Nazoid fantasy author Theodore “Vox Day” Beale has had some, well, interesting, if contradictory, responses to the carnage in Manchester. The one thing they all have in common? Utter moral bankruptcy.
In his first blog post after news of the attack broke, Day seemed to suggest that the victims more or less had it coming to them. “[T]he Killing Season has fallen upon the West,” he wrote. “And the post-Christian West cannot honestly say it does not deserve it.”
In a followup post, Day changed his tune, instead calling for the forced expulsion of Muslims and other immigrants from “the West” — a racist crusade he likes to call “Reconquista 2.0.” He explains:
Reconquista is the relatively peaceful, civilized, and historically-proven-effective way.
Day, himself an immigrant to Europe who often mentions his own Native American blood, then “warns” his readers that such a “relatively peaceful” solution may not be enough.
[I]f the multiculturalists, globalists, quislings, and cuckservatives absolutely insist on standing in the way, there is an obvious alternative. However, they’ll probably like that even less, considering that it involves them too.
Nationalism intensifies. And history’s great tide is going to wash over the world whether we will or no. The coming season became absolutely inevitable, and totally unavoidable, once these waves of immigration into the West were permitted to take place. I warned you. Many others warned you.
Day suggests that this allegedly inevitable “alternative,” er, solution to the Muslim Question will be a bloody one indeed.
Perhaps the fathers and brothers of all the murdered children of Manchester will content themselves with candlelight vigils and platitudes, as so many others have for the last 16 years. But sooner or later, one of them will not, and that man will make Anders Breivik look like a moderate.
There is going to be a lot of talk about thoughts and prayers, as always. But, as it is written, do not neglect to leave room for God’s wrath.
While Day is careful to present his predictions of an imminent anti-immigrant bloodbath as a “warning” rather than a threat, he rather gives the game away with his choice of graphic for the post: a picture labeling the aforementioned far-right terrorist/mass child murderer Anders Breivik a “saint.”
On Twitter, meanwhile, Day isn’t even bothering to hide his anti-immigrant bloodlust.
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/866815302335696896
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/866816384814260225
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/866935375020916741
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/866937807872425984
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/866977851656065029
Day has also been retweeting others as bloodthirsty as he is:
https://twitter.com/MontyDraxel/status/866819228518756352
https://twitter.com/R_U_Srs/status/867000602018164736
This is exactly the response the terrorists want. Day and others like him on the far right know this, but they don’t care. They share the same apocalyptic fantasies as their enemies; they just want their side to win the bloody racial war they’re trying their best to bring on.
So for Voxman Breivik is no longer just a hero but a saint?
Are you kidding me?
That is probably the fault of Worldcon because the Rapid Puppies are not getting the mediaattention Voxman wants that year and that year he has nothing better to torpado the Nebularesults (They have nothing to do with Worldcon but I don’t think he realised that)
Is there anyone who is as bad as Voxman?
G@ tiredtexan
Just been chatting with some mates about this. They’ve posted messages of sympathy for the victims. They just did it because that’s what they feel. But of course there’s also that thing that there’s a seeming obligation on Muslims to do that. But then again doing that seems to suggest there is some connection between a ‘faith’ (not that any of my mates are particularly religious) and these sorts of atrocities. Basically we decided that “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” is now the sixth pillar.
But that got us on to history. I’m from an Irish Catholic background and was around in the 70s through early 90s. No one ever expected me to make apologies or condemnations of PIRA activities (even though my family shared their ultimate goal). Of course there had been experiments with internment. But that was abandoned as both counterproductive, but more importantly, pointless and offensive to a whole swath of the community.
But yeah, we accept it’s down to individuals only when it’s any other form of terrorism, but impose collective responsibility when it’s something like this.
ETA: and of course we still have no idea why the perpetrator did this. At the moment everyone is only speculating about his motives, and that includes responsibility hogging ISIS.
@Sunnysombrera
And while the far-right terrorize refugees fleeing ISIS, leftists are joining the International Brigades to fight ISIS on their own turf. Hmm… who’s on whose side again?
@Alan
Go back to the 1670s, 1770s, or indeed 1870s, and you’d be singing a very different song; but Irish people are ‘white’ now, so y’all get credit for being people instead of a fungible mass.
@ dalillama
There’s a thing called The Monument in London. It’s basically Nelson’s Column without the statue on top. It was built to commemorate the great fire of London in 1666. And it still has a plaque blaming the Catholics.
But yeah, things are somewhat better now.
There’s a They Might Be Giants video I’d desperately like to post here.
Expel them to where? Most Muslims in Manchester are third or fourth generation British now for example.
Which one you talking about there, Teddy? Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were fucking barbarians who sent Spain back to the Dark Ages. The people of Aztlan, on the other hand, HAVE been relatively peaceful, civilized, and historically proven…well, effective enough that Anglos are voluntarily learning Spanish and eating Mexican foods, anyhow.
