It's not over

Don't believe the mainstream media. The Yellow Vest protests are very, very far from over.

French police have deployed tear gas in a bid to quell Yellow Vest protesters in a tense stand-off in the city of Rouen in Normandy. Demonstrations quickly spiralled out of control in the northern French city on Saturday as protesters and riot police clashed in the streets of the picturesque town. Paris, the scene of the most dramatic demonstrations since the rallies began in November, was significantly quieter than previous weeks but it also saw dozens of Yellow Vests gathered on Champs-Elysees on Saturday. On Thursday, a group of the protesters attempted to storm the Mediterranean castle that serves as President Emmanuel Macron’s summer retreat.

The inaugural Bookstream

The inaugural Bookstream includes a discussion of the sex predators in science fiction and a preview of the audiobook version of THE LAST CLOSET, narrated by author Moira Greyland, now available in MP3 format for $19.99 in the Arkhaven store. 14 hours and includes the ebook in EPUB and Kindle formats.

Now that we're getting more serious about audiobooks, I'm going to do a weekly Bookstream. Some will be book reviews, others will be previews of our new audiobooks, and if I can ever get the stream to permit a live second party, we may even do author interviews.

One thing that we are considering is developing our own combined ebook/audiobook reader app that is integrated with the Arkhaven store. We'd probably crowdfund it to test the demand, so let me know a) what features would be of interest and b) what rewards would make crowdfunding such an app of interest to you, if any.

It occurred to me that emulating Whispersync's ability to keep track of where you are in the same book across formats would be a lot easier if you used the same app to read the book or listen to the book on your phone or tablet, especially since we plan to include the ebooks with our audiobooks. So, that's an obvious feature, one that is less obvious but absolutely vital to me would be the ability to export notes and highlights; it is a never-ending source of aggravation to me that Aldiko lets me highlight portions of the text, but I can't export them to a text file. We'd also want to incorporate MoonReader's ability to connect to the GoldenDict dictionary apps, for easy foreign language translations while reading.

Please note that we have NOT yet decided to do this, as while the initial response to our direct audiobook sales has been promising, it doesn't justify this level of support yet. It's simply us thinking about where we want to go strategically in 2019 and how we can best arrange to get there. Anyhow, if you have any ideas, feel free to share them here.

Note: if you're using the Arkhaven store, be sure to turn off NoScript in your browser, as we've been informed that may be a contributing factor to charges being declined.

Who would have thought it?

Wait, a large corporation run by an actual Brahmin oversees a literal caste system? What are the odds of that?

Google is a truly unusual place to work.

The campus in Mountain View is dotted with giant statues of sweets representing the company’s Android versions—Eclair, Donut, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Marshmallow. Multicolored bikes, unlocked, line the racks outside the buildings, many of which have laundromats, gyms, photo booths, and other funny statues, plus offices with kitchens containing a dizzying array of snacks. There is free lunch (and breakfast, and minimal dinners, too).

On the surface, it all seems delightful. Certainly, I was excited when I got there on a contract as a document review attorney in 2013. But deeper engagement with the company revealed a surprising and widespread disgruntlement. At first I didn’t understand why everyone was so defensive, glum, and sullen at this otherworldly workplace. But I soon learned the reason came down to deep inequality.

Nearly half of Google workers worldwide are contractors, temps, and vendors (TVCs) and just slightly more than half are full-time employees (FTEs). An internal source, speaking anonymously to The Guardian, just revealed that of about 170,000 people who work at Google, 49.95%, are TVCs and 50.05% are FTEs. As The Guardian reported on Dec. 12, a nascent labor movement within the company led to the leak of a rather awkward document, entitled “The ABCs of TVCs,” which reveals just how seriously Google takes the employment distinctions.

The document explains, “Working with TVCs and Googlers is different. Our policies exist because TVC working arrangements can carry significant risks.” Ostensibly, TVCs are excluded from a lot of things because letting them in on the company’s inner doings threatens security. “The risks Google appears to be most concerned about include standard insider threats, like leaks of proprietary information,” The Guardian writes based on its review of the leaked document.

But in the case of the team I was on—made up of lawyers, most of whom were long-term contractors—we reviewed the most important internal documents and determined whether they were legally privileged. In other words, outsiders were deciding what mail and memos from top Google executives, engineers, and other deep insiders should be considered private in lawsuits and investigations. The irony of this bizarre access, in view of our disparate treatment, was not lost on us. And eventually, it wore workers down.

There was a two-year cap on contract extensions and a weird caste system that excluded us from meetings, certain cafeterias, the Google campus store, and much more. Most notably, contractors wore red badges that had to be visible at all times and signaled to everyone our lowly position in the system.

On days when the full-time employees were on retreats or at all-hands meetings, the office was staffed entirely by contractors. We’d nibble on snacks from the office kitchen, contemplate whether to go to the pool or gym or yoga or dance classes, and laugh amongst ourselves at this heavenly employment hell.

But it was also oddly depressing. We were at the world’s most enviable workplace, allegedly, but were repeatedly reminded that we would not be hired full-time and were not part of the club. Technically, we were employees of a legal staffing agency whose staff we’d never met. We didn’t get sick leave or vacation and earned considerably less than colleagues with the same qualifications who were doing the same work.

In time, I learned the patterns for each class of contractor hires. We came in groups on 12-week contracts that were then renewed, usually for six months, until we neared two years. As the two-year limit approached, the optimists in any given class cajoled and negotiated with managers, and the pessimists grew grumpy and frustrated about having to look for new work. Either way, the response was the same. All had to go.

Imagine if the Tech Brahmins made the Digital Untouchables wear yellow stars instead of red badges.... I wonder how long it will be before we are informed that the big technology companies run by Third Worlders are actively engaged in actual human trafficking.

Bringing the heat

The God-Emperor is serious about the shutdown:

President Donald Trump returned Friday to a threat to close the nation's southern border if he doesn't get his wall money from Congress.

Trump warned as the weekend began that he'll close every port of entry, if he doesn't see progress not only on his wall, but on a total immigration overhaul.

'We build a Wall or close the Southern Border,' he declared.

He claimed in tweets in the last day that Democratic opposition to his wall is totally political in nature and is untethered from their assertions that his desired border barrier would be impractical. The president said they should work harder to end the current shutdown, because it mainly affects their voters.

