Trump & Mansplaining

by Jordan Owen
(c)2016

Donald Trump has just secured the electoral college votes necessary to become the next President of the United States.  Those like myself that long for some 11th-hour miracle that will keep Trump from ascending the throne (and at this point that's exactly what it is) are seeing what few hopes we had left teetering on the brink of oblivion.  I would hold out hope for the CIA and the FBI to deliver a devastating revelation that shows Donald Trump to be directly tied to the Russians but even now there's more evidence tying him to that than there was connecting Nixon to Watergate and that still hasn't been enough to unseat the Donald.

Last time I spoke about why Donald Trump won I focused on some broader issues that the left used to alienate middle of the road voters.  Interestingly, my commentary on Trump seems to have opened an avenue of discussion with the left that I didn't previously have. Knowing that we share a common dislike for Donald Trump has given me a sort of bridge to communicate to the left, at least in some small part.  As I've said previously, I don't think that many people come to libertarianism straight on- we come at it from the left and the right, generally out of disillusionment with the side we were "born" into.  In my case, that's the left.  So understand that I'm not trying to convert anybody to the libertarian credo nor am I thinking that I'll reach everybody on the left but for those who want to listen, here's more of what you need to know.

One of the current pariahs to modern liberals is Dilbert creator Scott Adams.  He came out early on claiming that Donald Trump would win the presidency with his cunning use of branding.  For that, Adams was tarred and feathered by the 5th estate of blogosphere news sites.  They attempted to get Dilbert pulled from newspapers and rabidly branded Adams as a closet Alt-Right reactionary. And for what? Simply showing you the exact tools that Donald Trump was going to use to win.  You should have been praising his name for that- you could have seen it coming a mile away and countered Trump effortlessly but no- you refused.  You demanded Scott Adams' head on a stick and relegated him the status of a talking head on minor news outlets when he should have been front and center.

Adams' general observation about Trump's technique was that he knows how to brand people.  And he's right- "Crooked Hillary" is still a trending hashtag after all this time.  He applied lesser brands to Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and all of his other opponents and they fell one after another.  Those brands stick in people's minds because they become perceived as axiomatic; that is to say the recipient of the brand can't further speak without appearing to be endemic of the brand that's been put on them.  Jeb Bush is low energy? Actually no, he's not- he's thoughtful, erudite and contemplative- all things that are positive traits in a leader.  Trump actually cannot beat those qualities- he's loud, brash and impulsive in the extreme.  But what he can do is rebrand Jeb Bush so that qualities we should see as positives come off as negatives.  Hence the "Low Energy Jeb" brand.  And forever after, Jeb Bush sounds low energy.  Trump deflated the campaign of a veteran politician with a long track record of winning public office like it was nothing.  Adams was damn right about Trump's skill at branding.

What's amazing is that the left, the academicians of which pride themselves on teaching "media literacy," seem remarkably unaware of what branding is and how to caution their students against it.  If you still doubt the power of branding, consider this question: what do you call the little sticky strip that you put on a cut after disinfecting it?

Seriously- give me the first thing that pops into your head.

You said BAND-AID didn't you? Well guess what- the item in question is actually called an "adhesive bandage." "BAND-AID" is the term used by Johnson & Johnson to market their product and they have branded that term on the public psyche to such a degree that we think of the product itself as being identified by that name.  Here's another one- think of copy machines.  When you use a copier you're "copying" something or "making a copy," right? Okay- think of as many synonyms for that as you possibly can.  I bet "xerox" was among them, right? That's not a verb- but it became one thanks to the Xerox company. Originally founded in 1906 as the Haloid Photographic Company, Xerox achieved its workplace ubiquity when it introduced the xerographic duplication process that was instantly and obviously more efficient than other methods and as such duplicating documents became known as "xeroxing" them. That is the power of branding.

So what does the left need to know about this? Well, mainly that they've been using it themselves without realizing it.  Few examples of leftist cultural branding have been as insidious and damaging as the concept of "mansplaining." That is branding, just like "Low Energy Jeb" or "Crooked Hillary." Ostensibly, "mainsplaining" refers to behavior wherein arrogant, chauvinistic men condescend and talk down to women and presume that they are right and the woman is wrong simply by virtue of their gender.  So foul and odious is this notion in modern society that any man accused of "mansplaining" can only shut up and fall in line lest he become branded as a "mansplainer."

And that's just how the left has operated for eight years- it has refused to engage in serious discussion of the ideas and has, instead, focused on controlling perception. Perhaps I'm wrong- perhaps the academics do know how branding works and they're teaching kids how to use it.  Sorry, but you were only supposed to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, not turning Gryffindor into Slytherin.

In the past I've had the accusation of mansplaining levied at me.  I recall a couple of years ago I offered my thoughts on the concept of mansplaining in video form and I a group of left leaning bloggers convened on a round table podcast discussion to talk about how my video on mansplaining was itself mansplaining.  Well, in truth it wasn't- and there's no such thing as mansplaining. I'm simply sitting here offering my opinion which you make take or leave at your discretion.  I've said nothing that suggests I view my opinion as inherently valid simply because of my gender nor is my intended audience a specific gender.  But to identify me here as a "mansplainer" shuts down actual consideration of my ideas.