O RLY? Seems to me it all went bust in France, just the other day. And it’s not doing so great across the pond, either, for all the ferment and efforts to make fash happen. Nothing’s inevitable, except that Thousand-Year Reichs only last for 12, at the very best. And they go bust while trying to forcibly immigrate into RUSSIA. Learn some REAL fucking history, Beale, you dolt.
So, if his point is that Muslims should be removed from a country to prevent terrorism, isn’t it a bit, um, dumb to idolize a terrorist who is, as far as I know, a native of his country? I guess terrorism is fine so long as it’s white guys.
Breivik committed his massacre, focusing on children and young adults, on the day before our wedding in Malmö Castle. We got the news during our rehearsal dinner at the Malmö Hilton, where we had rented the entire restaurant for a buffet of Swedish specialties.
It was the first visit to Sweden for my wife’s siblings and father, and for many of her uncles and aunts and cousins it was their first time in Europe. Most of them had arrived just the night before. The weather had been terrible, but we took a scheduled boat ride during which we enjoyed the only hour without rain for the entire weekend.
The mood of that dinner turned quite weird as we all realized that people across the water to our Northeast were being slaughtered as we sipped our mulled wine and choked on lingonberries.
For a long time we didn’t know what exactly was happening. Between the bombing and the shooting, with so many people killed, we thought it was a massive coordinated terrorist attack with tens of perpetrators. We expected more attacks to follow. When we left the tables that night, we weren’t sure if it was over or still in progress. Should we sleep or stay up all night?
Turns out it was just one monster, who murdered 77 innocent human beings, and injured hundreds more. One child drowned while desperately trying to escape by swimming to the mainland.
There won’t be any fucking statues of the piece of shit who did this. None.
I gather that VD thinks the solution is to terrorize British Muslims enough that they leave “voluntarily”. That way they’ll be responsible for finding a new home (or dying trying) and the UK doesn’t have to respond to questions about illegal people dumping.
Fucking Vox. Dancing on the graves of children.
I despise him. Stupid, petty, ugly man.
@Who?
Considering that Vox was actually on the Nebula jury panel once, back when he was still a member of the SFWA, he bloody well should realize that.
If you go back to the archives of Electrolite, which was one of the blogs preceding Making Light as the home of the Nielsen Haydens, there was a discussion once that set the dynamics for much of the following years. My recollection of the basic sequence of events:
– Woman complains that Vox is on the Nebula jury, points out various misogynistic things he has written, and asks whether he can be impartial in judging books for the award.
– A few people point out that he’s not alone on the jury, his comments don’t necessarily mean he can’t judge writing well enough, and that he hasn’t explicitly done anything yet that could result in him being removed from the jury. At the start, John Scalzi is actually in the ‘he hasn’t done anything to deserve being removed yet’ camp.
– Vox Day shows up and is his usual smug self, bloviating all over the comments, rapidly confirming his critics and alienating any marginal supporters. He gets louder and more insistent as time goes on and it’s obvious his support is eroding.
– Eventually Patrick Nielsen Hayden steps in as moderator and bans Vox from further commenting. John Scalzi utters the now-infamous line, “Aww, but there’s still candy in him!”
A number of Vox’ personal vendettas seem to have stemmed from the discussion on that one blog post.
IP: Yikes, what a wedding you had!
Quislings? Sorry Voxy but Vidkun Quisling was one of yours.
Bingo. There’s very little room for these guys to hide their innate desires. If the desire to prevent future attacks was presented in good faith, then the policy prescriptions would be geared more towards reducing radicalization. Instead, the first thing tends to be “we can’t even say ‘Radical Islamic Terror’!”
I’ve noticed that talking point has gone by the wayside since Trump won, but it was always a cypher for what they really want (a white Christian country), but dare not say for being too heinous for polite society. Same thing with complaints about “multiculturalism.” Ask them what it is they’d do if they were in charge and they’ll keep it plenty vague:
[TW: Simulated right-wing language]
Angry Jerk: “Grrr! These terrorists are so evil! You libtards don’t understand the threat! Grrr!”
Me: “Okay, what would you do?”
Angry Jerk: “First, you can’t be afraid to say ‘Radical Islamic Terror’!”
Me: “Okay, then what?”
Angry Jerk: “Then we can bomb ISIS!”
Me: “Yeah, how will that prevent home-grown terrorism?”
Angry Jerk: “Silly libtard, you don’t understand how global this jihad is!”
Me: “Okay, once we’re past the ‘understanding’ phase of the plan, what do you actually want to see happen domestically?”
Angry Jerk: “Uhhh….”
Me: “Let me guess, close off the borders to Muslims?”
Angry Jerk: “Yeah, yeah, that’ll solve it!”
