Anthony Johnson and his conventions

[algernonsidney]

In late 2018, I attended an event called the 21 Convention. One big reason is that the founder is a guy named Anthony Johnson. He is definitely an Objectivist and has said so on his show The Red Man Group. He started the 21 Convention when he was in his teens and is now around the age of 30. Yaron Brook has also spoken at the 21 Convention in the past.

During that time, he has re-invented his event several times. He initially invited men from the seduction community like Ross Jeffries and Steve Mayeda. He has also over the years focused on self-improvement, inviting fitness and business gurus like Drew Baye and Elliot Hulse. The conference has become more focused on becoming an anti-feminist or even a male supremacist conference. In 2018, it was clearly a RED-PILL conference.

Unfortunately, Anthony has also shown some of the same narcissism that Rand showed. He has had quite a few bad breakups with speakers--most recently Rollo Tomassi and Richard Cooper. His breakup with Tomassi has been about as silly as the one involving Rand and Branden in 1968. Personally, I've taken Rollo's side in all this.

He has gotten a lot of attention lately because of his upcoming 22 Convention. The 22 Convention is advertised as a "mansplaining event," with the goal of "making women great again." He has been getting a lot of coverage lately--almost all of it negative. Here are some samples:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7838273/Make-Women-Great-convention-hosted-MEN-teach-attendees-ideal-women.html

https://nypost.com/2020/01/02/mansplaining-conference-hopes-to-make-women-great-again/

https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/florida-men-who-have-never-touched-a-woman-free-of-charge-want-to-make-women-great-again-11845861

Anthony's Facebook profile is here:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100024606491279

The 21 Convention is here:
http://www.the21convention.com/

The 22 Convention is here:
https://22convention.com/

Here is what 21 and 22 Convention speaker Stefan Molyneux has said about all this:

https://youtu.be/PbuuSKLVWr8

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris,

Long time. Good to see you again.

I don't know that much about these people except for Stefan Molyneux, who I like in general. I don't agree with him on a few things, though, and I don't find much interest when he plays Dear Abby. I seriously dislike his form of presentation where he makes a sarcastic remark every two or three sentences in a frantic tone--he doesn't do this with interviews, only when he's by himself. But, overall, he is clear in his meanings, is mostly reasonable and rational, and has one hell of a work ethic. I admire all of those qualities.

I bopped around for a couple of moments looking into these other people and, from the impression I got and the persuasion techniques I saw being discussed, this movement is an outgrowth of the PUA (pick-up-artist) movement from around the time of The Game by Neil Strauss.

Some of that shit is powerful, too. There's a guy name Oren Klaff who took their principles and techniques and, instead of using them on women, applied them to making pitches to venture capitalist companies with great success.

I have a feeling these conventions are staged to take advantage of the current backlash to the MeToo movement and super-radical feminism. In my view, all this shall pass. Is this part of the MGTOW (men-going-their-own-way) movement? 

Also, a guy showed up a couple of years ago here on OL who runs a male empowerment thing out in California. I can't remember his name, though.

It's probably because I come from a different generation, which has other forms of indoctrination that did not involve gender, but I don't resonate with these things. I'm not against them. I just don't feel anything inside when I try to analyze the issues they fight over. 

Probably, at root, they are mostly about political power and the issues are merely hooks to justify their noise. Kinda like with the female-oriented folks they oppose. And, on all sides, it's about getting laid, of course. 

Michael

[algernonsidney]

I have an interesting perspective on all this. I was born in 1971. My parents were born in 1931 and 1934. My grandparents were born from 1894 to 1906 (I think). So, I had parents and grandparents who were all married before the so-called 'sexual revolution." The "system" that we had before all that was far from perfect. It worked about as well as any system we've had though.

It look me a long time to realize that things had changed. Incidentally, the biggest redpill for me were some things that happened at the seminars at the Institute for Objectivist Studies in 1995 and 1996. It took me a very long time for me to make sense of what had happened and why it had happened. I still don't exactly who said what or why they said it. I do have a much greater understanding of all this now.

