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Fantasy author Theodore “Vox Day” Beale has been called many terrible things. A “racist shithead.” A “racist dickhead.” A “human garbage pile.” A “sentient colostomy bag.” “A racist numpty poopgoblin.”
And those are just from me. He’s never complained.
But one thing he doesn’t like being called is a Nazi. He doesn’t like it so hard that when fantasy author Foz Meadows referred to him as a “neo-Nazi” in an essay on politics and fiction posted on the website of fantasy magazine Black Gate last week, Beale threw a fit, demanding that the site “remove this false, malicious, and materially damaging libel.”
Beale has been happy enough to associate himself with the alt-right, but insists he’s no Nazi, nuh-uh, no way:
I am neither a neo-Nazi nor a National Socialist, I have never been a neo-Nazi or a National Socialist, I do not belong to, or subscribe to the tenets of, the German National Socialist Workers Party or any subsequent facsimile, and I do not appreciate the libelous attempts of Ms Meadows, to publicly and falsely assert that I am “an actual neo-Nazi”.
Black Gate subsequently removed all but the first two paragraphs of Meadows’ essay; Amazing Stories picked it up, and it can now be found in its entirety on that site. (See here for more details on all this.)
Meadows has refused to retract her characterization of him. And so the lovely Mr. Beale called upon his fans to dig up personal information on her:
Beale has since deleted his request for “a complete report” on Meadows from his blog post, but you can still see it in this archived version of the post.
Meadows has reiterated her point:
– & further, that this definition isn't contingent for its validity on his agreement with me. It's not an insult, but a rational judgement.
— Foz Meadows (@fozmeadows) December 12, 2016
She also highlighted some of the terrible things Beale’s fans have said about her:
And in response, here's a rundown of some of what his commenters have said about me, with his sanction, in his space: pic.twitter.com/FTUv03rhHU
— Foz Meadows (@fozmeadows) December 12, 2016
As it turns out, the “someone else” she refers to — the person she linked to in her Black Gate essay — is me. The post in question is one in which, among other things, I try (and fail) to make sense of Beale’s puzzling declaration, in one of his blog posts from several months back, that “National Socialism” is a “semiotically useful form of German nationalism” yet also “suicidally stupid.”
Meadows sees this as evidence that Beale is indeed a neo-Nazi; Beale, for his part, declares that my post, “actually proves the precise opposite.”
Er, I don’t actually think that it does. What I think it “proves,” insofar as it proves anything, is that Beale likes to skate really close to the Nazi label without ever embracing it, always careful to put a bit of daylight between him and the “semiotically useful” but “suicidally stupid” National Socialists.
Does that make him definitively not a neo-Nazi?
I suppose that depends on one’s definition of the term. Some dictionaries define neo-Nazi pretty narrowly. According to Merriam-Webster.com, for example, the term means “a member of a group espousing the programs and policies of Hitler’s Nazis.” By that standard, I don’t think Beale could be classified as a neo-Nazi; there are, after all, some distinctions between the racist nationalism Beale espouses and the “programs and policies of Hitler’s Nazis.”
Dictionary.com has a somewhat broader definition, declaring a neo-Nazi to be “a person who belongs to a political organization whose beliefs are inspired by or reminiscent of Nazism.” Oxforddictionaries.com offers two definitions, one a fairly narrow one, the other quite a bit more expansive: “a person of extreme racist or nationalist views.”
By these definitions, Beale arguably could be classified as a neo-Nazi. He has embraced the alt-right, a group (if not a literal political organization) that is very definitely “inspired by or reminiscent of Nazism.” Richard Spencer, who came up with the term alt-right, was very clearly “inspired by” Nazism when he ended his now infamous speech of a couple of weeks ago with “hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory.”
And certainly Beale has “extreme racist or nationalist views.” Beale describes himself as a nationalist, and his racism is well-known. In one recent blog post, for example, Beale declared
that a black population in excess of an as-yet-undetermined percentage of the overall population renders the continuation of Western civilization impossible.
He’s also been known to rail against the alleged evils of miscegenation (also known by racists like Beale as “mudsharking” or “coal-burning”). In one blog post several months back, he mocked a white woman allegedly murdered by her black boyfriend, declaring “burn de coal, pay de toll.”
So, yeah, I’d call that extreme racism.
Nonetheless, despite his racism and other bigotries, despite his embrace of the Nazi-inspired alt-right, I’ve always stopped short of calling Beale a Nazi. Personally, I prefer to limit that term to those who have literal shrines to Hitler set up in their living room. I’m going to stick with calling him a “sentient colostomy bag.”
But if Beale thinks that someone calling him a “neo-Nazi” is guilty of “false, malicious, and materially damaging libel,” I think he’s going to have to take that up with the Oxford English Dictionary.
