Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Gamma rhetoric

Remember, when the Gamma attacks you, he is very often handing you the key to deconstructing his own insecurities. A VP reader made an astute observation about a particularly ludicrous rhetorical attack on me at one of my Darkstreams:
Rhetoric only works when it plays on people's emotional insecurities. For instance, a griefer in the Periscope said "Stop acting like you've read more than ten books". The author of that rhetoric was assuming this would play on either Vox's insecurities (about his intelligence) or his audience's (about their own intelligence, or their confidence in Vox's intelligence).

The rule "SJWs always project" comes from two attributes of SJWs: 1) they are solipsistic and thus believe other people have exactly the same insecurities as they do, and 2) they want to trigger other people's insecurities with rhetoric. This leads to them attacking others in the ways that would be most effective for others to attack them.

The reason "You have to go home" and "You have to go back" work so well as rhetoric against civic parasites is that they play on a parasite's most fundamental fear: being removed from the host. Parasites without hosts have no future.
It was rather amusing. Read 10 books? I once read 70 in a month for the MS Readathon. Anyone can see right on my blog that I read more than 50 every year, as well as precisely which books. My literary consumption is not exactly a point of insecurity for me.

But you can bet that it is for him. And, based on the delusional nature of it, you can also bet that it was a Gamma.

31 comments:

NMA said...

On top of all of that, someone who could speak and write like you do without having read more than ten books would be amazing.

Unknown said...

Heh. My mom had to put a 5-book limit on us when we went to the library, or we'd never stop reading and go out and play. It says a lot about the troll that he thought "more than ten" would even make sense as an insult.

Happy Housewife said...

The ten books someone like that has normally read: the seven Harry Potter books and three Phillip Pullman books. That's where they get their whole philosophy.

SQT said...

That is a very weird insult- even for a gamma.

Mr.MantraMan said...

Maybe I don't get out much but I have yet to meet a lib who actually reads books, obviously some must I have just not met them yet.

LastRedoubt said...

I know several who read - one or two books a month from the approved, literary, reading lists. "The help", etc.

JCclimber said...

Family of voracious readers. My mother had to get special permission for our library cards to be allowed to check out more than 5 books at a time (when we were under 9 years old). My brother would check out 10-12 books, I would also. We'd read our own, then the other brother's books. Then back to the library, usually each week.

last year, my mother ran into one of the librarians when she visited that town, who recognized her, and immediately asked how her two boys were doing.

We haven't been to that library in almost 40 years. I have to buy books for my son now, because the libraries have made sure that children's books are now politically correct.

I imagine that Vox is about as likely to be triggered by an insult like that as we would be.

Gunnar Thalweg said...

In 2008, my father's girlfriend said unless you were rich like my father (who was not rich, by the way), the only way you have voted for McCain was if you were ignorant. I said that I had voted for McCain. She said, "Do you watch Fox News? Do you read books?"

For some reason, this irritated me more than it should. I have at least 2,000 books in my house. I have worked as a writer and editor for more than 20 years. I might have a passing familiarity with a book.

All this is to say: I think Gamma may be a kind of bitchy, feminine thinking, but in a man.

Matthew said...

I tried putting my eldest son on a 2 book per day limit once. He skirted it by re-reading parts of other books.

David The Good said...

That was a particularly stupid insult considering your own writing.

I grew up like Cail Corishev, though Mom let me take 10 books instead of five. I'd come home from the local library with a stack every two weeks or so and am pretty sure I read my way through the entire biology section before I was a teenager. Not to mention all the classics on the shelf at my parents' house which were left behind by an aunt and uncle traveling overseas as missionaries.

Now my children are doing the same, though we have Project Gutenberg instead of a local library.

Homeschool or die.

Alexander said...

It's an oddly specific thing to say...

I would expect something more like 'quit acting like you read a lot" or "that you've read a lot of books."

Imagine someone saying, "quit acting like you can lift 45 pounds." or "stop acting like you make over 42-thousand dollars a year."

This is a level of butthurt that even most gammas have the sense to not display publicly.

S1AL said...

Alexander, I'd assume it's because that ignoramus got nabbed for indecent exposure last time he had to count past ten.

KC9ZNR said...

Yeah, echoing the library limit experience here. I used my card from middle school so often I can still remember the id number 21389003314947 twenty years later... As far as Gamma projection goes it really is an exercise to be aware of one's own insecurities and consciously STFU about them. I could tell a couple of cringe-worthy stories from my own Gamma past.

Will said...

I would like to point out that the projection of “insecurity” can be either in the declared insult or in the original subject. In the periscope the attacker throws out the “you haven’t read ten books” claim. My guess that this was a male, as males try to move the argument to ground they are comfortable on. A female would have said something like “your daddy didn’t love you.”

The poster probably has read more books than Vox, but so what. This actually makes Vox’s takedown better. Instead of getting into an “appeal to authority” debate where how many books you have read makes you the victor, Vox turns on the poster by not quite asking “have you read my book on the subject?”

