Time on teh Interwebz is like dog years. Six years seems like aeons ago...and yet it seems like it was just yesterday we were all commenting over at Roissy in D.C.'s comment threads, developing this thing that started out as the "Roissysphere" that eventually spawned what is now widely known as "The Manosphere."
Before Matt Forney created In Mala Fide, before Roosh gave us Return of Kings and before Paul Elam and his crew gave us A Voice For Men and the eventual division between the MRA - MGTOW - PUA - "pro-Game" and "anti-game" blog-o-spheres, there was the first true "Manosphere" online magazine created by Roissy in D.C. regular "Welmer" that basically served as a breeding ground for all these niches we now see out here in the politically incorrect fringes of the "Red Pill" blogosphere.
Alas, Bill Price's The Spearhead is no more.
To those of you who have come across the "Red Pill" within the past two years, but do not really know the history of these fringes of the politically incorrect, reactionary corner of teh Interwebz, understand that many of the websites you read and comment at on a daily basis owe their existence (at least in part) to the groundwork laid by the efforts of "Welmer" aka Bill Price and the authors he assembled as regular contributors to the manosphere's first truly collaborative effort back in 2009, as well as many of the regular reader's and commentariat back in The Spearhead's hey day of rising popularity.
Here's a roll call of The Spearhead Contributors over the years...some who are still going at it, and others who are no longer sited around these fringes of the web or who had blog's of their own that are now defunct:
Black & German (Alte at Traditional Christianity)
carey roberts
Charles Martel (Alpha is Assumed)
Chuck Ross (Gucci Little Piggy)
Cless Alvein
Dalrock
Davd
Delusion Damage
Demosthenes
Dirk Johanson
Dr. Paul (Paul Elam)
Elusive Wapiti
Epoxytocin no. 87
Eumaios
Featured Guest
Female Masculinist
Ferdinand Bardamu (Matt Forney)
Gx1080
Hawaiian Libertarian (moi)
Hestia
J. Devoy
J. Durden
Jack Donovan
Jay Hammers
Laura Grace Robbins (Unmasking Feminism)
Lone Nut Comics
Max
Maxhenrich
Meistergedanken
Novaseeker
Obsidian
pierceharlan
Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech
Ramzpaul
Roissy (Chateau)
Thag Jones (Lena S.)
Uncle Elmer
Welmer
Whiskey (Women hate hate HATE betas!)
Wikkimania
Zed (Shovel the Fuckin' Gravel!)
* If I missed anyone, and you're reading this, please, leave me a comment and I'll update the roll call. We were all a part of something special....I at least hope to preserve a record of it here.
I'm proud to say I worked with each and every one of these folks in helping to build what we today now know of as "The Manosphere." All of you listed above can be assured that you helped to build today's "Red Pill" Blogosphere. We may have all gone our separate ways and may not even interact at all anymore, but we all did help build up the current grass roots movement of online resistance to mainstream societies socially engineered scourges of feminism, political correctness and normalized misandry.
Bill gave notice several months ago that he was eventually going to let The Spearhead account expire, as he seems to have moved on to a new phase in his life in which time of online endeavors must take a backseat to his marriage and a newborn son. Heeding his warning, I went through the archives and downloaded all of my own contributions to The Spearhead, and will eventually re-run them here just so I can upload the many articles I contributed to the great Googliath and preserve all that work for posterity's sake.
In my humble opinion, some of my best pieces (at least my personal favorites) were done for The Spearhead. Unlike most of my blog posts here, I took the time to read, re-read, and edit my contributions there, as I knew The Spearhead had a much larger base of regular readers and wider exposure than this blog.
But what I found more fascinating then re-reading the many blog posts I wrote some 4-6 years ago (in many cases, I had more than a few "did I really write that?" moments), were the many comments on all the articles. Many "names" in today's manosphere and men's rights/MGTOW sphere where back then regular participants in The Spearhead's comment conversations who were not yet regular bloggers.
It was a time when the common enemy of Feminism and cultural misandry had most of us existing on the same site in a common truce focused more on a common enemy rather than our differences in ideas and philosophies that eventually resulted in today's fragmented divisions in masculinist thought and philosophy of today's "Red Pill" blogosphere.
I plan on re-editing most of my Spearhead pieces before re-posting them here, but what I am also going to do, is include some notable commentary excerpts at the end of those old posts. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of the comments were better than the posts that inspired them.
It's fascinating to see in some cases the evolution of the thought processes of many of the current contributors to today's Red Pill sphere, back when they were simply commentors in The Spearhead's unique community in the time before all the virtual schism's that divided up our fringes into the current MGTOW - MRA - PUA - Neo-Reaction - "Christian Red Pill" - niches.
