You won’t believe what he’s said now (link is OK, it’s not to his site).
[I]n light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline, a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban’s attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.
His “empirical perspective” is based on freakish ideas about Game, hypergamy, and those dang uppity women not having babies at his command, i.e., not empirical at all. His justification for shooting girls in the head is that they need to be taught a lesson so that they’ll buckle down and make more babies.
That’s quite possibly the most evil sentiment I’ve heard in, oh, a week.
He’s a nobody semi-pro compared to Ted Cruz, or the worst human being ever in all of history (handicapped) Steve King.
Still VD is a human being who, should his funeral happen to be held nearby and I had no pressing business. I would put aside all other entertainment and attend.
I might even wait in the long, long line of people waiting to piss on his remains. And not out of hatred, but pity – he would want it that way.
Is he saying that women shouldn’t be educated because the human population is in decline?
Because, if he thinks the biggest problem facing humanity is population decline, he might want to get some of that education and knowledge and critical thinking stuff if he’s going to keep talking out loud.
Hey, cut the guy some slack. He’s got biblical authority behind him, according to his interpretation, eh. And he also has a history of saying things that are completely unethical, so the poor sap can’t help it, eh.
Usually I try to make a spirited argument for “the Pope,” but holy actual fuck. VD is working for that title!
Christ, but that man really is the wart on the arse of humanity.
As usual, VD is fractally wrong. Never mind the vile conclusion he comes to, that shooting girls in the head to prevent them from being educated is a good thing*, there is also the problem of his whole premise: “demographic decline”. There’s no serious problem with global human population being too low; if anything, it’s too high. Non-destructive means of lowering human population growth are a GOOD thing, and education for women is one of the most potent means around.
While we’re at it, less education for women has a strong correlation with a lower quality of life and standard of living for the entire population, across cultures; those societies where women are better educated and more equal across the board, have the highest standards of living on Earth. So educating women benefits society in numerous ways.
Then there’s the fact that WHAT THE FUCK VOX DAY JUST SAID THE TALIBAN WERE JUSTIFIED IN ATTEMPTED MURDER.
I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire.
Sorry, Daz, but I have to stop you there. I have here a notarized statement from the World Society of Collective Human Arse Warts, in which they unequivocally state that they wish nothing to do with Vox Day.
He’s a whackjob but hand wringing over “demographic decline” is a little noticed aspect of the anti-choice movement that is most likely to get the elites – who face the horrifying prospect of not having an endless supply of desperate serfs – to support anti-choice policies. S. Korea began enforcing its long-ignored abortion ban in response to a “low birthrate” and some Japanese politicians are considering abortion restrictions. Various types of coercion are being used in Russia and Eastern Europe to get women cranking out babies as well.
We can all fart in his general direction for things he said. But what has he done to be in the running for the WPITW? He is all talk. People who would actually shoot a girl in the head, or shoot up malls full of people, or blow up airplanes, etc. My vote would be more toward those types.
So, he needed to generate more traffic to his site?
Is his audience declining?
“correlation between female education and demographic decline”
If this is true it’s just another reason to strongly promote female education. The Earth is kind of overcrowded. Lots of global problems (climate change for instance) would immediately be solved if 90% of Homo Sapiens disappeared with a poof.
wow, just wow. Every time you think they can’t sink any lower, some wing nut finds a way to lower the bar.
Dear #7 Steve,
I must disagree. And there are thousands like me. But, of course, do as you will.
Do note that my even considering such a posthumously-inflicted honor would require a number of coincidences, to wit:
– VD’s being dead (being on fire would be a big plus in this)
– my happening to be nearby, i.e. within walking distance
– my having absolutely nothing important to do at that time, like return books to the library or enjoying the weather
– my needing to piss (the offering of free beer on a hot day might encourage an effort, however.)
– the actual length of the line, and how jovial its members seemed.
I see VD’s point… it’s rational in the same sense that rape, theft, murder, and any criminally selfish act is rational, if you don’t care who you hurt and think you can get away with it.
Permanently enslaving half the population as breedstock. As you say, evil.
Vox truly is disgusting.
