I’m sorry I didn’t upload this before, if there are some amongst you who want to discuss the, er, situation. I have been obsessing about this election for months now and I think that now we’re here I find I’m too anxious to watch the returns coming in as a Trump victory would be the biggest disaster for this country since, I dunno, the civil war? I took a peek at Twitter about twenty minutes ago (I refuse to use its other name) and the people I follow are all sounding very gloomy and now I’m more tense and scared than I have ever been about this election. The Russian bomb threats aren’t helping the situation. I don’t know if I’ll even check the news again tonight (who am I kidding, I will) but if you guys feel like chatting here’s a place to do it.
The We Hunted the Mammoth Halloween Special takes a look at the small army of professional ex-witches, ex-warlocks, and ex-Satanists who have declared war on the supposedly demonic holiday of Halloween.
To these former pagans and Satanists who have now become Christian fundamentalists, Halloween isn’t about costumes and candy. It’s really about human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, and the stench of “demonic” incense. And those who celebrate this dark holiday are basically putting out a welcome mat for demons.
If you were a fan of the “satanic panic” of the 80s and 90s, you’ll love this new war on Halloween led by people without a sense of humor or a connection to reality.
Today on We Hunted the Mammoth we explore Donald Trump’s apparent use of hypnotic techniques in his speeches, looking at Trump’s recent comments about women and abortion, and uncovering four hypnotic tricks that may be influencing MAGA’s collective unconscious.
Embedded Commands: How Trump disguises orders as predictions
Confusion Technique: Using incoherence to bypass rational thinking
Repetition: The power of rhythmic, incantatory speech patterns
The Hypnotic Voice: Trump’s sometimes unusually smooth speaking style
We examine Trump’s recent speech in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and dissect his controversial statements about being a “protector” of women and his claim that “You will no longer be thinking about abortion.” Is this just political rhetoric – or is Trump working actual hypnotic suggestions into the mix?
Is Trump a “master persuader” as Dilbert guy Scott Adams would put it, literally trained by one of the founders of Neurolinguistic Programming” (NLP)? Did he pick up some tricks from renowned “conversational hypnotist” Milton Erickson? Or are these techniques simply the result of an intuitive understanding of crowd psychology?
BONUS POINTS go to the first person who can provide the timestamp of one of my cats adding her hypnotic voice to the video.
We’re taking a dive into the bizarre world of sigma male affirmations and the disturbing but also very silly “sigma male industrial complex” on YouTube. From the origins of the dubious sigma male concept in the manosphere to its current online popularity, I examine an assortment of the often ludicrous sigma male affirmation videos on YouTube, their claims, and the psychology behind them. I argue that while affirmations can work, they really only do when they are reasonable and believable, which sigma male affirmations are decidedly not.
This video deals with:
*The evolution of the self-aggrandizing “sigma male” concept from niche internet subculture to viral trend
*Fisking of popular sigma male affirmation videos, from dull to downright delusional
*The psychology behind affirmations: why realistic ones can work and grandiose ones backfire
*Breakdowns of sigma male metaphors, from “lone wolves” to “great white sharks among minnows”
*The appeal of the sigma male archetype to socially awkward men seeking a cool, aloof identity
Also: creepy ASMR-style affirmations, hypnotic “masculine frequencies”, and claims of “massively high sexual marketplace value”. The video also contains dumb jokes, and you get to see the interior of the We Hunted the Mammoth manor.
Sorry it’s taken me this long to post this video. I’m trying my best to get on a weekly schedule, which should become a bit easier as I get more videos under my belt.
Feel free to post ideas for future videos in the comments! And whatever else you want, as is WHTM tradition.
Dating coach, oatmeal lover, and raging misogynist: Casey Zander is all three. Actually, it’s not clear he’s a dating coach exactly, as his alleged wisdom on the woman question is so bleak and hateful that he may be driving young men away from the dating scene instead of providing them a reliable guide to it. Come for Casey’s “Oatmeal Story,” stay for his toxic advice.
Bonus Quest: See if you can find the spot in my narration when one of my cats decided to hock up a hairball.
Well, here’s my first real video for the new We Hunted the Mammoth, YouTube version. It’s a look at JD Vance’s rather silly attacks on childless cat ladies that turns into a critique of Republican notions of “family values.” As a bonus there are clips of cats being ridiculous and adorable.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can post comments here or on the YouTube video itself.
Sorry about the delay in getting this one up. I’m still learning how to make videos.
We Hunted the Mammoth is BACK from its hiatus. Only we’re looking a bit different, because now we’re a misogyny-busting YouTube channel instead of a blog. Yep, WHTM has awoken from uneasy dreams to find itself transformed in its bed into a gigantic insect. By which I mean a pretty butterfly rather than a dung beetle.
If you liked the original blog you can expect more of the same Mammothy goodness, as we take apart everyone from incels to dating coaches. Expect a little less of a focus on the denizens of the manosphere and a broader focus on the ways in which red pill misogyny and creepy transphobia have spread into wider cultural discussions on YouTube and elsewhere. Plus, now I can use weird filters and sound effects.
When I put the blog on hiatus, I really needed a break from tracking the manosphere–and from daily blogging. But it’s been more than a year, and now I’m itching to get back on the misogyny beat. And really looking forward to making videos, though it may take me a little while to get the hang of it. The more positive way to frame this is that my upcoming videos will be a lot better than the slightly awkward one I pasted in above. I’ll be putting up new videos roughly once a week, though my next one may go up sooner than that. I’ll be posting the videos here as well as on YouTube itself, and if you’re inclined to offer some comments you can do that here or on YouTube, whichever feels most comfortable for you. I miss you! Please let me know what you’ve been up to over the last year, or if you have any video ideas or requests for me. Or anything else you want to comment about.
Also, I have finally at long last done the maintenance that I needed to do on the blog archives, so all the thousands of old posts I’ve done over the year are available again.
So hello again, from the (entirely imaginary) WHTM doomsday bunker. This should be fun.
So Kevin McCarthy has been ousted from his position as Speaker of the House. Meanwhile, Trump, on trial for massive fraud, has been hit with a gag order because he won’t stop running his mouth. Discuss, if you are so moved.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, I’m now a WRITING COACH! Get in touch with me if you’re facing writer’s block or any other writing malady. I can help get you unstuck!
Are you suffering from writer’s block or any other writing malady? Looking for help structuring an article or book?
I’m giving away FREE hour-long, no-strings-attached WRITING COACH sessions via phone or Zoom. See here for more information about what I offer. And then contact me at [email protected].
Usually, I only do nonfiction, but for this promotional offer, I will also do fiction.
Hurry up and email before all the slots are taken!
“Comedian” and conspiracy theorist Russell Brand has been accused of rape and abuse by multiple women, according to an extensively reported story in the Times (UK).