Trump also said once more that he could cut off aid to Central America as he raged about the formation of a new caravan.

It's particularly interesting to note that he understands that running a massive trade deficit means there is no reason to fear a border closure for the nation in deficit.

The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a “profit making operation.”

Donald Trump may be the first President who understands that having nothing to lose means the freedom to do as you please. Shutting down foreign trade is by definition good for the economy whenever you're trading at a net loss. As we've already seen in the earlier tariff battles, the less trade, the more GDP, whenever (X-M) is negative.

Darkstream: Israel's wall and the federal shutdown

From the transcript of the Darkstream:

When the president demands to know why Israel has a wall, if he needs to pull out that rhetorical weapon, then he has the ability to say, "how can you say that a wall is immoral for Americans but is moral for Israelis?" And if walls are immoral, if we cannot fund a wall for moral reasons, then how can we send any money at all to a immoral state, an immoral state maintaining an immoral wall? So what he's doing by linking Israel's wall to the big, beautiful wall that he's going to build, that he intends to build, and that I believe that he will go ahead and leave the government shut down until he gets what he demands in order to build it, he's set the stage rhetorically to put very, very intense pressure on the Democrats who of course are trying to put pressure on him through the shutdown.

And so as with all of these things it requires discipline and determination to see the matter through. If Trump backs down on this he is going to have very, very little credibility with his backers, with his supporters, with the people that he meets. Here's an interesting fact from Chicago Typewriter author Brandon Fiadino, Israel had more than 10,000 crossings prior to 2013. The number of crossings went down to less than 200 when the wall first began going up, and there were next to none in 2017. So walls work.

The cleanup artist

There a connection appears to have surfaced between the convicted billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and the ex-FBI Director, Special Investigator Robert Mueller, aka Swampy D. McSwampenstein. The middle initial, one presumes, stands for Deep.

Now, in light of the recent miscarriage of justice in the Epstein case, documents that surfaced over the summer have again reemerged. The docs show that Special Counsel Robert Mueller may have personally intervened in the FBI’s investigation of billionaire pedophile, striking a deal that allowed him to avoid prosecution.

According to a series of bombshell FBI documents that were first made public in May, known child predator Epstein had a professional relationship with then-FBI Director Robert Mueller. “Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon,” says one of the FBI documents. “Case agent advised that no federal prosecution will occur in this matter as long as Epstein continues to uphold his agreement with the state of Florida.

According to True Pundit, Twitter sleuth @Techno_Fog mined an interesting gem from the files, showing that Epstein likely served as an informant to the FBI.Robert Mueller’s FBI in 2008.

This wouldn't be the first time that someone convicted of underage-sex-related crimes had most of the charges mysteriously disappear without explanation on Mueller's watch.

Robert Mueller’s name appears on the agreement in his capacity as U.S. Attorney, as well as on the original indictment. He would have been responsible for signing off on the deal, which is remarkably favorable given the quantity of material discovered in the reclusive Asimov’s Sonoma County home. Since summaries of these court documents appeared online, people have been asking just how responsible Mueller was for the terms.

Despite possessing thousands of images of underage children, David Asimov pled guilty to just two counts of possessing illegal images and received no jail time. Instead, he was given probation, told not to drink alcohol, and asked to pay a $200 fine.

These Houdini-esque legal escapes may explain the seemingly bizarre video released by Kevin Spacey the other day. Anonymous Conservative suggests that Spacey is looking for a similar rescue from whoever helped Epstein and Asimov escape justice.

I know what you want. Oh, sure they may have tried to separate us; but what we have is too strong, it’s too powerful. I mean, after all, we shared everything, you and I. I told you my deepest, darkest secrets. I showed you exactly what people are capable of. I shocked you with my honesty, but mostly I challenged you and made you think.

He’s confirming he’s been asked to flip and that he knows how desperately they want him silenced. He maintains that he prefers the company of the cabal, where he’s able to express the darkest parts of himself and reminding them that he knows (or even may have evidence of) all their most vile acts.

And you trusted me, even though you knew you shouldn’t. So, we’re not done no matter what anyone says; and besides…I know what you want. You want me back. Of course some believed everything and have just been waiting on baited breath to hear me confess it all. They’re just dying to have me declare that everything said is true, and I got what I deserve. Wouldn’t that be easy? If it were all so simple? Only you and I both know it’s never that simple…not in politics and not in life.

He’s taunting them with a reminder that they know he’s motivated by self-preservation, and yet their trusted him with their secrets. It’s a threat that he is willing and able to snitch or testify, and is getting a lot of pressure or incentive to do so. But it’s not a done deal.

But you wouldn’t believe the worst without evidence, would you? You wouldn’t rush to judgements without facts…would you?—Did you? No, not you; you’re smarter than that. Anyway, all this presumption made for such an unsatisfying ending. And to think it could’ve been such a memorable send off! I mean if you and I learn nothing else these past years, is (it is in life and art) nothing should be off “the table”. We weren’t afraid, not of what we said and not of what We did and We’re still not afraid.

He’s telling them that stories of his flipping are only rumors, and he can still decide either way. He chastises them for throwing him under the bus when he was willing to fight all the way with them.

We have no need to ask why the most wicked prosper. We know. But it is galling all the same.

Two days left for AH:Q

We are rapidly approaching your last chance to take part in the epic, history-making crowdfunding campaign that is Alt-Hero: Q! The campaign is fully funded, the request for arbitration has been fired off, the opt-out backers' request for arbitration is in the works, as are the waiver backers' individual requests, and the AH:Q team is hard at work on finishing Issue #1 for release in January.

There are just two days left, so if you've been putting it off, do not do so any longer! Note that on a per-issue basis, this has been the most successful Arkhaven campaign by far, despite the various difficulties imposed upon us. While recent developments have not been as flashy as in the past, we have made significant structural steps forward, including the move to a much faster server that helps speed up our production process.

In other Alt-Hero news, the first novel in the Arkhaven universe, Alt-Hero: Covert by Jon Del Arroz, will also be released in January, first to the backers, and then to retail. A selection from the killer cover image, which will be colored by Arklight Studios, is below.