He tries to weasel out of directly supporting the silencing* of Malala (“may indicate”), but his misogyny reeks like raw sewage.
About the only good to come from this? His opposition to education opportunities for women is like a neon sign advertising him as a toxic douchemaggot.
*silencing? Really??
Vox tries and fails to downplay the actions of the Taliban.
Silencing women and trying to kill them are not the same thing (both are atrocious, to differing degrees).
Are we sure that it’s that way round? I’m hugely in favour of universal education, and special efforts to redress the historical wrong of undereducating women, but wouldn’t “higher living standards lead to more education for women” be a more accurate statement of the results of history?
@ OptimalCynic:
I’m pressed for time, but there are several very good studies showing the direct impact of programs improving education (as well as access to finance, other material support, etc.) on standard of living. Not claiming direct causation or uncorrelated variables, but there’s definitely evidence to dispute your more accurate statement.
Someone else will probably pop in with a better summary, but I’ll check back in when I’m not being yelled at to get off the damn computer. :)
OptimalCynic, I believe there is strong correlation between educating women and the health, wellbeing and education standards of their children greatly improving. It is a conscious effort of charities like World Vision to increase education levels among girls specifically for the cost outputs versus flow on benefits to the whole community.
No thanks, Vox Day. I’d gladly prefer to live in Japan than in Afghanistan.
marcoli@10
Have you considered the possibility that those people who actually do those things are supported by having their views reinforced by a “mainstream” voice (at least mainstream within their sphere of influence)? I’m not saying you’ve put the cart before the horse, I’m just saying you’re ignoring the person doing the whipping.
Hey, I know he’s written some clunkers, but worst human being? That’s a little harsh.
And I know that he got hit by a van, but I think he mostly physically recovered.
And I believe he prefers to go by “Stephen”.
Why is everybody whispering at me from off-stage?
But once the fire’s out…
I think it’s some twisted form of utilitarian philosophy from him. Which is kinda strange in the light of his rabid right wing Christianity.
Either that or he’s trying some sort of twisted reductio ad absurdem on “perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable”.
Hell, I don’t know, I’d rather not investigate into the mind of horrible people that much.
Rey Fox
No one knows where the hook is.
(tvtropes link)
chigau/#11:
(Blinks…)
That was on purpose, right?
(/Alternate: ‘Apparently… And apparently because they’re not breeding enough. And I just can’t tell you how much this concerns me.’)
David covered this on Manbooz, too. We’re assuming there that since Pox Day is a racist shit as well as a misogynist one, his squealing about “demographic decline” is probably the “not enough white women being forced to give birth” thing.
AJ Milne #26
Yes. I like the word “decline”.
It’s so … malleable.
So is “apparently”.
Speaking of breeding, does anyone know if Teddy is married? It always seems that even the most horrible people in the world manage to find someone.
I think I’ll quote James Nicoll here:
Unlike VD I’m not really in favour of slave labour.
When it comes to killing women, a right-wing Christian and the Taliban are suddenly brothers in arms.
@Flewellyn #6
That is probably one of the strongest arguments for equality out there (though, for stupid reasons), but I fucking hate it, because it steers the entire issue into an completely bass-ackwards direction. I could care less if (women’s) equality has an economic or otherwise indirect benefit for other (non-women) people. That ought not matter in the least. Would any decent person actually dare argue that human rights should be withheld for the *greater good*? No! It’s a self-contradictory position to begin with, as well as pompous and cruel one.
This isn’t an attacks on you, Flewellyn. I just wish such arguments weren’t necessary to convince the bigots.
To clarify my point, equality cannot ever be contingent on utility. That would not be equality to being with, because any equality granted under the pretext of utility can be withdrawn when said utility is not accomplished. Such “equality” would always exist under the threat of withdrawal, and would thus always be conditional.
chigau/#28:
Now that you mention it, this was one of the other angles I considered. As in: ‘In decline? Where, exactly, is down from there?’
