Category Archives: Slander Culture

The MamaMax Fiasco Begins

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Muta, known mainly as SomeOrdinaryGamers, has expressed his disappointment with his one-time friend, MamaMax on X. Seeing what’s coming, MamaMax has attempted an apology video, but it was too little, too late.

Muta has called his video possibly the most serious one that he ever had to make. Considering that this is the same person who exposed a dubious charity operation trusted by the game community, that’s saying something.

Here is his video, if you’re interested. It’s just over an hour long:

Obviously, someone as big as Muta doesn’t need a signal-boost from me. But I do remember MamaMax’s video from when it caught my attention, late last year, which I commented upon. I would have guessed that there was drama behind it, but I was not aware how deep it went.

Apparently, Max has dropped the GODCULT branding. Seems that didn’t work out for him.

While it was already abundantly clear that MamaMax was interpersonally manipulative, I was not aware at the extent he went to to attempt to manipulate other content creators into furthering his cause, as he attempted to do with his audience.

In his video, as you may remember, MamaMax came off as a fanatic, and proceeded to split the world in two, and tried to lay the guilt down on those who aren’t joining him in combatting CSA.

But his cause was not as noble as he made it appear to be. All that he really had to go on was the testimony of a witness, and that was good enough for him to dox what could have easily been just a Vampire: the Masquerade LARPer.

I did some research into the person who MamaMax named, and it pretty much came back nothing. But before you fault me and my internet-sleuthing skills, please know that MamaMax, the very person bringing the accusation, apparently has about as much on him.

So basically, MamaMax is trying to recruit Anonymous as his own personal army, with nothing to go on besides an accusation. And it’s not just any accusation, the mere accusation he is going on is of one of the most serious crimes that can be committed.

If you don’t see the problem with that, close your browser, cancel your internet subscription, and delete System 32.

To make matters worse for MamaMax, because it wasn’t enough to bring about 750,000 subscribers an allegation that has the potential to not be true, he brought it forth in a matter that is self-serving, egotistical, and inappropriately theatrical, rather than with the seriousness that such an accusation merits.

And through it all, against the guidance of his friends who fought desperately to get him to see reason, he resisted their insistence that the matter instead be brought to law enforcement, which is how such a matter should have been handled. And he should have known better, considering that MamaMax himself has been accused in the past!

As I often say, pay attention to those who virtue signal the hardest, as they’re often acting with a guilty conscience, usually because they have skeletons in their closets.

While I could say more about this (such as how MamaMax interpreted Penguin0’s silence as a slight against him and brought that up to his audience), I’ll get to the point: I doubt that this whole matter will go down well. Max Striker has not been conducting himself with the highest level of stability. His distrust in his friends, as well as his refusal to see reason, along with his willingness to use psychological manipulation on his friends and his audience, indicates poor judgment that has a strong potential to lead to tragedy.

Or at least a strong, public, open-and-shut defamation case. If it turns out that Max’s target is innocent, I’d be all for it. Because I’m far beyond sick of this shit. And if he’s not, Max has still proven that he’s not someone to turn to when it comes to this kind of matter.

I suspect that Max is going to do something stupid. Either something tragic, or with the potential to make him more infamous than he already is. Just hearing him speak among his friends, he doesn’t sound like he understands what he did wrong. And if his judgment is that poor, his attempts at damage control might just make things worse for himself.

From his video late last year, I had a strong suspicion that Max would appear on the news, someday. We’ll see whether it comes to that.

Coach Red Pill Might Have Actually Died In Ukrainian Prison This Time

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It happened again. There’s another news story going around about how Gonzalo Lira died in Ukraine. Gonzalo Lira went by his pen name, Coach Red Pill. Remember him?

This story was brought to us by The New Voice of Ukraine via Yahoo News. As you read through the story, you’ll probably get an idea of just how things are going for journalism in Ukraine. Anyone who has ever voiced any amount of skepticism about the war in Ukraine is made out to be pro-Russian.

In a previous post, I pointed out that Gonzalo was jailed and possibly killed in Ukraine after The Daily Beast’s Mark Hay wrote a hit piece on Gonzalo, calling him pro-Putin. At the time, Gonzalo was staying in a country where if a journalist accused someone of being pro-Putin, that’s something that can stick.

I could ask Mark Hay how he feels about this development, but the fact is, when you libel someone, it’s your desire to destroy them. You know how guitarists like those decals that read, “This machine kills fascists”? Perhaps Mark Hay would want one for his keyboard, which reads, “This device kills bloggers”.

While I’m not familiar with Gonzalo’s career, I know that when he went by the handle Coach Red Pill he was outspoken about the state of world affairs, and advocated running off to another country for safety. This was some time before the Ukraine war popped off, and the country that Gonzalo chose to run to for safety just so happened to be Ukraine.