Bill, if you're reading this, thank you for your years of dedication. It was something I was certainly proud to be a part of, and I do wish you the best in your new pursuits and focus in life. I bet you'll be back to blogging/writing eventually. You're too good at it.
A hui hou, Welmer!
As for The Spearhead...
33 comments:
I've never been a regular poster, of any site, but I've been a voracious manosphere reader ever since stumbling upon Roissy's back in 2011.
Soon after, I added your blog, as well as Roosh, The Rational Male, The Badger Hut, The Spearhead, In Mala Fide, Dalrock, and others to a growing RSS feed that made it impossible for me to focus on anything else for the next few months.
I felt obligated after reading your last post to say thank you, both to yourself and all the others who have put so much effort into spreading red pill truth across the interwebs. These blogs have changed my life in the deepest and most profound way possible, more than any classroom or workplace ever could.
So again, thank you. Your hard work does not go unappreciated.
So again, thank you. Your hard work does not go unappreciated.
Awesome!
When I look back on how much time I spent reading, writing and blogging...I sometimes think it's been a giant waste. Then I get comments like yours...
It was definitely all worth it.
Thanks for reading!
I was flattered, and then I realized you listed us in alphabetical order. LOL
I think a lot of us are just burnt out and noticed that we were starting to repeat ourselves, and the petty squabling was tiresome. I also had a strong economics and geopolitical bent that never really resonated with the Manospherians, so I spend my meagre online time now with the Identitären and Zerohedge crowds cuz they don't mind spending hours debating the Greek crisis, the fugee flood, or NIRP with a girl.
I'm also increasingly politically active IRL now (as in, holding local office and considering joining a political party), am studying Spanish and German, am starting a logistics apprenticeship soon, doing translation work for my husband's company, and helping my kids with their schoolwork, so I'm too mentally drained to write anything worth publishing right now.
But I still follow you, Welmer (who might pop up again somewhere else eventually), and Zippy. I feel like that covers all the bases.
One more thing...
I wrote an awful lot, but the thing I find most satisfying is that my neofeudal pyramid image is still in active use. I spent days working on that.
I wrote an awful lot, but the thing I find most satisfying is that my neofeudal pyramid image is still in active use. I spent days working on that.
Days? You definitely had way too much free time to waste when you lived here in the USA Inc! lol
Do not underestimate your contribution. Even though you do not post often. I love your blogroll and links that are refreshed in a timely manor.
I remember reading the Spearhead right after I discovered Roosh and Roissy in 2010. For two years after, I read damn near every article. I even posted on the forums and I remember when Globalman was a member, and his subsequent rise and fall.
Oh, how times have changed.
I know I'm not the same person I was when I started reading, and I have to give the Spearhead some credit for that as well.
Wald
@Alte:
Thanks for the image/page reference: I just posted on Facebook a link to your page
Welmer got a life.. As I knew he would, in the end.. Another wife and a baby.. That's real life.
This internet discourse is just a diversion.
Entertainment..
Not real life..
After a while, the entertainment becomes boring, and unsatisfying.
Good onya Bill!.
:)
Please add me to the list:
https://unmaskingfeminism.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/spearhead-post-marrying-liabilities/
HL, I got here years ago when Roissy quoted your great post about how you fixed your marriage by sacking the fuck up. It was the right thing at the right time for me, and it changed my life for the better. I didn't really "get" game until that piece. After that, I was able to fix my own relationship. Maybe you've wasted your time, but I'm grateful that you did.
You got me into paleo too -- halfassed, maybe, but green shit is disgusting, sorry. I'm eating better than before though.
All you guys have been the only people on Earth who give a rat's ass about men of my generation as more than production units and ATMs.
It is a sad thing to see them go.
We do burn out eventually, though.
I also am starting to run out of stuff to say that is not repeating...
@ LGR - That's right! I only had a few screenshots of the contributor blogroll at various points in time, and Bill changed it many times over the years.
@ Anon - Glad to have been a part of paying it forward!
@ Black Poison Soul - Oh yes, that's the primary reason why I blog so intermittently now. I refuse to just do "reruns" of the same stuff I'd already written about. I feel like I've said all I can say about many of these various topics. Well, that, plus I too have a lot of things going on in the real life, and I no longer have the downtime to get online long enough to compose blog posts like I used to.
Now that I don't have much to say since much as already been said. I am hanging around Neoreaction(and its associated subjects) more.
It seems an evolution from my days in the manosphere.