I don't think it is that common for women to lie in court to lie to the police. There can be legal consequences there. I do think it is very common for women to lie or exaggerate in social groups, clubs, networks, and other things like that. And, of course, it doesn't have to be a lie. If a woman says something like, "That guy is creepy," the organizers of an event will bar the "creepy guy" from the event without asking for any facts.

Guys like Neil Strauss, the seduction community, the manosphere, and other things are all a response to this kind of garbage. MGTOW is just one section of the whole men's movement.

Unfortunately, Anthony Johnson also exhibits some of the most negative traits of some Objectivists. In 2019, he decided to rebrand his conferences and company. This lead to him parting ways with Rollo Tomassi (I don't know if this name is real or fake). The breakup was very ugly with Anthony making accusations like "conduct unbecoming a speaker", etc. It was something that seemed way too much like some of the bad breakups that have happened in Objectivism. Now, Anthony is embracing guys like Molyneux and Mike Cernovich.

Many people (myself included) have taken Rollo's side in the breakup. In fact, I have gained a lot of respect for Rollo and the others for how they have handled the schism.

As far as I know, Anthony has never been to ARI or similar events. I haven't asked him.

Many of the men in the redpill scene are as much about self-improvement as anything else. They would agree with Francisco when he said that a man who chases women despises himself. One of the men at 21 Con said that "you will never lose women pursuing excellence." I found a lot of high-achieving men at 21 Con, and they were also guys who were high achievers when it comes to women.

I have met a lot of men who are high achieving in their professional lives at Randist events. These same men are also very low achieving when it comes to women. Nathaniel Branden went through four marriages. I think Jimmy Wales has had three. Some guys are successful, but they seem to be the exception.

I have not read Rollo Tomassi's books yet. I have listened to him a lot though. Rollo has not read Rand, although I do think Randists can sympathize with the name of his books. Rollo has been married to one women for 23 years and has a college-age daughter. Go here:

https://therationalmale.com/

 

 

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

14 hours ago, algernonsidney said:

Many people (myself included) have taken Rollo's side in the breakup.

Chris,

I don't mean this to be critical of you. It's just the way I try to see things at first.

Enough preface and here goes.

Why take any side in a breakup?

From what I've seen, people on both sides offer great advice and information--and some mediocre to bad, for that matter. I doubt any of them could pass any ideological purity test.

So what is the standard for choosing a side? The tribe? One particular issue or event? Whim? (At least I could see it if you were paid good money to take a side...  )

My unsolicited advice is for you to take Chris's side. Always. And if anybody doesn't like that, fuck 'em.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Nathaniel Branden was very successful with women. His second wife died tragically. If not for that he'd likely had just two marriages.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

The Rand/Branden breakup was not "silly." That implies trivialities. But what was important then is no longer now. The ideas remain.

--Brant

[algernonsidney]

On 1/21/2020 at 10:35 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Chris,

I don't mean this to be critical of you. It's just the way I try to see things at first.

Enough preface and here goes.

Why take any side in a breakup?

That is a good question. First, Anthony made some charges against Rollo that were very much the same tone as the charges Rand made against Branden. Here is a video Anthony made, and it is quite silly:

Here is the response from Rollo Tomassi, which includes a few others:

I have not totally disavowed Anthony Johnson. There are still some speakers I would like to see at 21 Con, but I doubt I will go back.

I also won't be surprised if Anthony and Molyneux have a bad break up in the future as well. There is just way too much narcissism there.

[algernonsidney]

On 1/21/2020 at 12:23 PM, Brant Gaede said:

Nathaniel Branden was very successful with women. His second wife died tragically. If not for that he'd likely had just two marriages.

--Brant

Branden was only successful after he took on the role leader of a guru. Cult-leader game has been known to work very well--see David Koresh. Peikoff himself is also on his third marriage, I think.

[Brant Gaede]

7 hours ago, algernonsidney said:

Branden was only successful after he took on the role leader of a guru. Cult-leader game has been known to work very well--see David Koresh. Peikoff himself is also on his third marriage, I think.

Your stew might work except for the bag of sugar you threw in.