In hindsight, that wasn’t a great choice.

There is an expression that goes like this: truth is the first casualty of war. As I see it, the truth exists independent of anyone’s acceptance of it, and survives any attempt to destroy it. There are far too many journalists who are trying to do just that. And now, a blogger who was in the wrong country at the wrong time has become another casualty in a war between one bad guy and another.

Maddox Publishes Video Nearly Three Hours Long Laying Into Dick Masterson

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Yelling at screens.

I’ll say first of all that I’m not taking sides on this conflict, because even though I was once a fan of Maddox’s writing, I find it believable that either side has misbehaved in at least one way over the course of this drama.

Maddox has published a video on YouTube that is over two-and-a-half hours long, making the case that there has been a long effort on the part of Dick Masterson to harass Maddox, and bait Maddox into a response. In the video, Maddox calls Masterson “Fanboy”, in an obvious effort to reduce him while referring to him.

Embedded here is the video in question. Don’t worry, I’m not placing the onus on you of watching the whole thing. Just know that this video provides the context for the opinion that I offer on it.

Earlier in his online career, Maddox was frequently targeted by fans who have developed an unhealthy obsession with him. This is a hazard that comes with fame, including online fame, a game which Maddox was early to. When you have a website that’s been read by millions of people, you’re likely to get a few with ideas of reference that believe that your words were somehow intended specifically for them.

There are many, many flavors of crazy out there, and in today’s connected world, it’s simple for some of them to reach back to content creators. Don’t give me that look.

As Maddox explained, part of the motivation for making his video was to raise a big stink, explaining that that’s the kind of thing that you have to do to get social media companies to care. Apparently, his reputation being at stake was not enough of a motivation, though he did make a fair point when he pointed out that when someone backbites against you, you have a choice between saying nothing and taking a hit to your reputation, or saying something and giving the trolls what’s they’re looking for.

Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone besides Maddox is going to care about his reputation if he’s not willing to defend it, himself. It’s true that a person doesn’t have to speak in his defense in every case (the expression “don’t feed the trolls” exists for a reason), but when your livelihood and reputation are significantly impacted, to answer your accusers seems expedient.

Considering the damage that has been done to Maddox’s reputation over the course of years, it’s a valid question why such an answer was so long overdue, and why Maddox didn’t take a more proactive approach to defending his online reputation. After all, his online reputation is central to his online career. His brand is impacted, for better or worse, based on his online reputation. That he was as silent as he was for as long as he was expressed a highly misplaced belief in the benevolence of his his accusers to eventually realize their wrong in continually berating him to no apparent consequences, and decide on their own that it’s time to move on to something else.

I’m speaking as someone who has been slandered, on more than one occasion. It happens to everyone. Every playground has a piece-of-shit kid who invents rumors about other kids, because that’s the worst thing that he could do to them with the least potential for immediate backlash. Preferably, you don’t have to deal with such threats to your reputation, but life doesn’t guarantee ideal circumstances, and sometimes, the best course of action is not clear.

Now that Maddox has finally come forward with an answer to his accusers, one of the chief weapons in his arsenal is to wage an accusation right back. And not only that, it’s the grand F.U. of all accusations: to call someone a pedophile.

He does bring evidence. For one thing, the projection that asserts that every male has a secret desire to do things with 17-year-olds, which isn’t true, and merely an assumption about the desires of other people based on one’s own desires (that’s what makes it projection).

The other, more flimsy, inference is that “Fanboy” likes stylized cartoon drawings. And for some reason, Maddox continued to refer to the flimsier reasoning, rather than the use of projection that most thinking people would consider the stronger evidence.

By the way, Masterson could have exercised more discretion in sharing his preference for lolicon. Like masturbation, just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that you tell everyone about it. Among the reasons being that not everyone gives the benefit of the doubt. Think of all the people who assume that playing violent video games means you secretly want to commit violent crimes.

While it might sound like a slight to Maddox, it can be pointed out that since the falling out with him, Dick Masterson has gone on to enjoy more fame than even Maddox himself. This seems to have a lot to do with a willingness to ride the wave of the algorithm, which may have rewarded him for talking about Maddox. People are drawn to drama, and the algorithm boosts what gets engagement.

Maddox doesn’t seem as willing to do this, which may be a matter of principle, like when he refuses to place ads on his website, due to his sheer unwillingness to self-censor. While one can respect a willingness to be so principled, it’s a fact of the modern world that such principles have potential to be seen as a liability. And in Maddox’s case, it’s cost him a lot of money in the long term.

There’s a lot to be said for remaining principled, even to one’s detriment. But not everyone might see that as a virtue.

