Having had some time to digest Christchurch I couldn’t help but think back to the gutted feeling I felt back when I heard about the columbine shooting. Which brought on the question, “was bowling for columbine the first documentary that got me into documentaries?” Good old Michael Moore. And then I thought of my favourite part of that movie. The scene where he sat down with Marilyn Manson, who was largely being blamed as responsible for the Columbine shooting because of the manipulative nature of his “evil” song lyrics. Parents were deranged by the Marilyn Manson hysteria, thinking his music would seduce their children into becoming Satanists. Even my mom didn’t want me listening to Marilyn Manson. She was afraid it would radicalize me.
Watch Michael Moore interview Marilyn Manson in Bowling for Columbine:
That’s when it hit me. Jordan Peterson and other alternative media content creators who are finding themselves being blamed for the Christchurch shooting is all based on the same ignorance that came from blaming Marilyn Manson for Columbine. Perhaps there’s a link there. And I think there is. Perhaps it’s the ‘ignorance’ part. Back when I was a kid Marilyn Manson was accused of radicalizing teens into Satanists. Pokemon and Harry Potter allegedly corrupted children’s minds because wizardry was the work of the devil. Seriously, anyone my age remember this?
Watch old video on the evils of Pokemon:
Now, for all the pointing and laughing I did at these people I find myself today looking at shows like Sabrina on Netflix and literally hoping parents don’t let their kids watch such a morally ambiguous, ultra-dark, adult-themed show. But let’s be real, this fucken show is 100% aimed at robbing children of their innocence. It’s completely fucked up. I am a guy who loves his adult themes and dark side to humanity but Sabrina is darker than dark. It’s actual occult indoctrination. And that’s fucked up. Can’t wait to see the next generation post generation Z.
Next I will be the one holding the signs at the street corner preaching the end is Nye. Bill Nye. When morals are politicized and dictated to us by the morally ambiguous. After the Christchurch shooting one of the first people to find himself a target of the SJW mob was Jordan Peterson. The greatest intellectual of our time that we don’t deserve. Only in today’s world could a self help book be banned in the wake of a mass shooting by a white supremacist. But you still have complete access to mein kampf. With a lazy excuse cited regarding someone Jordan took a picture with.
Watch We the Internet TV debunk Bill Nye (+ Is Bill Nye Thanos?):
Having attended one of Jordan’s lectures as he tours the world, I happen to know in order to get a photo like this with Jordan you need to buy a VIP ticket. Then at the end of the talk you line up with all the other VIPs and one by one each person gets about 15 seconds with Jordan to say a quick hello and take a photo then you move on and are issued a password to log onto the website later to search for your photo. Jordan has done this with literally THOUSANDS of people and frankly whether or not he was aware of what this shirt read is totally irrelevant.
What’s he going to do? Tell the dude who paid $200 for a VIP ticket to go change his shirt? To leave? Sure, he could, if he was a dick. Do you take responsibility for every single person’s political and moral views before you take a photo with them? Oh but sure, let’s hold others accountable for a standard we don’t hold ourselves to. Let’s all get out our yearbook and now own the guilt by association of everyone from that class photo who went on to commit wrongdoing. No holes in that logic. None at all. I genuinely do not understand this guilt by association concept. As if you need to justify why you follow a certain individual.
I watch people like Tim Pool, Styxhexenhammer, Ben Shapiro and others. Does that mean I automatically agree with everything they say? Not at all. These are all guys who have a knack for thinking about things in very different, creative ways than how I’m use to looking at them. And I value that. Ben Shapiro in particular has challenged my views on abortion in a very big way. And it’s shown me that there is a lot more to consider before making up my mind. I appreciate having my ideas challenged.
Jordan Peterson challenged my simplistic views of the bible and of western society. And after reading his book I’ve applied his rules to my life to the best of my ability and I’m seeing my life improve dramatically. If this doesn’t work for other people, fair enough. But why does that make ME a bad person? Why does any of this make Jordan a bad person? It doesn’t. Is it better to follow people like Kim Kardashian and live a superficial, mediocre existence?