That is what Donald Trump did to his political betters and it is what the left has done and continues to do.  I bring all this up because MTV- that once great cultural juggernaut that has now been reduced to asinine morality lessons- just put up a video request for white people in 2017.  Among the many requests they made to white people was to stop mansplaining.  To the dwindling contingent of MTV viewers who buy into this sermonizing, understand that you are not reaching anybody, only pushing them away.  And you pushed them right into the arms of Donald Trump.

So stop it.  Stop using branding as a weapon.  Call it out when you hear it rather than trying to cast a more devastating curse on your right wing wizarding adversaries.

I'm not opposed to branding.  When used properly, branding is a tool of intellectual codification by which larger concepts are brought into focus and encapsulated, creating easier and more productive dialogue. Branding helps us move forward as a species.  You know, humanity. That thing we were branded as so long ago.  So start using branding for good.  Use it to be insightful and uplifting, not bitchy and catty.

If the left wants to make good on it's late 1960's promise to be an atmosphere of inclusive compassion and deep spiritual love- sort of like Christianity with drugged out sex orgies- then it needs to let go of weaponized branding.  That's #weaponizedbranding, btw.  Retweet it.

The left has got to realize that it's time for a reformation.  The conservatives figured it out- boy howdy did they ever.  After 8 long years of the dumpster fire that was George W. Bush and getting stomped on twice by the Obama administration, the right finally figured out that it was time to stop alienating people who were 95% in agreement with them already by catering to bugged out loonies on the distant fringe.  You'll notice that former GOP mainstays like evangelical church goers along with homophobia and pro-life agenda items have all taken a quiet back seat this time around.  The Donald touched on them in passing when he did at all and he even commended pro-gay conservatives time and again.  Hell- he'd probably have said nothing at all about abortion if the more left-minded in the media hadn't kept prodding him on it.  The left needs the same reformation.  Realize that someone who thinks abortion is murder but doesn't try to force their views on you is your friend, not your enemy.  Realize that someone who believes that homosexuality is morally wrong but that their own moral imperative to be kind, compassionate people is infinitely more important is your ally in the larger goal of human love, not your enemy.  Realize that rejecting long held institutions of religion doesn't make you immune to the kind of dogmatic thinking that pushed you away from those institutions in the first place.

But above all, follow the Bill & Ted maxim: "Be excellent to each other."

That's #Beexcellenttoeachother, btw.  Retweet it.

Kind regards and Happy Holidays,
-Jordan

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com
Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com
Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762
Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42
The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

Electoral Boogaloo

Electoral Boogaloo

  By Jordan Owen
©2016

 The electoral college has been a topic of mass discussion as of late, considering that the American people have had to come face to face with the reality that the candidate who did not get the most votes is now our president-elect.  I myself have called the institution into question in recent days and, like so many, I have received a number of unintentionally condescending responses from well meaning commenters who seem to think I don’t know how the electoral college works.  Actually, no- I’m quite aware of how it works or, more precisely, how it doesn’t.  It’s an outdated system written to accommodate voters who arrived at polling locations via horse drawn cart.

 Here’s a few of the more common defenses I’ve heard of the electoral college:

 The electoral college reflects the views of the majority of Americans because if it wasn’t in place the candidates would campaign differently and still affect the same outcome. 

 You have absolutely no way of knowing what the outcome would be if the candidates campaigned differently.

 The electoral college is important because it gives the smaller states a voice!

 No it doesn’t. If you wanted all the states to be represented equally then every state plus the district of Columbia should have ONE electoral vote.  Fifty-one votes means no chance of a tie and no battleground states.

 The popular vote doesn't matter because three million illegal votes were cast!

 You have absolutely no evidence for that except a tweet by Donald Trump. If that's all he needs to convince you then he's going to have a breeze of a time setting up Muslim extermination camps. Also, three million illegal votes would necessitate a reevaluation of the electoral vote as well.

 If the electoral college wasn’t in place the candidates would just campaign in high-population areas and ignore the smaller outlying areas.

 This is bunk for two reasons- one, the candidates ALREADY only focus on heavily populated areas.  I don’t remember Trump or Clinton doing any rallies in Monowi, Nebraska. Second, let me remind you that our electoral process no longer caters to the needs of people who are likely to die of dysentery on the way to the polls.  We have this magical thing called the internet that through some sort of highfalutin’ city boy witchcraft is able to carry information from all over the earth into our living rooms.  And possibly other rooms if your provider isn’t Comcast.  I did not attend a single political rally in the entire 2016 election cycle and I was still able to figure out who I wanted to vote for.  Yet somehow I’m still treated like a centuries old hillbilly with an adam’s apple that matches his nose who has hobbled up to the voting booth barefoot and reeking of the methane of multiple species.  

 The electoral college was established to protect us from the tyranny of the majority!

 Okay, this argument actually has some legs. The libertarian in me would agree that we have to have certain government institutions in place to protect the rights of the individuals from being ganged up on by the majority.  But what purpose does kneecapping the majority vote in the presidential election actually serve?  Why is it more noble for the minority to be able to gang up on the majority than vice-a-versa?  What’s the point of having the election in the first place if the candidate with the most votes is blocked from winning out of principle?