But returning to Masterson, there’s a lot to say. I know that he’s a comedian, which gives someone license for a bit of edge. But if what Maddox said about “rape lists” is true, and if Masterson was sincere in his defense of sexual abuse, then that would explain why Masterson’s performances aren’t recommended to me. And I would avoid listening to them to spare my hearing in the same way that not huffing turd fires would spare my nose.

The cancellation, doxxing, and apparent attempts to recruit his own audience to fight his battles for him does not put Dick Masterson in good light, to say the least. Particularly the doxxing.

Yet through it all, Maddox has come out looking like a punching bag, even though he handled matters in the recommended fashion for those who are being bullied online. But while it’s true that it’s usually best to not answer the people who are trolling you, it’s also true that there are certain fights that one is better off not avoiding. Sometimes, the best course of action is not clear, which can be deeply unsettling.

I suppose that Maddox’s overly-macho online persona makes it difficult to pity him.

But finally, the whole drama between Maddox and Masterson has turned from being entirely one-sided, with an answer from Maddox. And true to his style, Maddox’s answer was lengthy and sardonic.

I suppose it’s likely that soon we’ll be hearing a reply from Masterson. I think it’s obvious how he’ll likely answer, based on what I’ve been hearing about his opinion about Maddox, even though I don’t follow him or care for his routine, in much the same way that I don’t have to smoke cigarettes to know what they smell like. It happens too often that some yutz will light one up right by the door, unaware or not caring that that shit will just blow inside.

There’s something screwy going on in the K-pop community.

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The Hindustan Times reported a story which alleged that a few K-pop idols are receiving backlash for enjoying a “dark anime” with “pedophilic content”. The anime in question is Made In Abyss, an adventure anime wherein a girl and a robotic boy explore a gigantic chasm, navigating its dangerous ecosystems in a quest to reach its bottom.

The Hindustan Times can be blamed for burying the lede, as the real story that led to the controversy would be the cancel culture of the K-pop community, and it turns out that much of its community is pretty toxic.

One might imagine that a collective appreciation for K-pop would bring the K-pop community together, but what we instead see is a toxicity among fans who divide themselves into factions based on their preferences for K-pop artists.

Personally, I’m glad that it’s the K-pop brand of tribalist bullshit that’s keeping these clowns occupied, because if they got into either sports or religion, they’d probably cause some riots.

The K-pop tribalism is so toxic that some fans will actually dig into the social media activity of the other tribe’s K-pop artist of choice to find anything that can be held against them. Pretty much cancel culture per se.

It so happens that this time, the K-pop artists under scrutiny are Soobin, Woozi, and Taeyong for liking Made In Abyss, an exquisite anime with developed characters, excellent worldbuilding, a heavily-favored soundtrack, and a tone that indicates that it takes its viewers seriously. The problem is, the anime is sometimes accused of promoting pedophilia by people who aren’t mature enough for the anime.

It’s disturbing enough that the toxicity of the K-pop community has reached the point that fans are willing to drag K-pop idols enjoyed by another K-pop faction down by making them out to be pariahs, it’s even worse when they are willing to drag down anime communities that weren’t even involved to begin with, and don’t deserve the negative attention that they might end up getting.

Being one who enjoys Pokémon, I can point out that, while there has been some amount of toxicity in the community, much of it came from bad actors who were quickly recognized, and the Pokémon community has mostly resisted dividing up into factions. If you can avoid certain bad influencers, you’ll generally have no problem avoiding drama in the Pokémon community.

That being my point of reference, from my perspective, the state of the K-pop community is surprising and horrifying. I didn’t have much interest in K-pop to begin with, but with the pervasiveness of toxicity and cancel culture within its community, I have no problem keeping my distance.

I suppose some might expect that I’d defend Made In Abyss from accusations that it somehow promotes pedophilia. The fact is, I really don’t have to. For one thing, I’ll refer to this flowchart that I like sharing:

One of the things I like about the Made In Abyss community is that when someone attempts to describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it, they might bring up some of its more extreme elements in an effort to warn someone that they’re there. But in doing so, they might make it sound like some hyper-edgelord anime that it’s actually not. While it’s true that there are some disturbing scenes, they don’t make up the majority of the anime’s runtime, but instead serves to make the point that there is a connotation of danger for the protagonists.

While it’s true that there are brief instances of nudity, no sex acts were committed, and the scenes played out naturally. Anyone who holds these brief scenes against the whole of the anime are failing to evaluate it from a position of honest criticism. One may even get the idea that they haven’t actually watched it.

But in any case, Made In Abyss was made for grownups, and it’s obvious that much of the K-pop community is way too young to watch anime like Made In Abyss.

