Category: Christian Politics

Trojan Mice

Yesterday I read The Trojan Mouse: How Disney is Winning the Culture War by Samuel Lively.

One of my constant contentions is that the serious plays in the culture war are to play the long game by building families and making entertainment. So it seemed this book would be up my alley. And it was and then some. The book traces both the physical and ideological histories of Disney. It is of peculiar interest to me because I grew up during the Disney Rennaisance in a Baptist-adjacent family. So I caught both the Baptist Boycott denunciations of the Mouse, and the average Joe’s apathy to that boycott.

When I analyzed Disney movies for myself at the time (as a teenager, mind you,) my conclusion was that the more wildly occultic and salacious accusations were overblown (which in turn made them easy to dismiss), but the philosophical trends were real. There were no secret pentagrams in the animation, but the Mouse had switched from a default of honoring the parents to a default of undermining them.

To this very day, though, most people will look at me like a crazy person if I tell them I don’t want to take my kid to the latest Disney flick, let alone something so old that present day Social Justice Warriors find it problematic.

The Baptist Boycott didn’t work. Audiences naturally rejected the more explicitly subversive Disney Renaissance flicks organically — Hunchback and Pocahontas did not do comparatively well — but Aladdin and Mermaid did extremely well despite (despite?) having as their core value the idea that horny teens ought to ignore their parents.

To a certain degree, people will choose what is bad for them. Humanity is fallen. But to a certain degree, people will choose the good over the bad. Even the most depraved sugar addict will choose steak and vegetables over a plate of manure. People won’t, in mass and as a rule, choose nothing at all. Audiences favored Toy Story over Pocahontas. Was it because of the shiny new 3D, or because it was more in alignment with core American values? Hard to say. But Aladdin didn’t really have that kind of competition.

I’ve already made some kids’ books, and will continue to do so, but books are seeds of the culture war; the fighting happens on screens, with music and animation and acting and drama. It may be best for me to stay behind the lines planting seeds. It may be best for me to try and charge for the front line and use my animation skills. I don’t know. But in the spirit of putting that conundrum to the test, I’ve begun work on a video game, which is the best route for my skill stack to reach the screens.

Hat Trick 1: the Death of Arthur is the start of a dark Christian scifi/fantasy serial. And it has pictures! Check it out now on Amazon.

Oxygen

Rawle Nyanzi recently proposed Brand Zero. Namely: don’t promote major media. Don’t talk about them even as negative examples, because doing so promotes them and increases their brand. Nyanzi extends this not just to subversive and disgenic brands like the Mouse, but even brands he likes and respects. From his comments on Brian Niemeier’s blog:

Anime has a lot of mainstream visibility… Big, well-trafficked sites discuss anime, and it is a frequent topic on social media. Those companies need no help getting the word out; if you want to recommend an anime to someone, do so in private conversation…

The flip side of Brand Zero is Oxygen. Do talk about the little artists who can use the exposure.

Jon Del Arroz makes comic books and steampunk. Brian Niemeier does science fantasy horror and, recently, mecha military books that are Gundam meets Battletech. Rawle Nyanzi has released a mecha book with strong Sailor Moon influences and is trying his hand at pixel art animations.

Bradford C. Walker wrote a mecha book that’s Robotech, except instead of Zentraedi you have demons, and instead of the UN you have Medieval Catholics.

The Last Ancestor is about human refugees fighting for survival on a planet of dog men.

Adam Smith has Christian Paladins engaging in fisticuffs with demons in post apocalypse America. And of course, I have a dark magician bunny fighting the Night Mare.

It’s not enough to reduce the big names to Brand Zero. We’ve got to give each other oxygen.

Reblog: Why Concede and Keep Fighting?

Here is an old post from an old blog that I repost because it is still relevant and it allows me to build up my track record of content. It is from 2013 when Obama was freshly president, and reflects my thoughts from that time.

In this present era, I realize that I’m thinking of the debate between “left” and “right” as a philosophical or political debate, whereas now I see, as Niemeier maintains, it is a religious war and we ought to go straight to witch tests instead of logic. I should also note that my attitudes have changed. I am no longer a regretful lefty forced by logic into a rightwing position, but an enthusiastic advocate of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. But the logic is, in my opinion, still instructive, so I post it here.

The angry buzzing of the bees over this whole gay marriage nonsense makes me shake my head in sadness.

You’re fighting the wrong fight, peoples.

What is the current definition of what marriage is, according to the conservative, Church-going elites?

