The Latest Witch Hunt

from Scarlet Imprint by Peter Grey

Social media is designed to manufacture the three cons: conflict, conformity and consumption. The sheer level of toxicity has led the silent majority to abandon platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, leaving them largely to the purveyors of outrage who align most perfectly with the three cons.

The requirement for conformity has produced an absolutely chilling effect on free speech and the imposition of a rigid binary. That kind of black and white thinking is anathema to the practice of magic and witchcraft. It is the new puritanism, to which I reply non serviam.

For the sake of clarity, and those who are not familiar with my fifteen years of public work, books, essays, presentations and lectures, these are the facts:

I hold a bachelor’s degree in political science, where I pursued my utopian dreams for society through a Marxist class-based analysis. It became clear to me that revolutionary socialism was not the answer, and was either unrealistic or unfolded into new forms of tyranny. I turned to the pursuit of magic. I maintain a class-based analysis, rather than the divisive and dangerous ideology of identity, and am perhaps best described as a green anarchist. My views and actions have always been on the political left.

I have consistently opposed and fought fascism in the occult, in private and in public, when no-one else dared to speak, or criticised me for doing so. I have twice withdrawn my work from publishers who platform people with extreme rightwing views.

To accuse me of being a fascist, a fascist sympathiser, or in any way aligning myself with fascism, is defamation, and frankly, madness.

So why am I being attacked?

The current nonsense is a result of an hour long conversation with Gordon White on cursing and a work of Jack Parsons, ‘The Witchcraft,’ a text of radical liberation and freedom.

The Twitter mob have been furious with Gordon White for his views on Covid, and also with us for standing with our friend and author and continuing to publish his work. They want him to be cancelled. They seem oblivious to the problems with the mainstream narrative, and that we have published his heartfelt book on animism and not a screed on virology. Some of the most prominent haters are in direct competition with him for Patreons/Members. Again, the three cons of social media are in play.

Please listen to the discussion in full, if you have not done so.

Please listen to what Jack says about The Witchcraft, as these are very close to my values.

At the end of the conversation we talk about the new McCarthyism and I point out that the social justice activists are crying wolf. If you label everyone you disagree with as a transphobe/racist/white supremacist etc. you will erode the support you will need as we approach the inevitable rightwing backlash. Furthermore, if you render these terms meaningless through their misuse, then you will be unable to hold actual fascists to account.

At no point do I say we should stand with fascists. Such a position would be impossible to square with anything I have ever said, written or thought; and indeed is fundamentally incompatible with The Witchcraft. It violates the basic principles of the entire conversation and the ethos of our fiercely independent publishing house.

To engage in a bad faith reading such as this is all too common. They have done the very thing I warned about, which rather proves my point. If, as a life-long opponent of fascism, I am now branded a fascist, or fascist-sympathiser, no-one is safe from the illogic of this witch hunt.

The individuals engaging in these personal and ad hominem attacks are functioning as the witch hunters of a corporate-driven ideology. Identity politics is the ideology of division. They manifestly have not done their shadow work and are functioning as tools of the outrage machine at the very time we need unity most. They profit from weaponising resentment.

So I write these words for those who are caught up in the social media maelstrom and perhaps have not encountered my work. I hope you find my ideas challenging, and that they encourage you to think for yourself.

I thank those who have taken the time to write to me, rather than engaging in empty virtue signalling or outrage. There are more dissenters than ideologues, more witches than priests.

Finally, I write for those who are staying silent, in fear of the mob, and to them I say have courage! The way must be won.

We are the Witchcraft.

Peter Grey

There are 21 Comments

What in the actual fuck is this whatever-the-fuck-this-is dog shit doing on my beloved anarchistnews?

i'm not disagreeing with you cuz that's a very real problem you're talking about but maybe it's worth pointing out that uncritical use of "cancel culture" isn't anarchist at all?

it's liberalism, the so-called "blue church", you know? that thing that was a corner stone of the social peace for decades and has recently been bricked up in its tomb by the Trump presidency, the almost-but-not-quite civil war in the US, the outbreak of war with russia, etc.

furthermore, the commodification of manufactured liberal outrage by big tech, which this writer seems well aware of. but yeah
NOT. ANARCHIST. IN. THE. SLIGHTEST.

why is Peter Grey, self-identified green anarchist, speaking out against identity politics, and the cancel culture that follows, irrelevant to other anarchists?

what? no, I meant that cancel culture BY DEFINITION is almost inseparable from liberalism, sort of like voting? you can't really be much of an anarchist while participating in such things. it just has no theoretical basis that makes any sense.

so, any "anarchists" behaving in this way must have liberal brainworms. think maybe that's a proper use of ivermectin?

The theory that wildness is the basic foundational anarch desire (spell, wish) and creative act (magic) is worth considering because there are no rules, morals or material (property) attachments to hinder the flow of life forces in a wild anarchic environment dealing with wild situations, in the moment.

