Category Archives: Non-Fiction/Documentary

Debating the SJWs

“Know your enemy” is a wise axiom usually attributed to Sun Tzu, but probably goes back even farther, almost to the first human conflicts.

Vox Day’s new bestseler, SJWs Always Lie, is a long overdue resource for knowing our enemy. Whatever you may think of him based on his remarks about race, it’s often hard to deny the brutal validity of his insights. Even before the book came out, it was one of his off-the-cuff observations in an interview that helped me finally know the enemy.

VD would say we’re in the midst of 4GW or “4th Generation War” right now (I think). I’ve been saying for a while that, in the USA at least, we are in a cold civil war. This could change any week now, but so far the weaponry being used are words and ideas, expressed through a variety of mediums.

shootingblame

In the interest of knowing the enemy I wanted to show a real-world example of what it’s like to meet an SJW head-on in the marketplace of ideas. There was a debate with an SJW from 2010 I thought would be very demonstrative of rhetorical vs. dialectic, but alas: the transcript appears to be misplaced. So instead, I’m posting a transcript of a much more recent debate from seen.is. For the sake of length, I picked out the sub-threads from the primary antagonists (the attempted friendly fire by the Concern Trolls was not only inept, but incoherent). It may not be a perfect example of rhetorical vs. dialectic, but it’s a decent example of an attempt to disqualify the opposition.

We know from government documents and more than a few leaks that Bible-believing Christians are considered enemies of the state by the globalists, and have been called “domestic terrorists” along with constitutionalists, veterans and gun owners. But long before this became official, Christians were a favorite target of the SJWs because they have been (falsely) taught that they need to be milquetoast wimps who surrender at the first sign of opposition.

Someone posted a thread asking the question who the elect are (refer to Matthew 24/Mark 13; Luke 18:7, Romans 8:33, etc. For those interested).

danbrown

Almost immediately, yapping ankle-biters stormed the post all guns blazing, with their Concern Troll support troops in tow. The topic was hijacked by those with an axe to grind against Christianity in general and the Bible in particular. I tried to keep the thread on topic for a while, but the others on the Christian side (including the Original Poster) disappeared and these kinds of comments persisted:

ANKLE-BITER #1: “Absolute truth” is such a seductive and dangerous idea….

ANKLE-BITER #2: this is such exclusivism .. the whole we are special and we are saved and those others are not… this is a real problem with our species, particularly when people get stuck in this type of ideological prejudice

Notice that right away they are rejecting absolute truth. This comes into play later.

ANKLE-BITER #2: moral superiority complex.. this is what all such notions indicate

VP: Are you addressing anyone in particular? And do you have anything substantive to contribute that could work toward answering the question of this thread? If not, but you and (ANKLE-BITER #1) would like to debate moral superiority and whether truth is relative or absolute, let’s start a topic and do that. I’ll be happy to participate if you’ll abandon the hijacking of this thread.

ANKLE-BITER #2: addressed in general to anyone who is possessed by this kind of paradigm of, we are better because we have embraced this belief elect, saved it is an illness which is the same root as every other prejudice and bigotry comes from How are we going to make positive progress as a species if we cannot evolve past the medieval brainwashing which has infected our species? this just keeps people divided and a house divided cannot stand

Keep in mind this is a person who allegedly doesn’t like the idea of “ideological prejudice” or “moral superiority,” yet considers himself the authority on what “positive progress as a species” is.

VP: You make a big show of being outraged by those with a “moral superiority complex” and you butt into a thread (that was NOT posted for discussion of whether Christianity is valid or not) in order to assert moral superiority over those trying to have a civil discussion among themselves, piling on the insults like “possessed,” “illness,” “medieval brainwashing which has infected our species.” I offered to debate both of you in a separate thread so this one could be unmolested. But of course you’re not interested in honest discourse–you only want to attack those you assume are morally inferior with your hypocritical invective. Then after working so hard to bring division into a conversation that doesn’t concern you, you use the “house divided” remark. Your hypocrisy is amusing, but again, doesn’t belong here.