 This country is called the United States of America, not “America.” We have to respect states rights!

 Ah yes- state's’ rights.  The two words bandied about 150 years ago by those pretentious enough to think that they could put an intellectual veneer on their defense of owning people as property.  If that’s really how you feel, why are these states united at all? Let’s just dissolve the union and remodel this portion of the continent as a series of tiny nations a’la Europe- you know, the thing that conservatives purport to be protecting the US from becoming.  And that’s where I have one of many, many bones to pick with modern conservatism. Conservatives want us to be safe from the federal government- it’s much better when the government denying us our rights is a smaller, more manageable state level tyranny.  Trust me, as a Georgia resident it’s nice to have an entity that can overrule the decisions of the low-watt bulbs that make up our local legislature.  

 Bill Maher is right to say that “states rights” is code for taking away rights. A state is an abstract concept based on population distributions and has no rights in any kind of human sense of the word.  Proper conservatives, like Margaret Thatcher, for example, are spot on in saying that societies do not have rights and do not exist- only individuals exist and can have rights. If you doubt the axiomatic truth of that concept then try having a society without individuals- it cannot be done. Without individuals to convene in agreement on a set of principles you cannot have a society- only wilderness.  The person who tells you that we must respect states’ rights cannot claim  to support the rights of the minority in the face of the majority and it is this contradiction that derails the already poorly maintained train of thought espoused by the amorphous glob of inanity that is contemporary conservatism.   Support for states rights amounts to saying “I am going to protect your individual rights from the collective will of hundreds of millions of people by allowing your individual rights to be overruled and violated by the collective will of tens of millions of people. See how much better that is?  And if you don’t like it you can go to another state because, after all, you’re just a poor field hand who can pack his belongings into a single hobo sack and hit the old dusty trail with a song in his heart, a thumb in the air, a wheat strand in his teeth and a wistful gleam in his eye.  It’s not like you’re a modern day resident of an affluent first world community that actually has family, friends and a career he’d rather not leave behind.  Hit the road you vagabond prince of American optimism- you’ll reach Califor-ny-yay and be playing your harmonica under the cool shade of orange groves before you know it.”

 Here’s another problem with that whole states rights thing- what if the only option is to go to another state but the other states- themselves protected by the maxim of states rights- have decided not to let in any outsiders?  Suddenly a lavish border wall designed by a pompous prick with a ballgina micropenis doesn’t seem like such a romantic thought after all.  

 But there is one practical use for the electoral college.  The founders of this country- themselves mostly secular, liberty minded members of the Hellfire Club- looked out across the vast expanse of drooling nitwits that made up the majority of voters and realized that it was entirely possible these impressionable souls- many of whom couldn’t find their asshole with both hands- would elect the very sort of tyrannical dictator they had just fought a bloody war to escape from.  As such the electoral college could deliberate and decide that the president-elect was unfit to hold office and vote accordingly.  I’m sure all of you electoral college enthusiasts will join me in hoping they vote for Clinton.

 Now if you’ll excuse me, my prize heffer has just given birth and I intend to give the calf to old mayor Jebidiah Conshohocken.  I’m hoping he’ll let me put my seed in his daughter the school marm as soon as I know how.

 Kind regards,
-Jordan


  Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

  Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com
Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com
Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762 
Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42

  The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

Alt-Right Cooks own Goose with #SpiritCooking

If there’s one thing I’ve devoted entirely too much time to it’s clarifications.  My ongoing need to clarify misrepresentations has taken me down some disturbing roads, often leading me to guilt by association, even just on paper.

Nevertheless, as the 2016 election cycle limps to the barn, I find myself forced to once again explain some things.  I know this won’t amount to much, but at the end of the day it’s those irritating inanities that that prove to be the most confounding.  That’s why, while hearing that his cancer is rapidly advancing, Walter White is more caught up in the mustard stain on his doctor’s clothing.

For example, a lot of people will point to Donald Trump’s notable failed business ventures and include Trump: The Board Game.  Yes, there was a board game based on Donald Trump and yes it flopped but it wasn’t a Donald Trump business venture- he was approached by Milton Bradley and granted them use of the Trump name for the product. It’s not like he was sitting in his office surrounded by his bevy of yes-men saying “I will make the best board game ever. Nobody knows more about board game design then me. We’re going to have the best people working on it. They tell me it’s great. And we’re going to build a wall around Catan- it’ll be beautiful.”

Similarly, the Alt-Right-in-the-head out there are having kittens over the recent revelation that John Podesta’s brother is BFF’s with legendary performance artist Marina Abramovic, who invited both to a “spirit cooking” at her home.  All it took was a loud intake of breath from the crew over at the briefly relevant InfoWars for the Trump Trumpeters to begin turning double somersaults back to the good old days of the Satanic Panic. Yes that’s right- toss another dilithium crystal on the barbie Sherman because we’re setting the Wayback Machine for 1986. Hopefully we can get this article wrapped up in time to catch Maiden on the Powerslave Tour.  

