My Statement Regarding "John Carter"

One of my goals since starting my blog on Substack has been to drag the Alt-Right into the mainstream.

Factions within the Alt-Right have disparate interests and unaddressed grievances; what all have in common is that they have been betrayed by the establishment. The specifics vary, but at the heart of all origin stories in The Confederacy of the Dispossessed is demonization by the Elect.

I’ve been betrayed by the establishment myself, so I understand. My sexual abuse at the hands of a neighbor, which lasted from age eleven to age thirteen, led to my being asked to leave my prep school as a result of behavioral outbursts. At the troubled teen program to which I was subsequently sent, I was bullied relentlessly and mercilessly by a contingent of proto-woke students, survivors of sexual abuse or assault themselves, who suffered from various personality and mood disorders as a consequence of their ordeals

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I was, to be clear, completely blameless. But I was a hulking, socially clueless boy just out of a nightmare situation, and my awkwardness and penchant for inappropriate humor made me a target. As my old therapist told me more than once, “Hurt people hurt people.”

That is my association with the Alt-Right in a nutshell; I am sympathetic to those who have been bullied. In particular, I am sympathetic to boys and young men who have been bullied by the woke.

I am not, however, sympathetic to bullies, or to those who treat other people like things. Not in the slightest.

This brings me to “John Carter,” author of the well-known blog Postcards from Barsoom. Over the past six months, I have gotten to know “John” well. We have spoken over the phone and video chat a good deal, and we have a podcast together; “Martian Wonderland.”

I have not overlooked “John’s” association with Nazis and rabid antisemites like “Rolo Slavskiy,” or his past association with Swedish ethnonationalists. I have in fact pushed back when he has spouted race science, and clearly stated the distinctions between my beliefs and his, every single time. I am deontologist who believes in rules; I am also a civic nationalist who believes in the nationalism of multiethnic societies. And I believe there are conditions and situations where ethnonationalism is more or less benign, such as Japan; I have been consistent in my statements to that effect. But I have made every effort to exclude “Rolo” and others who believe in a racial or sex-based hierarchy of virtue from my social circle. The woke, after all, also believe in such a hierarchy, and I believe in applying my principles consistently.

I have tried to reform “John.” That was hubris on my part; it was not my job to do so. I am neither a therapist nor a priest, and am not qualified to reform anyone. I have tried to be his friend, and in so doing, attempted to sway him with the power of moral example. In this I have failed. Users on Deimos Station Slack have complained about his casual racism and 4Chan reactionary politics; I have personally been the subject of vile antisemitic abuse (as well as sickening comments referring to my own CSA) from his friends, and I’ve had about all I’m going to take from that quarter.

I want a society in which there is genuine class mobility, and I believe in the dream “John” espoused in the last few paragraphs of his essay “The Great Convergence III.” But I no longer believe in “John.”

I could say it’s solely a result of his politics or his friends, and that would be true, for a given value of true. But something BJ Campbell of Handwaving Freakoutery said to me in December keeps nagging at me. BJ’s exact words were: “You get angry too much, sir. Just an observation.”

I’ve been mulling that over, and I’ve come to the conclusion BJ is absolutely right. I think we’re the sum of the five people to whom we’re closest, and as I have become closer to “John,” who is the angriest person I’ve ever met, I have taken on his rage.

And I don’t want it. I don’t enjoy being angry, and I don’t share his motivation. Left to my own devices, I don’t hate.

I have withdrawn my participation from Deimos Station and removed the link for paid subscribers. I will not be recording further episodes of “Martian Wonderland”; I cannot stop “John” from posting them, but I have removed that section from my own blog entirely.

I have to figure out the direction of The Wonderland Rules going forward. I intend to complete The God of Death and Second Chances, which will return next week; it should take about two more months of weekly posts to wrap up. I have a few more Dance Class posts in mind as well.

After that, we’ll see.

—Jay

1. One of whom, to her credit, sought me out years later and apologized.