ANKLE-BITER #2: hmm a bit offended when all i am doing is criticizing an idea, not anyone personally.. since it is this idea that threatens our present and our future only those who are attached to such an idea would be offended

VP: Why are you offended? I’m only pointing out hypocrisy and criticizing tactics, not anyone personally.

ANKLE-BITER #1: Take the hubris out of the question, Who Are The Elect, and you have a topic worth discussing. When people are telling you that they are part of the Elect, you know you’re in the company of fools.

Here is a person who openly rejects absolute truth, yet has unilaterally decreed, for everyone, what topics are worthy of discussion. Also note how easily he resorts to name-calling: anyone who disagrees with his position is a fool. And it is never explained how the “hubris” is to be removed from the question. According to him, the question itself is the manifestation of hubris. So take the hubris out and what question remains? This is the fingerprint of an SJW–statements calculated to put you on the defensive, but that don’t stand up to even rudimentary logical analysis. He continues:

…It isn’t hard to figure out who might qualify. In Matthew 7:12 and again at 22:37-40, Jesus makes it clear. He reduced the ten commandments to two: Love God, love others. This same simple code is expounded in every one of the major religions, and to this day no more than a handful of people have even come close to living up to the standard.

According to this comment, Islam (for instance) is a religion of love. His New Age indoctrination is showing here: all religions are equal.

Interesting that he uses biblical references in an attempt to qualify his argument, isn’t it? Maybe it reminds you of somebody who did something similar after Jesus had fasted 40 days in the wilderness (read about it in Matthew 4:6).

But wait! Ankle Biter #1’s not done:

If there is a God who judges people, it won’t be over which denomination or even which religion we belong to. It’ll be over how we live up to the simplest of moral codes: Love God. Love each other.

VP: Those were 2 of my favorite passages you referenced. Does your use of them indicate you accept the source as dependable and we can therefore use the 66 books of the Bible to determine what is true in this matter? Or are you simply using the typical anti-Christian tactic of cherry-picking select verses in an attempt to invalidate the text you lifted them from?

BTW the same person you quoted claimed to be the ONLY way to the Father (John 14:6). My guess is you don’t like or use those kinds of excerpts. (But, giving you the benefit of the doubt,) since you apparently accept Bible quotes as valid evidence in this matter, feel free to also provide chapter and verse on Jesus questioning whether there is “a God who judges people,” and where Jesus tells us that said judgement will not be based on what a person believes.

ANKLE-BITER #1: So, VP, let me guess: you’re a Christian? As far as I’m concerned you are totally welcome here, not that I have anything to say about it. But this is an open forum, specifically created for free and open exchange of ideas. If you want to have your own Christian threads, that’s fine, but other folks are going to make comments. You should be glad they’re taking the time to read what you write. Yeah, (ANKLE-BITER #2) was a little shrill. Deal with it. Of course, if what you want is Christian conversation without the annoyance of having people disagree with some things you may say, there are tons of Christian forums out there. Have at it. Peace.

Hard to miss the pose he’s trying to strike, here: the smug, benevolent intellectual who welcomes diversity of opinion. He welcomes it so much that he dog-piles on with his bedfellows to shout down others with differing opinions trying to have a polite discussion among themselves.

You can already start to see some uncertainty leaking through the condescending contempt. He’s a little off-balance because one Christian had the audacity to stay on the thread rather than retreat at the first sign of conflict. He’s still fairly confident–just a bit disappointed that one of his intended victims didn’t roll over and play dead.

Also note his crafty tactic of painting this as a problem with anyone who might “disagree with some things you may say” rather than a deliberate hijacking. Desperately trying to skew the other side into the role of intolerant villain when Ankle-Biter #1 was politely offered to debate these points of contention in a thread specifically for that purpose.

VP: (ANKLE-BITER #1) said: ”… Yeah, (ANKLE-BITER #2) was a little shrill. Deal with it.”

Thanks–I am dealing with it.