I guess Trump owes his success with women to being a billionaire.

Nathaniel met Barbara before either met Ayn. And Ayn went bonkers over him before any "cult" came into existence.

His third wife, Devers, was about as far from cult stricken as imaginable.

 --Brant

Edited January 23, 2020 by Brant Gaede

[algernonsidney]

4 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

Your stew might work except for the bag of sugar you threw in.

I guess Trump owes his success with women to being a billionaire.

Nathaniel met Barbara before either met Ayn. And Ayn went bonkers over him before any "cult" came into existence.

His third wife, Devers, was about as far from cult stricken as imaginable.

 --Brant

What kind of success is this anyway? Both men have at least two divorces.

Divorce is the biggest failure a man can experience. Most divorces are initiated by women, and most men lose a lot of money in them.

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 1/20/2020 at 10:41 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Also, a guy showed up a couple of years ago here on OL who runs a male empowerment thing out in California. I can't remember his name, though.

Chris,

Here is the thread I made that prompted the guy to show up.

A Different Kind of Objectivist Romance

I looked this up because the name Socrates rang a bell from videos I had seen, then I remembered the name Anthony Johnson.

The thread dealt with one weird case to me. Johnson was proposing to breed certain kinds of women out of the human race and claimed that blow jobs were not sex.

He really did and I'm funning in the way I framed it, but I felt for the guy.

He didn't post on OL, though. Instead, a person from San Diego named "Mike Olberding" got in touch with me offline soon after this thread went up. He wanted to talk personally with me about some issue involving coauthorship for a book on golfing or something like that. But the personal message thread was called "Relationship," so it was pretty obvious that this was Johnson. Anyway, we talked on the phone and his real issue was about writing an autobiography, but I don't remember it well. The questions he had involved storytelling. I know something I said clicked and seemed to have solved a problem for him in framing the story. He soon signed off and we have not communicated since.

That's about all I've got on Anthony Johnson.

I tried to watch the videos you posted, but I couldn't get through more than about 10 minutes of each. I saw that these people got wound up--that the matter and personal spats were important to them. I just don't resonate with this niche.

In fact, during the Rand Branden split, I imagine people outside of O-Land who looked in felt the same as I do about this manosphere feud.

The main theme from the outside appears like squabbles over money and fame and power within a small space, but from within the space, people treat it as massive betrayals that threaten the future of mankind.  

I don't mean to make light of this for insiders. After all, within the Rand-Branden thing, I played a small part when that awful book by Valliant came out.

Right now, I'm merely reporting what I see when I look at it from different perspectives.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

8 hours ago, algernonsidney said:

What kind of success is this anyway? Both men have at least two divorces.

Divorce is the biggest failure a man can experience. Most divorces are initiated by women, and most men lose a lot of money in them.

 

Divorce as failure? It's only a tool. Without divorce's context you can't bottom line it. Sometimes not getting divorced is bad.

--Brant

[algernonsidney]

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Chris,

Here is the thread I made that prompted the guy to show up.

A Different Kind of Objectivist Romance

I looked this up because the name Socrates rang a bell from videos I had seen, then I remembered the name Anthony Johnson.

The thread dealt with one weird case to me. Johnson was proposing to breed certain kinds of women out of the human race and claimed that blow jobs were not sex.

He really did and I'm funning in the way I framed it, but I felt for the guy.

He didn't post on OL, though. Instead, a person from San Diego named "Mike Olberding" got in touch with me offline soon after this thread went up. He wanted to talk personally with me about some issue involving coauthorship for a book on golfing or something like that. But the personal message thread was called "Relationship," so it was pretty obvious that this was Johnson. Anyway, we talked on the phone and his real issue was about writing an autobiography, but I don't remember it well. The questions he had involved storytelling. I know something I said clicked and seemed to have solved a problem for him in framing the story. He soon signed off and we have not communicated since.

That's about all I've got on Anthony Johnson.

I tried to watch the videos you posted, but I couldn't get through more than about 10 minutes of each. I saw that these people got wound up--that the matter and personal spats were important to them. I just don't resonate with this niche.