So what is a “spirit cooking?” Well, apparently the term comes from some sort of occult ritual but it was also the basis for a series of performance art pieces that Abramovic put on a few years back.  So, of course, the Alt-Right goes into conniptions because now they’ve found IRREFUTABLE PROOF that Hillary Clinton is a practitioner of the occult as is the majority of the Democratic party.

Right?

RIGHT???????????

*Sigh* no, sadly the “spirit cooking” in question was just a formal dinner put together by Marina Abramovic as a reward for top level donors to her Kickstarter campaign.  The name was just an inside reference for her more hardcore fans.  And there’s nothing to suggest that Podesta was in attendance or even replied to the email invite sent by his brother.  Seriously, Alt-Right, if this is a smoking gun then it’s only because you were using it as a bong.

Marina Abromavic

Of course reality has never stopped the Alt-Right before and it won’t stop them now so the political movement that’s made shark jumping into an Olympic event has been rabidly posting photos of Abromavic’s Spirit Cooking performances- which feature goats heads, blood, nudity, mock human sacrifice and all sorts of other things the religious right considers profoundly unsmurfy.

It should come as no surprise that the crowd who thinks that the distribution of skin pigmentations is a good metric for national identity would also ascribe to the more committed branches of Christianity.  Look, we’ve been down this road before and the number in my screen name should tell you where I fall on the religious spectrum but let’s review for a moment: central to Christian doctrine is the belief that a talking snake tricked two naked people into eating a piece of fruit that gave them the ability to distinguish good from evil. The all knowing, all seeing, all loving god of the universe was mad because the two people had done something evil and he held that against them even though they had no way of knowing it was evil before they ate the fruit that gave them the knowledge of good and evil.  For some reason God decided that every single person alive had inherited the guilt for this horrendous crime and spent several thousand years throwing his toys out of the pram before realizing that the only way to forgive the entirety of mankind for the breaking the rules he created was to sacrifice himself to himself and so he embarked on a flamboyant BDSM execution ritual that if historically accurate- which it's not- could be described as the original and still most pretentious example of performance art.  Now his followers celebrate this suicidal publicity stunt by devouring wine and crackers that were turned into flesh and blood by man in a dress.  And that’s just the main plot.  You should see some of the Wiseau-level subplots and wildly tangential derivations in the Bible like the part where God wrestles with a dude but runs away after being hit with a piece of foreskin or the part where he instructs his followers to be tied up next to a pile of burning dung or the part where he snuffs out all the babies in a city except for the ones in houses that have lamb’s blood painted over the doors because, you know, the all knowing creator of the universe needed to be reminded of which ones not to kill. And who can forget that wild acid trip at the end?

Look, Alt-Right, just because the tall tales of a group of desert nomads got spread across Europe at the point of a sword during the Dark Ages doesn’t make them any less nutty than what goes on in Pagan circles.  Stop acting like your own pile of burning dung doesn’t stink.  But more so, conduct yourself with some goddamn dignity and don’t ruin any semblance of credibility you have left by channeling the PTL church ladies of yesteryear.  Try using facts and reasoning rather than panicked, fear mongering sensationalism. You know, the very thing you chide the outrage culture on the left for doing.

So you’re deeply disturbed and offended by pictures of mock human sacrifices and people babbling incoherently while wallowing in blood? Congratulations- now you know how I felt watching Passion of the Christ.  

If anything positive can be gleaned from this it’s that the Alt-Right now reeks of desperation.  Bizarre performance art they don’t understand is clearly proof of a worldwide Satanic conspiracy and unidentified posters on imageboards are claiming to be insiders that are teaching us how to read the secret code for the hidden meanings from seemingly innocuous emails. Someone asking a high ranking government official if they want pizza or tacos is really code for the choice selection at a human trafficking sex ring. Yeah- raving about such lunacy is really the behavior of a constituency that’s confident in what lies ahead for their agenda.

What’s amazing is that the Alt-Right has spent the last couple of years putting out the notion that they’re the ones who respect freedom of speech and the free expression of ideas and the indulgence of graphic entertainment no matter how disturbing- the feelings of delicate offense takers be damned- until it gets out that someone they don’t like might have an affinity for art that’s an affront to their values. Then they reveal their true colors- that they are no better than the PC police on the left.

But what really burns me, Alt-Right, is that you had a narrow window where you could have offered us all something better.  For a few short months earlier this year the American populace was looking out across a bitterly unappealing electoral landscape and you could have risen up and offered an intellectually highbrow candidate that could challenge the status quo and prove everyone on the left wrong about you.  Instead you went with the orange Teletubby and now you’re left in the final days of the election cycle furiously masturbating to distract everyone from the fact that you’ve lost control of your bowels.

If nothing else, the spirit cooking scandal reveals that the Alt-Right is not anything terribly new and exciting to transplant contemporary conservatism.  Instead it’s just more of the same- and the fact that they had to resurrect the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s is proof of that.  

And, lastly, some advice for InfoWars founder Alex Jones:

1. You of all people don’t need to be making fun of the way other people talk.
2. Get over Bohemian Grove. It’s just Burning Man for rich people.
3. If you think Gary Johnson is a sociopath but Donald Trump is not, then sir I do not believe you are as good at identifying the reptilians as you think you are.

