Death Is Bad

Tell everyone you know – a Christian documentary says famous physicists and cosmologists accept the word of God: the Sun revolves around the Earth!

There’s been a bit of a kerfuffle recently about many well-known scientists “participating” in a documentary that claims modern cosmology is coming to accept that the earth is the center of the universe. And which Kate Mulgrew (of Star Trek Voyager) lent her voice to. Of course none of this is true in any sense that matters – their voices are in the documentary, but they have been lied to and extensively quote-mined to make it sound like they are saying the opposite of what they actually believe. The standard, sane position that the Earth circles the Sun, which has been settled for centuries.

Naturally a lot of people are saying this is reprehensible. But I think this is one of the best things a group could do to discredit biblical literalism.

I was raised Jehovah’s Witness. Like all fundamentalist religions they can’t abide evolutionary theory, and they have their own handbook on how wrong it is. Like any good Jehovah’s Witness, I studied it so I could be ready for my biology teachers. Being a very geeky kid, I would argue online with non-theists and non-JW christian kids. It was through the wonder of the internet that I was first exposed to fact-checking, and was shown that the many biologists that were quoted in the JW book as coming out against evolution where doing nothing of the sort. Their quotes were plucked out of context to make them sound as if they were saying the opposite of what they were ACTUALLY saying. In one case it was almost literally a case of a biologist saying “I would never say that evolution is a crock of shit” and the part of the quote that made it into the book was “[…] evolution is a crock of shit!”

As an idealistic child who had always been proud of how honest and upstanding Jehovah’s Witnesses were, I was shocked. And I came to realize that if they were this deceptive about the scientists they quoted… they would twist around just about anything to seem to support their conclusion whether or not it actually did so. Evidence presented by the JWs was NOT TRUSTWORTHY on its face, because it was being presented by the JWs.

If I wasn’t an argumentative and precocious geek kid, I may never have stumbled across this information. Evolution is still seen as controversial by many people, almost no one questions a quote presented in a printed publication, so what trusting christian would go look up the quotes of every scientist (in a book their church presented!) in order to get the original context and intent?  Who knows how long it would have been before I realized these people are liars?

On the other hand, nearly everyone realizes that Flat-Earthers and Geo-Centrists are complete idiots. That the Earth orbits the Sun is common knowledge. If you see someone saying the Earth is the center of the Universe, you already know they are crazy, simply because they are claiming that!

And if you see a religious group producing a movie filled with respected scientists that have been quoted agreeing with them, no one thinks “Huh, they must be on to something,” or even “Those scientists are clearly idiots.” What they think is “Oh, a group of liars has taken a bunch of scientists’ quotes out of context, manipulating their words so it sounds like they’re saying the opposite of what they really believe.” It creates a very strong association between “Religious groups claiming things contrary to science” and “Liar idiots.”

It makes them look so incredibly sleazy and awful, that everything they say going forward will be more suspect. This act of deception makes them look so bad that it behooves us to spread their message far and wide.

I don’t think they could have hurt themselves more if they tried. It almost makes me think that this could be a false-flag operation by an atheist group to discredit religious fundies.

I’ve long suspected the same thing of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, incidentally. That group has done wonders for the gay-rights movement, by making the anti-gay bigots look so fucking ignorant, hateful, and despicable. Honestly, could a gay group wanting to turn popular opinion against the anti-gay hordes do ANY BETTER than to pretend to Hate All Fags, and then picket military funerals in the most despicable manner they could get away with? It’s genius. I don’t think it’s true, and that makes it soooooo deliciously ironic as well. Thanks for making gay-acceptance come quicker Fred Phelps!

But I’m getting off topic. Share this far and wide!

While working with power tools recently, I heard someone say “Remember, Safety Third!” I’d always heard “Safety First”, so I asked him to explain.