It is Disney marriage with an arbitrary rule. The core of marriage is that two people in love with each other ratify their emotional attachment with a big, expensive ceremony.

Against Disney Marriage

Hat Trick 1 is Done

You can get the PDF now from my patreon.

A few thoughts:

Hat Trick has the same page count as Alphabeasts. But I will be able to sell Hat Trick for $4 whereas I have to charge $15 for Alphabeasts because Hat Trick is black and white, and Alphabeasts is color. This price difference makes me consider whether producing books in black and white isn’t the best plan for now. It’s pretty darn significant.

Hat Trick was never meant as Christian fiction, though I’m putting it in that category on Amazon. I’m putting it there because some of the characters are Christian, and Christianity is true in the world of Hat Trick as I believe it to be true in this world. And its truth matters to the plot because magic is a constant and tangible presence in that world, and so prayers and grace take on an equally tangible presence. But the purpose of the story isn’t to spread the faith nor to impart good morals. Hat Trick is not a tract. Crosses glow in the presence of vampires not because I’m trying to convert you, but because I think vampires and glowing crosses are cool.

“But wait!” you say, “isn’t Hat Trick set in a world of talking animals? How is Christianity a factor in a world of talking animals?”

Yes. Here are some spoilers about my world which I don’t mind sharing as they are not directly relevant to the plot.

World Building

Anglo Honesty and Free Speech

In my starting post on Christian Politics, I listed 7 Divine Rights, which I defined as “rights that men have that, if violated, will be avenged by God, as revealed in Scripture.” And you’ll note that several rights we take for granted in America, notably freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms, are not among them.

Today I’d like to touch on cultural norms.

Freedom of speech in America is derived from Anglo-Saxon cultural norms. It’s also derived from an Enlightenment-era tactic designed to overthrow Christendom (which has, thus far, worked exactly as designed), but the American expression of it is derived from Anglo-Saxon cultural norms, specifically the Anglo-Saxon obsession with honesty.

I am not a history buff, but I often bunk with history buffs, and my last history-obsessed roommate told me that under ancient Saxon laws, if you killed a man, but you told the first person you met, you might be acquitted due to self defense. But if you kept it secret, you were considered guilty of murder.

There is an idea in American Christianity that if you a commit a crime, the Christian thing to do is to turn yourself in. But this is nowhere taught Scripture! Corinthians commands us to settle our legal disputes among ourselves instead of dragging each other before the courts, and Ephesians instructs the penitent thief not to turn himself in, but to exchange thievery for honest work and generous giving.

Many an English speaking atheist has held Jesus to be a liar because when his family asked whether he was going to Jerusalem at one point, he said “No,” instead of “Not yet, but I will later.” But neither Jesus, nor his apostles, nor most of the world consider it dishonest to play your cards close to the vest this way, and it is Jesus, not Ye Olde Randome Englishman, who gets to choose the rules.

The Anglo-Saxon norm of honesty is stricter, harsher, and more extreme than God’s norm of honesty.

Continue reading “Anglo Honesty and Free Speech” →

The Long Game

Notre Dame burned the other day. I’m sure you’ve heard.

There are a lot of great places you can go from there. If you want to be politically incorrect and call out the castrati of the establishment, you can wonder aloud why Macron declared in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t arson when the building was still on fire. Or why Fox, vanguard of the Right, hasn’t considered the 800-odd attacks against cathedrals in France over the last year.

That’s all well and good. It’s the battle of the moment, and the battle of the moment ought to be fought. But I’m interested in considering the Long Game.

Read the Long post

The 7 Divine Rights

This is a fundamental essay on Christian Politics.

American Rhetoric says that it is self-evident that God grants men rights. Libertarian philosophers try to derive these rights from a Right to Property or the Non Aggression Principle.

But the Christian philosopher has at his disposal a handy book of propositions as sure or more than any first principle. If he holds the commandments up to a mirror, he can see in their reflection God-granted rights. In the commandment against murder, a right to life. In the commandment against theft, a right to property.

These, then, are seven rights, explicitly granted and avenged by God, which ought to be protected by the government.

  1. Orthodoxy: The right of man to worship the One True God in the manner of that God’s choosing, and to hear from that God’s shepherds truth and not lies, must not be infringed.
  2. Rest: Man must be permitted rest at least one day in seven.
  3. Honor: Man has a right to the honor due his station.
  4. Life: Man has a right not to be murdered.
  5. Fidelity: Man has a right to marital fidelity.
  6. Property: Man has a right to his belongings.
  7. Justice: Man has a right to remain unpunished when innocent.
Questions