In fact, during the Rand Branden split, I imagine people outside of O-Land who looked in felt the same as I do about this manosphere feud.

The main theme from the outside appears like squabbles over money and fame and power within a small space, but from within the space, people treat it as massive betrayals that threaten the future of mankind.  

I don't mean to make light of this for insiders. After all, within the Rand-Branden thing, I played a small part when that awful book by Valliant came out.

Right now, I'm merely reporting what I see when I look at it from different perspectives.

Michael

Yes, that is the same Anthony Johnson. He was constantly obsessing over Medusa and how she had wronged him. I don't know a lot about their relationship.

I only watched the videos because I wanted to know the truth. There are lots of people claiming to be gurus, coaches, philosophers, and self-help experts. Many of them  have lives that are a mess and should not be taken seriously. Would you hire a personal trainer who is 50 pounds overweight?

I watched Anthony's video. I was just thinking: "Yes, this guy is an Objectivist." Anthony's behavior isn't that shocking because I've seen it in the Objectivist movement.

There is a lot more than just dating and relationships at the 21 Con. Men talked about starting business, fitness, nutrition, clothes, and law. It really was about being the best man you can be. There was a lot of useful stuff that I have never seen at any Objectivist events.

By the way, here is Yaron Brook speaking at the 21 Con:
 

 

[algernonsidney]

I should have posted this earlier. Here is a summary of the Anthony Johnson video about Rollo Tomassi. It's only three seconds:

[algernonsidney]

Here is Anthony Johnson with Piers Morgan. Janice Fiamengo also makes an appearance:
 

 

[algernonsidney]

Recent events have brought Anthony Johnson and his convention back to my attention. He apparently had invited Roman McClay to speak at his event in 2020. Of course, the world went nuts in 2020, so I have no idea if he actually spoke there. Three days ago, Roman went on a shooting rampage in the Denver area.

Former speakers at 21 Convention--Rollo Tomassi and Rian Stone--talk about it here:
 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris,

Here's the article mentioned early in the thread.

To the reader, read it and you will get the main story.

Lyndon McLeod aka Roman McClay: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Lyndon McLeod aka Roman McClay: 5 Fast Facts to Know | Heavy.com

HEAVY.COM

---

Lyndon James McLeod was named as the active shooter In Denver and Lakewood, Colorado.

 

I started digging into this seeing how, as mentioned in the video you posted (of which I only saw an hour) Mike Cernovich, Laura Southern, David Rubin, Jordan Peterson, etc., had good things to say about this mass murderer, Roman McClay, way before he went on his rampage.

This makes me wonder what triggered him.

I have a theory that the Deep State cultivates instable people, learns what buttons set them off, and then push those buttons hard when they need a public display of senseless violence.  This guy McClay has nothing to do with Ayn Rand, the MAGA movement, etc., but right now the Deep State is hurting and the fake news media is trying to McClay's rampage to "patriots" and and portray patriots as incels at that. (McClay was part of the "manosphere" culture.) It won't work, but the bad guys are trying...

 

Part of the conversation is that Roman McClay wrote a couple of books, Sanction 1 and Sanction 2. Everything about him is being scrubbed from the Internet right now, even reviews of his books (which are no longer available on Kindle) but I did come across a PDF of Sanction 2. If you want a copy, go here. I don't know how long that link will last. I, myself, downloaded it out of morbid curiosity.

I tried to read some of it just now, but what a mess.  From what I've seen, Sanction 1 is just as bad. I consider that kind of writing artsy-fartsy. Here's just one example from a review of Sanction 1 I found on Archive (see here). Thick incoherent chapters start with a character thinking and talking, but you only learn which character it is at the end of the chapter. That kind of crap makes me want to go, "Wow. Heavy, man..."

But, from the review, it looks like the protagonist, Lyndon, an inmate, did go on a killing spree...

Hmmmm...

 

Why on earth did all those famous people say good things about this dude and this book?

Did they think he was some kind of conservative James Joyce or something? Or did they just simply not read the damn thing and winged it to be nice?