Welfare for war

Martin Indyk, executive vice president of the Brookings Institution, is deeply concerned about the fact that the U.S. President is confident in the IDF's ability to defend Israel, especially in light of its US funding:

Trump: “We give Israel billions of dollars, they'll be okay.” This cavalier attitude is deeply worrying. Ignores the role of US as force multiplier for Israeli deterrence. From here it’s a short step to Trump asking: why are we giving Israel so much money? 

Indeed. But isn't that a question that Trump, and every American, should be asking? Why ARE Americans giving Israel so much money, Mr. Indyk? Is it tribute? Is it Danegeld? Is it an investment? Will you not be so kind as to explain it to everyone?

It's not as if the smartest and most historically-aware Israelis don't already recognize that their reliance on the US military and US money enervates their military forces. Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld has been pointing this out for years, if not decades. And sooner or later, the magic flow of money is going to stop, for any of a wide range of potential reasons.

Why do conservatives believe welfare is any better for the IDF than it has been for the black family, or, for that matter, the white American family? The inarguable strategic fact is that Israel would be considerably safer and militarily stronger if Trump would send them America's Jews rather than America's money. And so, for that matter, would America.

Whatever happened to Trust & Safety?

Federal regulators should keep this news in mind when they're considering the way in which the big tech platforms speech police and deplatform while they are funding criminal filth.

Google  has scrambled to remove third-party apps that led users to child porn sharing groups on WhatsApp in the wake of TechCrunch’s report about the problem last week. We contacted Google with the name of one of these apps and evidence that it and others offered links to WhatsApp groups for sharing child exploitation imagery. Following publication of our article, Google removed from the Google Play store that app and at least five like it. Several of these apps had more than 100,000 downloads, and they’re still functional on devices that already downloaded them.

WhatsApp failed to adequately police its platform, confirming to TechCrunch that it’s only moderated by its own 300 employees and not Facebook’s  20,000 dedicated security and moderation staffers. It’s clear that scalable and efficient artificial intelligence systems are not up to the task of protecting the 1.5 billion-user WhatsApp community, and companies like Facebook must invest more in unscalable human investigators.

But now, new research provided exclusively to TechCrunch by anti-harassment algorithm startup AntiToxin shows that these removed apps that hosted links to child porn sharing rings on WhatsApp were supported with ads run by Google and Facebook’s ad networks. AntiToxin found six of these apps ran Google AdMob, one ran Google Firebase, two ran Facebook Audience Network and one ran StartApp. These ad networks earned a cut of brands’ marketing spend while allowing the apps to monetize and sustain their operations by hosting ads for Amazon, Microsoft, Motorola, Sprint, Sprite, Western Union, Dyson, DJI, Gett, Yandex Music, Q Link Wireless, Tik Tok and more.

The situation reveals that tech giants aren’t just failing to spot offensive content in their own apps, but also in third-party apps that host their ads and that earn them money. While these apps like “Group Links For Whats” by Lisa Studio let people discover benign links to WhatsApp groups for sharing legal content and discussing topics like business or sports, TechCrunch found they also hosted links with titles such as “child porn only no adv” and “child porn xvideos” that led to WhatsApp groups with names like “Children 💋👙👙” or “videos cp” — a known abbreviation for “child pornography.”

They "scrambled" to remove them. But only after they were caught. How is that not a crime? After all, are we not reliably informed that the big tech platforms carefully monitor and patrol their content?

Those faces....

Faith Goldy notes: TFW the Trump family and TPUSA realize: “We’ve brought a senile narcissistic gamma male in to lecture a paying crowd. We’re screwed.”

I'm not sure which is funnier, the expression on Jack Posobiec's face or the one on Donald Trump Jr.'s face. They both clearly recognize word-salad when they hear it.

UPDATE: Upon further review, it's definitely the melange of disgust and contempt on Kimberly Guilfoyle's face.

"Is that... is that the stink of GAMMA that I smell? Get away from me, you creep!"

"They simply failed to recognize the full horror"

The near-total inability of the American people, and the U.S. government, to recognize the full horror of their situation is not exactly new. For Christmas, Spacebunny hunted down a complete first edition set of A History of the Peninsular War by Charles Oman, which she somehow managed to obtain for less than five percent of the going rate. When it comes to things used and garage sales, she is without question an Apex Predator; she is the party primarily responsible for my beautiful collection of books.

Naturally, I immediately awarded the seven-volume set pride of place in my library. In addition to being one of the most thorough and well-sourced accounts of a war in recorded human history, Oman's history of the Peninsular War is remarkable for its keen observations of human nature. Prior to encountering Martin van Creveld, Oman was my favorite military historian, and A History of the Peninsular War is indubitably his magnum opus.

The attitude of the people of Northwest Spain during the French invasion can't help but strike the observer of the current US situation as one that is all-too-familiar:

Leon and Old Castile had, as we have already had occasion to remark, been far less energetic than other parts of the Peninsula in raising new troops and coming forward with contributions to the national exchequer. They had done no more than furnish the 10,000 men of Cuesta’s disorderly ‘Army of Castile,’ a contingent utterly out of proportion with their population and resources. Nor did they seem to realize the scandal of their own sloth and procrastination. Moore had expected to see every town full of new levies undergoing drill before marching to the Ebro, to discover magazines accumulated in important places like Ciudad Rodrigo and Salamanca, to find the military and civil officials working busily for the armies at the front. Instead he found an unaccountable apathy. Even after the reports of Espinosa and Gamonal had come to hand, the people and the authorities alike seemed to be living in a sort of fools’ paradise, disbelieving the gloomy news that arrived, or at least refusing to recognize that the war was now at their own doors. Moore feared that this came from want of patriotism or of courage.

As a matter of fact, the people’s hearts were sound enough, but they had still got ‘Baylen on the brain’: they simply failed to recognize the full horror of the situation. That their armies were not merely beaten but dispersed, that the way to Madrid was open to Bonaparte, escaped them. This attitude of mind enraged Moore. ‘In these provinces,’ he wrote, ‘no armed force whatever exists, either for immediate protection or to reinforce the armies. The French cavalry from Burgos, in small detachments, are overrunning the province of Leon, and raising contributions to which the inhabitants submit without the least resistance: the enthusiasm of which we heard so much nowhere appears. Whatever good-will there is (and among the lower orders I believe there is a good deal) is taken no advantage of. I am at this moment in no communication with any of their generals. I am ignorant of their plans, or those of their government.’

