In Mala Fide 3.0 launches on Monday, March 7th, and here’s how you can be a part of it

Bigger! Sexier! More offensive! Mark your calendars and cancel all your plans, because In Mala Fide is getting an upgrade. Two Mondays from now, little will change about this site, and yet everything will change.

Let me explain. I started blogging in the summer of ’09 both out of a necessity for unfettered free expression (i.e. the need to get rid of my mental blue balls) and general dissatisfaction with my job and life. This site is the lovechild of iconoclasm and ennui, midwifed by the New York State Department of Civil Service. I imagined getting an online following, but I never imagined going this far.

Now, in February of 2011, I’m further removed from the world that spawned In Mala Fide than I thought possible. I work at a job I can tolerate, I live in a pleasant city, I’ve reunited with old friends. And roughly around the same time I quit my old job, I started up a beg-a-thon to pay for much-needed site upgrades, including a new theme and a private server. I haven’t lost the urge to blog – far from it. But this site can’t just be a place where I can vent my frustration with the idiocy of the world any more.

Alte left this comment a month ago that made me think:

FB,

I think you’re missing the main point O is making — which is admittedly a bit difficult to dig out from all of the verbiage he hid it under again. The pet-peeves and the race-baiting also clouds the point, of course. And maybe I’m just projecting, but here’s how I see it. The main point is a rhetorical one, particularly concerning non-Game posts.

There are parts of the Manosphere that seem most interested in judicial rhetoric; the past tense. Roissy would be a good example of this, as would some of the traditionalist stuff (TTH). Most of their writing focuses on discovering how “women/minorities/so-cons/liberals/whatever are at fault for everything evil in the world”. The lack of self-awareness and pragmatism at such places is astounding. Such rhetoric is good for assigning blame, feeling self-righteous, and building anger, but if it isn’t followed up by anything constructive, then it’s just navel-gazing. (Yes, I know O isn’t particularly self-aware either, but the evaluation is still accurate.)

There are parts of the Manosphere that seem most interested in ceremonial rhetoric; the present tense. Your blog and Chuck’s (and ironically, Obsidian’s) would be good examples of this. Most of the writing focuses less on assigning blame, and more on taking cracks at other people, picking fights with whomever you think is the Biggest Loser of the moment (like this post), and promoting yourself as a special snowflake who is beholden to no one. It’s a one-trick pony, but it appears to be satisfying for some of your readership, and I admit that I also find it entertaining. People like ceremonial rhetoric because it strengthens group cohesion, and reassures them that what they are and are doing is “okay”. That’s why sarcasm and snark are such nerdy traits; people who get picked on a lot tend to adopt them (yes, I know I’m very sarcastic myself).

And then there are parts of the Manosphere that seem most interested in political rhetoric; the future tense. Not just the immediate future, but the mid to long-term future. The better writing at the Spearhead, Hawaiian Libertarian, Susan Walsh, Paul Elam, TFH, Oz, Hestia, etc. tends to be solution-oriented and/or consensus-building. Political rhetoric is considered the most noble form of writing because it’s the speech of leadership.

I know you guys don’t like to think of yourselves as leaders because leadership is a burden, and your lives are a testament to the fact that you’re not too keen on shouldering responsibility, but leaders aren’t defined by self-declaration. Leaders are defined by the fact that they’re followed.

People are following you, FB. They read what you write, digest it, and then run around the interwebs quoting you, as if you were the Voice of God. They debate you, they fight about you, and they see you as emblematic of a movement and a philosophy.

Why do you think I freaked out about the whole Assange-thing? Because people listen to you, and they imitate you. If you do something like that, it gives them a sense of license to do the same. You’re not “just some blogger” anymore, so it’s ridiculous to claim to be one. I used to say the same thing about myself, and cut and run every time I noticed that people were starting to care about what I say, but at some point you just have to give up and admit. People read your shit, FB, and they take it seriously.So, maybe you should start taking it seriously too, and upgrade to more political rhetoric.

If there is one thing that characterizes our present time — and makes the coming crises most terrifying — it is the leadership vacuum we live in. Especially for young people, the current crop of popular politicians is a non-starter. People are looking for leaders, they’re considering you, and maybe… just maybe… you could take that to heart, and write about stuff that actually matters. You delve into it sometimes, but then you drop it and start messing around again. I’m trying to do more of it, too, and spend less time whining and picking fights with people.

I know that was a very long-winded comment, but I assume it’s appropriate, as it comes below a long-winded post about a long-winded post.

She’s right. For better or for worse, I’m in this thing for the duration. I should be doing more with it than being an irate jackass.

Therefore, I’ve decided to take the next step. In Mala Fide 1.0 was the now defunct WordPress.com blog I wrote from July to November of 2009, and this site is In Mala Fide 2.0 – In Mala Fide 3.0 will be a group blog/magazine. Unlike more narrowly focused and tamer sites like The Spearhead or Alternative Right, the sort of content I want to publish here will run the gamut from political and economic analysis to self-improvement advice (game and whatnot) and other things – an all-access stop for crimethink, amusement and vulgarity. By pooling the talents of multiple writers on a single site, we’ll have a much greater impact than on individual blogs.

My installation of WordPress Multisite, as I mentioned a couple weeks back, was part of this expansion. Unfortunately, Multisite broke so many things on my existing blog that I was forced to remove it. My only option for getting it working properly is to reinstall the blog completely. I’ve been working on a local server replica of In Mala Fide for the past few weeks and will be finishing and putting it online over the next week. I’ll also need that time to test the Multisite feature and the other tweaks I’ll be making (such as rebuilding the blogroll, which I had to temporarily remove in order to prepare for the reinstallation), so aside from the regularly scheduled LIGFY post on Sunday, I won’t be able to post. My other blog, Retrotic, will continue to be updated in the meantime.

Here’s the deal. If you’re interested in becoming a contributor to In Mala Fide, either by writing front-page articles or on an IMF-hosted blog, I’ll hook you up with an account. You can write about anything you want, be it feminism or game or white nationalism or HBD or economics or Christian patriarchy or stuff from other venues – whatever you like, as often as you like, from whatever perspective you like. You retain all rights to your work – do what you want with it. The only things you CAN’T post are porno pictures (though you can link to them) and blatantly illegal content (no copyright infringement, for example). You won’t be getting paid, unfortunately – what minuscule revenue I get from this thing goes towards my server costs, which are presently $50 a month on top of my existing hosting plan – but you’ll get the benefit of having your work published in a highly-read venue, free of the censorship of Blogger or WordPress.com. I also will never sell you out to anyone for any amount of money.

If you’re interested, get in touch by emailing me, leaving a comment on this post or private messaging me on Facebook. If you do either of the latter, leave me an email address I can hit you up at. After I’ve finished rebuilding the site and making sure everything works, I’ll touch base with you.

Everyone else, remember March 7th. If you’re reading this via RSS, you may have to resubscribe when the new site goes live, so keep that in mind. Here’s to continued asskickery.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned this before, but if you’re going to leave your email in the comments, SPAMPROOF it so you don’t get flooded with Viagra junk mail. Write your address like this: fbardamu [at] inmalafide [dot] com.

Tagged as: Alte