Your plattitudes about polite public discourse sound noble and all, but if you truly wanted that you would have accepted my offer. No, you wanted to sabotage this discussion.

I don’t follow Islam. In fact I have a lot of problems with it. However, I don’t barge into a discussion between a Sunni and Shiite about who should have succeeded Mohammed and continually interrupt them to spout off on how their religion sucks. And if I did, I’d be shouted down by a thousand sheeple, demonized at every turn, and possibly blamed for the next Benghazi. But it’s A-OK to do it to Christians, because we’re so intolerant, right?

ANKLE-BITER #1: My, but you simply radiate love for your fellowman, Friend! To answer your question, ” Does your use of them indicate you accept the source as dependable and we can therefore use the 66 books of the Bible to determine what is true in this matter?” the answer is no, because there is no logic in that. What I believe is that the Bible is inspired by the Divine, and that Jesus was probably the most actualized human being who ever lived. Believing the Bible to be literally, word-for-word true or factual (in English no less), will greatly hamper the ability to see much of its greatness.

Translation: “DISQUALIFY! Christians are supposed to run away when I use these tired old talking points! Obviously, you lack love!”

Again, he arrogantly decides for everyone what is logical to discuss–hoping nobody would notice  that he disqualified the logic he himself used in his previous comment.

No doubt he hoped to generate guilt with his snark about love and inspire an apology–which 99% of Churchians would have given him.

VP: (ANKLE-BITER #1) said: ”My, but you simply radiate love for your fellowman, Friend!”

Ah, I see I’ve encountered an expert on what love is. Perhaps you’d care to provide an absolute definition of love.

ANKLE-BITER #1: Guess I’ll let the Elect have the thread. Virtual Pulp, I’m not trashing your religion. The way I see it, you’re doing a better job of that than I could. You’re welcome to it.

Desperate parting shot, there: claim victory while running away. In the face of mounting butthurt, he is looking for a way out…but still couldn’t resist another inept attempt at psyching out a Christian (because so many of us assume that love is telling people what they want to hear and never ruffling feathers). And after his relativistic BS earlier, he has been hoisted on his own petard by assuming there is a universal standard of love and he knows what it is.

BTW: Neither the Original Poster, nor anyone else, ever claimed to be the Elect. Again, the purpose of the conversation was to answer the question of who the Elect are. That purpose was hijacked before it ever got off the ground.

Notice he brought up the Bible as an alleged buttress for his argument (assuming the opposition didn’t know the source material as well as he thinks he does) but is not willing to accept it as a standard. He abandons that approach so fast, it’s almost like it burned him.

VP: Nice try, but that statement falls of its own weight, and fails to salvage your disastrous attacks.

ANKLE-BITER #1: My only problem with this thread is that it doesn’t belong under News. It belongs over in the spirituality section.

See that? NOW the only problem is that the thread is wrongly categorized. Funny how he never once even mentioned that before in all his comments. Translation: “Retreat!!!!!!!!! Quick–move the goalposts!”

But once I’ve left the conversation, he’ll get reinforcements and start all over again.

ANKLE-BITER #2: well, nobody is any more special than anyone else including Jesus who was no more divine than anyone else so this idea is an issue it is this kind of thinking , the saved, the elect, the blessed, which is really just a divisive us and them idea that is propagated by pretty much every religion

It’s worth noting that the two ankle-biters in this tag-team operate on opposite assumptions: one that all religions are equally valid; one that all religions are equally bad. And yet they work together to silence any Christian conversation. ANKLE-BITER #2 continues:

…setting a dividing line between sheep and goats, wheat and chaff, etc etc… that keeps us in the dark ages and feeds petty prejudice and bigotry this is the fact and if it was a muslim thread making the same claims on the board I would be saying the same thing there as well so don’t feel singled out … i call this kind of thinking out wherever I run across it, but I don’t go out looking for it.