Kind regards,

-Jordan

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42 Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42 Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42 Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762

Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42 The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

If Hillary Wins (My Promise to Liberals)

By Jordan Owen
(c)2016

It is with considerable trepidation that I've toed the waters of political commentary once again.  I recently put up a scathing critique of Donald Trump that inflamed many on the right.  Now let's turn our attention to the left. Strangely, both of these groups fail to hear me criticizing both of them.  Somehow each side thinks I pick on them more.  In unguarded moments some in the Alt-Right have even speculated that I'm a covert operative sent to gain their trust and... screw them over by occasionally pointing out where they're wrong.  Well, as Frank Zappa said, realizing you suck is the first step towards getting better.

To the left I'm a white devil born of privilege into the heternormative patriarchy of yadda, yadda, yaddda.  I bring all of  this up because, unfortunately, my one and only documentary film project was aimed directly at them and was critical of the hypocritical bullshit they espouse.  To this end, I bear some of the brunt of responsibility for my public perception over the years- it's just so damn easy to get under the skin of progressives (and, increasingly, it's easy ruffle the feathers of the far right- just remind them that their leading candidate is Twitter drama attention whore with a spray tan.) But by indulging the social narcotic that is seeing the misguided get enraged over petty nonsense, I lost sight of my true message and my true goal.

So, to both the left and the right, I want to make something abundantly clear: come November 8th we are going to have a new round of Washington bullshit to deal with and whoever leads the charge- spray tan or pants suit- is going to be in for a lot of critical commentary from yours truly.  So, progressives, I'll make a deal with you: I won't bring up Hillary Clinton's gender and I hope you don't either.  If Hillary wins you're going to find that her "first ____ to do _____" history making presidential win is going to disappear from public awareness rather quickly because 1. we don't actually live in a sexist society and 2. just like with Obama, we can't just sit and bask in the warm glow of diversity for four years. At some point we have to get back to the real meat of the issues facing the country and when that comes Hillary will be right on some things and wrong on others.

Now, do I think Hillary is a better candidate for president than Trump? Yes. But that's not saying very much.  Put it this way- if you were going to undergo assisted suicide would you rather have Dr. Kevorkian gently give you a lethal injection along with heavy sedatives that would make your final moments feel light, painless and unencumbered or would you rather be strapped down to a conveyor belt heading towards a saw blade?

Between the two the choice should be obvious. I just happen to be in the camp of people who think it's absurd to choose assisted suicide over being cured of the disease altogether simply because the doctor with the cure didn't know what Aleppo was.

So that's my promise to you, Liberals. If Trump wins it will be four unbroken years of withering derision levied at the orange Teletubby but if it's Hillary I'll still be raking her over the coals- I just won't be saying anything about her gender so when you hear me commenting on Hillary just imagine that she's a politician you don't regard as female.

You know, like Michelle Bachmann.

Cheers,
-Jordan

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com
Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com
Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762
Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42
The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

Denial: The Film and the Phenomenon

By Jordan Owen
(c)2016
All week I've been trying to think of how to do a review for "Denial," the new docudrama about the landmark case brought against Emory professor Deborah Lipstadt by outspoken Holocaust denier David Irving.

The day after seeing "Denial" I saw "The Dressmaker" staring Kate Winslet- that review fell out of my fingers like tender, sauce drenched baby back ribs off their respective bones. (I'm also quite hungry at present.) But the "Denial" review has been sticking in the gears.  So, after much thought I've decided to comment in essay format rather than trying to sound objective in my critique.

When I saw "Denial" at the Tara theater in Atlanta I was pleasantly surprised to see Deborah Lipstadt there as well.  I was seeing the 10:00 screening and she was speaking after the earlier screening so I caught the last 20 minutes or so of her talk.  It was a sobering and emotionally wrenching discussion.  As I listened to her speak I felt the veneer of objectivity drop away and knew that I would become too emotionally invested in this movie to give it a proper review.

Deborah Lipstadt @ Tara in Atlanta, photo by me

With a film like this an op-ed is inevitable, so here's mine:

To speak briefly on the film itself I will say that it was outstanding.  There is a moment where Lipstadt (played to perfection by Rachel Weisz) is shown weeping at Auschwitz. We then see a match cut to rain water dripping off of the barbs on the camp's wire fence.  It's that kind of design that underscores the harsh nature of the film with gorgeous subtlety, making for a glorious cinematic experience.  Timothy Spall does a wonderful job of making David Irving come off as the odious creature he that is despite looking very little like the man himself (this has, incidentally, been a big bone of contention with holocaust denial groups who think that the homely Spall was chosen intentionally to make Irving look bad. Sorry chaps, but Pierce Brosnan could not make Irving seem appealing.)