Dayaamm!

At least McClay had to be one hell of a networker with one hell of a schtick-and-schmooze artist to be able to get to these people.

 

I'll be frank about it, though. I do not resonate with the whole "manosphere" culture. Not even Anthony Johnson, even though I believe he was entitled to the schadenfreude he expressed in the video. It seems like he got a lot of crap from a lot of people, famous and otherwise, over some kerfuffles he had with this guy McClay.

For those interested, this post is admittedly disjointed, but it is a bit more info. For now, I'm done.

I feel for those who got murdered and their loved ones.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The more I look into this, the weirder it gets.

Right now, I'm looking at a guy named Jack Murphy who apparently was a friend of the mass murderer, although I seriously doubt he had anything to do with the killings.

But, still, what a crazy-ass story...

Think about this. Glenn Beck's The Blaze is involved. So is Tim Pool. Even Larry Sanger at a distance (he is one of the founders of Wikipedia).

Get yourself some popcorn, coffee, or whatever you like to consume during entertainment 'cause we're gonna set us up a nice little gossip corner--precisely right here--for the next few days.

 

More coming...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Unfortunately, I don't have time to put this into a narrative. But I will do it since it illustrates several things so well.

For now, here are a few interesting items,

 

1. Larry Sanger.

This one is an oopsie. I saved the link thinking this would grow, but it did not because I missed the word "not." I thought Larry was going to document the train wreck. And he said he will not. Oh well. Since I mentioned his name as part of the story, this serves to remove it. 

 

2. This article will figure in the story.

A Conservative Influencer Wrote About Cuckolding Then Threw A Fit, Now His Gay Porn Surfaced - National File

NATIONALFILE.COM

---

Alpha male lifestyle coach-turned-conservative influencer John Goldman, who markets himself using the name Jack Murphy, sparked controversy earlier this month when he snapped at a female podcast...

 

3. Here are some videos involving Sidney Watson (who has a show on The Blaze) and a guy who calls himself "The Quartering." I will write this up later. Leave it to say that they give a good breakdown of the story in the part where they were affected. I have now subscribed to both. Cool people.

Sidney:

Around 20:47 or so, Sidney said something of vital importance since it applies to O-Land so well. I will go into it deeper later. She said:

Quote

I've learned recently that there are a lot of people in the world who live action role play as the people that they want to be and behind the scenes they're anything but.

 

and The Quartering:

 

and

 

and

 

4. A few years ago, Jack Murphy wrote defending feminist rape fantasies or something. See here. From what I have seen, there is a lot of creepy stuff from his past on Archive links. I finally found one where he writes about how hot it is to have his girlfriend sleep with other men (see here). He has done his best to get this last one off the Internet, but it just won't go away. The article is called "Cultivating Erotic Energy From A Surprising Source."

Also, he used to do web-cam porn with his girlfriend for money. And there are pictures of him shoving things up his rear end and a whole lot of "free spirit" activities. (How's that for a euphemism?  ) You can see links to these things over at 4chan. I have a couple, but frankly, the pictures are super-explicit and distasteful for a philosophy board so I won't post them here.    However, I hate cancel culture, so I am posting where you can get them if you are interested: here and here.

 

5. This guy has been a regular on Tim Pool. According to what I have read, he lives near Tim Pool's studio, so this made his appearance there convenient--that is when he was reputable. I don't know if he will continue after all this (I doubt it). He presents himself as a rightwing voice of importance. This image just got shot to hell.  

 

6. He charges $100 a month for a self-help program called Liminal Order that teaches men how to be alpha males. I read in several places that his tie-in with Roman McClay is that McClay was a member of Liminal Order. I will confirm that.

 

That's enough for now.

More coming.

Michael

 

[Jules Troy]

Ha..if you need to be taught to be an alpha male you will never be an alpha male…at best you will be a parrot and an Arsehole.

[Marc]

20 hours ago, Jules Troy said:

Ha..if you need to be taught to be an alpha male you will never be an alpha male…at best you will be a parrot and an Arsehole.

My man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!