Back on the previous meaning, I’m now mulling what, exactly, it takes for a woman to be too educated to breed with a member of Vox Day’s audience. And on this basis, our Mr. Beale may find the notion of girls attending even primary school inconvenient…
(/This last approaches the truth of it; I bet he’s just miffed to hear that the curriculum for junior kindergarten now contains a unit that deals with his supporters specifically. It’s 9am, story time, 10 am, recess, 10:30 we practise tying shoes and saying please, and 11am, we learn never to breed with anyone who reads Vox Day.’)
As long as you were very, very sure the fire was out …
mnb0 @12,
And just who exactly does all the poofing? Culling humanity is… a demographically problematic concept. By which I mean elitist at minimum, and probably classist and racist in a whole host of different ways.
Think about it. Who’s doing all the spawning right now?
May I chime in here? I grok your point, klatu, but the opposition cite utilitarian arguments. Arguments they’ve pulled from their asses. So pointing out “Um, boxcars worth of evidence exist that show educating and empowering women leads to better outcomes for EVERYONE” won’t change any assweasels’ minds, but it will demonstrate to onlookers that the feeble support said assweasels offer for their position is not even wrong.
Oh, and just to clarify: the spawning of which I spoke is only incrementally greater than our own birth rates, and are expected to plateau similarly as tech and culture propagates. There is not and will never be a White Extinction Crisis, nor is there nor ever will there be a corresponding Great Hottentot Zerg-Rush, no matter how many leaflets your local neighborhood watch volunteers have passed out about it.
“clarify” is a nice word, too.
Demographic decline is an imaginary problem invented by people who hate non-reproductive sexuality or who hate women. Part of this is usually just thinly veiled racism with worries that the *wrong people* are reproducing, or men who just can’t handle a world where women have options other than ‘doormat.’
smmda @40,
Yeah, you summed up everything I was trying to say in one sentence fragment, and you did it without using the word “hottentot.” I am a foolish person who does not think things through nearly enough.
don’t know about historically, but there’s evidence that the causality in developing/undeveloped countries goes from educating women to higher standard of living ( observation based specifically on the effects of educational programs for women, though we’re talking very basic education-levels here), because of the effects a woman’s education has on the health and welfare of her children.
The whole idea reeks of privilege anyway. What the fuck greater good can be achieved if you start by enslaving half of the population? Greater good for whom? What these supposedly “utilitarian” arguments actually do is assume that the necessities of have priority and therefore any fucking over of anyone else does not count against the total good to be achieved.
of “insert privileged group here”, of course. I forgot the thing about tag symbols.
Am I the only one wondering just what the hell ‘demographic decline’ actually means? If it means ‘population decline’ then he is wrong to a farcical degree, but I don’t lean toward that interpretation. Rather, I suspect he is clumsily referring to the fact that racial / skin colour divides are slowly eroding.
Not that that is a defense of him at all, but I think it is slightly closer to what he is actually saying.
Holms:
I am puzzled over that as well.
Theodore Beale is correct the human race has ‘declined’.
It has declined from the exulted state of superstition and savagery.
It is now declining through the heaven of pig ignorance and prejudice.
It nears the horrendous and bottomless pit of becoming a truly compassionate civilization.
But Mr Beale shouldn’t worry, he and his kind will be ‘saved’ before this happens.
I take it you’re volunteering to be among those disappearing. But if you could think a little beyond the obvious, you might realize that such a sudden decline in population would lead to a whole slew of new problems: collapse of infrastructure including dangerous chemical plants, nuclear facilities, arms factories; population explosions among various species suddenly presented with huge food resources; huge pressure on women to have babies; probably wars to gain control over territory, resources and people…
Isn’t this the hack fantasy author who photoshopped a picture of himself holding a flaming sword?
Speaking as a mere amateur armchair theoretician (i.e. just another voice on the interwebz), it wouldn’t surprise me if the question of general improvement in social conditions versus women-specific improvements was somewhat of a virtuous circle. Anecdotally speaking, it seems to me that recently in the West, a lot of the advances for women followed general advances; women looking at the men’s good fortune and saying, Yep, I’ll have a piece of that.
Poor people. There’s a proven causative link between raising people out of poverty and lowering their birth rate. That’s why the best way to reduce global population pressure is to raise the living standards of the poorest in the world, who tend to be disproportionately women. It makes sense – when women have economic power of their own, like they do in rich countries, they have a much easier time denying the “watermelons until you die” request (thanks whoever posted that, btw – great quote).