This is a lie easily proven by looking through his comment history. And followed up by another lie: that he doesn’t “go out looking for it.” Also easily debunked by his comment history. But I let that go and addressed his faux-definitive statements about Jesus:

VP: And how did you come to this conclusion, (ANKLE-BITER #2)?

ANKLE-BITER #2: …….Direct revelation

Finally, faced with how he can’t defend his argument by what he purports to believe, he hides behind snark.

This is one example of how SJWs debate.

For the impending regime, these kind of people are the useful idiots. Most of them will be killed off once their usefulness is expired, but plenty of them will be your commisars, your political officers, your imbedded snitches, and some will be manning guard towers. You should study how they think (and don’t think) now, before they are issued uniforms, armbands and weapons.

Multi-Purpose Treason Part 2: Shovel-Ready Chaos

Last time I called out the massive illegal immigration fomented by the hijackers of the US government, and how it accomplishes more than one agenda item toward bringing down the American republic.

The Border Invasion overlaps with another globalist strategy.

Contrary to what you’ll likely hear from teachers, professors, and the Idiot Box, it was not the bureaucrats, politicians, and community organizers who made the USA the most prosperous nation in history. It was our (once) free market, and the entrepreneurs who took advantage of its opportunities to fill consumer needs and make an honest buck in the process.

You’d never know it now, but Americans used to produce things (besides debt, paperwork and porn, that is). We made the most of the industrial revolution and became the envy and marvel of the world. Even when wracked by the Great Depression, wise thinkers in Japan were leery of going to war against the sleeping industrial giant across the Pacific because, unlike now, the infrastructure was still in place to fire up a war machine any foreign enemy would be hard pressed to stop.

Of course regulations and taxes that favor foreign interests at the expense of Americans has utterly devastated US industry. And the industrial infrastructure that remained between the world wars is long gone, now.

So is the work force. Starting in the New Deal and encroaching gradually over the decades until its explosion under the Hussein Administration, a huge chunk of the American workforce has been transformed into able-bodied parasites who contribute nothing of worth to our society.

The buildup of the Entitlement Class (of which invaders/illegal immigrants are just one portion) also accomplishes more than one strategic objective for the enemies of America and your freedom.

First, of course, it has followed the Cloward-Piven model to bankrupt our economy. As our industry was strangled, the middle class decimated and the workforce shrunken, the welfare state has ballooned well past the point it can be sustained.

(This causes a conundrum for the traitors in Washington, because they want to see America destroyed; but the politicians always want to delay the collapse for one more election cycle. This has locked them into a vicious cycle of “quantitative easing” that they couldn’t get out of now even if they wanted to, and will make our collapse even more devastating.)

Secondly, entitlements are a way for the traitors to extort money from those of us who still work, and use it to buy votes from those who discover they don’t have to. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, the politicians can pose as generous, compassionate  benefactors…as if they were using their own money charitably instead of ours. Tax/Spend/Elect is a self-perpetuating dynamic ensuring the people who caused the problem will be able to keep making it worse. Parasites will knowingly vote for liars, crooks, and traitors as long as it guarantees their entitlement check.

Thirdly, it has destroyed the nuclear family in the inner cities, particularly among blacks, whose ensnarement on the poverty plantation is more effective than any whip-toting slave owner could have accomplished. They blame their poverty on Whitey or “the rich” and racial animosity abounds. Meanwhile, the remaining working-class whites resent them for their entitlements. It appears that a whole lot of whites are now blaming all the problems surrounding black culture on genetics alone. I’ve never heard white people display separatist attitudes in such numbers as they do now. Any hope of either side recognizing the actual cause of the problem is now lost, as they descend into stubborn tribalism.

Fourthly, this has created a powder keg. Entire generations have been programmed to not work for a living; and to…

  • rely on entitlements;
  • consider those handouts their god-given right;
  • hate anyone who objects to the entitlements;
  • hate America in general;
  • self-identify as victims who haven’t yet got their due.

When the economy collapses and the free handouts stop, these parasites won’t have a clue how to feed themselves. Their whole lives have taught them that the way to survive is to have somebody else (the IRS, so far) extort the earnings out of working people for their sustenance.