Also, fair enough that there are skeptics regarding the mystical hocus-pocus pseudo-religious tricks passing themselves off as supernatural magic, these ARE spooks. However, there is a universe beyond our understanding, and one should not bother to attempt any explanation, as Hawkins attempted on a blackboard with chalk and symbolic conceptual marks and numbers, the socalled "proof" in a code based on Western mathematical logic, fail!
There are dimensions which intersect occasionally which induce epiphanies of grand creativity with no concept other than just a positive authentic euphoria.
Do not scoff but go with the flow of the creative nothing.

Bruh. If you take a water bong and attach one end to your mouth and the other end to your anus and fart into the anus end while breathing in deeply and rapidly from the mouth end you can get real actual magic abilities. Trust me most people are just afraid to do it because they’ve been lied to by author ian scientism but it works 100%. Do not go looking for proof or seek out how it works because according the actual magical law it will negate the fartbong effects a priori.

Comrades! I'm POPPING IN to mention that while I support Peter Grey in his TRUTH that cancel culture is BAD, you can ACTUALLY CANCEL cancel culture with the right amount of HOODOO and some dollarstore items.

Get a deck of playing cards, a bottle of rum, 1 gram of methamphetamine, some red latex paint. Snort the meth, drink the rum, cover your LEFT HAND in the red paint AND your RIGHT foot. Play exactly 3 games of solitare and CHANT THE WORDS, "I AM the WITCHCRAFT!" no less that 30 times. You will SEE some things and GET RESULTS, comrades!

Expect something BIG this coming MAY DAY!

BONES OUT!

"I hold a bachelor’s degree in political science, where I pursued my utopian dreams for society through a Marxist class-based analysis."

How could anyone not accept this undergraduate-level expertise?

Hashtag I'm with Peter

Thanks for the links. I don't count myself as someone who can recite some academic's work backwards while standing on my head, so forgive me for not truly giving a fuck if an "anarchist" doesn't fit in with the "anarchist" model of the "perfect anarchist". (run on intended)

I enjoy different perspectives, and I've noticed the tried and true methods have failed miserably - repeatedly. Magic, whateverthatis, has been around as long or longer than homo sapiens. Perhaps we should stop being such dogmatic dicks, and rethink/broaden our approach.

But, hey, mock away something that you most likely don't even begin to understand if that makes you feel important.

"Magic, whateverthatis, has been around as long or longer than homo sapiens."

Fun! Let me try:

Interstellar travel via autoerotic asphyxiation, whateverthatis, has been around as long or longer than homo sapiens. Perhaps we should stop being such dogmatic dicks, and rethink/broaden our approach.

I'm not sure why this is getting complaints. Because it's scene drama? Because the author's into weird religion? Because someone here sympathises with cancel culture? Seriously, what's the problem?

IP is dangerous to anarchists, and everyone. Cancel culture is stupid thought-policing by authoritarians who daren't face opponents in debate. Cancel culture weaponized by careerists is even worse: a way for untalented people to dominate job sectors and "cultural production" by demanding orthodoxy. Neo-Lysenkoism basically. Cancelling people for covid skepticism (I'm assuming, since I've no idea who Gordon White is) is even stupider since it has absolutely nothing to do with hate speech, marginalization or intimidation of minorities, etc. It's just straight enforcement of an official narrative against (at worst) wingnuts sounding off or (at best) actual critique. And anyone who's anarchist and pro-lockdown, or pro-vax-mandate, is a fucking hypocrite. Inb4 they're in favour of conscription in future wars, too. Cunts. And the only thing stupider than cancel culture is canceling people for not taking part in cancel culture. Don't tell me who I can fucking associate with, you fuckers. I'm not doing something I think is wrong and politically dangerous, just because you tell me to.

Also I wonder how many of these "don't stand with fascists" people are currently supporting Ukraine. Which means they are literally fighting on the same side with literal armed white supremacist neo-Nazis like Craig Lang (look him up) and Azov Batallion. Ditto if they're supporting Russia. Heck, they couldn't even take sides against Hitler if they weren't prepared to fight on the same side as other countries' ultranationalists. All the while the IP's are aiding the counterinsurgency state and its "radicalization" and "network disruption" narratives, and meanwhile, the counterinsurgency state is murdering 1500 people every year, aiding fascists abroad, destroying the effectiveness of anarchist, socialist, and IP movements, and consolidating de facto fascism such as mass surveillance, paramilitary policing, and lockdowns. Oh, but they lock up the occasional disturbed kid who likes Hitler memes and spree-killer jokes, so that's OK - the "real" fascist threat is from loners, nerds, and petty thugs, not from the very real authoritarian police-state.

"Neo-Lysenkoism"

love this analogy! fukin brilliant, too bad only other leftist history nerds can enjoy it with me.

Anyway, almost completely agree except I think we should all aspire to be petty thugs who are also nerds that the state and culture war liberals identify as a threat. Just not a fascist one?

a sexy threat! where theyre scared but feel safe at the same time cuz there's a safe word or whatever? but their world still has to burn tho! and we'll be like "shhh, dont be scared of ashes, it's ok. time to grow up and taste other things besides the boot."

Is this that hoodoo conjurer anarchist from a few years ago?

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