The Horrifying Day I Identified with Dan Olsen

Hey folks, Bechtloff here. For those of you who don’t know me, I host a regular livestream on my Youtube channel and just started a Vidme channel with just oddball little videos. Anyways, Aurini is letting me do a little guest post on his blog while he perfects his craft in the dark autistic arts of fidget spinner magic.

Now some of you might be asking “Who the fuck is Dan Olsen?”. Well, he’s one of the guy’s who worked for Lindsay Ellis AKA the Nostalgia Chick at her site Chez Apocalypse. I could spend all day describing the guy but basically if you just close your eyes and picture the quintessential SJW gamma male, you got it. Some of you even might be asking who Lindsay Ellis is. Well she’s one of the various people who spent years swimming in Doug Walker’s wake. And if you don’t know who Doug Walker is, well damn, I can’t help you at this point. This ain’t the remedial class.

Anyways folks, this past weekend I saw something that downright triggered me. Something that was just vile and wrong and I could barely put my finger on why at first. It all started when our good testosterone deficient friend Dan Olsen tweeted this.

It seems he, and Lindsay, and some of their helicopter ride needing friends were at The Cheesecake Factory, which as we all know thanks to CBS’s The Big Bang Theory is a go to spot for hipsters pretending to be geeks, and Dan decided to challenge the dozen or so people on Twitter that were left of Karl Marx that he hasn’t blocked yet to a good old fashion debate.

Well someone did take him on on the offer. Fedora Youtuber Armoured Skeptic, best known for hit hard hitting commentary where he would go after creationists, feminists, and other low hanging fruit that helps is audience maintain that “smarter than everyone feel” without having to try, and his blow up doll known as Sh0eonhead both showed up. I don’t know exactly what these two camps talked about, but it seems like everyone had a good time as they even posed for this oh so humorous picture.

Well, everyone seemed to be having a good time, except Dan. Dan looks like a man barely able to hide his disgust. And you know what? God in Heaven forgive me for saying this, but I’m with Dan on this. This isn’t cute or funny. This picture made my skin crawl.

Now first of all, let’s get this out of the way. I’m not surprised about Armoured Skeptic or Sh0eOnHead here. Neither of them really believe in a damn thing and I wasn’t for a moment naive enough to think otherwise. In fact I hear Sh0eOnHead even apologized to Lindsay on Twitter for all the shitposting. I haven’t confirmed that as I would have to go through Sh0e’s Twitter feed to do so, and life is too short, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Really though, neither one of them matter. They may be popular, but they’re not really relevant. Because they’re “both sides are dumb, everyone is dumb but me” moderates. Moderates like to imagine themselves as the referees in the game of politics, but since whatever side manages to shift the debate in their favor shifts what we call the middle in the process, really moderates are more like the ball. And besides, I find spiritually autistic fedoras to be so immensely boring that I really can’t be bothered to ever get worked up that much about them.

But Lindsay I’m actually, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, disappointed in. I didn’t think I could possibly be disappointed in a person I consider to be absolute filth, but here I am. And I think the look on Dan Olsen’s face might betray that he feels that way towards his boss as well. Because if there was one thing about Lindsay Ellis I never doubted, at least until now, it’s that she was a true believer.

If you think back to GamerGate when it was at it’s height, if you think back to the dark days just prior to it, around 2013-2014, when we were at peak feminism in the culture, you may remember that the SJW mafia in geek culture, with Lindsay being a moderately important member, were destroying lives. These people were doxing, they were getting people fired, they were ruining lives. To then sit down and laugh and joke with someone on the other side of that fight, I have to wonder if any of this ever really meant a thing to Lindsay, or if it was all just about clicks and popularity, and Pay-Me-Patreon dollary doos. Did they really do all the shitty things they did just to make a buck? Maybe that shouldn’t surprise me but it does. And I wonder, as I look into that picture, if Dan Olsen wasn’t feeling a similar disillusionment.

I suppose I should end this with a few clarifications. For one thing, I never felt this way as Youtuber Laci Green started moving rightward (all the way to center left). With her it felt more humble, and like a real growth and change. Maybe it’s just a cynical ploy to go where she thinks the greater audience is, I don’t know, but it didn’t seem that way. So it didn’t bother me at all as she reached out to people further right than her to talk. And I am not saying you can’t have a civil conversation with even your most heated political enemies. I am willing to sit down and discuss things with civility and politeness with basically anyone willing to do the same. But there is a difference between a civil discussion and “we’re all buddies now let’s pose for a happy picture”. I just don’t think you get to spend years screaming rape at every bit of disagreement and then sit down with those same people like they’re your buddies. But maybe that’s just me.