Keoni:
I first found The Spearhead through another contributor, Tom Snark, of the now-defunct 'Remasculation' blog. The Spearhead was, at least up to a few years, like an open forum where these evolutions you described came into being.
I think that overall the Manosphere is headed much the same way as the Spearhead, sort of gradually fading out as new branches arise, some for good and some bad.
My blog's not dead yet!
I'm just spending all my writing time on a book. I'll be posting again soon.
But thanks for noticing, I guess.
Actually this does present a problem, though. I'm using The Spearhead as a source lots of times for my book, so if that's gone, any ideas? Do I have to find a new source for all of it?
Dalrock is still around and kicking actually - far from defunct.
I stumbled on the Spearhead only about 6 months back, so I've missed the golden years.
As some other commentors have mentioned, I wonder if the manosphere is headed the same way.
Something will rise to take its place, though I'm not sure what.
The cool thing was, Welmer was a minor blogger, a 1-3 comments per post kind of guy, before he somehow got everyone to work together. It was a testament to the power of cooperative action.
Martel, archive.org is your friend.
While I managed to download most of my posts before the domain expired, there were a couple I didn't get to, but managed to find them on the good old internet wayback machine.
Justin -
Yup. None of us were getting paid, or had any other motivation other than to contribute our thoughts and ideas to a true grass roots movement.
Oh, and Justin, glad to see you're still around even though you took your blog down, too.
You don't know it, but one of your comments you left here at my blog awhile back played a part in inspiring me to really seek out the TRUTH that set me free.
For that, I thank you.
@ armenia4ever:As some other commentors have mentioned, I wonder if the manosphere is headed the same way.
Depends on how you define "manosphere." As long as 'the blue pill' is accepted as the conventional wisdom of the mainstream, mass media and institutionalized education culture, and the internet remains the last outpost of freedom of speech and thought, those who dare speak truth to power will continue to heed the call of TRUTH and fight the good fight.
Love this blog, keep up the posts.
I miss my Ferd!
Yeah, I had waaay too much free time back then. Being bored out of my mind got me thinking some interesting things, though. When you're busy, the creative juices just dry right up. Everything I write now is crap because my mind is occupied by dull things like studying vocabulary and sitting through meetings.
As for Welmer, he has this amazing chillaxed management style that kept us all from eating each other alive for longer than I'd think is humanly possible.
And regarding the Manosphere losing steam... it's gone so mainstream now that it's not all that exciting to write about it. I wrote stuff that could have gotten me arrested once and now I hear people saying the same thing at the Kaffeeklatsch. The radicals always move on to the next big thing because they want to push boundaries. Ya don't want to promote the same ideas your mom does.
Remember when paleo was a wild and crazy idea? LOL
@Alte: glad for your sake that you are not bored out of your tree and getting on with things. One hopes that Bavaria will again been a free kingdom. More importantly, you can change things where you are and that is helping you.
@Keoni: Kia Kaha. Don't link much to you but I do visit frequently. At present I'm concentrating on those who seem to want to silence everyone, and hanging around with Free Northerner. I've even quoted Lena and Ann Barnhardt lately, which is frightening for this Prot.
@Bill -- if you are reading this, best wishes for the future.
Hi Chris.
This is starting to feel like a class reunion. :-)
I learned a lot at The Spearhead and subsequently with the rest of you folk. With you I finally learned all those things that my father was unable or not allowed to teach me... and finally became a man.
I hope to see The Spearhead in book form some day. I would be more than happy to pay for that little bit of history. I think other bloggers should consider the same, at least an e-book.
Bill, drop us all a line. Let us know what you're doing.
Respect.
Thanks for the mention.
In Scandinavia, men have lost their voice, why Spearhead was an important website for men and women. From a female perspective, I enjoyed reading the articles, because the articles gave me an insight how some men viewed the world. Worth mentioning are Spears covering of The Nordic Report - and Rotherham child abuse scandal. The Spear cared enough for children to fight for their rights, while feminists stayed silent. RIP dear Spear and you will be missed
What a rush it was, all those years ago, all of us with very different political and social perspectives, experiences. All on the same blog - but all anti-sjw's.
We've all gone our seperate ways or retired from commenting/blogging. But it was glorious time, being involved in that heady energetic period when a new culture, a movement is being birthed.
So many of the things we first discussed and raised on 'The Spearhead' and other blogs at the time, are now in the general public domain having being picked up by increasingly sympathetic mainstream journalists.
The arguments [with sources] were simply too strong to ignore.
Im still pleasangtly surprised by the increasing number of anti-sjw articles in 'The Atlantic' and 'Slate', when five years ago they were one of the homes for the sjw
We men and women helped birth the modern pushback against this generation of sjw's, we built the space and support structure for more and more people to feel comfortable questioning the sjw philosophies.