And what’s more, when someone can be rightly described as smug and closed-minded, I don’t really mind that they don’t enjoy the same things that I do. As I’d have it, I’d prefer that such people were not in my own community.

Finally, it can be pointed out that we live in a world where trafficking of actual, living human children is a real problem. When someone throws themselves into a tizzy because a fictional character, a literal piece of merchandise, may be doing something sexual, they are expressing some misplaced priorities.

The Takiyya Factor

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The recent bombing of a Christian hospital in the West Bank has resulted in a controversy, as Hamas has blamed Israel for the bombing.

Watching the controversy unfold has been fascinating, as details came out that show that matters may be far different from what Hamas has claimed.

For one thing, the hospital has not been bombed. It wasn’t even damaged. The bomb went off in a parking lot. The death toll of about 500 may have been exaggerated. What’s more, it’s looking likely that Israel is not responsible for the bombing, but it’s becoming increasingly evident that the bomb was an attempt on the part of Hamas to launch a rocket, which backfired.

In spite of all the evidence that’s adding up that goes against the Hamas narrative, their sympathizers have flown into a frenzy, storming embassies, and Hamas leadership has called for yet another “day of rage” to be observed around the world, with a clear implication of blind idiocy that’s on brand for that particular faction.

How Hamas handles truth is yet another illustration for why the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas is yet another manifestation of an ongoing clash of cultures and civilizations that are totally incompatible with one another.

As a disclaimer, I’ll point out now that the purpose of this post is to inform and increase understanding. Sometimes, achieving this requires pointing to matters that may be uncomfortable to consider. This can sometimes be necessary to get to the truth of a matter.

To get started, let’s consider how Christianity views lying. It’s impermissible. The Bible tells us that liars will have no place in the kingdom of Heaven. God Himself is incapable of lying, doing so would be against His nature. Lies are considered by Christians to be beneath the dignity of God. Christians are so firmly against lying that, if given the option to tell a lie that could save someone’s life, they’d still worry about whether it was the right thing to do.

The Islamic religion, which is the religion of Hamas, handles lying differently.

In the Islamic religion, there is a concept called taqiyya. The word itself literally means “prudence” or “fear”, but has come to refer to “feigning unbelief”, or more broadly, it’s considered to be “divine lying”.

Basically, in the Islamic religion, it is considered permissible to tell a lie if that lie were to further the cause of the Islamic religion, such as it’s expansion.

In practice, Muslims have used taqiyya to appear to be Christian, even going as far as undergoing the Christian practice of baptism, while concealing their sincere belief as a Muslim. Others have used the concept to deny that certain practices are Islamic if those practices are against the sensibilities of their host society.

There’s an enormous and fatal problem with the concept of taqiyya. That being, the concept of a god that considers it acceptable to lie should be horrifying to you. After all, if that god tells you that it’s permissible to lie, how do you know that that god isn’t lying to you?

Such a god may tell you that doing something would guarantee your entry into heaven, when the act might be so immoral that the person who does so might instead go straight to hell!

Like with the concept of the “suicide bomb”, where a Muslim attempts to ensure that they’ll die in battle, because they want those 72 virgins. They’d be little aware that the Islamic prophet Mohammad was so opposed to suicide that he wrote a passage ridiculing a Muslim man who committed suicide, but that’s beside the point. We all know that murder is immoral. Of course, even murder can be forgiven. But suppose that murder is a person’s final act, and they didn’t seek or want forgiveness. A suicide bomb would ensure that, for the killer, this would be the case.

Returning to my point, if a god tells you how to stay out of hell, but they say that lying is permitted, how do you know that you can trust anything that that god says? After all, they said that lying is okay, so they might be lying to you!

Knowing what Hamas believes about taqiyya, or lying, consider the choice that Hamas is faced with. On the one hand, they could admit that one of their rockets misfired, destroying a parking lot, and in so doing they inspire less confidence on the global stage. On the other hand, they could say that a nearby hospital was destroyed, killing hundreds, blame Israel, and call for Islamic militants the world over to lash out in furtherance of their cause.

It looks like they’ve already made their choice. And with the Islamic practice of taqiyya, most of what they say can be counted on to be self-serving.

Now, here’s where it gets really uncomfortable. Once you know about Islamic taqiyya, when you’re speaking with a Muslim about their religion, it’s possible that they may be lying to you. It’s possible that they believe what they’re telling you, but they themselves may have been lied to. In any case, it’s likely that you can’t take their word for it, as much of what Muslims say about their religion is curated to serve the religion’s interests.

As sobering as that may be in consideration of your interactions with Muslims, the implications are much worse for Muslims themselves. After all, in line with the point I made above, you can never trust a god who tells you that lying is permissible. What’s more, in their religion, they’re not so much concerned with what they say, but with the sincerity with which they say it.

