One of the blackest pills I've had to swallow the past couple of years is that the United States well and truly lost the Cold War. The Cold War was a war, not of traditional arms and armies, but of ideologies, and infecting other countries with those ideologies. The U.S.S.R. might be gone, but their influence remains and by god is it being felt in the U.S. right now. You may think I'm being hyperbolic, or bullshitting you outright, but I can assure you that I'm not.
All you have to do is look around you and barely scratch the surface. By this time we all know that "social justice" ideology is built on a marxist/communistic framework. That's the entire root of the ideology, and that's not a mistake, it's by design. So isn't it very interesting that when we look into the people who have been ruining science fiction and fantasy literature since the 40's, we find that they all nowadays follow the social justice ideology? And that back in the 40's they were open and avowed communists? Don't believe me? Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with this video by Dan Wolfgang and QuQu, but it's worth bringing up again. Just give this a watch. I know, it's long, but it's incredibly well researched, and all the research is linked in the description if you don't believe what the fuzzy shapeshifter is telling you. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get done.
So, now that you've watched that, and are probably sufficiently angry like I was my first time seeing it, let me explain how total the destruction has been.
You've probably heard about what's been going on with Larry Correia the past few years, how his reputation has been unfairly tarnished because he noticed that the Hugo Awards were more a social club jerking each other off than an actual awards show giving prizes away for good writing (my words not his), as well as his recent banning from Origins, a convention. You've probably also heard about John Ringo being banned from ConCarolinas, and their subsequent retraction and apology.
Apart from outlets like Baen Books, Castalia House, and various small house publishers or independent authors, you can very easily be blacklisted for stepping outside of the ideological narrative. Just a little will do the trick. This has led to a steady decrease in the amount of decent fiction being published in the US. As we in the Pulp Revolution are wont to say, don't read anything after 1980. I qualify that with an, "Up until about 2015, then you have to dig to find the good stuff." There are a few exceptions to this rule, but being exceptions they are just that, few.
Science fiction has been pushed into the ever-harder, with stories that have to be "about" something instead of just being a fun story. The story has to "mean" something beyond simple entertainment. You can hardly pick up a scifi book that was written from about 1960 onwards without the author trying to preach some damn message at you, whereas you go back a scant few decades before and read A Princess of Mars and it's just a rip-roaring good time cover to cover.
Fantasy, on the other hand, has become almost nothing but bad Tolkien pastiches. The books get longer and longer, and the series go on for interminable amounts of books, and there's so much filler you could choke a horse with what could be edited out of these books. Instead of bright, fun, original stories about heroes and villains and love and magic and sword fights, we get dreary narratives that seem obsessed with how much rape they can put on the page, or with having every single character being an irredeemable asshole who never does anything worthy of the title "hero." In a land where short, punchy, fun stories once ruled, now sits a bloated, misanthropic, cloned king, laying waste to the genre.
And now we turn to Hollywood, and I have another video for you. This one by the foul-mouthed firebrand (I'm one to talk, right?) Razorfist. In it he demonstrates that Hollywood always had a problem with communism. Just watch, and learn how everything that you were told about McCarthy and his supposed "witch hunt" was a lie.
Interesting stuff, isn't it?
And then you look at comics, where if you don't toe the social justice (ie communist) line you'll have a very difficult time getting published by the big two, DC and Marvel. Their comics have gotten worse and worse as the years go on. The art is intentionally ugly, the dialogue is horribly written screeds on identity politics, and there are barely any fun stories to be had. Great characters we all loved have been debased and thrown down, dashed before our eyes by the people they were entrusted to.
So why has this happened?
Well, it's a bit involved, but stick with me here. There's another video you should watch, but I can sum up the relevant parts here. It's an interview with ex-KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov. I know it's long, but it's worth a watch, and it's terrifying stuff. Basically what the Soviets at the time did was, via the Communist Party, infect all areas of American culture with small pockets of people designed to train others in the techniques that Yuri talks about.
This, in essence, allowed the ideals these operatives spread to become self-perpetuating, independent of instruction from the home base. They're completely self-sufficient, and require no leader as there will always be some poor, brainwashed fool ready to take up the fight should they get in a position to be able to do so. No union required, just a position of power in an important company or industry.
This happened in scifi/fantasy publishing with people like Campbell and Damon Knight, it happened in academia, it happened in Hollywood as Razorfist described, and now it's become apparent that it's happening in comic books, and it's been going on in games journalism for a decade or so now, and they're trying to get it happening in video game development companies themselves with some success it must be said. It also happened in government, but I'm talking about the undermining of American culture, here.
So, what this has led to is the demoralization campaign that Yuri talks about. And once again, I need to stress that there is no conspiracy, not anymore, at least. Not that I've been able to find. These people are all independent actors marching in lockstep because they've all been trained to believe the same things, and thus perpetuate their ideology independent of any string-pulling.