Holms #45
I read it the same way. “Demographic” certainly refers to some sort of division into subsets, and given it’s VD we’re talking of here, skin-colour is the most obvious choice.
Yes, demographic decline invariably means too many brown babies.
@36 Jonathan: “Think about it.”
Irrelevant for the point I made about demographic decline being something desirable. But I won’t stop you from thinking about it. Try and you might arrive at the same conclusion as I did myself many years ago. Good luck!
NelC:
Wouldn’t a “general advance” be one which women already had a piece of? It sounds like you’re treating men as the default gender.
My co-workers and I were discussing the various levels of asshole. The introductory level would be: jerk. Followed by asshole. Then for the harder cases: scumbag. I propose a new level for Vox Day:
MOTHERFUCKING GOLD PLATED SHIT BAG
For someone with Beale’s raging ego and manly dudeness, how it must rankle that a mere girl is more widely respected, more influential, and more decorated than him. Why, she isn’t even a MENSA member!
What’s rational depends on your goals. To the Taliban, shooting someone in the head is the rational response to someone who opposes their political power. To someone who wants their demographic group to breed and overwhelm neighboring groups, shooting women’s education campaigners may be a rational response. To the medieval church, burning an astronomer at the stake was a rational response to the threat he posed by upending the world view they imposed.
If your goals are disgusting, the rational responses can be disgusting.
Moggie nailed it.
Funny, in years past, VD’s sycophants would have been trolling this thread demanding that PZ debate their flaming sword wielding hero.
I am mildly surprised that Vox Day is so all-fired enthusiastic about Muslims having more babies. I thought that part of the schtick for the religious and political right was that White Conservative Christians are dying out because they are not having enough babies to outbreed the others.
Beale unfortunately(especially for them) has three kids. If I remember correctly one of them is old enough to have written a book. His father, Robert Beale, is also quite the piece of work, having done serious jail time for tax fraud and threatening a federal judge.
There’s a correlation between global decline and an itch in my butt.
@sambarge in #2
No, I don’t thin that’s what he’s saying. I think he’s saying the particular demographic he wants to populate the earth is in decline(i.e. Christians). If the Christian womenz don’t stay barefoot and preggers they might become extinct. In which case it’s apparently completely rational to do whatever it takes to keep them womenz in line and popping out babies like Pez dispensers, even if it violates “thou shalt not murder”. Then again, women aren’t really human are they? So is it really even murder?
mnb0: “Lots of global problems (climate change for instance) would immediately be solved if 90% of Homo Sapiens disappeared with a poof.”
OK, this is just flat ignorant! We live in a fricking, interdependent global economy. If 90% of humanity disappeared suddenly, that economy would collapse and life would be a living hell for the remaining humans.
Yes, overpopulation–or more accurately, overconsumption–places serious strains on the planet’s ability to support us. However, the answer to that is NOT a sudden decline in human population! In fact, no one has really mapped out what the answer is. Think about it in terms of demographics. At any given time, there are productive adults working and supplying the needs of the population. This population includes children, who are not productive, and elderly, whose productivity ranges from significant to negative. If you stop having children too rapidly, the burden on the productive adults initially declines. However, then there aren’t enough productive workers in the future when the current cohort ages out of the workforce. A changing age demographic and declining population also play havoc with inflation and deflation in a society and with the kinds of goods and services offered by a society.
Simply saying glibly that the answer is to reduce human population by 90% trivializes these issues, while at the same time seeming to support morally objectionable judgements that we would be better without 90% of our fellow humans.
Beale should go congratulate the Taliban in person. I’m sure they’d give him a warm welcome.
Moggie @58, poor wording on my part. But also on the part of those upthread I was responding to.
e.g. Flewellyn @6:
Perhaps that way of putting it is less problematic, though. I apologise.
@iclane:
They have a cream for that.
When I read what Vox said, I actually said “Holy FUCK!” out loud. What a slime. He has no humanity at all.
