by Vox Day
Examples: Science fiction writer John Scalzi. Howard Wolowitz and Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.
Omega: The truly unfortunate. Omegas are the social losers who were never in the game. Sometimes creepy, sometimes damaged, often clueless, and always undesirable. They’re not at the party. It would never have crossed anyone’s mind to invite them in the first place. Omegas are either totally indifferent to women or hate them with a borderline homicidal fury. Women seldom even know their names, no matter how long they’ve been colleagues.
Examples: Supreme gentleman Elliott Rodgers, Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, Stewart Bloom on The Big Bang Theory.
Sigma: The outsider who doesn’t play the social game and manages to win at it anyhow. The sigma is hated by alphas because sigmas are the only men who don’t accept or at least acknowledge, however grudgingly, their social dominance. Alphas absolutely hate to be laughed at and a sigma can often enrage an alpha by doing nothing more than smiling at him. Everyone else is vaguely confused by them. In a social situation, the sigma is the man who stops in briefly to say hello to a few friends accompanied by a Tier 1 girl that no one has ever seen before. Sigmas like women, but tend to be contemptuous of them. They are usually considered to be strange. Gammas often like to think they are sigmas, failing to understand that sigmas are not social rejects, they are at the top of the social hierarchy despite their refusal to play by its rules.
Examples: Marlon Brando, Prince, James Bond
Lambda: The men who have quite literally no interest in conventional male-female sexual relations. They clearly have their own hierarchy of sorts, but I can’t say that I know much about it other than it often appears to somehow involve youth, free weights, and occasionally, mustaches.
Examples: Milo Yiannopoulos, Elton John, George Michael
Now, it is important to keep in mind that it serves absolutely no purpose to identify yourself in some manner that you think is “better” or higher up the hierarchy. No one cares what you think you are and your opinion about your place in the social hierarchy is probably the opinion that matters least. There is no good or bad here, there is only what happens to be observable in social interaction. Consider: alphas seemingly rule the roost and yet they live in a world of constant conflict and status testing. Sigmas usually acquired their outsider status the hard way; one seldom becomes immune to the social hierarchy by virtue of mass popularity in one’s childhood. Betas… okay, betas actually have it pretty good. But the important thing to keep in mind is that you can’t improve your chances of success in the social game if you begin by attempting to deceive yourself as to where you stand vis-a-vis everyone else around you.
But for the purposes of this book, the only category that matters is Gamma. This is because nearly all male SJWs are Gammas. And while that doesn’t account for all the female SJWs, one common observation of the Gamma behavior is that it is a consequence of a feminized mindset trapped in a male body, so some of these aspects of Gamma behavior will also apply to female SJWs who are presumably responding to many of the same causal factors.
So what, precisely, is a Gamma male, how do they behave, and what is the connection to the social justice cause? First, let’s consider the attributes of the average Gamma male.
Less physically attractive than the norm.
More intelligent than the norm.
Unathletic, often overweight.
Socially awkward and resentful of social hierarchies.
Generally unsuccessful with women.
Passive-aggressive and conflict-avoidant.
Verbally-oriented and prone to snark.
Disloyal and socially calculating.
Deceitful and disrespectful.
Of all these attributes, it is the latter that is the most important. One can go so far as to say that the chief attribute of the Gamma male is the relentless ability to lie to himself and others.
If you want an ideal example of a Gamma male, it would be hard to do better than Pajama Boy, the literal poster boy for the young liberal Democrats, who was featured in one of the famous Obamacare ads drinking hot chocolate and wearing a red plaid pajamas with a smug look on his extraordinarily punchable face. Pajama Boy’s real name is Ethan Krupp, and he prides himself on being what he calls a “Liberal F—”, which he explains is not a Democrat per se, but rather, “someone who combines political data and theory, extreme leftist views and sarcasm to win any argument while making the opponents feel terrible about themselves.”
In other words, a Krupp is a textbook social justice warrior. The two concepts are not synonymous, and yet there is a tremendous overlap between the SJW and the Gamma male.
Later in the same interview, Krupp went on to say that he has never lost an argument, except once, and then only because he was drunk. Even if we didn’t know what Krupp looked like or what views he espouses, this ludicrous claim would be sufficient to identify him as a Gamma.
Krupp’s statement about himself is tremendously valuable insight into the Gamma mentality, and even demonstrates why women tend to find them off-putting. Krupp claims he combines ideas, opinions, and a tone to both win an argument and cause feelbad. But the truth is that to the Gamma, the two are one and the same. The Gamma’s victory metric is simple: whoever can cause the other individual to feel worse about himself wins. This explains why the Gamma is constantly pretending to be above it all and unconcerned with the outcome even when everyone can see that he is horribly upset and wounded.
The Gamma believes that if he admits to the truth of his own feelings, he will lose. This is why he is always creating the impression that something is off about him, because it is. Even more than with the social hierarchy, the Gamma is at war with himself and with his feelings. This is why they often appear to be living in a delusion bubble of their own creation, and why they so often idolize Spock and human reason. They like to think they are beyond all human emotions, because they find their own emotions to be painful for the reasons that were described above.