But the demoralization campaign has been in full swing since at least the 40's. And these people believe they're doing a good thing! That's the most insane part. The destruction of culture, of values, of everything and everyone that does not toe the line, is a fundamental good, even if that means that people will have to die. This is something I've seen communists joke about quite frequently. It's funny to them, and they hope for the days when they'll be put in charge of the gulags, not knowing that useful idiots like themselves will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes, if it ever does.
But back to demoralization. The goal here is to beat the average person down until they conform to these people's ideology. They lord their supposed power over you, "knowing" that they're nigh untouchable and able to destroy at their leisure and replace what they've destroyed with that which preaches what they agree with and serves their religion. That's the overall goal, and what's incredibly sad is that they've almost succeeded. You see, the people that fight back against this kind of thing aren't the forces of the homeland standing up against invaders, despite how things looked in Gamergate. They're the resistance. Let me make this abundantly clear.
The communists have almost won.
They are able to destroy the lives of people who aren't already set up, simply for political disagreements, and they try to destroy the lives of those who are set up. Look at what's happening to Correia, a wildly popular SFF author with millions of readers around the world. Or, for another example, Pewdiepie. How many hit pieces have the mainstream meteor put out about him in the past few years? Quite a few, with people being paid to dig through hundreds of hours of videos on his youtube channel just to find five seconds of him making an off-color joke, or speaking without thinking, so that they can try to destroy his reputation.
People like you or I are even more at risk, because we simply don't have the reach to defend ourselves properly, or ignore such attacks. It would be nice if some of the set up people like Pewdiepie or Correia would take these people to task in defamation, slander, and libel lawsuits and make them pay for their lies, but I understand that not everyone is ready to go to legal war over something that will barely effect them.
But the power they have to do this to less powerful individuals cannot be ignored, and what's more we cannot ignore the power they have to destroy beloved franchises and industries. Look at Marvel. Comics shops are closing down because nobody wants to buy the schlock they're trying to push. The comics industry, so far as cape comics and lots of brick and mortar stores, is dying because of these people. Video games are much the same, with devs being able to avoid it with breakout hits like Kingdom Come: Deliverance gaining massive support because, apart from being a damn fine game (I'm told by almost literally everyone I know who's played it), the dev told these people to go fuck themselves and that he wouldn't play their games.
I'll return to this in a bit, because I wouldn't leave you to swallow this black pill without a chaser of hope to wash it down, but for now I want to turn to a piece by Bradford Walker, entitled Narrative Warfare: Replacing Culture Is An Act Of Conquest. Read the whole thing, including the twitter thread he links. Once again, I'll be here when you get back.
Now I think Bradford is right, here, and this ties back once again into the people fighting against this incredibly virulent strain of communism being the resistance. What they're doing now, tearing down characters like Captain America and replacing characters like Iron Man, trying to force video game developers to bend the knee like with Warhorse Studios, destroying franchises like Star Wars with inferior films that couldn't understand the underlying mentality of the original films if they tried, and attempting to unperson authors like Larry Correia and John Ringo, is meant as cultural replacement.
They are trying to replace our culture with theirs, and it's as simple as that. They are in positions of power, and believe themselves unassailable, therefore they can do what they like and force everyone to go along with it. These are the actions of people who believe they have conquered and are now in the subjugation process. However, unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, they've tipped their hand far too soon.
They're not quite as unassailable as they like to believe, and here we come to the hope chaser for the bitter pills I've been shoving down your throat this entire post.
Not for lack of trying, America is still at heart a capitalist society. Our economy functions on the dollars of the people, and businesses and indeed entire industries live or die by what the consumer chooses to pay for. Now these people believe they should be able to force you to pay for what they're peddling, but they're not at that level of control yet, and thanks to the cultural awakening to the war that's been going on since the late 30's (we're pretty slow on the uptake, apparently) they'll likely never get that control.
You see, the wonderful thing about culture is that you can make more of it. In traditional warfare, if the enemy takes a beachhead, you must push them out and recapture that beachhead. However, in a cultural war, if the enemy takes a beachhead, you can simply move slightly to the right and make a new beachhead, then jealously guard it against intrusion. And thanks to market innovation like Kindle Direct Publishing and Createspace and a thousand others nobody could've ever seen coming, we can do this quite easily.
If, for example, Star Wars is a cultural beachhead, and what was once a fun time for all has been turned into a political messaging platform, you can simply move slightly to the right, fork the idea at its base and create something new. This was done by Galaxy's Edge authors Jason Anspach and Nick Cole, and from what I understand they're jealously guarding their treasure, and that's good, because from what I've read of it it's very precious indeed.