In his community (which handles power tools much more frequently than I do), it’s a combination joke and reminder. Everyone says “Safety First”, but this is a lie. If Safety really was First, they wouldn’t be using power tools at all. Power tools improve efficiency tremendously, but at the price of safety – it’s impossible to accidentally cut your own hand off with a traditional hand-saw. So things like time and money savings trump safety, and everyone knows it. That’s the “joke” part of it.

But more importantly is the “reminder” part. It reminds you that the Corporate Dragons may say “Safety First”, but they don’t mean it. YOUR safety is not THEIR highest priority. So it has to be YOUR OWN priority. You cannot trust them to act in your best interest in anything, ever. You must personally weigh when the costs outweigh the benefits, and act accordingly. Never trust a them to have your best interests at heart.

Remember, Safety Third.

I love Community (except for most of season 4, of course). Episode 6 of Season 5 touched on one of my favorite themes in fiction – the final basis of all power is the ability to do violence to others.

The episode follows Annie as she explores the bureaucratic anatomy of Greendale Community College. Greendale’s power structure is diffuse, with many small pockets of specialized power in a delicate balance. It’s an interesting (if brief) examination of motives of the powerful, and the repercussions their desires have on the populace at large. But that’s just the set up for the really interesting conflict.

The power balance in Greendale is tense enough that Annie can’t get her cork-board approved, so she decides to circumvent the entire system and simply install it herself. This is, of course, completely unacceptable to the powers that be. It is a challenge to the existing authorities, allowing it stand means a huge loss of credibility for those at the top. Why should anyone respect the Dean if his rules can be broken at a student’s whim? The actors below him will no longer be reined in by his authority and the resulting power struggle could cripple the whole school (well, moreso). So the Dean dispatches Hired Goons to take down the corkboard, as his prerogative as the recognized head of the Greendale Leviathan.

And here’s where it gets really interesting. Annie physically attacks the Hired Goons. Because when it all comes down to it, power structures are just ways of organizing how much violent force any particular coalition can muster. Leviathan is left with a choice – crush the opposition, or demure. Leviathan has much bigger goons and would almost assuredly win this direct physical confrontation. And demurring is always undesirable, as it weakens the Leviathan’s ability to credibly threaten others in the future. However in this case the opposition is more than just some student rabble. Annie is a founding member of a strong student coalition which has spent the past 4.5 seasons growing in influence in Greendale. They are admired by the student body, and have previously shown themselves able to spark or douse riots. They have allies within the greater community, and Annie has shown herself adept at navigating and wooing the Greendale power structure. Up until this point they have been nominal allies of the Dean, turning them into enemies would be unwise. Moreover, there is the possible intervention of the greater leviathan of State & Local Laws to consider (whose views on the matter are uncertain), and the Dean is sexually attracted to one of the other founding members of the group.

The Dean calls off the attack. Annie’s coalition is willing to fight and make this victory too costly for its rewards. And importantly, Leviathan has shown its teeth, and reminded those watching that anyone who wishes to challenge it needs to at least have the power base of Annie’s group.

(also, Annie has just (unwittingly?) made herself a bigger player in the Greendale power game. If this was a political show I’d be thrilled by the implications :) )

However, despite all the alliances and influence to consider, what it boiled down to in the end is who had the greater ability and willingness to do violence to the other side. The Hired Goons flexed their muscles. Annie jumped on one and beat him, and rallied the other founding members of her coalition to literally stand at her side in a wall of angry fists. It was their willingness to spill blood that was the decisive moment of their triumph. This is the sort of story I adore. The anger and desperation that pushes people to say “No more.” The point that turns them from participants in the façade of civilization, to people who demand the lies be thrown aside and the true violent nature of power be done to them as proof of dedication. That tipping point where the hand is called, and the real priorities of everyone are laid bare.

It was wonderfully done, especially for a 22 minute comedy show.

There’s been a lot of talk about self-publishing lately. Perhaps the two most important view points on this coming from Hugh Howey in the “self-publishing is best publishing” camp, and Chuck Wendig in the “publishing is a business, it’s a lot of work, and it’s generally best done by professionals” camp. (of note: Wendig does self-publish.)