People are more engaged in real issues today more than ever and that’s only a good thing. If the only reason we shouldn’t be following people within the Intellectual Dark Web is because they’re contrarians and disagreeable people make you feel bad then frankly it’s time to grow the hell up. Bill O’Reilly reacted to the tsunami in Japan which caused the Nuclear plant meltdowns by saying, “God remembers pearl harbour.” People didn’t say shit then nor do they care now. Rush Limbaugh has said shit that would probably actually justify comparing him to Hitler. There’s a reason why people don’t give a shit about those ACTUAL far-right wing figures. They’re not very influential. Because that brand of extreme politics actually isn’t very popular.
And the majority of people who tuned into their shows were old, retired, hard leaning conservatives. The “get the F off my lawn” crowd. That brand has nothing to do with the IDW crowd. Yet the IDW crowd continuously gets labelled as “alt-right”. And I really do believe that the reason things are so polarized now is frankly because of Trump people are only paying attention now. Most elections don’t see a large voter turnout. If you’ve discovered politics for the first time then, yes, I understand the hysteria. Politics is ugly. And if you don’t understand how politics work then you’re just going to act like chicken-little screaming about the sky falling. Which pretty accurately describes SJWs. Oh if I don’t get a gender neutral bathroom then that’s genocide. How about we drop you off in the Congo, todays Congo. And if you can survive the month, you’ll come home as grateful as you should be and you will kiss the dirt ground.
Richard Spencer and his brand of legit ethno-nationalist views are what true “alt-right” is. He’s the one who coined the term. No one in the IDW sits down with Richard Spencer (because his ideas are just not interesting and no one is interested in ethno-nationalism). In fact now that Milo has progressed further right, interacting with the ethno-nationalists, has caused the IDW to no longer sit down with Milo either. Nor is anyone in the community pushing to hear from either of them. Yet the media still labels the community as alt-right.
It’s not meant to accurately describe the community, it’s just meant to slander. And frankly anyone who fails to see this clear as day is just selectively ignorant and obviously perfectly happy mischaracterizing good people and are totally cool with supporting the billion dollar corporations who seek to amend our rights until we’re essentially living in our own social credit system like China. The IDW is the last non-conformist movement left and it’s under constant assault by people looking to strip the world of all differences. In the name of diversity. Maybe we need to check what you think diversity actually means.
*Rare image of the pope co opting the ok symbol to signal his white supremacy to billions of nazis*
But believe it or not, to a large mass of people, this makes a lot of sense. So what do these people have in common with the Pokemon, Harry Potter, Marilyn Manson blasphemy law enforcers? Their ignorance. None of those people really actually looked into pokemon or ever read harry potter or actually listened to what Marilyn Manson was saying. They allowed their emotions and assumptions the bias of their individual worldview to guide their judgements. In this same way, most people who buy into these cheap insults of Peterson aren’t actually familiar with any of his content. It’s no coincidence such lazy thinking leads to people actually believing that Peterson promotes ‘enforced monogamy’.
Watch Jordan Peterson explain ‘enforced monogamy’:
That’s exactly what’s going on with those who condemn people like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Bret Weinstein. Slander is dressed up as “critique” where activist based narrative news media refer to these people as “alt-right, problematic or grifters”. Because these terms are intended to disqualify without requiring a cohesive argument to contend with the credentials behind the person espousing such ideas. When in reality it’s, as they call it, a ‘dog whistle’ to signal that these individuals and the content they represent is pure blasphemy. There’s a reason why replacing the word “alt-right” with the word “heretic” ends up meaning the same thing. Because the SJW mob is just a modern day witch hunt.
Where disagreeability represents the embodiment of sin when ideology becomes worshipped as sacred. The calls to ban in 1998 were no different than the calls to ban in 2019. We are now the exact ignoramuses from our youth. And instead of engaging in honest discussion over the ideas that people like Peterson share people fall back on a misconstrued clickbait article or sound bite that allows them simply defame the man so they don’t need to contend with the ideas. But with now over 3 million copies sold around the globe, Jordan Peterson isn’t going to be losing sleep over any of it anytime soon regardless. But I sure would appreciate someone explaining to me the difference between modern day book bans and old school book burning.
