Davis Aurini

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No, I didn't say "the n-word"; I said "nigger". "The n-word" is deeply condescending towards blacks, implying that they'll break down in hysterics at it's mere mention, regardless of context.
—Davis Aurini, YouTube comment.[1] Well, that's all right then.
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Davis M. J. Aurini is a Canadian MRA, race realist (which he says is not "racism"),[1] white nationalist ("on paper"),[2] neoreactionary, vlogger, terrible novelist and all-around creepy guy.

His vlog posts typically deal in misogyny, evolutionary psychology, and complaints about white knights, along with some healthy fascist fanfare and racism for good measure.

His image, especially the shaved head and goatee combo, bears a remarkable and probably intentional resemblance to Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan (or to Kane of Command & Conquer, who was inspired by LaVey anyway). LaVey would be less than thrilled to have a fan who falls prey to so many of the Satanic Sin[3] quite so assiduously, though.

Contents

[edit] YouTube pontification

90% of looking like a genius is knowing when to keep your stupid mouth shut.
[4]

Aurini makes YouTube videos. Lots and lots of YouTube videos. Most of them are pieces to camera, in which he enlightens us as to racial and gender politics. Production values are mediocre at best; he is particularly inept at sound recording. We Hunted The Mammoth features many pisstakes analyses pisstakes of his work.[5]

Early videos featured Aurini sitting in front of a Motorhead poster; he then decided he came across as cooler wearing a black suit and turtleneck and mumbling through a cigarette in his mouth, with a tumbler of whiskey in his hand. (He sometimes lights the cigarette, but has never been seen to puff on it.) And he loves his sp00ky props,[6] particularly his fake skull, which he calls "McCarther."[7] Of late he has taken to cowboy hats.

He has also made a bad short film about nothing, Lust in the Time of Heartache, featuring angst over the plight of the manly male, actual fedoras and ninja fights.[8]

[edit] Anita Sarkeesian

[edit] The Sarkeesian Effect

Aurini had been a non-fan of Anita Sarkeesian for a while, having written about her in 2013,[9] including outrage that ABC News would talk to her about having been harassed by misogynist gamers.[10]

So when Gamergate came along, Aurini and his friend Jordan Owen[11] announced they were making a movie titled The Sarkeesian Effect: Peering Inside the World of Social Justice Warriors, setting up a Patreon[wp] to crowdfund it at a requested $15,000 a month for five months.[12] (Note that that's to start filming. Until that point is reached, they're just putting out one or two videos of themselves talking into a webcam every month. As of writing they're making nearly $9k a month to sit on their asses.) Based on the trailer, the movie is set to be nothing more than the sort of attack on Sarkeesian one would see in a YouTube comment mixed in with a good amount of psychological projection. The project ran into financial problems, as Aurini had correctly assessed men's rights activists' hatred of Sarkeesian, but overestimated how much money they were willing to part with. This was, of course, everyone else's fault.[13]

Stung by the criticisms and the lack of funding, Aurini and Owen released a "teaser"[14] — apparently all the footage they had to date — which looked like it had had $25 spent on it and you could see every penny there on the screen.[15] This was all they had produced with several months and thousands of dollars. (Precise amount unknown; they have inexplicably failed to provide the level of accounting detail they demand of Sarkeesian.) With just a bit more cash, they might e.g. read WikiHow and learn basic facts about microphone and lighting placement. You can see how badly they need this in their second Patreon paid update,[16] in which Aurini is literally inaudible from 1:20 on due to being out of range of their directional mic. Just the thing to make their paying sponsors think "this is a good use of my money, I have made a correct decision."

In order to demonstrate his filmmaking chops, Aurini responded to critics of the "sneak preview" trailer with a half-hour long vlog wherein he is both barely visible and barely audible, due to having shot it literally in the dark with his usual terrible audio setup.[17]

The pair had a hilarious and messy breakup in early March[18] due to delays in getting anything done and Owen disagreeing with Aurini how cool Roosh V was (particularly Roosh's proposal to legalise rape, as well as the burning question of whether Roosh actually did get laid in Norway).[19] Sadly, they got it back together.[20]

[edit] Sarkeesian and death threats

Did Ms. Sarkeesian report this to the FBI instead of the SFPD? Did the Officer who she reported to hate women, and throw her report in the garbage? Did she eat some bad burritos, and was this all just a fever dream?
—Davis Aurini just asking questions

Aurini then claimed that Sarkeesian was lying about her death threats because he had apparently contacted the San Francisco Police Department and asked for a case number and none was found;[21] this was proven wrong by an SFPD spokesperson who looked harder and found that Sarkeesian did indeed complain to them about death threats she'd received, numerous times, and the case had in fact been handed over to the FBI.[22] When proven wrong, Aurini then went from point A to point U by going full conspiracy theory mode, spewing red herrings that this revelation about the FBI didn't answer all of our queries, rendering GamerGate nothing but a tinfoil-hat in neck-beard chic – quite the contrary, it compounded them!