At least the Spanish people of the 19th century realized that they had been invaded and they were at war. Today, despite having been invaded by a force 250x larger than the Napoleonic army that invaded Spain, the American people still completely fail to understand that their country, their culture, their government, and their traditions are being fundamentally altered without their will or their consent.

Darkstream: NN Taleb and the importance of intelligence

From the transcript of the Darkstream: now 1 million views strong:

So, Taleb says IQ measures "an inferior form of intelligence stripped of second-order effects meant to select paper shufflers obedient intellectual yet idiots. This is a true statement followed by a falsehood, well, actually, it's all false. IQ doesn't actually measure intelligence at all, it is a proxy for intelligence, okay? Intelligence is not something that we know well enough to quantify how many one has. We know exactly what an inch is, so we can measure exactly how tall you are but we don't know exactly what an IQ point is, and so to say it measures an inferior form of intelligence, no, I don't think that's correct.

Q- What do you think is the average and max IQ of your fan base is?
A- Well, I know that there are several dozen people with IQs in excess of 150, so if you simply do the math, I'll have to work it out, but I would say that the average is probably around 110, which is actually extremely high if you work out the math. Maybe a little bit more.

Go away and stay away

In case you're wondering why Nate Winchester is now banned from commenting here.

Is there any benefit of the doubt or charitable interpretation I can extend to your words, which you have extended to Peterson's? This isn't even rhetorical. I haven't had the time to go over everything you have written in detail so I would not be surprised if there is a passage where you extend him charity. Only on my initial impression does it strike me that by the exacting standard you condemn Peterson, do you also stand condemned. Note also that this is my principle issue with Vox Day as by the standards he applies to Peterson, Vox then is every bit the liar, narcissist, and cultist that Peterson is - more so even.

What an utterly ridiculous statement. There is absolutely no charitable reading of Jordan Peterson that allows one to consider him anything but what he is, a liar, a globalist, and a practicing occultist. Nor does one require an "exacting standard" to condemn his vast panoply of lies, bait-and-switches, redefinitions, false postures, and deceptions. As for the idea that I am even more of a liar than Jordan Peterson, Fake Nate might as reasonably have claimed that I have been prescribed even more SSRI's than Peterson or dreamed more regularly about cannibalizing my extended family.

I neither need nor want shameless snakes like this around here. And I neither request or require any charity in reading what I have written. If any of you genuinely believe that I am a habitual liar, then by all means, just go away and stay away. Why would you ever want to read someone who lies to you on a regular basis in the first place?

Adventures in Jordanetics

Fencing Bear is discovering that the only people more inclined to turn on badthinkers and thought criminals than academics are Jordan Peterson cultists:

It is difficult to describe the crisis I have been living through these past several weeks.

Short version: Don’t call out the Devil if you aren’t ready to bout. 

Alternate short version: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” —1 Corinthians 1:20

There has been much bitterness. There have been feelings of betrayal. There have been feelings of being lied to while watching people whom I thought were my supporters fall away.

Friends warn me about overreacting. At which I overreact.

“Academic freedom means nothing if the faculty do not stand up for it.”

I believed that. Someone whom I have trusted my entire academic career told me that. I still believe it—but do my colleagues?

“Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from insanity.”

I heard someone say that recently on his livestream. Someone whom my friends tell me I should be wary of associating myself with because he has been called the same names I have over the past several years.

Three weeks ago I found this note tucked behind a drawing that I had posted up by my office door.

You are a white nationalist and a detriment to all forms of knowledge. Please resign, as your institution has and will continue to fail to condemn your actions.

You are a violent and malicious threat to academia and to the future. Not only do you profess racist ideologies, you collude with all sorts of monstrous people who transform your otherwise out-dated and foolish forms of racism into something much worse.

I posted the letter on my social media and my friends got a good laugh out of it. I told my dean and chair about the letter, and the campus police sent an officer round that evening to take a statement from me. Colleagues from around the world wrote to me, expressing dismay that I should be receiving such missives.

And nothing happened.

Sadly, she's come under attack for her lack of faith in St. Jordan Peterson as well. On a not-entirely unrelated note, Nick Krauser reviews Jordanetics in his inimitable, hard-hitting style:

How is it that Vox can achieve such a steady hit-rate and always be at the leading edge of the curve? His Cuckservative book came out before Trump won the Republican nomination. His take-down of Jordan Peterson came at the peak of his popularity when pretty much every right-winger I knew was riding the Canadian globalist’s nut-sack. Vox isn’t just outside the mainstream Overton Window, he’s perpetually outside the Alt-Right’s own Overton Window. So, how does he manage it?

Simple. He’s read history and philosophy. Modern retards raised on YouTube, Twitter and hyper-ventilating click-bait conservative bloggers have no sense of perspective. They think Animal Farm is a porno, Big Brother a TV show, and Franz Ferdinand an indie band. Those of you fortunate enough to get a real education are better able to spot the same old patterns reemerge.

There’s nothing new under the sun. It’s just old wine in new bottles.

The problem when first approaching Jordan Peterson is that he’s a muddled thinker, bullshitting speaker, and incompetent writer. That means to make sense of him you have to straighten out all the knots he himself has created. Reading Jordanetics reminded me of a philosophy lecture I took as a fresh-faced 18yr old scamp in a course called Rousseau and Marx. I asked the lecturer why he’d assigned the Past Masters summary books on those two black-hearted rogues rather than their original writings.

“Oh, they are terrible writers. It’ll take you forever to figure out what they are trying to say. Don’t bother. Just go to the summary books. Those are cleaned-up Rousseau and cleaned-up Marx.”

Cleaned-up? That’s how it feels reading Jordanetics. Vox has done JBP the favour of organising his muddled thoughts for him in order to get at the heart of his true meaning. Actually, it’s not doing JBP a favour at all because to explain what he says in clear terms is to expose him for the evil Satanic globalist fraud that he is. You see, JBP is a wannabe L. Ron Hubbard. He’s a mentally-ill, moral and physical coward, with a messiah complex. His role is to mislead you. There’s a fair chance that JBP was sexually molested by his own grandmother but that can’t be anything compared to the brutal rape Vox gives him in Jordanetics.