Starvation is a perfect catalyst to ignite the nationalism of the Victim Tribe, who will quickly find someone else to blame for the nightmare they brought on themselves.

The violent horror overtaking our major population centers is hard to conceive, and will probably go a long way toward the 90% population reduction of the  Agenda 21 architects.

Examine the M.O. of the criminals in government when small-scale violence has broken out in events like the Baltimore or L.A. riots, when police were held back intentionally to give rabble-rousers “room to destroy.”

The Man won’t step in right away to restore order. People will be given plenty of time to rip each other apart. Whoever survives will beg for some great leader to ride in on a white horse and bring order out of chaos. Peace at any cost. People will volunteer to be interned in camps, so long as they’ll be fed and sheltered.

As the general in Star Wars told his staff on the Death Star, “The last vestiges of the old Republic have been swept away.”

The last vestiges of individual freedom will be swept away–with popular support, I’m sure.

Can you guess who the scapegoat(s) will be?

Multi-Purpose Treason Part 1: Invasion, USA

Virtual Pulp was founded to sell books. That was the avenue we chose to pursue happiness and the American dream. But as that dream is fundamentally transformed into a nightmare, becoming successful novelists is a goal that pales in importance compared to the radical changes descending upon us.

Some may have noticed we’ve already been speaking out on controversial subjects more than we used to. We decided to use our freedom of speech while we still have it. Now, however we are kicking into overdrive. Book sales and diplomatic sugar-coating so as not to offend just don’t matter a whole lot in the face of the perfect storm our country, and the world, is facing.

Virtual Pulp is now the lantern hanging in the belfry of North Church. We might post something about entertainment or the culture war…but it’s no longer a priority. We will be warning anybody with the wisdom to listen about some of the trials coming your way. I have no interest in debates with coincidence theorists, concern trolls, or anyone trapped in their normalcy bias.

Multipurpose Treason is the S.O.P. for the interests that have hijacked our government. Most of the criminal policies foisted on us accomplish more than one objective of the globalist enemies of the USA.

Take illegal immigration, first:

The Establishment insists that American citizens have to be treated like criminals at airports and bus stations for our security against potential terrorists. Men, women, boys and girls must be fondled and groped by uniformed perverts because one of them might be carrying a bomb or box cutter. Meanwhile the border is intentionally left wide open so that not only drug lords, welfare parasites and violent Hispanic Supremacist armies can invade and infiltrate our cities, but Islamic terror cells, too. There’s no telling just how many and what kind of America-hating scum are flooding in by the train loads.

Well, the so-called Justice Department evidently knows, because they furnish some of them with weapons. The same kind of weapons they don’t want in the hands of law-abiding Americans, BTW.

Some of us have pointed to the rampant election fraud in 2012 and prior, and understand that the criminals in Washington are using this to build up their parasitic voter base into an ironclad majority which (along with dead voters, serial voters, rigged vote-counting, etc.) will ensure that their enemies can never, ever alter the national course away from the abyss of a socialist/fascist third-world police state. And we’re right.

But others point out that this invasion is kicking in the afterburner on the Cloward-Piven strategy to bankrupt the USA…and they are right, too. (This is just one of many methods converging to strike the death blow against our mortally wounded economy.)

But that’s not all. This invasion is setting up a “nation within a nation.” We are being forced to subsidize a seething alien population that will not assimilate (in fact, probably won’t even bother to learn our language), is hostile toward our form of government (the legitimate one, that is), covetous of our property and, in many cases, overtly dedicated to the reconquest of “Atzlan.”

That ties in directly to my next point, which I’ll get into next time.

Corvette wins GT Class at LeMans

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I don’t like what has happened to GM and Chrysler, but I’m still somewhat happy about a ‘Vette winning the famous 24-hour race this year.

Last time a Corvette won, it was a C5 in 2011.

Some years before that, Dodge Viper coupes won three back-to-back victories at Le Mans, sweeping their GT class in 1999 with Vipers in the first six places.