In rhetoric active beats passive.
Passive: I’ve read a lot of books
Active: I’ve written a lot of books.
Passive: I have many friends in the military
Active: Hmmm… never saw that in my 20 years in the Marine Corps
Passive voice: don’t hate
Active voice: go home

Terrific said...

"Stop acting like you've read more than ten books!"

"You haven't?"

You're right. That is a weird insult. "Stop acting like you HAVEN'T read ten books", makes more sense.

The original insult implies there's something wrong with reading more than ten books. As if "getting uppity" is a bad thing to do. Is this the white gamma (assumption) version of "Stop acting white"?

Anonymous said...

I saw that comment float up as I watched that Periscope, and my immediate thought was here's a gamma with an impressive library who thinks he's the only person in the world to have one. Or probably more to the point, a gamma who believes only like minded people should have such libraries (and that people like VD should have his library taken away and distributed to those who really deserve it). Because the flip side of failed rhetoric arising from suppressed feelings of envy is the desire to overpower others.

These are the words of a man (using the term advisedly) who wants very badly to dominate, but hasn't the courage to make an attempt to do so. His feelings of envy and hatred will never be satisfied.

Harambe said...

You are both an evil mastermind AND an utter moron? How do you do it?

David The Good said...

William English: "The poster probably has read more books than Vox, but so what."

You obviously have no idea how fast Vox reads or the breadth of his reading. It's horrifying. Beyond mortal.

Mr.MantraMan said...

Democratic party the home of at least 50% illiteracy, the bubble these people place about themselves is quite impressive, if you're cuck.

Freeholder said...

Best Man at my wedding, who I recently had to ostracize for being an SJW did another example of this. Tried to guilt trip me out of supporting Trump due to white privilege and made a weird argument about how supporting Trump was against everything that my father served in the Air Force for. (Full Disclosure; I came of age during Clinton and decided that Lt Freeholder and Commander and Chief Clinton could not mix.) It was a blatant attempt to use my decisions against me in an emotional way which amazingly enough, he didn't serve either while his father did. SJW's always project.

Will said...

David The Good
I may not have made my point well. I regularly use Vox’s reading list for suggestions, so I know he is well read. My point was that the active beats passive in rhetoric.
I saw the exchange like this
Troll: Shut up… because I read a lot of books
Vox: have you read my book on the subject we are talking about?

The troll could be a professional book reviewer for all it matters. Vox took him on in the category he selected and kicked him in the nuts. And best of all it allowed Vox to bring up his books.

If I didn’t believe they were so dumb, I would think it was a set up question.
Imagine that glorious day when someone starts an argument with you that begins “I’ve read a lot of books on gardening and…..”

Jed Mask said...

Dem Gammas need to be on here reading up some "Alpha Game" lol.

David The Good said...

@William English

Got it, and you're right - it was a softball setup by the troll.

Anonymous said...

Gammas and Sigmas appear to have emotional solipsism and higher average intelligence in common. The major difference appears to be testosterone, which causes the Sigma to respond to stress in an intellectual way which allows him to predict human behavior with a more scientific mindset. (This is my best guess at the moment.)

Narcissism = solipsism * entitlement (probably, seems good). The latter appears to be what causes children, women, minorities, etc. to kick against the goads.

Aeoli Pera said...

Great writing there Aeoli, maybe throw in a few more qualifiers next time.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

@aeolipera

I suspect it's more like this:

Attractive midwits: Alpha
Average midwits: Delta
Unattractive midwits: Gamma
Midwits can still fit in with average men, so there are a lot of Delta midwits, but they also sometimes realize they're smarter and better at things. Those like Trump who also have good self-discipline and decent humility levels are Alpha, while the ones who end up arrogant with Secret King complexes populate the Gamma ranks.

Attractive geniuses: Sigma
Unattractive geniuses: Omega
Simply because men with very high IQs are completely unable to fit in with average men, they will be either Omega or Sigma.

Nate73 said...

That's not very comforting VFM #7634. I was often told I had a high IQ and I may soon have to start working with the "average men". :/

Anonymous said...

Actually, come to think of it, that's not right. But I think it's reasonable to guess that very high-IQ men are more likely to be Sigma or Omega than normal-IQ ones.

@Nate73

Not fitting in doesn't mean being bullied. It could simply mean you're that smart guy who prefers to be off by himself while the normies talk about the latest football news or whatever else appeals to them.

Also, depends upon exactly how high you're talking about.

Nate73 said...

Do you think it's worth it to take an IQ test or else use my SAT score to estimate it? Vox had a post about how people of more than 1 SD apart in IQ can't communicate. Not saying I'm an ubermenschen but would it be useful to know just for social interaction?

Ominous Cowherd said...

`` Vox had a post about how people of more than 1 SD apart in IQ can't communicate.''

They can, if the smarter one works at it hard and effectively. Practice listening. If you're something like an engineer working with tradesmen, show them respect and NEVER pretend you know their trade. Many of the tradesmen are smart enough to reduce the communications difficulty, anyway.

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