For example, one can convert to Islam at the drop of a hat by reciting the shahada with sincerity, the shahada being a specific phrase that expresses monotheism and Mohammad’s prophethood. But the problem is, how does anyone but the speaker have an awareness of a person’s sincerity?

What’s more, in the Islamic religion, it’s considered an unpardonable sin to ascribe companions to the Islamic god, Allah, whom Muslims suppose is the same as the Christian God. If someone says that they are a Christian, they are saying that Jesus is the Son of God. How are Muslims sure that their god would forgive them for saying something that he said he would not pardon them for saying? Does the doctrine of taqiyya extend to some phrases and not others? And if sincerity is taken into consideration, how is another Muslim within earshot to know whether someone is being sincere?

These are questions that become all the more sobering when you consider that the religion that practices taqiyya wishes to bring about a worldwide theocratic empire. If the foundation of a society is a lie, the expectation is that society cannot thrive in the long term, which most of the Islamic world certainly hasn’t, where only a few people have prospered, while most people live in abject destitution. What’s more, the world would be a dark place if everyone practiced a religion whose priesthood simply cannot be trusted.

As much as one might like to think that the Israel/Hamas conflict is something that doesn’t affect them, and they can simply ignore, the fact is, it’s another manifestation of a clash of cultures and civilizations that are incompatible, and is already being fought in the U.S. and Europe, whether you realize it or not. Hamas is just one arm of a continuing struggle to bring about a change in society and a change in virtues, right down to every society’s very foundations. As flawed as western civilization may be, humanity is still yet to come up with anything better with its own thinking, and is certainly worth defending.

But if it’s just the truth of any matter that interests you, then your interests certainly don’t align with Hamas.

They’re Overplaying Their Hands

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In interesting timing with anonymous accusations against Russell Brand, accusations are now coming up against Tim Ballard. Yes, the same Ballard who starred in Sound of Freedom, and fights a continuing campaign against child sex trafficking.

The accusation comes from an anonymous source, and was provided to Vice magazine. A magazine which, by the way, stirred up its initial following with edgy bullshit stories.

There should be a new law: if an accusation is made anonymously, then the identity of the accused should be kept strictly confidential. That’s totally reasonable, and allows for law enforcement to perform an investigation, to determine whether or not the accusation is frivolous.

And, speaking of, if there’s any merit to the accusation, the sensible place for it would be law enforcement, not bullshit Vice magazine. The former is an act in the interest of justice, the latter is a petty attempt to assassinate character.

Here’s a statement from Tim Ballard, through The Spear Fund. He’s expressed a better opinion on this matter than Vice could probably muster:

“Rescuing kids and fighting child trafficking is an ugly and dark business, especially when—as the result of my work for more than 20 years—we continue to expose members of the powerful, well-funded child trafficking cartels.

“Evil pedophiles will stop at nothing, and they have allies in government, in the media, in big corporations, and even in public institutions. They continue to lie about and attempt to destroy my good name…and they will never stop.

“I want everyone to know that I and our vast army of supporters will likewise never stop. We will keep fighting for the vulnerable all over the globe, and we know that the truth will always prevail.”

“I am a faithful Member in good standing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Scriptures, and I believe in our faith with my whole heart. That will never change.

“It has been alleged that an unnamed LDS church spokesperson issued a statement about me through a tabloid that is often hostile to people of faith. Further, my church has not publicly verified its authenticity.

“We are also highly suspicious about the timing of such a statement given its close proximity to Mitt Romney’s announcement that he is retiring, and my own public comments that I am prayerfully considering running for public office. The LDS church does not engage in political activity.

“In any event, nothing will change my core beliefs. If someone within the church did release this statement, I am absolutely confident that the right people will step in and ensure that proper due process is followed as the rules of our church dictate.”

“I, my family, and the Spear Fund team will confidently move forward and focus on our mission of saving children from the horrors of sex slavery, and remaining fierce defenders of freedom. We invite anyone who shares this passion to join us.”

Whether there is truth to the accusation against Ballard, I don’t know. But what I do know is that false accusations have long been a chief weapon of the faithless.

And we’ve been seeing a whole lot of that going around, lately.

If I were to say that I hate child molesters, I wouldn’t be saying anything controversial. But as I see it, we as a society don’t hate false accusers enough. In fact, we should be placing both criminal groups in the same tier.

One punishment that I hear proposed for false accusers is for them to face the same punishment they sought to bring about for the people they accused. I think Ballard could get behind this, because that’s what the Bible says is the proper way to handle it.