Going back much farther, the Ford GT40 dethroned Ferrari at Le Mans by sweeping with First, Second, and Third places. Company politics at Ford, however, prevented Ken Miles from winning the first ever Triple Crown. But still, Ford’s dabbling in European GT racing during that short period proved Americans (at one time, anyway) can achieve anything they set their mind to.

For a fascinating look at that period of racing history, I highly recommend Go Like Hell.

The new C7 ‘Vettes are world class sports cars. They have been for the last few generations. I got a little track time in a C5 a few years ago, and the performance matched the badass look of the car. The win at Le Mans proves that the engineers have designed an automotive masterpiece.

By Men, For Men, About Men

Maybe some of you have noticed we’re much more free-wheeling at VP than we used to be. We still aren’t intentionally offensive, but we don’t worry about offending anymore, either. There is a growing subculture that makes a lifetime hobby (or profession, in some cases) of finding excuses to be offended. Such individuals were never part of our target audience, nor will they ever be.

Virtual Pulp never was intended to be all things to all people.

With that in mind, I thought it was time to reassess our “mission statement,” and here’s what I came up with:

Virtual Pulp began as an intended second advent of pulp fiction/men’s adventure in an electronic format–somewhat motivated by the quixotic desire to lure men away from internet porn and the Breast Cancer Awareness, Pro-Homosexual, Anti-Gun Football League (called “NFL” for short), back to the written word.

That’s still part of what we’re about, but we’re in an ongoing process of removing self-imposed restrictions.

In our fiction, we don’t merely duplicate the material we enjoyed as boys and young men. Our efforts concentrate on retaining the attractive elements (namely action, adventure, and larger-than-life characters) while perfecting the weak links in much pulp and men’s fiction in years gone by (plotting, character development, accuracy in details, etc.). Our fiction also provides readers a respite from the obligatory feminist tropes and typical left-wing bias which permeates nearly every form and item of entertainment available today. (Available anywhere else, that is.)

We’re expanding into some non-fiction and even videos. But in addition to generating our own material, we’re always on the lookout for those diamonds in the rough…and of course we share our findings with those of similar tastes–mostly through this blog.

We’ll be putting that on the “About Us” page.

Our freedoms are being stolen from us. But while we still have them, we’re going to use them. In a perfect world, there would be no politics, no evil to point out and no sides to take. We won’t pretend to live in such a world.

 

Testosterone-Dripping Cover Art

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.” We all know the cliche is true. And yet when we’re browsing for a good book, we forget or ignore that wise adage (I’m including myself here). I’ve made perhaps every mistake an indie author can make in this business, and one of them was publishing a novel with a weak cover design.

Subsequently I learned a few things about Photoshop, and took more time, making the cover better…but it still wasn’t great. Same goes for a few of my e-books.

Recently Virtual Pulp has enjoyed working with Logotecture, who designed the cover for the newest Retreads novel False Flag, and replaced the cover design for the first novel, Hell and Gone.

It's almost a crime to obscure any part of this image with text.
It’s almost a crime to obscure any part of this image with text.

We’ve found them to be accommodating, fast, reasonably-priced…and, best of all, Logotecture does darn good work.

Two decent images were merged and tweaked here to form something flat-out amazing.
Two decent images were merged and tweaked here to form something flat-out amazing.

The paperback version of False Flag will be published soon, and this is what it looks like. You can see they added the barcode already. From the tinting to the font, the designer did it all right the first time with no suggestions from us. He just knew what it should look like.

We are very fortunate to have found Logotecture and can’t recommend them highly enough. Whether you need a cover for a new book, a redesign for an old cover, formatting of a manuscript, banners or advertising art, they’ve got you covered.

Trashing Baltimore

Here we thought the Ebola Virus was gonna spread over the continent and usher in the zombie apocalypse. Looks like it’s a riot epidemic that’s the real threat.

This video below, for some reason, ends with several minutes of a still image. But up until then, it’s educational.

