I’m a 57 year old politically disgusted heterosexual male. I can more or less claim white. Family stories say there are a few other things in there, but none particularly show so, who cares? Now that you know I have privilege you can dismiss me and move on to a more diverse writer. Or stay if you aren’t a bigot. I’m good either way.
I was going to leave the whole ball of idiocy with the Hugos alone. I am strongly connected to the Sad Puppy side by ties of friendship and love. I still think it is a nutty situation with no heroes. It does on the other hand have villains. Like I said, I was going to leave it alone, yesterday changed my mind. This blog was supposed to be an intro to who I am so my readers got a better feel for where I come from. That isn’t what my hands are typing. When your subconscious is doing the writing, let it. At least I feel that way. My forebrain can enjoy itself with daydreams while my hands do the post.
What changed my mind was the departure of Annie Bellet and Marko Kloos from the nominations. I have read neither, I have heard good things about both, there is so much to read and do that I can’t get to everything. Since I wasn’t going to vote in the Hugos it didn’t really matter. What changed my mind was the reason they departed. They became disgusted with the present situation. Can’t say I blame them.
To the best of my knowledge the Sad Puppy team (hereafter abbreviated to SP) have been polite gentlebeings taking a stand on principle and trying to do good. Vox Day and his team (Hereafter abbreviated to RP) have been somewhat trollish but not too bad for a political fight. I don’t know RP, don’t read his blog, never met him. I have a poor opinion of him because he tends trollish from what I have seen. I prefer mannered people. Still, not horrible as far as the Hugo mess goes.
This cannot be said for the SJW side of this mess. While it is not all of the SJWs, there have been a few standing against these tactics, it does seem to be the majority. They harass everyone that doesn’t bow down to their commands. This is why several people have left the process, culminating today in the departure of two more writers. A lot of this can be laid at the door of a few editors from Tor who are upset that their power is being threatened. They had the result of a SP/RP sweep before anyone else and were discussing it on Making Light. How they got their data I’m not sure. I would guess they knew the fix was in when their ringers were shut out. I could be wrong, they could have gotten someone from the committee to give them the information, that seems unlikely. They were talking about this, then accused the SP/RP folks of cheating and getting the information ahead of time which is the rankest of lies. Blaming someone else for their crimes.
They have used slander and libel, actionable libel that may have lawyers involved and every kind of hit campaign. Maybe it is actionable slander, one is in print, the other is verbal, I can never remember which is which. The have used threats of doxxing. They have come out and said that those not part of the original cabal are not true fans. They have claimed misogyny, racism, and every other lie they were able to remember. They have attacked the SP group as religious nuts and portrayed the group, a very diverse group, to be all straight, white, Mormon, males. I gotta tell you that I am marrying one of the nominees and she is far from male, or Mormon. Actually the Mormon label confuses me, most of the Mormons I have known have been nice folks.
Their latest trick is to insist everyone repudiate Vox Day. Now I don’t think highly of Vox Day but, why should I repudiate him? I’m not a follower or a friend. And I will not obey the bidding of some arrogant idiots. They are not the boss of me.
For these reason I am coming out in favor of the least dirty side. Whether they are right or wrong, the SP group have been honorable. I will always stand with honorable people against villains.
Otherwhere Gazette 
For the record, it’s libel. Libel is printed, slander is spoken.
And I’m getting sick of the Hugos too, but for a different reason.
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I know again now. I’m also sick of it for many reasons but the proverbial straw you understand
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Oh, absolutely. There’s plenty to be sick of, that’s for sure.
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Vox is a bit trollish, but most of the time he’s just punching back at people. When he gets attacked he tends to hit back hard, fast, and continuous (and often using the attackers own writing to do so) . He says alot of obnoxious stuff, but he’s been fighting this battle nigh on 10 years at this point.
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That is why I mentioned the fact that he is a troll and moved on.
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Wonderful article. I have been sick of the Hugos for a couple of years. I used to make a practice of reading the winners, but they got to be so bad, I stopped. I read Annie Bellet’s blog about removing her name from the list. I do not blame her at all. I have read some of the SJW’s blogs. They start out reasonable, sometimes….but end up ranting against people I know and respect. I have not read Vox. I have heard so much bad, from both sides, about him,that I do not want to read him.
I was thinking this might be the first time in years that I want to read the winners of the Hugos. Or maybe not. I have to tack down GOODNIGHT STARS to read though.
