Infowars Fallout

The unpersoning of InfoWars by tech giants finally happened.  For months they and their enablers in the corporate media have been rumbling that “something must be done” about those uppity flyover rubes forgetting their place.  Having already chased numerous other unpersons out of the new public square, they grow ever bolder, now claiming the scalps even of centrists such as Gavin MacInnes.  At they rate they are going, it won’t be long before any expression of support for Trump nets users a ban – if not before the mid-terms, then assuredly before the 2020 elections.

If they can’t beat our arguments, if they can’t beat us at the meme game, then they’ll simply drive us from the field and declare victory that way.  Those of us in the fringe cultures have seen it happen again and again – in literature, tabletop gaming, and vidya games.  As above, so below.

Of course, life as a gamer has provided me some skill in anticipating threats and adjusting my strategies to counteract them while they are still in the early stages.  To address the threat of being shut out from the fledgling community of like-minded authors and gamers that has grown over the last few years, I will be redirecting my efforts away from platforms controlled by the Narrativists – those left-wing SJWs who view “Punch A Nazi, and everybody I don’t like is a Nazi,” as a valid position – and toward those controlled by my allies.

As it currently stands, that means a lot more time spent blogging and a lot less micro-blogging.  More importantly, it means more time spent tightening the bonds of bloggers and less hunting for followers on social media.  The bite-sized bantz and gotchya moments are fun, but all that work can easily be demolished with just a few well-timed complaint mobs, which makes the risks too darn high.

You may have already noticed the blogroll on the right sidebar with links to some of my favorite online personalities – go check them out.  When I can figure out how to include short updates or recent post titles in that sidebar, I’ll add that so you can quickly scan and decide which ones are worth checking out today, and which ones you are all caught up on.  Actual blog software used to handle that automatically, but it takes a lot more tinkering to get it to work on this independent website.  Give it time, we’ll get there.

Also expect to see more links to other bloggers, more recommendations for blogs to follow, and more response to other blog posts.  Here is where my important conversations will occur, in the more sedate and thoughtful realm of blog posts, and not in the zinger-happy realm of Twitter and the G-Plus.

You are also likely to see a lot more short zingers posted here as well.  Not every topic needs a 500-word essay, and rather than risk losing my social media megaphone, I’ll instead by throwing a lot more quick thoughts up in this space.  Here’s to hoping the changes work out well for the both of us.

To kick things off right, check out this great post by Daytime Renegade:

The world of geekery, for lack of a better world, is filled with this sort of thing. The mainstream requires ideological lockstep along nearly every facet of thought.

Don’t try to tell me it’s not political. I refuse to believe that all the people shut out by gatekeepers or fired from this or that position on this or that TV show or comic book or whatever coincidentally have diametrically opposed political views than their bosses and, despite never having any history of anything, suddenly develop a penchant for “harassment” and get axes . . . while actual hateful bigots and those engaged in even more unsavory proclivities maintain their positions of power despite often having no discernible talent for anything.

I mean, that’s just happenstance, obviously.

Can confirm.  I’ve been kicked out of more than one geek circle for failing to live up to the social standards of people who are really bad at socialization.  I’ve self-deported from numerous circles to escape the crabs-in-the-bucket syndrome as well.  Which is one of the reasons that I love the new culture and community that has formed in the aftermath of the Hugo Puppy campaigns.  New blood, eager for adventure, ready to laugh, and unfailingly supportive of each other’s projects, I wouldn’t risk losing these connections for all the money and fame in the world.