What we know so far is that Freddie Gray has a rap sheet, and was arrested on weapons charges. He went into a police van healthy but came out with severe spinal cord damage, and later died in police custody.

I sound like a broken record even to myself, but the cops who did this to an unarmed, handcuffed man, regardless of his previous crimes, need to hang for this. Unless a really convincing piece of evidence  is revealed showing that the injury was some sort of freak accident through no fault of the Baltimore Police, that is.

However, these dirtbags attacking innocent bystanders and baseball fans don’t give a flying rat’s ass about Freddie Gray or his family. These entitled vermin have been waiting for an excuse to unleash their sanctioned racism, and strike a blow against “Whitey.” This gave them the opportunity.

I watched some video of these #Blacklivesmatter “activists,” and whatever sympathy I might have had for them is fading fast. I am so done with “white guilt.” The press; the Attorney General; the fraud in the White House and half the world is frantically piling on to make excuses for these “demonstrators” in places like Ferguson and Baltimore, but they take one look at my skin color and call me “privileged.”

If you visit a big city, and you are the wrong demographic, you would be wise to make some sort of preparations to defend yourself against mob violence. Police brutality is everywhere. Abuse of authority is the rule, not the exception, and something like this could break out at any time and catch you unawares.

Book Marketing Blues

The Goodreads giveaway of my debut novel Hell & Gone is finished. I just returned from the post office, where I sent out 10 paperbacks to the winners.

I didn’t realize until just before the giveaway ended that I could see the profiles of those who entered. I was rather disappointed that none of the folks I regularly interact with on Goodreads signed up, unless I missed them while skimming through the list. Oh well–my fiction certainly isn’t for everybody.

I would have been happy if only 10 people signed up, and all 10 won a paperback, if they were people  truly interested in reading this kind of book (and then would write an Amazon review afterwards). But 504 people signed up, before all was said and done, and the ones I browsed didn’t appear to particularly like military thrillers. That leads me to worry that they signed up merely to get free stuff, not really caring what the free stuff is.

Maybe they’ll get the book and it will just sit around collecting dust for years until they host a garage sale. Maybe they’ll give it to somebody for Christmas or a birthday. Or maybe they’ll turn around immediately and sell it on E-Bay. Or maybe I’ll actually get a review something along the lines of, “I normally don’t read this genre, but I got the book for free. So I tried to read it but there just weren’t enough strong female characters…”

Or maybe I’ll just get a drive-by one star review the SJWs are so fond of giving: “This sucks. Couldn’t even finish the first page.” Yes, those reviews happen, all over Amazon.

I now have a list of giveaway winners. Nine out of ten are female. That would be great if the genre was romance or chick-lit or lesbian vampire paranormal urban coming-of-age fiction. But Jack Silkstone called Hell & Gone “A man’s book through and through,” which is precisely what I wrote it to be.

Here’s some depressing details about the winners: three of them haven’t bothered to post a single review on anything at all. One of them has posted one review, and one has posted three.  Only four winners have reviews posted in the double digits and two of them are tied at 12.

Some of these folks haven’t added a single book to their shelf. It’s a little surprising they expended the energy to sign up for the giveaway.

This is building on my bad experience at Goodreads. Previously, in my ongoing quest for reviews, I offered free download codes for my audiobooks to anyone willing to post a review after listening. All those who volunteered took the free stuff and ran. Some even deleted their responses in the thread where they volunteered.

Ostensibly Goodreads is the perfect venue for finding reviewers, because everybody there allegedly likes to read. There are a couple strikes against me right away because…

  1. It’s mostly women (I write for men).
  2. It’s 90% left-leaning feminists.

I tried to counteract this by only advertising the giveaway in groups where my intended audience was likely to be. But alas, it would appear that none of those folks entered, while 500+ from the general Goodreads population did.

It’s beginning to look like this experiment is doomed to the same fate as every other marketing ploy I’ve tried.