As I watched the film, however, I was constantly thinking about how the Holocaust denial bit has had a resurgence thanks to the conspiracy friendly internet.  Here's a few that I've heard and some quick responses:

Body Disposal: Denialists claim that it would have been impossible for the ovens used to incinerate the bodies to dispose of them at a rate that would allow thousands to be burned every day, citing cobbled together statistics on the cremation process. This mishandling of information by unqualified propagandists is the same thing that allows phrases like "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" to persist despite being roundly refuted. In actuality, there was extensive documentation including correspondence between Nazi officials and patent papers for the ovens themselves that demonstrated this capacity.  Additionally, this claim comes from a one Fredrick Leuchter who was forced to admit in court that he was unqualified to comment on the cremation process. Having heard me say all that, holocaust deniers will now be responding that those documents were obviously fabricated. Sorry, but speculation is not confirmation.

Gas Chamber Ventilation: Denialists will often assume that gas chambers wouldn't be ventilated.  This is also courtesy of Leuchter.  Well guess what- you need to be able to ventilate those rooms to get the gas out before you send in the people that will remove the bodies.

Modifications at Auschwitz: One of the reasons Auschwitz is hyper analyzed by Holocaust deniers like David Irving is that it was not originally designed as a death camp.  As such there were extensive modifications made for that purpose.  This is why so many things about the facility seem impractical for the mass murdering.

No Official Nazi Plan to Exterminate the Jews: The Final Solution was discussed and agreed upon by senior Nazi officials at the Wansee Conference, the transcripts of which were entered as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials.

There's no proof that Hitler ordered the Holocaust: if you're such an incompetent leader that your top brass can carry out mass extermination under your nose without your knowledge then you deserve to be hanged.

That's just a few examples.  There are countless more.  I'm sure on hearing these words the Holocaust deniers out there are springing to their keyboards, linking to a bevy of videos with more outrageous denial claims and daring me to refute them. Why won't I bother? Well because 20+ years on David Irving is still pushing as fact the same things he was proven in a court of law to have been willfully and consciously lying about with the intention of obfuscating the truth about the Holocaust and you probably still believe all of them. That is why I won't waste time refuting whatever claptrap you've cobbled together this time. Also, cornering one blogger on the internet with arguments that they cannot refute has no bearing whatsoever on the historical accuracy of the Holocaust.

What's amazing is that no matter how roundly and thoroughly these claims are debunked, they persist.  I think the reason for this lies in the same mindset that allows creationism and vaccine denial to persist and it is one that is alluded to in the film: the common man wants to feel superior to the experts.  Something mentioned in Denial is that David Irving fancies himself an intellectual but comes from a working class background and has no real qualifications.  This seems to be a running theme in a lot of conspiracy theorist types: wanting to be an intellectual for the common man.  As such they attach themselves to pseudo-scientific nonsense and espouse it as a cheap way to sound superior to the accredited experts who they claim are just part of a vast global conspiracy to silence the truth.  From Kent Hovind to L. Ron Hubbard, this plays out time and again.

Awhile ago I tweeted about a ridiculous book on witchcraft that I bought in college by Christopher Penzcak called "The Inner Temple of Witchcraft."  One of the many spells contained therein was one designed to change traffic lights at the user's command.  I think the appeal of things like Holocaust denial and "intellectuals for the common man" like David Irving is similar to the appeal of hogwash like that: it gives people a sense of order and command over the wild randomness and chaos of the world around them.

Whatever the case, Denial offers a stunning reminder of why we must always be ready and able to shut down the absurdities of wild conspiracy theorists.  You never know- one of those cretins might one day become a major party nominee for president.

Cheers,
-Jordan

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com
Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com
Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762 
Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42
The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

Donald Trump: The Beta Choice

I'm not a fan of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.  But where my rejection of Hillary takes the form of a simple "no thank you," my response to Trump and those who support him is something to the effect of "oh holy Jesus Herbert Walker Paint Sniffing Christ what the hell is wrong with you people?"

That's a rhetorical question- I already know.  I would advise all Trump supporters to stop listening now- you won't like what I'm about to say and you're no better than your Social Justice Warrior counterparts when it comes to someone criticizing your sacred cow.  

First, the empathetic response: I get why Donald Trump is appealing. I do. I'm not saying that to be condescending- in a world made sour and paranoid by the perpetual outrage mongering of Social Justice Warriors his cavalier disregard for political correctness is a tall, cool glass of water on a sweltering day.  We need people that can tell the cry bullies where to stick it but that doesn't mean we ought to stick Donald Trump in the White House.

I support Gary Johnson for president whether he has a hope in hell at winning or not.  I would have that position anyway, but its compacted by two groups- the R's and D's- telling me that I cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and vote my conscience during this crucial election.  Yeah- I've been of voting age long enough to weigh in on Kerry/Bush, Obama/McCain, and Obama/Romney.  First time I was die hard liberal in the bluest of the blue states and was actually excited about Kerry.  Well, not really- I was excited about getting Bush out of the white house.  Truth be told my Kerry boner subsided quickly when he accepted the nomination with the words "reporting for doo-dee."

Then there was Obama v. McCain and the diversity vote was finally on the table.  What would mean more for our country's social progress- having our first black president or our first special needs vice president? Well by that time I had devoured Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead so I was definitely in that initial period of "everything is socialist, everything is collectivist, everything is altruist and you have to point it all out" but even so, I voted for Chocolate Jesus. 