We were glorious.
Jameseq
Observer/Longhouse here. I remember you Hawaiian, and thank you for taking the time to talk about this! As much as I disagreed with Price on a number of important issues, I thought it strange that so few of these former contributors actually acknowledged the demise of what was for a good number of years the nexus of the "manosphere".
I'm just not going to be quite as positive.
Let's allow ourselves to be honest about what happened with Price and The-Spearhead. His desire to expose feminism stemmed from his own horrific divorce and subsequent legal/financial/spiritual gutting. This proved to be a momentary licking of the wounds before he was back on the rebound with, wouldn't you know it... a feminist! He'd go on not only to marry this woman but to start having children with her, without making a single attempt to stand by any one of those hard-won epiphanies he previously espoused since the blog's inception. His second marriage actually came after two divorces, one from a woman and the other from his own integrity.
It was a tremendous failure. Here was a man who had serious responsibilities, who more than any other guy in the "manosphere" represented fathers who had loved and lost and had somehow managed to claw and scrape his back from the precipice just to warn the rest of us, but who let all of that hard work fall apart for a pretty face.
In the meantime he was desperately trying to find a way to get beyond the old Spearhead sandbox and go more "mainstream". By that time he had grown quite confident in his writing abilities, often reflecting on his gift compared to say, someone like Paul Elam, and made it no secret that he was looking to expand his own brand. He seemed to forget that what made his work so compelling was that it came off as genuine. His words seemed to carry real pain and they were a reflection of real courage, fortitude and wisdom. It was the kind of stuff others could build off of, or so I thought. The ease of which he could express himself was a secondary attraction.
I learned a great deal about the institutional elements in place designed to absolutely destroy fathers and their roles in the family from Price's writings. He was a talented writer and all round fair-minded guy who might yet have a chance someday to make up for the mess he left behind.
He must have discovered that it wasn't so easy to disassociate himself with an increasingly schizophrenic "movement" that was destined to submerge itself into the wine dark sea of self-appointed self-help sham and scam artists. Is his disappearance the palette cleanser he was looking for to help reset his writing career? God forbid. First things first: you gotta come clean!
Now, very few people would ever agree with me on my traditionalist Catholic beliefs. I never made it a secret and I never expected many to agree with me. The etymology behind the word "religion" has to do with a "binding" of sorts. If we're ever going to see this thing turn around it will be because enough people bound themselves: tied down their impulses, tied down their wandering eyes, hammered out their bad habits and bound themselves to the sacred duty of forming stable families with hope of bringing more than just earthly happiness into their lives.
Price always used to say he believed in God. That effectively was not true. He only believed as far as he felt, and it resulted in a vast sell off of the man we thought he had become. What sense of duty will protect him once the good feelings run dry as they inevitably do? I hope and pray he finds the true Faith before that happens. The same goes for all of us.
" If I missed anyone, and you're reading this, please, leave me a comment and I'll update the roll call. We were all a part of something special....I at least hope to preserve a record of it here. "
Please add my name as well to the blogroll - I contributed several articles to the SH (more than a lot of the names on that list), and would have published several more but for some reason I always fall through the cracks even though Bill offered to officially make me a regular contributor - he just never got around to it. Indeed, it took him over six weeks to get around to publishing the last article I wrote for the Spearhead.
On my [still alive and well] LJ blog I just post about anything that interests me, so "manospherian" content is only occasional there. But I do appreciate this commemoration for a place that for several years was part of my daily routine almost from its inception.
Regards, meistergedanken
AVFM will be gone in about a year. We can add it to the list.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/avoiceformen.com
Hello KG, the blogger formerly known as Hestia here. ;) I was feeling a bit nostalgic today and googling around for some of my old favorite manosphere threads when I happened across your post KG. My, how time have changed in the MRA sphere! I was a bit sad to see the loss of The Spearhead but the reasoning is perfectly understandable, especially as somebody who moved on from the 'sphere myself.
Since i left the 'sphere, my husband accomplished his boyhood dream of becoming a military aviator so we've moved to East Asian shores for the next few years. A two year assignment has turned into 4-5 years as we love it so much over here. Needless to say, I now blog about our Great South Korean Adventure and our travels throughout Asia as a homeschooling family. Quite the different fare from the more meaty and serious matters of the Spearhead days but still those issues are alive in my heart and thoughts.
It's nice to see your familiar blog face around, KG. I'll be poking through your archives a bit today to see the many, many gems of writing and thoughts that I'm sure you have shared.
~Hestia
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