But if we were to get into creative punishment, here’s what I propose for false accusers: The next time we test a nuclear weapon, we give them front row seats. Then, we let radiation poisoning take care of the rest.

Zombification FTW! For the rest of us. For liars, not so much.

So, what would you prefer, false accusers? Shall we get creative? Or would you prefer what the Bible says?

Oh look, this again.

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It’s already abundantly evident that the #metoo movement has been hijacked, taken from its original purpose of encouraging sex abuse victims to come forward, and has been made into a tool with which one can snipe those that they don’t like.

Is that what’s happening with Russell Brand? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s suspicious that the accusations against him haven’t come forward in a timely manner, but instead were brought out nearly two decades after the alleged crime supposedly occurred, and shortly after he expressed non-establishment viewpoints, and picked up a substantial following.

I’m not taking a side on this matter, considering that the accusations have nothing behind them but the accusations themselves, but also because it’s possible that evidence can surface, showing that crimes may have actually taken place.

But that doesn’t mean that this whole affair doesn’t have the appearance of something sketchy. The accusations were immediately picked up by corporate media outlets, which ran the story with nothing to go off of but the accusations. Which, by the way, is not journalism. Moving in lockstep, Google demonetized Russell’s YouTube channel, in apparent presumption of his guilt.

If the intention were to create a chilling effect to discourage one from gaining a following by pointing out what’s wrong with certain corporate interests, one way to go about it would be to attack their character. And the most effective attack, historically, has been an allegation of sexual misconduct, considering that allegations of that nature have a stronger tendency to bypass a person’s better judgment, making them more likely to assume guilt on the part of the accused.

I’ve noticed in recent months that the methods of corporate media outlets and their butt buddies have been becoming increasingly indelicate. As I see it, there are two things which can cause such a change in approach, one being the confidence that comes from thinking oneself indestructible, and the other is the desperation that one sees out of one who realizes that they are fighting a losing battle.

When you consider the fact the culture war has turned heavily in our favor, it’s not hard to see their desperation.

What will come of this is something yet to be seen. But at this point, I can say that we can try not to be too suspicious of the accusers, in spite of the circumstances surrounding the allegations. They might actually be telling the truth, this time.

Apparently, opposing child sex trafficking makes you QAnon, now.

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Sometimes, I wonder whether the people (yet to be replaced by AI) in legacy media believe what they are typing. In some cases, they have to be malicious, because there’s no other way to explain what passes from their fingertips, into their keyboards, into the ether, and from glowing display screens to the disappointed eyeballs of those who have yet to move on to more relevant information sources.

I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, but right now, I imagine you might be thinking, “Oh boy, now what did they do?”

Only writing hit pieces on a new film bringing attention to one of the worst crimes taking place today, child sex trafficking.

What’s amazing about the Twitter snippet above is that all that it gets right is that Sound of Freedom is about child-trafficking.

Every other data point was wrong. QAnon had nothing to do with it. It’s not a superhero movie. The implication of conspiracy theorism without using the term conspiracy theory is intellectually dishonest. And I prefer not to speculate as to why brainworms feature prominently in the thinking of the Rolling Stone author.

I’m noticing a trend where if a person expresses opposition to the real problem of child sex trafficking, then that person is called a part of QAnon, as if to suggest that being part of QAnon is a bad thing. I think it’s about time we handle such petty name-calling by deciding that we don’t care.

You think I’m with QAnon? Go ahead and think that. I don’t care. Think I’m pedophile-phobic? I don’t care.

Because of what Rolling Stone has to say about Sound of Freedom, a film opposing child sex trafficking, let’s see what they had to say about Cuties, a film about sexualizing minors:

Oh.

But, you know, that’s just Rolling Stone. Let’s see what Washington Democracy Dies In Darkness Post has to say about it:

The use of the term low-budget to describe Sound of Freedom is designed to get you to dismiss it out-of-hand, as though you’re supposed to think a film is not worth seeing unless it a big-name production with a budget in the hundreds of millions.

Now, I admit that I didn’t look into the star of the film, or his opinions on QAnon. That’s simply immaterial to the quality or content of the film itself, which mentions nothing about QAnon.

What I do know is that the film is based on a true story about a man who was on a sting operation to crash a pedophile island party and arrest the predators who were participating. During the film, the man embarks on a journey to reunite a family with two children who were abducted by a fake talent agency. It basically watches like a crime drama, but makes the point that child sex trafficking is a very real problem.

Impressively enough, this low-budget indie film has gone on to rival the summer blockbuster, Indiana Jones! That goes to show that there’s something about Sound of Freedom that resonates with people.

In writing it off as a QAnon film (as though that’s a problem), Washington Post risks alienating themselves from the few readers that they have left in this social media age. But at least they didn’t pull a Rolling Stone and call it a superhero movie, right?