I sat out the following election cycle.  While it was entertaining to watch Chocolate Jesus battle the Mormon Cyborg I just couldn't get jazzed about anybody (even Gary Johnson) enough to vote. The night of the 2012 election I was walking through the parking lot of Murder Kroger and saw a single firework shoot into the distant sky followed by a solitary shout of "Obama!" I think that pretty much summarized the excitement level of the whole country.

Obama was our first black president- but that wasn't progress for our nation. Our nation won't really be over racism until we can elect a black president without anyone caring that he's black.  In that regard Herman Cain would have been a better choice.  Most of us who voted for Obama the first time were under some unspoken delusion that everything would be different if the president had a higher melanin content than his predecessors.  Now, after eight years of business-as-usual Washington bullshittery, most Americans are perfectly aware that electing someone on the basis of their chemical makeup doesn't mean a whole helluva lot. Yeah, when Hillary gets in there'll be another wave of "the first ____ to do ____" but that honeymoon will be over a lot quicker.  Setting aside the vagina, Hillary is just business as usual Washington bullshittery and everybody knows it.  So will it be meaningful to have the first woman president? No- it will be meaningful when we have the first woman president that doesn't campaign on being a woman.  

And then there's Trump.  A lot of people can't understand how you can be against Hillary and Trump.  Well, let me pull back the curtain for you:

-Hillary covering up for her husband's pussy hounding doesn't excuse Donald's animalistic attitudes towards women.

-Hillary's failed foreign policy doesn't excuse the fact that Donald doesn't have any.

-Hillary perpetuating the lie that women are paid less than men doesn't mean we ought to elect a pig.

-Hillary's hawkish devotion to business-as-usual Washington bullshitery doesn't excuse the fact that Trump doesn't know how government works.

The list goes on and on, but let's stay with that last point for a moment.  When I watch the Donald out there campaigning I'm reminded of a Dennis the Menace comic that I saw years ago where Margaret is trying to teach Dennis how to play chess and Dennis says "I bet when you're king you get to move as many spaces as you want and kick everybody else off the board." Dennis quickly loses interest in the game when finds out that's not the case.  It's not just for sake of a good analogy that I think of this- when I listen to Donald Trump I really do think of the single panel in that particular strip where Dennis goes into fantasy mode and imagines himself, scepter in hand and crown on head, kicking the pieces of a life size chess set.  I really do think Donald believes that if he wins he'll be crowned king- and that's very much not how the rules work.

Bill Hicks once said that if you're elected president the first thing that happens after you're sworn in is that they take you into a little room and sit you down in front of a television where they show you a video of the Kennedy assassination. But it's from an angle you've never seen before.  It's from a... grassy knoll.  Then they turn off the TV, turn to you, and say "any questions?" I don't know if anything that severe actually happens but Donald will be in for a very rude awakening when he learns that even though he's the most important piece on the board he still has to wait his turn and is only allowed to move one space at a time.  Even the team working the George W. Bush hand puppet weren't this unaware of how the job is actually done.

So why is it that so many people get behind the Donald even though the words "lacks experience" should be carved into his forehead and set on fire?  Because he's an alpha male- and a lot of people dig that.  Yes, I said it- Donald is a total alpha.  There's no denying it.  But that doesn't mean his the right alpha for the job.

In recent times the Alternative Right has emerged as Trump's wettest cheerleaders and while they fancy themselves the purveyors of an intellectually refined form of nationalistic fervor they are simply recycling an age-old formula and their reductive, buzzword laden vocabulary is proof of it. Disagree with the Alt Right and they tell you that you're a beta. Agree and you're an alpha.  Too bad that isn't how the whole alpha/beta thing works.

In the animal kingdom, the alpha male is the dominant male of the pack- the one that eats first, mates first, and does anything else of importance first and to challenge him means that you either become alpha yourself or end up in bloody shreds in the nearby foliage.  The other males that conduct themselves in subservience to the alpha are the betas. 

In human society it is commonplace to assign these animal designations to human hierarchies.  In such a mode the alpha takes the form of kings, emperors, and other types of assorted overlords while the betas are the passionate supporters of that grand potentate. That doesn't mean that the betas are weak- quite the opposite.  King Arthur is an alpha type and the Knights of the Round-table are his most loyal betas. So go pick a fight with Lancelot or Galahad and you'll find out that they're anything but pussies.  But Kahn Noonien Singh is also an Alpha type.  So which would you prefer ruling over you? King Arthur or Kahn?  They're both alphas, just different types of alphas.

So yes, Donald is an Alpha. So is Hillary. No, she doesn't convey her alpha status as flamboyantly and insecurely as Donald does but she's absolutely an alpha.  These are both people who seek to rule over you and their most ardent defenders are betas.  The Alt Right's perception of this is just clouded because in their vernacular "beta" is the new word for "faggot."

So if the passionate supporters of the R's and the D's are just betas for undesirable alphas, does that mean that Gary Johnson's supporters are also betas for him?

No.

Libertarians are not betas. 

Or alphas.

We're the ones that realized the alpha/beta thing is bullshit.

