernism and new sincerity a while back. I think it’s okay to just like or dislike something without really knowing why, but analysis isn’t wrong. It’s not a zero-sum game of either “put no thought into something” or “write a college thesis about it”. But I’m a dumb white kid, so take any opinion I profess with a grain of salt I guess.
I could also add “beer sucks” to that line…
But it isn’t just an “attack” on hyper-masculinity, it’s also a bit of a commentary on the whole New Sincerity movement from someone who’s hanging out in the world of Post-Modernism.
It seems like a decade ago, we were all wanting to dissect and deconstruct things to better learn about them. We wanted to explore different cultures and sexuality to not only see differences, but to see what was the same. Things like “masculine” and “feminine” were merely constructs of society; things meant to be broken down and analyzed piece by piece.
But then the whole “things need to be sincere and ‘authentic'” came to being, and now people treat everything as if it’s “true and pure”, ignoring the fact that these things, like gender roles, are nothing more than utter bullshit.
Of course, New Sincerity minds are such “cute” things. They’ll complain about how we don’t care about the forest, yet demand we make “real books” from paper as opposed to using e-readers or how we use synthetic materials to make furniture rather than wood.
Irony is going to make a comeback, and it’s not going to be pretty.
@FrickleFrackle
Ninja post. And you read my mind…
But what you said about Batman pretty much is the reason why I can’t really enjoy him. Superman isn’t much better either. In fact, most comic book superheroes seem sort of Gary Sue-ish.
@Arthur Maybe it’s related to the whole “Natural™” thing? You know, how there’s people that say natural is always good? Ignoring that technically, anything can be called natural, you know what’s natural? Snake venom! And hell, heavy metals are pulled directly out of the planet. Can’t get much closer to Earth than that!
Also, I think the whole “New Sincerity” thing has a point, I mean you see these edgy fucks who’re so busy CRAAAAAAWLING IN MY CRAAAAAAAAAAAAWL that they forget to enjoy stuff. Of course, you shouldn’t go the complete opposite direction, because then you actually bother reading chain Facebook posts and inspiring spam emails. And it also pisses me off how so many fans of MGS hate MGS2, whereas I actually quite liked its plot twists.
I’m guessing there is some history with Dustin around here.
Beer does suck though…
Too young to drink, and don’t see the appeal of it. Why yes I would like to drink either wheat tea or fruit juice that makes me act dumber for several hours, please!