But hold on, they had an opinion about Cuties, too. Let’s see what they had to say about that, presumably before painting their toenails black and lamenting democracy’s death in darkness:

You can tell a lot about a person by what they think is normal. Apparently a movie about sexualizing minors is “an unflinching look at what it means to be a preteen girl”. And if you have a problem with that, then the problem is that you “can’t handle it”.

Of course, if you’re of the opinion that sexualizing minors is not a biggie, then you’d probably have a problem with a movie that depicts child sex trafficking in a negative light.

I heard about Sound of Freedom, not by marketing, but by word of mouth. I was already considering seeing it when a fellow patriot offered to see it with me, so I accepted his offer.

It’s a film I recommend, but with the warning that it’s not for the faint of heart. There are no graphic depictions of abuse, but there are strong implications.

Having seen the movie, I can understand the strong desire to do something about the problem. If a person were to “go vigilante”, they might end up creating more problems than they solve, and perhaps even disrupt investigations already in progress. Perhaps the better course of action would be to contact representatives about legislation that could combat child exploitation. Also of benefit might be researching which candidates might be tougher on child exploitation prior to casting your vote in an election.

Of course, you can also tell other people about the movie, Sound of Freedom, and encourage them to see it. It would seem that word of mouth is still effective in bringing attention to media designed to heighten awareness.

When it comes to vigilantism, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Apparently now we’re supposed to conflate any opposition to child sex trafficking with QAnon, who we are supposed to think are bad guys, even though their main deal is opposing child sex trafficking. What is legacy media’s stake in this game?

Thanks for making it easy to take the moral high ground, I guess.

EDIT: Not The Bee already published an article somewhat similar in tone to this one, with a similar title. I wasn’t aware of it when I published this article, but credit to them for publishing their opinion first.

Matt Walsh Is Problematic

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It goes without saying that liking someone doesn’t mean agreeing with everything that they have to say. When it comes to trans activism, Matt Walsh usually hits it out of the park.

But when it comes to culture as relates to entertainment, he usually lets out some pretty bad takes.

There are various degrees of out-of-touch. Not paying attention to politics is not the same as not watching TV, which is not the same as not following culture.

But then there’s the absolute extreme: saying that anime is demonic, that video games destroy kids minds, and that grownups should not watch cartoons.

It’s those kinds of takes that make me appreciate just how cool my dad really was. He knew that a person’s entertainment doesn’t make them who they are, which probably has something to do with why I have a similar perspective. But even if that wasn’t the case, I’d like to think that I’d have been able to figure that out on my own.

In a world where entertainment is being corrupted in an attempt to fit it in an agenda, it’s hopeless to think we can fight back by withdrawing ourselves and our children from the culture. That’s just not realistic. It’s vastly superior to instead teach our children that entertainment can be enjoyed, but not be the primary influence of their worldview. And, at the same time, we can work to take back culture while contributing to it.

That’s how we win: Not by running from battles, but by participating in them.

It should be obvious how stupid it is to paint anime with one broad stroke by saying the whole of it is demonic, because there are many, many different anime out there with many different genres. Some anime out there is great for children, because they’d be intended for them. Some anime is geared towards adults, and is intelligently written by writers who take their audiences seriously. Of course, some of it is really weird and of limited appeal. But the great thing about anime is that there’s something for everyone.

And really, conservatives should be getting behind anime, because Japan is a conservative society, which doesn’t have western leftist ideals, and whose entertainment options are free from woke influence.

In spite of this, there are some on the fringe who are attempting to make the case that anime is pedophilia, using fringe examples that are not mainstream in obvious acts of the cherry-picking fallacy.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Lean in close, because this is totes a secretly-secret secret. Are you listening? Okay…

Child abuse is illegal in Japan. In fact, it’s illegal anywhere that Sharia is not the law of the land. The existence of drawings which may be protected as free expression does not indicate the legality of the acts depicted.

Something similar can be said about video games. In fact, I don’t view them as simulations, even if that’s what some of them are going for. I view them as games.

I don’t play Grand Theft Auto. But if I did, I’d know that playing it doesn’t make me a carjacker. Similarly, playing Cooking Mama doesn’t make me a chef, playing Guitar Hero doesn’t make me a rockstar, playing Cave Story doesn’t make me an android, and playing The Legend of Zelda doesn’t make me a legendary hero. They’re games. That’s all they are. Even the ones that I play don’t inform my worldview, because I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

Matt Walsh is also of the opinion that men should not own plushes. He probably never heard about Fumos. But he did make an exception in the case of his own merch, a plush of Johnny the Walrus.

Sample of Johnny the Walrus taken from Amazon.