Going back to my main point, I think it was wrong to blame Marilyn Manson for Columbine, but blame they did. I think it’s also wrong to blame people like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro (who constantly call out ethno-nationalists) for what happened in Christchurch. And while I’m in a reflective mood, if I think back to what’s been going on during this culture war. I suppose it really kicked off when Pepe became officially deemed hate speech by the SPLC. In a world where text dominates human interaction it’s no surprise that memes have been used as a form of expression to convey reactions, thoughts and feelings. And sometimes when peering into that abyss, it takes us to dark places. And there could be no better example of this then that of Pepe.
I also believe that it’s worthy of noting the symbolism of the frog itself. For many cultures the frog represents transformation, change, adaptation. Like tadpole to frog. It can represent the transient nature of life itself. Often a positive sign of fortune or wealth. As an omen, it can indicate a pending disaster in the future. Pepe did exactly this. Transforming from one conceptualization to another based on the individual poster, creating an actual auction market for unique Pepe art but also valuable to each individual using the meme to articulate a reaction or feeling or identity in a way that they couldn’t with words. And possibly foreshadowing the coming culture war that would revolve around exactly these reactions, feelings and identities. RIP Pepe.
I think the most notable next major meme evolution must be the NPC meme. Inspired by things like Trump derangement (orange man bad) and exactly the bad faith hit pieces I’m mentioning here, Memers created the NPC meme. I believe around the same time this simulation theory became popular. Where people actually believe that this world isn’t real and everything is just a simulation like the Matrix with Keanu Reeves. A conspiracy seducing even the smartest among us as Elon Musk mused over it with Joe Rogan.
The point being everyone starts looking the same and sounding the same and ideas start becoming less and less interesting when all you see everywhere around you are the same narratives being preached by the same ‘bad actors’. This is why all those who manage to break free of the narratives and see the world for what it really is, is considered “red pilled”.
Watch Jimmy Dore covering Rachel Maddow; All Russia. All the Time:
But now we are seeing a new meme emerge and it seems to be sticking. It’s a type of clown world meme where Pepe is now donning clown garb. It’s being used to convey feelings of dismissal over the hypocrisy and hyperbole people see at every angle from all sides. It may be perceived to be a way of making light of the heavy times we live in. But I think it’s actually deeper than that. It’s a product of deep nihilism where you laugh off serious things that are not jokes. It’s a way of opting out, shutting down and closing our eyes from real things that really matter.
Watch Paul Joseph Watson discuss the clown world meme:
A guy who by all accounts disqualifies himself for presidency goes on to become president. A feminist Prime Minister boots 2 powerful women from the party caucus for a scandal HE initiated. He lies about the scandal and about both women but then threatens to sue the critical opposition for “telling lies”. A nazi shoots up a mosque and a self help book gets banned but you can still buy Mein Kampf. Police show up at the doors of those who misgender people on Twitter.
Public trust in news media is at an all time low then time magazine names the news media people of the year. It’s easy to understand why people feel the world is upside down. But the honk honk comes from a place of deeply seeded apathy. And that’s a really dangerous place for dispossessed people to be. Is this the blue-pill alternative to the red-pill? Or is this pill black?
Watch Styxhexenhammer discuss the blackpill generation:
The reason why I enjoyed Bowling for Columbine so much when I was younger was because of the interview with Manson I featured at the start of this blog. When it seemed like EVERYONE had an answer to why the columbine shooting happened, Manson was the only one to say that what HE would do was just listen to the kids, because that’s what no one else was doing. And it’s a sentiment that rings true to this day. The teen angst of the 90s society of high expectations is the same as today’s wrongthink in the post truth era.
The tools of censorship, used by conservatives in the past, are the same tools now used by the leftists. Only in today’s social media world the stakes are higher than ever before when it comes to exactly what gets censored. There is overwhelming evidence that the way to actually de-radicalize someone who’s gone too far is to allow them to feel free to speak their mind, make them feel heard and open opportunities for them to walk outside of their bubble.
When dealing with deeply rooted tribal individuals you must present them with an even greater tribe for them to identify with. Like most people with most issues, all they really need is a simple change of perspective. These are paranoid individuals. You do not want to back a paranoid individual into a corner. But people are happy to do it regardless, because revenge is more fun than justice. Honk honk.