Vox’s parsing of JBP’s philosophy, as expressed in Maps Of Meaning and 12 Rules For Life, is that JBP is preaching a post-Christian religion of Balance. JBP uses the terms Order and Chaos as proxies for Good and Evil, and his advice all leads towards a Jedi-like goal of achieving Balance between the two. The goal is not to fight and defeat Evil, but to assimilate it. Obviously that’s ridiculous.

Having read much of the Western canon, Vox is able to trace the intellectual inspiration of JBP to his roots which will surprise the average Peterson fanboy. Vox makes a strong case that JBP is knowingly drawing ideas from Carl Jung and…… Aleister Crowley. Yes, the bald-headed Satanist. He doesn’t just throw those names out as insults but rather draws the connection through exegesis of Peterson’s own written words and a comparison to the gnostics, pagans and Satanists who originated the ideas. Vox firmly believes JBP is knowingly evil, and I agree with him.

There is more. Read the whole thing there.

RIP Whatever

John Scalzi's decline into irrelevance continues apace:

Every year I post stats on traffic for Whatever, and every year it gets harder to see how it accurately reflects my actual readership, because of the way people read things I post here. Bluntly, relatively few people visit the site directly at this point in time — As of this moment, for 2018, Whatever has had 2.82 million direct visits in 2018, down from last year’s 4.1 million, and substantially down from the 2012 high of 8.16 million.

Strange, because I simply haven't seen the same sort of decline here at Vox Popoli. As of this moment, for 2018, VP has had 31.85 million PAGEVIEWS, up slightly from last year's 31.2 million, and substantially up from the 2012 figure of 6.10 million. And Whatever's reported traffic of 2.82 million is about 25 percent worse than I expected; I had anticipated a decline to 3.75 million in 2018.

Note that Scalzi actually means "pageviews" when he writes "direct visits". This is the sort of definitional bait-and-switch he has attempted to play in the past, but we know from his past reports that he's actually talking about pageviews rather than hits or unique visits. Of course, he's referring to Wordpress pageviews, which tend to be a little more generous than Google pageviews, so an apples-to-apples comparison would be 31.85 to 2.69.

But wait, there's more!

As an aside, there’s a fellow out there who loves when I post these pieces because he like to then say that his own (self-reported, as these are) blog numbers are higher, and this is evidence that he is truly more popular than I am, I am not all that popular, etc. It’s entirely possible at this point he has a larger number of direct visitors to his site than I do. I suspect I may have a larger overall social media footprint than he does, however. For example, I have 158K Twitter followers, and he has none whatsoever, as he was booted off the site for being a terrible person some time ago. I’m not sure he ever talks about the fact that his being a terrible person means his own site is one of the few remaining social media outlets where he is tolerated at all, so if you want his brand of petty shittiness, that’s where you have to go.

Zero. Fucks. Given. So brave. Thank you for this. Actually, Scalzi being willing to post his numbers even when they no longer flatter his self-inflating pretensions is one of the very few things I respect about him. As for my "self-reported" numbers, they are straight out of Blogger and I am reporting them with scrupulous accuracy, as even my worst enemies will usually admit is my wont.

I track my blog stats on an annual basis, so the final figure for VP will be north of 32 million. Thanks to all of you for making this possible, and thanks as well to the Scalzi fan-trolls, who encouraged me to start paying attention to my blog statistics, and from whom we never, ever hear lecturing us about the vital importance of such things anymore.

Do click on the link. Give the poor guy a little traffic for the sake of the good old days.

UPDATE: If you find it hard to grasp the concept of gamma, this should suffice to get it across to you.

lol, it didn’t take the sad little person in question very long to take that particular bait, did it. He’s awfully predictable, and easily manipulatable.

Secret King wins again! Anyhow, as far as relevance goes, the objective metrics are in line with the blog statistics. What is amusing is that if you look at the Google Trend statistics going back to 2004, you can see that he's really made a meal of that brief period in 2012 when one viral post made him look somewhat more significant than he has ever actually been.

John Scalzi is actually a tragic figure. He could have been considerably more than he turned out to be, had he simply been willing to accept his limitations and work within them rather than focusing all of his energy on convincing the world that he was something he was not and could never be.

Economics vs biology

Free trade theory is about to be put to a large-scale empirical test:

South Africa’s and Togo’s parliaments this month ratified the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The total number of countries committing to the deal has thus grown to 49.

Once the agreement comes into effect, it will create a tariff-free continent, covering a single market of 1.2 billion people in 55 nations with a combined gross domestic product of about $3 trillion. It will constitute the largest free trade area globally, according to South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.

The agreement is expected to reduce export tariffs which currently average 6.1 percent, and boost intra-African trade by more than 52 percent after import duties are eliminated. It is focused on diversifying trade exports away from just extractives and enhancing the chances of small and medium enterprises to tap into more regional destinations.

Economists say that tariff-free access to a huge and unified market will encourage manufacturers and service providers to leverage economies of scale.

If the free traders are right, the African economy is about to explode with trade, economic growth, and rising per capita incomes. If the biologists are right, none of this will make a damn bit of difference, as the biological limits of the populations will outweigh any structural improvements.

Of course, all of this is probably irrelevant, as the conspiracy theorists who believe China is going to colonize Africa and put blacks on reservations in imitation of the European treatment of the North American continent are the most likely to be correct.

Mailvox: Taleb errs on IQ

JC has a Christmas request:

You mentioned Taleb is one of the few people that would make you question things you previously held. Taleb's math is out of my league but it's the same way I feel about your blog posts, i.e. they make me really think about my previously held beliefs. Could you maybe address his IQ thread in your blog or on the Darkstream one of these days?

Knowing my respect for the acumen of NN Taleb, a number of people have emailed me concerning his recent thread criticizing the idea of IQ and its utility in providing a reasonable proxy for comparing intelligence between individuals. I love Taleb's books, I admire his pugnacious spirit, and I do not dismiss anything he says out of hand. However, no matter how much I respect anyone, I do not accept anyone as an authority who cannot be questioned. I have questioned and critiqued most of my intellectual heroes, from Umberto Eco to Thomas Aquinas and Marcus Aurelius, so I won't hesitate to point out the various errors in fact and logic that Taleb makes in his "IQ" Thread.