It’s obvious that Matt Walsh is proud of Johnny the Walrus. But let’s be serious here, how many kids are going around saying “Yay, I love Johnny the Walrus!”?

Probably exactly none of them.

And I shudder to think that Johnny the Walrus is the only entertainment option for Matt Walsh’s poor kids. Even The Adventures of Lil’ Chad looks better than this sub-DeviantArt tripe. Is this really what Matt Walsh thinks will build culture?

Conservatives have been pretty good about getting behind anime as a non-woke alternative to the ESG-influenced garbage that we’ve been seeing out of Disney and western comics lately. If companies like Disney want our business back, the companies should return to the values held by Americans, and most of the world, for that matter. The woke movement as we see it today is a product of algorithmic manipulation, and is a misrepresentation of the values that people actually hold.

But as for the fringe group who views anime as “brain waves coming from Japan”, they’re little more than the Satanic Panic from the 80’s, but with a few word-swaps. But this time around, they’re not going to amount to anything, because their language alienates and their vilification is easy to see through.

If that’s the kind of thing Matt Walsh is getting behind, then Matt Walsh is limiting his audience. And it’s obviously very important to him, considering that that’s how he measures his success as compared to other content creators, like The Quartering.

What is your philosophy as a content creator? Is it to maintain your integrity, even if it means having limited appeal? Or is it to maximize profits by maximizing your audience, saying whatever you have to to get there? For a while, it seemed as though Matt was doing the former. But if he’s going to boast of the size of his following compared to creators like The Quartering, then that’s harder to say definitively, isn’t it?

Of course, if someone is trying to rack up shock views by feeding into a Neo-Satanic Panic, then a larger viewership doesn’t seem like an accomplishment in which one can take true pride.

Matt Walsh does pretty well when it comes to confronting the extreme elements of the trans movement. But when it comes to most other things, he would do well to keep his mouth shut.

Buzzfeed To Shut Down

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The internet is about to become far less cancerous. BuzzFeed News is going in the dustbin.

BuzzFeed was a website that drew in tons of traffic through SEO optimization, gaming algorithms, and lots and lots of plagiarism.

It was originally a listicle website that posted braindead articles, like “12 Cat Pics to Get You Through Your Wednesday“, “6 Signs That You Are Like Raphael From the Ninja Turtles“, and “8 Lifehacks That Haven’t Been Working For You Because You’ve Been Doing Them DEAD WRONG!“

If you’ve been to Buzzfeed, you probably thought that those were actual headlines from their site, because they were stupid enough to belong. Fact is, I just made them up. But if those same headlines were in their site somewhere verbatim, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Many of their articles were bereft of words, largely consisting of pictures. Much of what’s on their site was lifted directly from other websites, often without attribution. In other words, it was like the Cracked.com articles that were written by the users. However, the MIT grad operator of the website knew how to turn the site into a money printer through SEO optimization.

But then they discovered rage-bait, and how that could draw in traffic. That garbage drew in mountains of rage-clicks that allowed the site to rake in a ton of money.

Eventually, they got into journalism, and no prize for guessing that they were lacking in ethics. They pretty much took a political side, and made things to appeal to their tribe. While just about every news outlet does this, Buzzfeed was noteworthy in doing less than most others to hide their bias.

Remember the guy who made the news for getting into a fight and getting killed over a chicken sandwich? That story originated from BuzzFeed. In reality, the fight wasn’t over a chicken sandwich, it was over a place in line. At the time, people memed over chicken sandwiches. So BuzzFeed, determined to game the algorithms for attention as they usually do, decided to season their coverage with bullshit.

Then there’s their tendency to push zombies into their stories wherever they can fit them in. It should be obvious why. Millions of dinguses are coping with their slow decent into mediocrity by fantasizing about how they’d survive a zombie apocalypse, and daydream about a hypothetical scenario where their video game knowledge actually makes them supermen. Because BuzzFeed knows the potential for clicks from the zombie crowd, they’ll randomly mention zombies here and there. Idiot clicks are still clicks.

BuzzFeed knows the potential for rage-clicks from injustices concerning racism and sexism, which is why they look for racism and sexism anywhere they could find it.

BuzzFeed has fried the minds of millions of gullible cretins, so you can imagine how much better the world of journalism has become now that BuzzFeed is shutting down.

Apparently, their bullshit isn’t profitable anymore. I suspect that there’s more to it, such as that venture capital running dry, and ESG is beginning to putter out. The company still has Huffington Post, which is another news site that few people actually take seriously. Hopefully, that one isn’t long out of the grave, either.

In any case, this is yet another sign that the culture war is turning around. I suspect that we’re going to be seeing a lot more like this in the days to come.