Watch Daryl Davis speak at TEDxNaperville:
Watch Aaron Stark speak at TEDxBoulder:
Watch Theo E.J. Wilson speak at TEDxMileHigh:
Watch The Agenda with Steve Paikin on Life After Hate:
I believe, symbolically, this represents a numbness that comes from disaster fatigue. When people become overwhelmed by bad news. Similar to compassion fatigue. Where we begin to drown in our own empathy by grieving vicariously through other victims or unfortunate situations totally detached from our own individual lives. I, myself, needed a couple of days to tune out after the Christchurch shooting. Sometimes you just need time for your heart to grieve. I think there’s something healthy about feeling grief for others’ suffering. Almost like the heart’s way of saying a little prayer for someone else. But having the awareness to identify these feelings and embrace them by providing an outlet for them is the healthy way of handling it.
Watch TEDx with Juliette Watt; Compassion Fatigue: What is it and do you have it?
I believe it’s when you try to repress such feelings is when you run the risk of burning out or even worse, lashing out. And let’s face facts, it’s the lashing out part we are all concerned about when people feel that they are at their limits and ready to burst. In my opinion I think the clown world meme represents being burnt out but the fact it is a circulating meme tells me it’s acting as an outlet so I can only hope that after a few chuckles people can return to their seats at the table for dialogue so we can continue to move forward together.
Maybe the whole Trump derangement stuff is just that, disaster fatigue without a sufficient outlet. Certainly lying about good people like Jordan Peterson isn’t going to help anyone. It’s just going to further polarize society. And it’s the polarization that’s the real threat to society and the real people and families trying to live their lives. Jordan has worked miracles in bringing meaning to people’s lives. And he’s done more to actually de-radicalize individuals than ANY mainstream media or government body anywhere.
Not to suggest that Peterson ought to be exempt from any scrutiny, of course not. And many people have taken aim at him. His debates have been a large part of how he’s risen to international fame. But when people read something from the New York Times they expect a certain level of journalistic integrity and intellectual rigor. But instead what we receive is mischaracterizations, misleading statements, slurs and literal baseless lies. It’s pretty precious that these are the same institutions who preach to us the importance of truth and accuracy. But worse yet, they are refusing to actually utilize Peterson’s growing influence to spark a real dialogue which actually could serve some good in the world. But that’s not happening because these people don’t want to make things better, they only wish to tear things down in utter contempt.
One critique of Peterson is that his world-tour lectures attract a lot of “young white men”. Well if that’s a point of contention with you then that only tells us more about you then it does about Jordan. I’ll just leave it at that. In a video critique of David Pakman he claimed, without any citation, that Jordan’s ideas around hierarchies have been ‘widely debunked’. Like really dude? If anyone hears that and thinks there’s any legitimacy in it you need to give your head a shake and start exploring outside of your bubble. Because Jordan has never claimed that hierarchies were ever HIS idea in the first place.
Watch a fan-made parody impersonation of the odd nature of the Peterson critiques. A comedic attempt to demonstrate how manipulative taking speech out of context can be:
The whole point to chapter 1 in his book: Stand up straight with your shoulders back, is to simply point out that lobsters, one of the world’s oldest creatures have operated along a social hierarchy system. This means that evolutionary trait would’ve dated back to when WE would’ve been fish. That means hierarchies are older than the existence of trees. Not hundreds of years old, billions. We see other creatures in the animal kingdom play out other hierarchical orders as well. The “stand up straight” part is to reference the evidence that suggests when we do just that, we feel more confident. Because this is a self help book, after all.
This whole point was simply to rebut the lazy notion that capitalism invented social hierarchies simply to dispossess and marginalize people. It has nothing to do with capitalism. No one is proud to see we have homeless among us. Or that others live in poverty. It’s a multi-varied social phenomenon that will not be solved by merely altering our politics. These are not otherwise PERFECTLY ‘normal’ people who are simply oppressed by the patriarchy or of capitalism. According to ScienceDaily.com roughly 50% of homeless men had at least one traumatic brain injury in their lives. And that’s just one contributing variable to consider.