@numerobis
Yes, but you’re citing fake news that’s actually aimed at conservatives. I may be wrong, but I think the point of the article was that they tried to aim fake news at liberals. I don’t know, maybe something like, “Trump made friends with a priest in order to sodomize an altar boy,” and those kinds of articles still didn’t take off among liberals.
@Troubelle:
If you really want a bit of blue without the bleach, dark blues will often tint hair – so it’s pretty much the same colour but shines blue in the light. Directions Midnight Blue should be pretty good for that kind of thing, as well as many SFX dyes.
Iskadrow,
Thanks for that. It restores my hope in humanity just a tiny bit although it is still horrible that the case was only brought to trial because the victim did her own detective work. Even if the police were shitheads, at least the judge wasn’t. I wonder what, if anything the manuresphere will have to say about it.
@Iskadrow
Thank you for that one ray of sunshine.
@wwth
Something something false rape accusations true war on PUA gargle flargle.
“materially damaging libel” Really? because Neo Nazi’s are your core fan-base. I really doubt that anyone comparing you to them is going to damage you at all.
@ Iskadrow,
thank you for the link, what an amazing woman. I wish I had had that kind of courage when I was younger. But I’m happy for her, hopefully she’ll recover quickly and fully. <3 (This, to every victim)
OT: Dammit Oklahoma, stop trying to install Conservative Christian Sharia.
Toxic Vox sure does share a lot in common with Nazi’s. You know, for someone who doesn’t like being called one.
Gotta love it when “internet famous” people claim libel over speech, pretending that they’re somehow hurt by other people saying things… while asking for physical address of the other people to aim harassment at them. Actually no. Just more evidence of what VD actually is, really.
An internet troll who made good on one threat (to get things Hugo nominated that shouldn’t), and is milking that for all it’s worth. A few dollars of ad revenue per month, maybe.
(I’m aware that there are other things he’s managed to threaten and get done, some rather nasty, but that’s the one that counted as my introduction to hate hidden in pseudo-intellectualism and mystic incantations of nonsense new words)
I think Roz mentioned it, but as far as I’m aware, VD lives somewhere in the EU, where there are legal restrictions on being an actual nazi. Hence VD’s legal sounding refutation.
This is all amusing for two reasons
1) the Alt-right apparently “doesn’t care what you think”. Yeah, right up until we they you’re a neo-nazi.
2) for all his bluster, VD is clearly scared of country’s legal systems; it’s why he moved to Europe in the first place (his dad’s tax problems)
I’ve been getting a semipermanent turquoise in my hair, over my existing colour, for about six months now; the white bits turn vivid turquoise while the brown bits turn kind of dark sea-green. I think it looks great, and much prefer it to brown-going-gray. I do occasionally see younger people with single-coloured blue (or whatever) hair, and a few other older women with more pastel shades (generally pink/mauve/plum) over their gray. Very disappointed to discover this morning that this is actually a stereotype–not that I need to be a special snowflake, but I don’t like the idea that I’m unintentionally sending a specific signal by choosing to wear my hair this way.
What guy here who’s just married a black woman. I think I’ll add Vox to my xmas card list.
I tried to dye my hair green once. I have very dark hair, so I had to bleach it first. The bleach turned it bright ginger. I bleached it again and it turned like straw and fell out.
Misandry!
The moral of the story is, people with very dark hair shouldn’t dye it green. We should stick to pink or blue instead, as evolution intended.
Roger Stone is a close adviser of Trump’s. So Stone is celebrating how Trump got revenge on Romney for criticizing Trump harshly during the presidential campaign:
Donald Trump vetted Mitt Romney in order to “torture” him, says Roger Stone
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/13/donald-trump-vetted-mitt-romney-in-order-to-torture-him-says-roger-stone/
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, 85, launched sweeping liberal reforms in the USSR. He and his wife, Raisa, famously visited Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the White House. In a rare interview, he blasted the US and the West for gloating over the demise of the USSR instead of reaching out to help it when the government was crumbling:
AP Interview: Gorbachev says US was short-sighted on Soviets
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/be34f61c000346acb538c1e95815dd9d
Vox Day claims to be a Christian but he clearly embraces moral darkness and revels in it.
When I was at school a mate wanted to be a hairdresser. So we got to be his guinea pigs. All I can say is thank flip camera phones weren’t ubiquitous back then. I was the recipient of the ‘Howard Jones’ look; spiky blond on top, short purple below. I wonder if the reason I now shave my head is a subconscious thing to ensure that can never happen again.
(The guy in question went on to become very successful though)
Women are cowards, but real men(tm) do brave things, like tell their followers to dox their enemies while they themselves hide behind their monitors.
Vox Day’s shtick is getting old. I hope one day his hatred for the rest of the world reaches the point where he turns off his internet and never communicates with anyone again.
I should personally congratulate all white people who marry black people, just for helping to make him sad.
OT
Good news!
Looks like more electors are turning against Trump.
http://www.learnprogress.org/van-jones-army-trump/
Well Done Foz Meadows.
I’ve just bought Fantasy of Stars on principle.