"IQ" THREAD

"IQ" measures an inferior form of intelligence, stripped of 2nd order effects, meant to select paper shufflers, obedient IYIs.

1- When someone asks you a question in REAL LIFE, you focus first on "WHY is he asking me that?", which slows down. (Fat Tony vs Dr John)

2- It takes a certain type of person to waste intelligent concentration on classroom/academic problems. These are lifeless bureaucrats who can muster sterile motivation.

Some people can only focus on problems that are REAL, not fictional textbook ones.

3- Look at the hordes with "high IQ" (from measurement) who are failures in real world rather than the ~50% correlation between IQ and success in 1) salaried employment, 2) jobs that select for edjukashion.

Yuuge survivorship bias.

37 out of 38 PhDs in finance blew up in 1998!

4- If many millionaires have IQs around100, & 58 y.o. back office clercs at Goldman Sachs or elsewhere an IQ of 155 (true example), clearly the measurement is less informative than claimed.

5- If you renamed IQ , from "Intelligent Quotient" to FQ "Functionary Quotient" or SQ "Salaryperson Quotient", then some of the stuff will be true.

It measures best the ability to be a good slave.

IYIs want to build a top-down world where IYIs have the edge.

6- If you take a Popperian-Hayekian view on intelligence, then you would realize that to measure it you would need to know the SKILLS needed in the ecology, which is again a fallacy of intellectual hubris.

7- Perhaps the worst problem with IQ is that it seem to selects for people who don't like to say "there is no answer, don't waste time, find something else".

Remember the 1998 blowups.

8- IQ is an academic-contrived notion.

And the problem is that in academia there is no difference between academia and the real world; in the real world there is.

Which explains why @primalpoly (while an honest resesrcher) can't see where we are coming from.

9- It is PRECISELY as a quant that I doubt "IQ".
I've spent 34 years working w/"High IQ" quants. I've rarely seen them survive, not blow up on tail events.

Those high IQ who have survived like @financequant /Renaissance happen to be yuuugely street smart

10- #SkininTheGame shows that the only robust measure of "rationality" & "intelligence" is survival, avoidance of ruin/left tail/absorbing barrier, (ergodicity). Nothing that does not account for ability to survive counts as a measure of "intelligence"-- just philosophaster BS.

11- A robust use of "IQ" is for low scores for special needs pple. But then practically ANY measure would work to detect problem & improvement.

Or no measure: just a conversation #Lindy. But then psycholophasters are using it like cholesterol, transferring from tails to body.

12- If someone came up w/a NUMERICAL "Well Being Quotient" WBQ or "Sleep Quotient", SQ, trying to mimic temperature or oth physical qty,  you 'd find it absurd.
But put enough academics w/physics envy on it & it will become an official measure.

That's what happened to "IQ".

13- For a measure to be a measure it needs to be:

+ UNIQUE
+ MONOTONIC
or, at least
+ TRANSITIVE

Hence IQ is not a measure, but something for psycholophasters to BS about.

14- Any measure of "intelligence" w/o convexity is sterile.

https://www.edge.org/conversation/nassim_nicholas_taleb-understanding-is-a-poor-substitute-for-convexity-antifragility …

15-" IQ" is most predictive of performance in military training, w/correlation~.5, (which is circular since hiring isn't random).

QUIZ: translate the correlation into percentage of the time IQ provides a correct answer there.

16- So Far: "IQ" isn't a measure of "intelligence" but "unintelligence"; it loses its precision as you move away from 70 (left tail).

Where it's most hyped (*some* jobs) it predicts ~15- 63% of the time, ~10% if you demassage data.

It it were a physical test, wd be rejected.

17- A graph that shows the synthesis of my opinion on IQ and the "reseasrch" results about it.

18- (continuing graph). So far none of the IQ-psycholophasters seem to grasp that local correlation is never correlation is the commonly understood sense. So when they say  "IQ works well between 70 and 130" it means: "IQ works well between 0 and ~85, maybe".

19- A general problem w/social "scientists" & IQ idiots: they can intuit the very terms they are using.
Verbalism; they have a skin-deep statistical education & can't translate something as trivial as "correlation" or "explained variance" into meaning, esp. under nonlinearities.

20- This Tweet storm has NO psychological references: simply, the field is bust. So far ~ 50% of the research DOES NOT replicate, & papers that do have weaker effect. Not counting poor transfer to reality.

How P values often fraudulent:https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.07532.pdf …
Same for g factor

21-If you look at my p-haking above all the numbers by the fellow are upper bound -add category selection & the story is grim. Discount the story by >½.

"If IQ isn't a valid concept, no concept in psychology is valid." Sorry but psychology is largely bust.

22- This tweet storm irritated many:

1) Charlatans with something to sell: without IQ & other *testing* psychologists have little to sell society; there is a vested interest in hacking/massaging the stats & defending the products.

2) Pple who want some races to be inferior.

23- Note 1: Why is Intelligence = (long term) survival? Because convexity, missed by IQ tests. You want to make those mistakes with small consequences  NOT those with large ones. Academics ~ always focus on frequency of error not magnitude. Too Gaussianized. See #antifragile

First, while IQ may measure an inferior form of intelligence, Taleb's apparent unfamiliarity with the statistically observed exclusion of the high-IQ cognitive elite means that he finds himself in error from the very start. Whether it was designed to do so or not, IQ observably does not select for "paper shufflers, obedient IYIs" as those who can best be described in that manner tend to be in 1SD to 2SD range. In fact, those in the 150+ range are 97 percent EXCLUDED from the elite professions, including academia, often due to their inveterate intellectual disobedience.

One study even found that the highest IQ among the academics measured at an elite English university was only 139! The fact that IQ proxy tests have not been utilized in the US college admissions process for nearly 30 years now only further obscures the severing of the link between academia and high intelligence.

Second, while it does take "a certain type of person to waste intelligent concentration on classroom/academic problems" those don't tend to be the 3SD+ set. They tend to focus on ABSTRACT problems, because they are the only people capable of, and interested in, doing so. It is the midwits from the 105 to 115 level who prefer spitting out correct answers to questions already answered.