The point is social hierarchies aren’t a product of politics. It’s deeper than that. But sure, you can go on calling Jordan the crazy lobster guy. He’ll continue profiting off of that by selling his lobster merch. So go ahead, ban his book. But if you think you’re hurting Peterson by doing that, you’re wrong. It’s everyone else who have reasons for buying a self help book that will be the ones to suffer. So it’s no surprise to see the clown world meme emerging from an ever more ignorant world developing around us.
Maybe if we all just wrapped out heads in Hijabs and joined in Muslim prayer that would solve all the world’s problems. This is the real problem with guilt by association. If you let the boundaries around such blanket sweeping conditions become too loose then it’s just a matter of time until you’re assigning ALL people of a group identity as guilty and tainted for the sins of a minority among them. Merely on the basis of their biological makeup. Bringing nothing but shame to otherwise completely innocent people. Not to say there isn’t a place for discussions around culture but to infer that white supremacy, ethno-nationalism and mass murder are all products of ‘white culture’ is profoundly ridiculous and just straight up racist. Not only are these sentiments shared in other areas around the world but these are very fringe minorities who subscribe to such ideologies. The western world was founded in exactly the opposite of such sentiments. Where the individual was of unique infinite value and therefore was entitled to rights and freedoms as an individual sovereign entity. But you don’t hear about that anymore
Watch the New Zealand Prime Minister wearing a Hijab:
Unless the New Zealand Prime Minister is Muslim, why would she wear a Hijab? It’s not like she was “off duty”. A Prime Minister is never “off duty”. So what message is she sending to her country or the world? Should we all convert to Islam? Are we bad in some way if we don’t at least attempt to conform to Muslim Culture? Whites are wrong? Muslims are right? The only thing weirder than how Justin Trudeau looked on his India trip would’ve been if he looked that way here in Canada. That’s no knock on Canadian-Indians but even the Indians over there were standing around him in suits like, “dude what the fuck are you wearing”.
Aside from this breaking the PC narrative around cultural appropriation, how is this not an attempt to politicize a tragedy? Maybe she had good intentions but she’s ignorant if that’s all it was. If this was one of the hundreds of Islamist attacks that go on every year killing people all around the world, would it ever be acceptable to hold all Muslims culpable for the actions of Islamists? This is not a false equivalency argument either. Islamists are a real threat. Just like white supremacists are a real threat. If what we want to work towards is true equal rights and opportunities for all people then we must hold everyone to the same ideal standards.
There is no harm in calling out inconsistencies anywhere they may occur. Because the funny thing about ‘the ideal’ is it judges us. To differentiate others based on ignorance is a form of prejudice. Assumptions based on preconceived notions. Usually rooted from anecdotal evidence rather than the scientific method. But repentance for actions that are not our own can also be based in prejudicial ignorance. Both serve to develop stigmas against groups of people rather than holding individuals accountable as the deviants they are. Don’t get me wrong, we should all seek repentance but forgiveness can only be granted to us as individuals over our individual actions. No amount of finger pointing ever granted anyone righteousness. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.
Jordan Peterson has nothing to do with nazis nor does he radicalize anyone. And as long as we keep playing this stupid game of pin the tail on the alt-right we actually end up doing what the Christchurch shooter actually wanted from what he reveals to us in his own manifesto. Further polarization. Because what happened in Christchurch wasn’t the end game for this man. It was a recruiting tactic for his cause. And he was smart enough to understand that if you can’t recruit by seducing people into your tribe with your ideology then you just need the other tribes to exile their own.
And when those people have nowhere else to turn, the ideas won’t matter anymore. And the media is doing a fine job carrying out this man’s wishes. Which, at best, is a disgrace to the families and community who suffered at the hands of this monster. And, at worst, is nothing more than an attempt to ignite an actual civil war in the western world. Rule #6: set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world.
Watch Jordan Peterson in his own words:
“Yes, I’m reckless and sometime express no concern for my own well being, and I express a misanthropic view of the world, but to have an opinion, you can’t be a nihilist.”
– Marilyn Manson
Rule #8 