As previously noted, I have a visceral hatred for old power structures. Traditional publishers being just one example. I’m quite a fan of short-circuiting the establishment. Which is why I think it should be pointed out that Amazon Publishing is not self-publishing. It’s publishing through yet another gate-keeper.

“Amazon is a gate-keeper???” you say, spitting out your juice in exaggerated shock. “Bullshit!”

To which I point you to Wendig’s post where he says “I can literally write the word “fart” 100,000 times and slap a cover of baboon urinating into his own mouth, then upload that cool motherfucker right to Amazon. Nobody would stop me.”

As we’re all aware of how the internet works, we already know what happened within a few hours. Baboon Fart Story was promptly created and uploaded to Amazon.

And a few hours later, it was gone.

(Don’t worry, this IS still the internet. You can see the glorious Amazon page and the book’s stellar reviews (including one by Daniel Abraham!) right here.)

What happened? I don’t have the details, but according to Chuck the author received the following notice:

“We’re writing to let you know that readers have reported a poor customer experience when reading the following book: Baboon Fart Story.”

This is just the funniest example of this. Readers of Sasquatch Erotica are already familiar with Amazon’s gate-keeping ways:

“The Kernel’s article triggered a kerfuffle in the UK, and many stores (Amazon among them) pulled several titles, including some featuring mythological creatures.”

As it turns out, the only difference between Amazon and traditional publishing is that Amazon has almost nothing invested in what it’s publishing. Amazon is a gate-keeper who doesn’t care about the lands the gates are protecting, and so lets any old raider saunter through. What it does care about is its own image. As soon as THAT is threatened, the gates slam shut with a mighty fury (and often a blind one).

And due to the nature of ebooks, these publishers have Orwellian levels of power. If you wanted to recall or censor a traditional dead-tree book you had to count on the book-sellers pulling their stock from the shelves and sending it back or destroying it. Amazon can make an author vanish in the blink of an eye.

Rachael Acks recounts her experience in being disappeared from Kobo UK due to an erotica scare. Despite not writing erotica, and being with a publisher, all her work suddenly no longer existed in the UK, and her very existence was a matter of academic debate. (Seriously though, WTF is wrong with the English these days? No wonder they had to expel their puritans onto the New World, who wants to live with those assholes? They need to set up a moon colony so they can keep unloading those crazies).

It’s more fun than that – Amazon can wipe any book you’ve bought from your Kindle at any time (although they “promise” not to). Have you bothered to read your terms of use? Me neither, but FYI, you don’t actually own anything you’ve bought for your Kindle, you’re just licensing the rights to read it. Amazon can, and has, deleted and modified books at will. Readers are often advised to turn off their eReader’s wifi when crossing national borders if they want to keep reading books while they travel. Famously, Amazon remotely deleted all copies of Orwell’s 1984, because they were shooting for the Irony Olympics*. They only took silver, as Bradbury remained unmolested. At least in the dead-tree days you had to find a physical object and throw it in a fire.

So stop calling it self-publishing. It’s not. It is Amazon publishing. I’ve seen self-publishing. It’s making a file available on your own website. It’s selling or giving the raw file directly to the reader without an intermediary. The only person who can shut down Yudkowsky’s writings is Yudkowsky himself.

I sorta like Amazon. I like that they’re shaking up the dinosaurs, and waging this war with traditional publishing. They’re another option. But they are ultimately just another Corporate Dragon, they simply have a slightly different business plan than the Elder Dragons. So start calling it Amazon Publishing (or maybe Indy ePublishing if you’re going with someone other than Amazon)

Calling it self-publishing is appropriating a counter-culture movement and using its anarchic name recognition (what some would refer to as “street cred”) to try to sell more corporate product. Don’t do that.

*OK, it’s actually because the books were sold illegally. So kinda a legit reason. My point is the proof-of-capability. Kudos to whoever decided to use Orwell’s works to force Amazon to reveal that. :)