Me: “And the domestically-born Muslims radicalized in-country….?”
Angry Jerk: “Uhhh….”
Me: “Don’t censor yourself now, keep going. After all, if the problem is the faith itself and the threat is so dire, then clearly Islam as a faith must be removed from the country by any means necessary, right?”
Angry Jerk: “Uhhhhh, yeah… but when you put it like that, it sounds kinda evil.”
Me: “You don’t say.”
To the point of these types blaming liberals, it brings to mind an important point: Breivik didn’t target Muslims with his rampage; he targeted young left-wing activists at a political camp. He was clearly intent on hobbling the next generation of liberals/socialists in his native Norway.
@Violet the Vile
Hear, hear!
@Alan
I did not know that about the Monument. Once again, WHTM expands my knowledge. Thank you.
@Nequam
Me too.
As for the awful excuse for a human being who is the subject of this article, I wish him all the Legos. I wish him a dog hair in his mouth that he can’t quite get hold of. Forever.
@Jenora Feuer: You said
I found the discussion you referenced!
I’ll say this about Vox Day: He’s as consistently repellent today as he was in 2005.
@Gussie Jives
I don’t think any of these…people…have any qualms whatsoever about saying that straight out, except as it may land their decidedly non-badass asses in legal hot water.
@ weatherwax
Have a picture. If you ever need to find it, by happy coincidence they built it next to Monument Tube Station. (Hmm, I’m starting to chill a bit)
http://www.londonarchitecture.co.uk/Images/Buildings/2012/04/20/Monument-London-0110904-005a.jpg
@ weatherwax
Ah, just realised you meant about the inscription.
Yeah, there’s a big Latin inscription that used to include the phrase “Sed Furor Papisticus Qui Tamdiu Patravit Nondum Restingvitur”.*
The weird thing is they deleted (or whatever you do with carvings) that line. But they left it in the plaque that translates the carving into English. So we are still warned “But Popish frenzy which wrought such horrors is not yet quenched“.
There was also an inscription round the side that explicitly blamed Catholics for starting the fire, but that’s gone completely now.
(*I googled that, memory’s not that good)
Point of information.
There’s no such thing as the “Nebula jury.” There’s the Nebula short fiction jury (which I was on a few years back), and the Nebula novel jury.
Every SFWAn* can nominate and vote for a work published in the year, and the juries basically get works on the ballot that were not added by the members. There are a couple of awards that are handled by folks other than the general membership, but those are pretty special.
Being on a Nebula jury can be pretty fun, btw. People who feel their works are getting ignored will send you copies, so you get to read a lot of stuff for free. Then we talk amongst and pick one work to add to our category.
And as a final note, the best way to get people to groan at a SFWA business meeting is to say, “I’d like to review the Nebula rules.”
*I don’t think the institutional members can, and there may be a couple other classes of membership that can’t, but that may be getting nitpicky.
Oh, and in case anyone’s interested, the Nebula rules are publicly available here:
http://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules/
I’ve heard some people assume that a jury picks all the nominees for the final ballot, and that’s bullfeathers. It’s all about the number of votes/nominations.
@Alan
Thanks! Although I also didn’t know it was commemorating the Great Fire (and should have done).
At a pub quiz the other week, my friend asked how the Romans knew to name the god Pluto after a planet that hadn’t been discovered yet. In her defence, she was under the weather.
Still, it just goes to show that people from Ye Olden Days were clairvoyant.
@Ludomancer:
Yep, that’s the one. And yes, Vox is no better now than he was twelve years ago, just twelve more years of disgruntled stewing in his own juices and declaring it a gourmet soup.
One of the things that is fascinating (in the train wreck sense) about Vox and that particular form of Fundy, even more so than much of the rest of their ilk, is the insistence that their beliefs are obviously and self-evidently true. This means everybody arguing against them is either an enemy and unreachable, or being duped and thus reachable if you yell loud enough. But it also means that such people (see, e.g., Jack Chick) will continue to expose their views to the public simply because they cannot allow themselves to believe that there might actually be any principled opposition to them.
(Hmm, I see it was Teresa Nielsen Hayden who was moderator on that thread, not Patrick. My mistake. Though as I understand it, originally Electrolite was primarily Patrick’s blog and Making Light Teresa’s before the merge, so I can see where my confusion came from.)
As for the Nielsen Haydens, I think at least some of their views on feminism can be deduced from the fact that Patrick Hayden married Teresa Nielsen to become Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. (No hyphen.)
@Victoria Parasol:
My mistake again. According to the thread, it was the novel jury that Beale was on at the time, and the jury selection process had already been completed by the time the issue publicly came up. And yes, that jury selection just adds one more novel to the list already selected by the members.
(Not a member of the SFWA, just an interested bystander. Though, I suppose, technically I do have two paid fiction publications at present, so I could look into things…)