This also points us to the way out of the Gamma mindset and into healthy Delta territory. Unsurprisingly, the transition from what we now label Gamma psychology into normal male mindset is a common literary theme, or at least it once was before Gamma creators began flattering Gammas rather than trying to help them improve themselves. Face your demons. Face your fears. Look into the mirror and admit the truth.
Maybe you’re fat. Maybe you’re afraid. Maybe you’re hurt, lonely, and rejected. But until you stop pretending the situation is different than it is, you can’t hope to even begin to start fixing it.
Of course, this observation also points to the best way to psychologically destroy a Gamma. Ignore his words and ruthlessly press on his insecurities and flaws, no matter how shallow and nonsensical they are. I finally figured out that this sensitivity is why Gammas so often shriek AD HOM even when it’s not applicable to the situation. Ad Hominem is Gamma kryptonite. Gammas themselves believe their oft-disingenuous arguments are worthless because of who they are, so if you dismiss them on the basis of their own worthlessness, you are confirming for them the very truth they are seeking to avoid.
So, don’t ever answer a Gamma’s passive-aggressiveness at face value. Dismiss him, and do so in the contemptuous manner you probably already feel for him. Not only will it unhinge him and help you dismiss his arguments, but it’s about the only positive thing you can do for him. One of the reasons, if not the main reason, that Gammas constantly engage in snark, bad jokes, and cut-ups is for express reason of plausibly deniability of being wrong about something. The secondary reason is to indirectly take on men of higher ranks with as little chance of recourse as possible. Remember that Gammas can never be wrong and so regardless of what happens he will publicly claim victory and it’s all a lot of fun. Of course the vitriol in his words betrays his emotions and reveals that he is actually furious. Being a Secret King means you never learn from being shown to be wrong. First, the Gamma isn’t wrong, second, if someone thinks
he’s wrong they only misunderstood him, third, if they understood him then it’s just a lot of fun and games and he’s not being serious, fourth, if people think he’s wrong, he’s not misunderstood, and it’s not funny, then the other guy is a jerk and a bad person.
If all of this fails, then the Gamma slinks off for a time.
If the public rebuke was minor the Gamma will very shortly show return like nothing ever happened and start in a new conversation on a different topic in an effort to distract from what happened. If the public rebuke was major, he will disappear, humiliated, for a long time, perhaps months or even years, while waiting for an opportunity to strike back. Remember, NOTHING is ever forgotten or forgiven by a Gamma. He holds grudges for an eternity and will always seek revenge.
He does this because he cannot be wrong. If a Gamma is wrong, then he sees himself as being wrong. His very life is wrong. It’s all personal to him. He holds everything against everyone forever, except for that girl on the pedestal, and conversely, expects everyone to hold everything against him forever. It’s a sad and horrible way to live, but if you watch and learn, Gammas are very predictable and keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Gammas don’t believe in failure, repentance, or forgiveness. That is why they never learn from their mistakes, or anyone else’s.
A Gamma is prone to psychological projection and naturally puts himself in other people’s shoes when it comes to conflict and imagines how he would feel in their place. This is true for both reconciliation and conflict. It is why what he thinks is required for reconciliation is usually out of touch with reality, and why he thinks attacks on other’s feelings are much more effective than they really are.
A Gamma constantly relives adolescent shame, bullying and emotional issues. He likes nothing better than to publicly shame and mock those who he is angry with (except the girl on the pedestal) to the point of losing sight of any other goal he had in mind. If you can imagine the awkward boy on the playground being danced around and called names by the others, then how that boy would treat people when he is a man, and you will begin to understand how they treat others with whom they are angry.
He is a coward and will readily abandon almost everything to save his skin, and the fact of his cowardice gnaws on him internally. Being narcissistically inclined, he is unable to imagine other people not being secret cowards, so he will often talk of being brave while simultaneously accusing others of being cowardly. This, again, is pure projection.
All of this negative, self-destructive behavior ends up sabotaging relationships for the Gamma, including his friends, his family, his coworkers, and even his own children. The recognition of the poor quality of these relationships are not lost on the Gamma, and he will often feel a deep sense of personal disgrace about his behavior. However, since he cannot admit to being wrong, he is trapped in a self-made hell.
In an interview I did not long after reading one of Martin van Creveld’s books, I commented how SJWs have been able to apply one element of Sun Tzu’s strategic recommendations to great success throughout the culture. And, when I thought a bit more about it, I realized there is also a second element that their deceitful nature allows them to successfully implement reliably without even being aware of it.
The first of these two recommendations by Man’s greatest military strategist is this:
It has been said aforetime that he who knows both sides has nothing to fear in a hundred fights; he who is ignorant of the enemy, and fixes his eyes only on his own side, conquers, and the next time is defeated; he who not only is ignorant of the enemy, but also of his own resources, is invariably defeated.