🙂
A bit late due to slumber but….
@Headologist
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been considering a deep blue, but I haven’t gotten a definite on it yet.
Makroth : if they succeed, now what ? Regardless of how loathsome Trump is, he is not the diseases. We badly need to defuse the white working class ticking bomb, and starting by martyrizing Trump isn’t a good start for that.
(I mean “defuse” in any realistic way. I don’t mean being nice to thoses special snowflake, but radicalizing them further won’t achieve anything good)
@Ohlmann
Once again, it’s not the working class. It’s the rich.
As someone whose cousin is happily married to a black woman and is raising two beautiful daughters…
Up yours, VoxthePox!
kupo : once again, a solid 35+% of the population isn’t just “the rich”.
Also, the analysis it’s only rich white dude don’t resist to an actual contact with (arguably different since french) Marine Le Pen militants. My family is neck deep in that brand of assholitude, and I am way richer than any of them. I am pretty sure some of them count as poor.
OT. [CW : racism, sexism, homophobia – pretty much all of it]
Here’s my account of last night. This is Trump’s world now.
Insomnia forced me to get back up around 1:30am, so I did the most natural thing : I rolled a cigarette, got comfy and turned on the console, knowing Destiny (which I play on and off – I’m lucky enough that my group is great and not toxic at all and that’s a big incentive) had been updated.
So as usual, I join up with my friends as soon as I’m logged on. Well, friend, actually, because there’s only one online, middle of the night and all that. She already has two other people in her party. Two guys busy with “guy-talk”, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.
It’s well known among the people who play with me that I’ve got a few rules. People here would call those rules “basic fucking human decency”. Others call it “PC tyranny”. Y’know, basic things like don’t say “rape” when you mean “utterly destroy that boss”, for example. Normally, people who play with us abide by those rules, if only because our group is pretty fucking good, and you don’t wanna piss off allies who can carry you through the game’s toughest content. The aforementioned friend is especially skilled and available if people need help.
Anyway, soon as I get in, I get asked THE question : “if all women suddenly disappear from the world, will you be ‘the man’ or ‘the woman’ “.
Congratulations, dude. You managed to vomit a perfect cocktail of stupid before even saying hello. At that point I was still kinda high from the amount of weed I’d smoked (all that was left, really, but sadly not enough to put me to sleep) so I really didn’t wanna get confrontational. I just answered with an easy “Women are gone ? Yeah, fuck it, I’m going away too.” and thought they’d let me off their bullshit. But nah.
That went on for twenty minutes. Of course it was interlaced with all the racial slurs ever. I made a few clumsy attempts at diplomatically ending that discussion, but that backfired. Soon I was hearing all about the catastrophe of not having women around anymore for cooking and cleaning. And of course, a joke about how there’s still gonna be black people, so that’s fine at least. My friend remained silent the whole time, because she simply couldn’t afford to antagonize more people after her ex (formerly also one of our group) launched a very gamergatey smear campaign against her.
So we went on to race (they’d already been at it for a while before I got on), because racing is back for a month and we’re getting bored of shooting things in the face. Dunno what it is with racing in this game, but I fucking rock at it. No idea why, but I ain’t complaining : I’m a good PvE player, a somewhat decent (most of the time) PvP player, but where I truly excel is those Sparrow races – content that is only available in December. Hey, I get to shine during all of three weeks, so I’m glad for that.
Turns out one of the dudes was also pretty good at it, and “bored of winning”, and went on and on for the whole race about how we mere mortals were not an exciting challenge. Well sorry dude but this is my first race since last year, and this is a new track that I’ve never run before. Gimme 5 minutes.
I ended up 2nd place, a mere 0.20 seconds behind that guy. He actually fucking thanked me for providing a “good race”. Dude, there’s four of us in the group (another friend had joined, and the other stupid guy from before had left) and everyone tried their hardest and you kept shoving them off the track (rubbin’ is racin’, apparently – even if the others take great care not to do it to ya because y’know, it’s fucking rude especially among “friends”) because you can’t stand the sight of a woman ahead of you. But I’m a respectable opponent ? Dude, fuck you. Go validate somebody else for being worthy of your graces.
And then, there was the meltdown. I don’t even remember what exactly happened but at some point we were all fed up with the amount of stupid shoved down our throats. I called him out much more explicitly than before (took me a while to take the hint that he couldn’t take the hint) after another derogatory comment, and this happened :
“You’re all just PC nazis, that’s why you’ve all been crying since Trump won.”
Dude. Everyone in the group lives in France or Belgium. This ain’t Trumpland yet. Oh personally I’ve been crying, sure, but only because there’s goddamn literal Nazis on the way to the White House, not because PC-whatever-feminazi-something.
So that was about 13-14 hours ago, I got a few hours of sleep in the meantime. Mood hasn’t improved at all though. I just logged out, pissed off by some other random assholes. Starting to remember why I usually don’t play online.