Now that the Death Cultists are feeling their oats over slaying their orange bogeyman, they’re planning an unprecedented sacrificial orgy to appease their gods. In their primitive cosmology the only explanation for their 2016 defeat is infidels angering the spirits with their -isms, so atonement must be made by offering up the unbelievers.
NO BOOK DEALS FOR TRAITORSTHIS IS A LETTER OF INTENT FROM PUBLISHING PROFESSIONALS OF THE UNITED STATES.We all love book publishing, but we have to be honest — our country is where it is in part because publishing has chased the money and notoriety of some pretty sketchy people, and has granted those same people both the imprimatur of respectability and a lot of money through sweetheart book deals.As members of the writing and publishing community of the United States, we affirm that participation in the administration of Donald Trump must be considered a uniquely mitigating criterion for publishing houses when considering book deals.Consequently, we believe: No participant in an administration that caged children, performed involuntary surgeries on captive women, and scoffed at science as millions were infected with a deadly virus should be enriched by the almost rote largesse of a big book deal. And no one who incited, suborned, instigated, or otherwise supported the January 6, 2021 coup attempt should have their philosophies remunerated and disseminated through our beloved publishing houses.“Son of Sam” laws exist to prevent criminals from benefiting financially from writing about their crimes. In that spirit, those who enabled, promulgated, and covered up crimes against the American people should not be enriched through the coffers of publishing.We are writers, editors, journalists, agents, and professionals in multiple forms of publishing. We believe in the power of words and we are tired of the industry we love enriching the monsters among us, and we will do whatever is in our power to stop it.
The first thing that jumps out is the ridiculously inflated sense of self-importance. Oldpub can’t even sell people on their cult leaders’ books. The idea that they’re in any way responsible for elevating Trump to the White House is pants-on-head absurd.
Like the rest of the tract, the mea culpas for empowering Trump supporters aren’t meant to convey factual information. Instead, they’re self-flagellation intended to atone for the communal sins that called down their four-year chastisement.
But even that humiliating display of cargo cultism pales before the letter’s overall implications. Here we have a coven of misfits clinging to sinecures in a dead industry condemning half the country for treason against democracy. The only way that pronouncement makes anything akin to sense is when you look past the words’ literal meanings and parse the Cult’s ritual cant.
What the letter spells out in as close to plain English as cultists can manage is what they’ve been trying to tell us for years: They are not us. We are not them. They are our sworn enemies.
Here’s where somebody points out that oldpub apparatchiks vehemently denied gatekeeping based on ideological litmus tests. They still claimed to be a pure meritocracy as recently as the Sad Puppies days.
It’s vital to understand that such an apparent heel turn is not hypocrisy. The cultists do not hold the same standards as normal people. They don’t even pretend to anymore. And it’s not hypocrisy to harm your enemies and protect your friends. That’s been the Cult’s viewpoint for years, and that’s why they’ve been winning.
That’s also why smart authors who care more about money than validation now avoid oldpub like the plague. Note that the letter says nothing about how these publishers plan to reach more readers and sell more books. That’s what sane people in an industry on the verge of collapse would do. Instead, they’re purposefully alienating 160 million people.
No Titanic tickets for traitors.
Some people still think that Cult-coopted industries are out to make money. A glance at the signatures on that letter should disabuse you of that fiction. Guys like Wendig and Anders have no organic readership. They’ll go back to the D list the second the Cult’s influencers stop boosting their signal.
If you’re still an oldpub author at this point, your whole career is a humiliation ritual.
The Big Four have declared ordinary Americans the enemy. Don’t give money or your manuscript to people who hate you.
Meanwhile the smart people already started their own publishing companies and storefronts. Give your coin to Castalia House and Silver Empire. I hope to see many more small presses in the future, even if they have to run it backdoor through third world country servers.
So the problem all along has been that they haven't been gatekeeping enough. Yeah, this is a cult ritual, devoid of any connection to reality. Fortunately, they don't publish anything I read, so they are welcome to their madness.
Right out of the Anointed playbook. If the plan doesn't work, it's never because the plan was faulty. Either:
a) Nobody actually followed the plan (see the relationship between nutrition guidelines and the 'obesity epidemic')
b) Evil people stopped the plan from working (see environmentalism)
c) We didn't do the plan enough (poverty is rising despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent. This means we must spend more!)
This is clearly example c.
Also, not worth a separate comment, but compliments to the author for the title. I found it confusing and intriguing, making a perfect storm for curiosity about the article itself.
Thanks for the valuable feedback.
I appreciate them providing a convenient list for us.
A lot of people are feeling their oats, expecting to crush their enemies and create a Brave New World. Check this out–I don't know about you, but the first place I think of when I think of racist, unjust, not-progressive-enough communications is PUBLIC MEDIA:
https://celesteheadlee.medium.com/an-anti-racist-future-a-vision-and-plan-for-the-transformation-of-public-media-224149ab37e6
The tighter they close their grip, the more best selling books will slip through their fingers.
"No participant in an administration that caged children…"
Idiots don't even know what former president and vice-president that finger is pointing towards.
But then again, they don't care, because their reality is merely a construct.
They apparently think that the "correct" people are enough to support their lifestyles in the approved way. Hey, those Manhattan offices don't pay for themselves, y'know!
No money or support to people who hate us.
"But then again, they don't care, because their reality is merely a construct."
This is a crucial reality the Right needs to internalize, yesterday.
In wartime, lying about the enemy to boost your side's morale and lower theirs isn't hypocrisy.
Right…
Yet I see so, so many of those who should be on the side of the right who are sure that "being nice" (a.k.a. being Romney) is the way to go, and that Trump wasn't nice, so he had to go.
I just can't figure out how to show people like these that they are tricked by the left into keeping their principles at the cost of everything else.
They kept their principles? What principles would those be?
No man can serve two masters; if your God is respectability, you're not a Christian.
Their principle is respectability, mediated by whoever they see as having social prestige.
Amen.
"I just can't figure out how to show people like these that they are tricked by the left into keeping their principles at the cost of everything else."
It's not even that they're "tricked by the left into keeping their principles". It's that they essentially allow the left (or those "to their left" to define what their principles are in the first place. That's why they're always talking about what hill to really die on, while never actually taking the plunge. They see themselves as paragons of virtue, when really they're dupes who are tricked into never taking a solid stance.
So they're formally declaring that they want a 100% share in a dying market. King Nothing.
But, what do you think of the survival chances of alt-pub? Do you think Indiegogo resist gatekeeping?
I think being tied to *any* specific publishing model will be a mistake in the short to mid-term. The cultists in charge of the institutions have made it clear they are a different people. But our people will always need experts in the written word.
A major error newpub folks make is clinging to the oldpub concept of being an author instead of being a writer.