The early social justice warriors knew their enemy and they knew it very well. They were steeped in Christianity, in the Greco-Roman legacy, and in European history. Some of them were children of the West, some were not, but in all cases they knew everything they needed to know about Western Civilization, both its strengths and its weaknesses. And so they went about methodically weakening the strengths and appealing to the weaknesses, until over time, significant elements of the West were no longer Christian, no longer knew their own philosophical legacy, and increasingly, were no longer European.
But the current SJWs are not what their forebears were. To the extent they are children of the West, they are abused, abandoned, and maltreated latchkey children. They do not know the West, and what little they know they have been taught to hate and fear. They do not know their enemy—we who are the last conscious defenders of the West—and they do not know themselves.
That is why their rhetoric is incoherent. An SJW once attacked me in such a remarkably incoherent manner that I saved it for this book, because it was such a wonderful example of SJW non-reasoning. He wrote, “You’re abysmally stupid and yet somehow disturbingly malign.”
One would tend to imagine that one would prefer one’s disturbingly malign enemies to be abysmally stupid rather than incredibly brilliant, but that is a dialectical analysis and therefore not relevant here.
SJWs have to cling to the idea that their enemy is stupid, because to do otherwise would risk harming their fragile self-esteem, but somehow these abysmally stupid opponents are also incredibly dangerous. They can only explain this by attributing the danger to evil that goes well beyond the pedestrian variety, and reaches the level of total malignity. So, they choose to believe in a very stupid, very malignant enemy rather than an intelligent opposition. Needless to say, this usually violates the first principle mentioned above, which is to know your enemy. And they simply don’t know themselves well enough to permit them to do that.
Sun Tzu’s second recommendation that is relevant here is this:
War is a thing of pretence: therefore, when capable of action, we pretend disability; when near to the enemy, we pretend to be far; when far away, we pretend to be near. Allure the enemy by giving him a small advantage. Confuse and capture him. If there be defects, give an appearance of perfection, and awe the enemy. Pretend to be strong, and so cause the enemy to avoid you. Make him angry, and confuse his plans. Pretend to be inferior, and cause him to despise you. If he have superabundance of strength, tire him out; if united, make divisions in his camp. Attack weak points, and appear in unexpected places.
Remember, SJWs ALWAYS LIE. Deceit is not second nature to them, it is their first and most reliable instinct. They will lie when they do not have to. They will lie when there is no reason to. They will lie when their lies are easily detected. They will lie when their lies are bound to be exposed. They will lie and and dissemble and exaggerate and spin with such shameless abandon that the average individual will find it almost impossible to believe they are doing so.
Because they are emotion-driven creatures, and for the most part limited to the rhetorical level, no amount of information is capable of changing their minds, which is why they tend to reinforce failure rather than correct it. This is why they always double down right up to the very moment they give up and run away.
This ignorant self-delusion on the part of SJWs is significantly to our advantage. The problem conservatives have is that while they know themselves, they fix their eyes only on their own side and remain ignorant of the enemy. Thus the conservative “conquers, and the next time is defeated”. The conservative knows himself, but in his solipsism, he mistakenly assumes that his enemy is just like him.
Because they know neither themselves nor us, the SJWs will be invariably defeated so long as we identify them and see them for what they are: liars and self-deceivers. We have the ability to win every conflict with them, and yet we will inevitably lose everywhere we refuse to see them for what they are or refuse to take the field.
And, by the by, this is why reading books like A History of Strategy is so often useful as well as educational. One simply never knows how the intellectual seeds planted by the author will sprout in one’s mind.
A Cure for Social Justice
The First Law of Gamma is: Lie RELENTLESSLY to yourself to avoid the emotional p
ain that will otherwise ensue.
Recall what we have identified as the primary attribute of the Gamma male: the relentless ability to lie to himself in order to make himself feel better. Any information, any evidence, that is laid before him will be immediately discounted and disqualified if it creates badfeels. Even if he accepts a ceasefire because he has been sufficiently defeated or frightened, he will learn nothing from the experience and will promptly return to the attack as soon as doing so will make him feel better.
But how does this happen? How does a man reach a point where he habitually prefers delusion to reality, where he knowingly chooses what he knows to be lies over the truth? It is a horrific three-step process.
First, let a boy fail. Second, let the boy think or convince him that failing makes him worthless as a person regardless of whatever else he accomplishes. Third, repeat until Gamma. This process is all the easier if the boy has been denied access to positive, masculine male role models. For the most part, quitters are made, not born. When failure isn’t an option, then the Gamma will no longer compete, lie about his accomplishments, and become delusional about himself. It’s also why the Gamma forever seeks revenge against foes, never forgives himself or others, and is nearly insufferable to be around.
Lest you think I exaggerate, consider that Wil Wheaton, one of the more egregious Gammas in pop culture both in fiction and in real life, publicly stated that one of the defining moments of his life involved being humiliated while playing dodgeball during recess. When he went to wash the gravel out of his hands, he met a boy who didn’t have to play due to having asthma. They subsequently bonded over playing Dungeons & Dragons. He never played dodgeball again. Wheaton says that a geek was born that day, and so too was a Gamma.