Well, we’ll see. Maybe I’m not giving the winners enough credit, because I’ve been stung so much in the past. So far I still plan on a Goodreads giveaway for the sequel, Tier Zero. When it’s all over and the reviews come in (or don’t), we’ll have some data to determine whether Goodreads giveaways have any marketing value for an author.

An author who does not write lesbian vampire paranormal urban coming-of-age fiction, that is.

A New Addition to the Virtual Pulp Team

Virtual Pulp is happy to introduce our newest contributor, Don Strickland. Don is a science fiction author (his debut novel, Fringeman, is now linked on our Books page) and formerly the Blue Collar Intellectual.

Hello, my name is D. K. Strickland and I’ve been graciously invited to join Virtual Pulp, so let’s get acquainted.

I’m 54-years-old and currently reside in the Southwest. I’m an aspiring author and have one book in print titled “Fringeman”, available on Amazon, with more on the way. If you have a low opinion of overweening governments and elitist busybodies, you might like it.

While I’m waiting for my literary ship to come in, I have a day job in the mining industry. Despite my hardhat position in life I have a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology, plus graduate work in both Education and Technical Communication, as well as three teaching credentials. I’ve gone back to blue-collar work because it turns out the pay and benefits are better, and I get more time off.

steppenwolf
I like smokin’ lightnin’; heavy metal thunder…

I’ve been a dedicated rocker my whole life, leaning toward heavy metal. I’ve tried to outgrow this and listen to more appropriate music for my age, but I just can’t. I’m off on a symphonic metal kick right now.

I lean toward science fiction and fantasy for entertainment, but other genres as well. I find so-called literary fiction to be boring, pretentious, and pointless—on a good day.

I’m a lifelong Mopar guy, but appreciate all American Iron.

dieselcharger
This photo fits so well, we just had to use it again.

Moderates describe me as Far Right. Leftists describe me as the Devil. I bear no group ill-will (except for that one that flies planes into buildings and saws the heads off of 5-year-old girls), but neither will I tolerate mindless hostility to any of the various groups of which I’m a member. Now, let’s have some fun.

Sad Puppies, the Hugos, and Hitler, Too!

The Sad Puppies phenomenon in science fiction and fantasy (henceforth “SF/F”) has demonstrated some underappreciated truths for everyone. One of those truths has to do with Marxist, feminista, and homophile (henceforth “pinkshirt”) hypocrisy. Pinkshirts like to dish it out, but can’t take it.

The pinkshirts have enjoyed a monopoly on the Hugo and Nebula awards for decades. In recent years, the ethically challenged she-male (?) John Scalzi and his bedfellows have organized the Hugos into a pinkshirt echo chamber via nomination-stacking backroom deals. But their mastubatory self-congratulation orgy has been spoiled by the arrival of the Sad Puppies–what you might call a mobilization of the SF/F grass roots to elevate good books, regardless of what political boxes can be checked by the authors.

Needless to say, the goose-stepping, artistically challenged cabal of thought cops and professional victims has gone into meltdown. Their contradictory accusations are just too numerous to document here. But We do have this archival footage of a meeting in the Pinkshirt High Command.

For non-German-speakers, we recommend that you be ready on the pause button so you can catch all the subtitles in the video below. Also, we normally keep potty-mouths in check here at Virtual Pulp. But this time…what the hell.

BTW, Larry Correia refused to let himself be nominated this year. Pinkshirts were accusing him of basically pulling a Scalzi with the Sad Puppies (using it as a vehicle to get his own work nominated). Larry’s got enough book sales that the awards might not mean much to him; but he’s probably fed up with the way the awards have been rigged up until now.

Also, the “mainstream” (left-wing) media has responded with typical duplicity. Entertainment Weekly deliberately ignored parts of the Sad Puppies slate to characterize it as dangerous white male heterosexuals using their votes to oppress women, minorities, and sexual deviants (then edited the article after getting caught in their lie and called out for it). Salon dot com, meanwhile, posted a denunciation of “democracy” now that pinkshirts no longer have a monopoly on the flow of information.