They've taken the cultural beachhead of Marvel superhero comics? No worries, we have imports from Japan like My Hero Academia, and independent comic creators here in America and abroad like Diversity & Comics' Jawbreakers: Lost Souls and Ethan Van Sciver's Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney. They've taken the basic concept of the superhero and done their own thing with it in no way affiliated with Marvel and DC, and as such we don't need Marvel and DC anymore, just like we don't need Star Wars anymore.
Science fiction and fantasy literature is conquered for the most part, however the big five are failing (slowly but surely) along with their lackeys in the chain bookstores, and online venues and ebooks are filling the hole. This allows movements like The Superversives and PulpRev and a thousand others to move in and begin creating stories that people actually want to read, then sell them to those people.
Your power to stop these people is in your wallet, and your voice. Now, more than ever, you have a voice with not only small time creators like myself, but with multinational corporations like, oh, ABC for their cancellation of Roseanne. You have a voice with the companies that support these corporations by advertising with them. You have a voice in what you pay for, and it is more than possible to starve the beasts.
There's a reason I don't buy Marvel and DC comics anymore. I buy used comics, or I buy indie comics, or from a smaller company like Alterna that actually gives a shit about the product they put out, or I just go buy manga. I don't buy current Star Wars books, comics, or movies, I read Galaxy's Edge. I don't watch western cartoons anymore, I watch anime. I don't read books from big publishers anymore (unless I get them used), I support indie authors and get better stories from complete unknowns than I would signing up and paying $40 to get a Hugo packet any given year in the past 30.
Oh, don't imagine it's so easy. I've been doing it for three or four years now, and I can tell you with authority that giving up these things that you've loved for so long is difficult. It was hard for me to not care about the new Marvel series on Netflix, because I love characters like The Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil, and it sounded great that they would finally be getting the live action treatment they deserved. But is it really? Is it really what they deserve? Think about it and let me know, because I think we both know the answer to that question.
Giving up Star Wars is hard as well, and I'm happy to say that you don't have to give it up completely. The old movies still exist, as well as the vastly expansive EU, much of which you can still get hold of. The Brian Daley and A.C. Crispin Han Solo books still exist, as do the Dark Forces games and K.O.T.O.R. and all the rest. Retreat into the good ol' days of Star Wars is possible, but you should also look ahead to the replacement in things like Galaxy's Edge, and not get hung up when you hear about how a new movie fucks up the canon or unnecessarily injects present-day politics into what should be an outlandish, larger than life space opera.
The road to giving up on these things is hard, but if you want to make a cultural impact against these people that are actively trying to ruin everything you love and slapping you in the face while doing it, it's something we all have to learn how to do. We also, as Jon Del Arroz says in his recent Federalist piece, It's Time To Fight Until The Left Follows The Rules They Enforce On The Right, have to start taking metaphorical scalps.
Roseanne Barr makes a supposedly racist joke on twitter at 3am while on ambien, and her show is almost immediately destroyed completely and she will be blacklisted from Hollywood for the foreseeable future. Samantha Bee, on television at prime time, in front of god and everybody, calls the daughter of the President a "feckless cunt," and not only does she still have a job, lefties are rubbing that fact in our faces. It's time to contact Sam B's network advertisers and let them know that we find this behavior reprehensible, and attempt to get her show pulled. I'm not a fan of these tactics, but this is the world we live in, and these are the rules of engagement. As I said on twitter, you can either win, or you can pretend to cleave to your dignity and "principles" while being ground underfoot and out of memory.
These are our tools. Creation of new culture, not giving money to people that hate you, and fighting back when we are attacked. These people are not in control yet, and it is very possible to take the culture back from them. This is not a complete guide, but it's a good starting place, so go forth and fight back. The internet gives you greater ability to do so than humans have ever had in the entire history of our species. It's an amazing tool. Start using it.
Not only this, but we also have plenty of examples, not just in the videos linked above, but in recent years, of the converged propaganda pieces being abject failures in the market. Look at the 65% drop off in the ticket sales of Solo: A Star Wars Story in a week. Look at video games like Sunset, which critics praised and gamers despised so badly that the game failed so hard the studio went bankrupt. There are many more examples, but what this means is that the crap that they make does not sell, it is not popular, and the majority of people are just waiting for something like Galaxy's Edge or Kingdom Come: Deliverance to come out of right field swinging like a madman. You could be the one to make it, and you'll never know if you don't try.
I'll be real with all of you, I don't know if a win is possible. I don't know if we actually can take our culture back from these cackling misanthropic liars and craven cowards pretending to be brave warriors. They might have gotten close enough to a total victory that all we'll do by fighting back is bring about mutually assured destruction, because this fight isn't only on a cultural level, but a political one, too.
But, what I can tell you is that we can damn sure go down swinging. And, to me, that sounds a hell of a lot better than laying down and taking it like a kicked dog.