Third, Taleb fails to understand the reason for the correlation between high IQ and failure in the real world, which stems from the communications gap. The correlation between IQ and academic success is only 50 percent for IQs below 140; the rate of real world success for 150+ IQs is higher in the real world than in the academic world. Taleb is looking at too broad a range of "high IQ" rather than at a reasonable gradient of high IQ ranges.

Fourth, Taleb conflates intelligence with survival. But this is just flat-out wrong. Intelligence is simply a measure of intellectual ability, just as size, strength, and speed are measures of physical ability. And while intellectual ability is not necessarily as easily quantified, and while IQ is assuredly not a perfect measure, it is no more correct to redefine it simply because some people with lower IQs have higher incomes than other people with higher IQs than it would be correct to redefine size because some short people have higher incomes than taller people.

The fact that a track sprinter's speed does not always translate to success on the football field, where speed is at a premium, does not mean that the sprinter is not fast. It merely means that there are other, more important factors involved that are less immediately apparent to the casual observer. And given the way in which the most intelligent women are disinclined to reproduce, it should be obvious that intelligence is no more intrinsically advantageous to survival than size.

In this failed critique of IQ, Taleb demonstrates the limitations of the technical mind, which I suspect in this case stems from Taleb's understandable irritation with the shortcomings of the quantifiers used to determine IQ. A better measure would take into account more objectively quantifiable measures such the as speed of accurate reading, and place more importance on the ability to correctly perform logical and mathematical tasks quickly. But Taleb's critique primarily fails due to his false assumptions concerning the correlation of academic success with IQ, which is surprising considering that Taleb probably knows more 1SD to 3SD academics than anyone reading this.

It's not the Satan Horse

It's this guy.

So speciest

Paul Joseph Watson should be deplatformed and techno-shunned for his shameless speciesm on the subject of the next James Bond:

The fact that Bond is not disabled is also ableist. We need a disabled Bond who spends the entire movie not chasing bad guys, but being slowly pushed towards them in a wheelchair. Only then will we have achieved true equality. 

Equality? He calls that equality? It's nearly 2019! The next Bond should be a wombat! Or, at the very least, a cat.

Speaking of SJW lunacy, The Promethean is now available in audiobook.

Merry Christmas

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- John 1: 9-14

On Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Bleeding Cool's Top 100

Apparently Bleeding Cool releases its Top 100 Power List for the comics industry every year. While I tend to doubt they would dare to put me on it even if I bought Marvel Comics from Disney and personally authored the top-selling comic of the year, at least we have been provided an objective measure of just how big 2VS is in the comics industry.

Although you'd think I'd get at least a modicum of credit for getting their Editor-in-Chief fired for the mere crime of daring to speak with me.

97. Mark Waid
A major comic book writer, editor and publisher, he is currently the ongoing writer on Doctor Strange. Being sued by Richard Meyer over his involvement, or not, in the decision of Antarctic Press to cancel the Jawbreakers graphic novella, whatever the merits of that suit, demonstrates that some, certainly, see his actions as impactful. Reducing his social media interactions, no longer co-owing a comic store and the mothballing of his Thrillbent digital publisher has seen his listing number drop, but he was able to wrangle a significant portion of the comics industry to back his legal defence.

74. Ethan Van Sciver
Leaving DC Comics after prominent creators refused to work with him anymore, he used the usual mixture of Comicsgate virtue signalling, identity politics and mocking hater videos to raise over half a million dollars on Indiegogo, for his still-upcoming Cyberfrog comic revival. The highest amount raised on crowdfunding by any comic creator in the year, it helps that he can actually draw. This helped him take the position as leading Comicsgate figure as Richard Meyer stepped back, due to his legal case with Mark Waid, and not wanting to give the defence further ammunition.

(whistles innocently)

I would like to assure everyone that these recent developments have absolutely nothing to do with a certain gathering that is known to have taken place in Spain.

Spain’s socialist government could be in trouble as a populist party is storming the polls in the country. The right-wing VOX party in Spain has been gaining strength and every poll they seem to rank higher. Yesterday it was revealed that VOX have reached an all-time record high in Metroscopia’s poll.

They are now at 11.5 per cent which would mean they could form a government if there was a vote today. The last election, they garnered 0.2 per cent.

That being said, the Nationalist Right is inevitable all across the West. That's not rhetoric, although it would serve as effective rhetoric. It is, rather, a pure dialectical analysis. The nationalist trend that began in 2015 is the inevitable reaction to the 80-year trend towards globalism. At a bare minimum, the counterreaction will last until at least 2040, but it could continue until 2145 if, as I suspect, the trend has permanently reversed.

Mailvox: deceptions and delusions

AP wonders if transtemporal quantum editing could be considered one of the great wonders anticipated by the Bible:

Just came home from work to catch the Darkstream and your references to possible trans-temporal manipulation. Never thought about it before, but it’s a hella scary idea. Puts me in mind of an incredibly powerful lie scripture predicts:

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

The real elect know our stuff, historically and currently. Not bragging, but just recognizing the Spirit was given to guide us into all truth. And he does his job. But with all the time I’ve spent reading the word of God, if something could make me question almost anything, it would be a completely unexpected, entirely unprecedented new level of manipulation; the sort of magic trick that makes the serious, committed believer in Jesus Christ actually wonder if he is losing his own mind. His memories are suspect. His intellect is breached. His spirit is ... well, who knows?

When you find yourself questioning not just the validity of the input but the very operation of the machine God himself built, you’re really in trouble.

Which makes me think what you’re suggesting is not out of the question. The really bad stuff the apostle John predicted is absolutely coming, and maybe some of it’s already here. I appreciate being pushed to consider such things, because we need to guard against attacks from every conceivable—and inconceivable—direction.

I don't find the idea to be scary, but rather, yet another reassuring confirmation that the divine victory has already been won, the very victory whose initial offensive we celebrate tomorrow. Christians have been prepared for over a century for a battle between what our eyes see and what our hearts know. That is why the Christian must be dedicated to the truth, seek knowledge, and pray for discernment.

I always found it intriguing that one of the strongest scriptural condemnations was targeted for those who modify the words of the Bible. Perhaps that was a warning for the very modifications that are being observed and reported now.

I don't pretend to be a theologian or to have memorized verses from the King James Version. But do you really believe my knowledge of the latter is so poor that I would score a pathetic 1 out of 20 on a fill-in-the-blank Bible quiz?