VD gives scum a bad name. I suppose his initials might be considered apt, at least, but even an unpleasant infection has more redeeming features than this woman-loathing fascist.
Not in Kerala, a poor southern state of India. Kerala put all the little money it had into education, especially of women; the birth rate is a bit lower than China’s – but first-world wealth is still far away.
We shall need to taunt them a second time.
Yes. Yes he is. And this should be brought up in every thread about him. No sarcasm.
No, really.
…is everyone believing me when I say that I’m not being sarcastic? Because I’m not, and yet I just look more sarcastic with every denial of sarcasm.
An end to reproductive coercion would be one of the single biggest steps forward for women. Which of course is why the misogynists are so opposed to it.
What the feck is the “scientific justification” for the assassination attempt ?
If a sword is phallic, what does a flaming sword stand for? A urinary tract infection?
Incompetence with lighter fluid.
♥ ♥ ♥
Over here, “demographischer Wandel” (demographic change) usually means the proportion of old people is growing (and getting ever older before they croak) – but of course the right still is against (significant) immigration, so who’s going to pay those pensions?
Around 1990, the slightly more sensationalist slogan was “die Deutschen sterben aus” (Germans are dying out) – I think someone calculated that at the then-current not-quite-replacement levels, we’d be down to 3 million by 2300, clearly an alarming development!
I thought then, and still think, well, that’s what immigration is for. There’s lots of people who’d be happy to help pay our pensions, so why not let them in? Xenophobia is stupid. (Especially if it comes from people whose last names clearly indicate they immigrated a few generations ago.)
No. No he isn’t.
This is the fantasy author of subjectively questionable merit who had an actual newspaper photographer ask to photograph him in that pose while holding a real sword covered with real flames emanating from real flamepaste. While he seems to have gotten no small kick out of it, it was by no means photoshopped.
My loathing for him can’t be textually rendered. I don’t think I’ve ever read him say anything not BOTH factually wrong and viciously evil.
Ah, VD – known around here as “The man with a trout on his head” for the very odd haircut from his preferred WND author photo. The “Raddled Harridan” part of my nym was given to me by a minion of his many moons ago, and I wear it with pride.
I don’t know that he’s the very worst person in the world, but he’s surely putting some real effort into contending for the title.
For those asking – yes he’s married. His wife generally goes by the nym “spacebunny” on-line.
“You won’t believe what he’s said now (link is OK, it’s not to his site).”
Nothing surprises me with that guy anymore.
“[I]n light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline,”
This is an unsupported assertion.
“a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban’s attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.”
What.
“His “empirical perspective” is based on freakish ideas about Game, hypergamy, and those dang uppity women not having babies at his command, i.e., not empirical at all. His justification for shooting girls in the head is that they need to be taught a lesson so that they’ll buckle down and make more babies.
That’s quite possibly the most evil sentiment I’ve heard in, oh, a week.”
What a di- err.. jerk.
In fact if I understand correctly there is a good correlation between women’s education and reducing overpopulation – VD has of course got his slimy preferences entirely arse-backwards in that he doesn’t realise that this is a good thing. Improving women’s access to education leads to improved infant survival rates and to lowering the birth rate. In addition to improved economic conditions for all. VD is a repugnant excrescence who has no grasp whatsoever of the concept of human rights, so of course he doesn’t care about women or children (and about very few men), but considering world population levels, depletion of resources etc. even he ought, logically, to be all in favour of women’s education – if only for women whose skin colour he despises. Yes, I know, his miserable excuse for a brain, such as it is, would dribble out of his ears long before he could “logically” reconcile his racism with his misogyny; you’d think he’d be delighted to reduce the numbers of brown people being born (especially brown people highly unlikely to be inocluated with the xian virus in infancy) but he just can’t bear the thought that in order to do so it would be necessary to permit any improvement to the lives of any actual women.
Short Vox:
“Smart educated women won’t breed with me, whine”.
I cannot describe the rage that one, singe paragraph quoted above instilled in me. There is no way I’m reading the whole thing.
You know what gets me? They are proud of the reactions they’re getting:
Happily, Eric and Diogenes are trying to set things right over there.