Friedrich Nietzsche is so often associated with his views on the master/slave dichotomy that many have assumed that he's a champion of it when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. Whether you want to call it a master/slave relationship or an alpha/beta relationship or a dominant/submissive relationship, Nietzsche was not championing the masters over the slaves- he was arguing that the master/slave relationship is the essence of the herd. He, more than anyone, realized that herd behavior is a vestigial remnant of our evolutionary rise from beast to man- that the essence of man is to realize that we are not bound by the standards of lower animals and that knowing we are evolving we must direct our evolution towards something greater- the ubermensch. That term is often translated as "super man" but my favorite (and, as I understand, more accurate) translation is "beyond man." True enlightenment, Nietzsche argues, comes when we stop trying to be a part of the herd- of man's evolved version of animal behavior- and live in the pursuit of something greater than that.  

That is what Libertarianism offers: an opportunity to stand apart from the herd. To be that greater stage of human evolution that Nietzsche called on us all to aspire to. No rulers, no subjects. Just the transcendent state of freedom from the herd.  This country was founded on some very Nietzschian principles- the notion that casting off the bonds of the serf also required throwing away the crown of the king; that one cannot exist without the other.

As I write this the majority of the country is in an intellectual quandary- they know that there's something not right about this choice between Clinton and Trump but they aren't sure what. Well, here it is: you who are Americans are the product of one of the greatest social experiments of human history: this is the first nation to base its founding principles in a fundamental belief in individual rights and personal liberty.  (Yes, I know the founders were slave owners- but at the time even the belief that white male landowners didn't require a king was revolutionary.) So modern Americans, the social progeny of the founders, have grown up in an atmosphere where individual freedom is assumed to be the natural state of the human being.  Sadly, the individual members of a species do not evolve evenly and large chunks of our populace are still stuck in the alpha/beta dichotomy- and the professional wrestling par-per-view event that has been this election is the result.

So vote for Donald if you think he's your ideal alpha- King Arthur is certainly preferable to Kahn Noonien-Singh.  But have the decency to stay out of the way of those who have realized that your animal social structure is the product of a bygone era and it's starting to smell.

Cheers,

-Jordan


Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit: Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42
Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com
Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com
Jordan Owen's novel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762 Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42
The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

A New Chapter

By Jordan Owen
(c)2016

I move to a new apartment next week.  I should be packing but instead I'm sitting here procrastinating.  First I was watching Scott Adams on the Ruben Report [link] and playing Plants vs. Zombies 2.  Then it was finishing season 3 of Bojack Horseman and assembling a puzzle.  I need to be calling the gas and power companies and filling out change of address forms.  But I feel like there's some mental hurdle that I need to surpass before I can get to that.

Truth be told, this move represents a new chapter in my life.  It's only about twenty minutes away from where I am now but with that comes a feeling of rejuvenation- a sense that I can start over.  I'll be 33 this Sunday.  Young enough to start over but old enough to know that I don't have many reset buttons left to push.  And it's not a total do-over; I still have the same friends and play in the same band (we're hard at work on the new record, btw, and it is going to KILL) and will live in the same state, etc, but those who know the greater Atlanta area know that even a move across town denotes a change in lifestyle and atmosphere.  I'll miss living in midtown but I'll save a ton of money at my new place and be a short drive from my old stomping grounds if I decide to visit.

For me 2016 was a year of coming to terms with things.  Coming to terms with the fact that I had spent the preceding two years allowing my career and reputation be run into the ground by an abusive and manipulative person.  Accepting that blogging about SJWs and their assorted batshittery had taken me off the course in life that I wanted to be on and that I would have to embark on a considerable PR campaign to shift my public image even one tiny iota.

To this day people still ask me what I was thinking when I got into all of that.  The simple answer is "I wasn't," but the reality is more complex than that.  Rather than expound at length I'll just say that choosing to step away from my previous persona and focus on developing my personal life and creative aspirations was absolutely the right thing to do.  So I'm closing one chapter in my life and starting another one- but closure of a life's chapter is not so simple as turning a single page.  There are many pages to turn and they turn seemingly at random. Sometimes a gust of wind comes along and sends the whole book back a hundred pages.  When that happens I'm aghast to reread the chapters I'd already gone through, gleaning from them in a second reading new clarity and insights that were lost on me before.  But now I have the calm I need to remind myself that while the prose of those chapters remain vivid I don't have to go back over them to appreciate their meaning.

I've got my computer fixed and videos will come more quickly to the channel once I'm moved.

Cheers,
-Jordan

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit:

Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com

Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com

Jordan Owen's novel:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762

Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42

The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

JO42 Reviews Casual Fridays: Pinball Games

New games commentary by me: click here

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit:

Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com

Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com

Jordan Owen's novel:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762

Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42

The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon

Cool Music Mondays: "Hardwired" by Metallica

This requires no introduction. It's amazing.  Enjoy.

Please support my work at http://www.patreon.com/jordanowen42

Please also visit:

Jordan Owen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jordanowen42

Jordan Owen on DeviantArt: http://jordanowen.deviantart.com

Jordan Owen on Blogspot: http://www.jordanowen42.blogspot.com

Jordan Owen's novel:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eros-Empire-Jordan-Owen/dp/1593933762

Jordan Owen on soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/Jordanowen42

The band: http://www.reverbnation.com/leavingbabylon