Darkstream: Seeing through the spells

Owen seriously went OFF this morning with a massive three-hour stream that featured a lot of intriguing ideas about those he calls the "wizards" of persuasion. I thought his rhetoric was remarkably effective in that regard, and shared a few of my thoughts on how one might go about seeing through the wizard spells, because once one begins to comprehend how the tricks are performed, once one begins to see how the spells are cast, one becomes at least somewhat immune to the ensorcellment.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
- Philippians 1:9-11

MOTH & COBWEB now at Arkhaven

As part of our ongoing move to better serve the readers of Castalia House's books, we are in the process of making our entire ebook catalog available from the Arkhaven store in both EPUB and Kindle formats. While it will take until the end of February to remove all of our books from Kindle Select, all six books in the excellent MOTH & COBWEB series by John C. Wright are now available in both digital formats.

If you prefer print, the two hardcover trilogies that contain all six books in the series, The Green Knight's Squire and The Dark Avenger's Sidekick, are also available now.

It is not yet possible to order print editions from the Arkhaven store, but we are working with Ingram to see if there is a way to eventually do so. In the meantime, we will continue adding ebooks and audiobooks to the Arkhaven store, so check in on it from time to time, as not all new additions will be announced here.

John C. Wright fans may wish to note that the epic Awake in the Night Land and the excellent City Beyond Time are also available in digital editions at Arkhaven.

And speaking of Arkhaven, Rorshach of Swindon has reviewed two more Quantum Mortis comics and his verdicts might surprise you. Quantum Mortis #2 and Quantum Mortis #3. A commenter there makes an observation: Vox Day has produced comics more than any CGer so far and with sentiments you and I like...we have to give him credit.

The sentiment is nice, but it doesn't really matter whether anyone does or not. The important thing is that we are continuing to take back ground in the ongoing cultural war against the West.

UPDATE: The first five ALT★HERO comics are all now available in CBZ/Kindle format and all three novels from The Thousand Worlds series by Rod Walker are now available in EPUB/Kindle at Arkhaven.

JORDANETICS: a review

Luke Dromgoole reviews Jordanetics for The Burkean:

“Falsehoods have consequences, that’s what makes them false” – Jordan Peterson

Jordanetics is not the book I expected it to be. I expected a political criticism of Jordan B. Peterson’s politics, a takedown of atomised individualism, and a nationalist defence of group identity.

Much of this was present. However, Vox Day’s Jordanetics: A Journey into the Mind of Humanity’s Greatest Thinker is a far more interesting book because it explains what motivates Peterson while giving us the true meaning of his philosophy, something much more sinister than I had ever anticipated....

Vox Day has clearly been inspired by Thomas Aquinas’ style of argumentation. Early in the book, he lines up potential objections to his critique of Jordan Peterson, then one by one refutes each objection.  His methodical style of writing can be contrasted with a continued theme throughout the book; Jordan Peterson’s total lack of coherent meaning when he speaks or writes.

Read the whole thing there.

Trump's READ MY LIPS moment

Roger Kimball has correctly identified the government shutdown over the wall as the key nexus of Donald Trump's presidency:

George Bush was a gentleman. He didn’t like it when people called him mean names. He was offended when the media ganged up on him and said he was a terrible person. So he caved. He didn’t want to. He said he didn’t want to. He probably thought about saying he did it only as a “last resort.” Doubtless the memory of politicians checking into that resort stopped him.

There is a lesson in Bush’s pursed lips for President Trump. Bush was elected in large part because of his promise not to raise taxes. Similarly, a major reason that Donald Trump was elected was his promise to build a wall on our southern border. The wall was just a synecdoche for border security and an America-first immigration policy. But it was a vivid, concrete (no pun intended) manifestation of that determination. It was, politically, the sine qua non of that policy.

President Trump has kept an astonishing number of his campaign promises, from his Scalia-like judicial nominations to moving our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. He has begun hacking away at the stifling regulatory environment built up by the administrative state and he has inaugurated a much-needed renovation of the United States military. He has cut taxes (though not enough) and eviscerated Obamacare. He has, just a few days ago, announced that the United States would be pulling out of Syria and there are plans, at long last, to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Promises made, promises kept.

But there is one critical promise he has, so far, been unable to keep. The wall. He has to build the wall. It was the cornerstone of his campaign.

Again, the wall, like lines in the Constitution if you are a left-wing jurist, has plenty of emanations and penumbras. It means robust border control. It means an America-first immigration policy. It means lots of things.

But the wall is the indispensable objective correlative of those things. Donald Trump has to build the wall, and he has to be seen to have built the wall. If not, he will lose in 2020.

It's very simple and straightforward. If the God-Emperor builds the wall, he will win in a Trumpslide. If he does not, he will probably lose despite all the advantages enjoyed by an incumbent President. This should not be a difficult decision for him, no matter what pressure is directed at him by the media, by the Democrats, or by the Republican Party establishment.

Build the wall and win, fail to build the wall and lose. This isn't something that can be finessed, negotiated, or explained away. Build the wall or lose like a bitch named Bush.

Trump supporters care about two things. Build the Wall and Drain the Swamp. Everything else - literally everything else - is tertiary at best. It's time to focus, Mr. President. Nothing else matters.

Social Justice meritocracy

Gun control gadfly David Hogg was accepted by Harvard University's admissions department despite possessing one of the lowest SAT scores in its 2018 freshman class:

Just when you thought (or, more likely, hoped) that David Hogg was a permanent page in the Where-Are-They-Now file, he pops up again. Now we learn that come fall, 2018, Hogg goes to Harvard.

Hold on — didn’t we recently hear how poor David got rejected from not one, not two, but four California schools? Even though his GPA of 4.2 and SAT scores of 1270 were pretty much in the ballpark of these schools, they still rejected him.

The average SAT score composite at Harvard is 1520. This is explicit evidence of the exclusion of the cognitive elite at even the most prestigious universities. It's also an indication of the continuing intellectual decline of the US ruling class, as we're rapidly approaching the point where the dissidents are not one, but two standard deviations more intelligent than their societal superiors.

This is not a sustainable situation. Only time will tell if the eventual outcome is revolution or a Khmer Rouge-style campaign against everyone who owns more than this many (holds up two hands) books.