[edit] Other contributions to human understanding

  • His claimed life experience[23] is "Trained as a Historian at McMaster University" — though he doesn't claim an actual finished degree[24] — and "Infantry soldier in the Canadian Forces" for an unspecified length of time. In his website bio he claims to be "an author, strategist, neoreactionary monarchist, and an entrepreneur." His author bio at A Voice for Men adds "theologian" and "patriot".[25]
  • He has written an unbelievably terrible novel, As I Walk These Broken Roads,[26] which "explores the ideas of masculinity, brotherhood, social evolution, epistemology, and the nature of violence" with only a slight peppering of punctuation and grammar errors.[27] It started as a fan fiction for the game Fallout[wp], which he then filed the serial numbers off.[28]
  • He is a global warming denialist.[29]
  • He has outlined his philosophy of film making, which is best summarized as "planning is for suckers."[30] He does not understand that "fix it in post!" is a filmmaker's way of saying "well, that was a cockup."
  • Even 4chan's /pol/ board doesn't take him seriously.[31]

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Is Race Realism Racist? - "fundamentally, no. Race realism is simply the truth and living a life of lies is sure as hell not going to set us free." (transcript)
  2. [1] "On paper, I have nothing against white nationalism. I'm a huge white nationalist on paper" - the paper on which this is not racist must be a Möbius strip
  3. The Nine Satanic Sins
  4. Tweet, archive.
  5. http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/category/davis-aurini/
  6. #GamerGate question of the day: Does Davis Aurini own multiple skulls, or is he moving one skull from room to room? (David Futrelle, We Hunted The Mammoth, 27 October 2014)
  7. McCarther's watching you... (Davis M. J. Aurini, YouTube, 14 June 2007)
  8. Mammoth summary. The best bit of the film is someone getting punched in the nuts around 6:20; sadly, it's not Aurini. The font for the credits (9:24 on) is also worth boggling at.
  9. Grand Theft Auto V and Misogyny (blog post, 26 September 2013)
  10. ABC segment and article (warning: autoplay video), Aurini's response
  11. The Aurini/Owen production company logo is an anarchy circle-A. What the fuck.
  12. http://www.patreon.com/thesarkeesianeffect
  13. "Today I’m going to break the basic rules of Marketing, and I’m going to do it with a rakish grin." Note also the use of the tone argument against people who thought he was full of shit and dared say so.
  14. #TheSarkeesianEffect Teaser No.1, October 2014 (Davis M.J. Aurini, YouTube, 20 October 2014)
  15. Fantastic review from We Hunted The Mammoth.
  16. #TheSarkeesianEffect: Second Paid Update and Anita on Colbert (jordanowen42, YouTube, 31 October 2014)
  17. Followup to the Teaser Video (Davis M.J. Aurini, YouTube, 21 October 2014)
  18. #TheSarkeesianEffect: Cutting Ties with Davis Aurini (jordanowen42, 3 March 2015), in which Owen also promises some actual accounting for the project's supporters (video taken private, entirety preserved in this commentary 2:26-4:35, 5:55-8:04, 20:20-21:36); Aurini blog response; Aurini, in an interview, compares Owen to Elliot Rodger. (This interview is comedy plutonium.)
  19. Aurini released the chat logs, thinking they made him look in any way good.
  20. Owen/Aurini Productions: Reunited (Davis M.J. Aurini, 12 March 2015)
  21. http://www.staresattheworld.com/2014/09/anita-sarkeesian-fabricate-story-contacting-authorities/
  22. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fbi-investigating-death-threats-made-against-anita/1100-6422391/
  23. http://www.staresattheworld.com/author/aurini/
  24. But feels competent to advise history Ph.D candidates. Aurinis Insight: Advice for a History PhD Candidate
  25. http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/its-time-for-the-manosphere-to-mend-bridges-with-the-mhrm/#wpautbox_about
  26. Download the seven-chapter sampler! Or don't.
  27. Goodreads reviews
  28. http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?199261
  29. https://twitter.com/aurini/status/545695080326369280
  30. http://www.staresattheworld.com/2014/10/gamergate-victory-conditions-update-thesarkeesianeffect/
  31. [2][3][4][5][6][7] warning: /pol/. "what the fuck Aurini? I think maybe you've been drinking too many Jameson shots with Apple Juice."
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