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Even most of the “more reasonable” SJWs are are problematic at best. The SJWs accused the SP of buying memberships for voters and castigated them for their made up accusations. Then they go out and openly do the same, crowing about it on their blogs.
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I think part of the reason that RP and VD have become the focus is because of what happened to Chu when he jumped on Brad and his family as pre-emptive shields.
I was discussing this with my alpha reader last night and she wanted to know why the Hugo’s were so important, since even in her opinion they are nothing more than an indication of drek lit these days. We ended up discussing the history of the thing and how it has come to represent all authors are equal but some are more equal than others.
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I wouldn’t mind the Hugos being the toy award of the SJW set, if they didn’t claim it was the best of all SF. I was even going to let it pass as tribal infighting(Hattip Brad Torguesson) But the relentless activity on the part of the SJWs to attack and destroy The Other has go to stop
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That’s the strategy, find the weakest links and attack them. While everyone is scrambling to distance themselves from whatever it is being attacked, the attackers can sit back and claim victory in whatever debate it was by default. It’s the same reason that the Republican Party is always so screwed.
Ironically, the worst lies I’ve seen about Vox Day don’t strike me as being as bad as the average anecdote about Harlan Ellison, and that guy is one of the most revered sci-fi writers of the 20th century. If I was told that I won the privilege of spending a weekend with my choice of either Vox or Harlan, I know I’d probably feel safer hanging out with Ted.
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If I were told I won the choice of spending the weekend with either of them I would stay home. Neither are friends and I prefer to spend my free time with friends and family. Fame or skill as an entertainer doesn’t change that
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Well, by won, I meant more ‘gun-to-my-head’ kinda of choice.
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I don’t particularly like a lot of what Vox does, mostly for the way he does it. I’d gladly take Vox over Ellison, or even most of the other writers whose stories I like but who keep spreading disinformation or even outright lies. Vox at least has some sort of integrity.
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It’s a damn shame about Annie Bellet; her story was good. I can’t help but feel that it was stuff like the Tim Biggs article that led her to make that choice. Even if it was unintentional, she was made a piece a the political game. I’ll admit that I did it too: when someone I knew was all “Larry Correia and the Sad Puppies want the Hugos to only go to straight white male conservative christians”, I told him that was provably false and pointed out that Annie was on the Puppy Slate
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I read the story this morning and it was worthy of inclusion in the Hugos. Too bad that wrongfans like it too
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Hard for us wrongfans not to in a story where a girl who “leaned further left than even her extremely progressive parents” understands (and acts upon) the importance of Second Amendment Rights.
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That’s a red herring. The important thing is that White Guys Are Bad, White Guys Use Bad Names, and Shoot White Guys Good.
I guess her using the machete would have been too over-the-top, so the weapons got swapped (seriously, at least give them shotguns or something, but nooo, it’s not just White Guys Ebil, but White Guys Safe To Shoot also).
Leaving that aside, the story didn’t deserve inclusion in any science fictional award ceremony. It wasn’t science fiction. It was a “my mom died” story, unevenly executed. That it was better than the competitors (which I have no problem believing) says something important about the state of the field in general.
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In retrospect, it kind of does reminds me of why everybody liked Armageddon more than Deep Impact. In my own case, I’ll admit Goodnight Stars benefited from my incredibly low expectations. If it had stayed in, I’d’ve definitely put it behind On a Spiritual Plain.
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Well said. It largely encompasses how I feel as well.
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I think it is how a lot of us feel. Some people should be spanked and put to bed without their suppers
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I spend anywhere from 250 to 500 dollars a year on books. I will not buy another TOR product unless there are some severe and sincere changes in the way they conduct business.
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While I do not advocate attacking someone’s making a living, after all, we ARE better than them. I certainly understand those who feel differently about a corporation. I will note that Tom D. who started Tor has been medically sidelined for some time and would not have approved of this style of doing business.
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Don’t lash out against Tor, per se. It’s really just a few people associated with Tor that have been dishonoravle. In this. And For has some good stuff, too (in fact, one of the most despicable actions of certain editors was lashing out at some OF THEIR OWN AUTHORS, who happened to be on the Sad Puppy list.
I’ll also note that Tor publoches Michael Flynn, Larry Niven, David Drake, Glen Cook, etc.
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Forgive the typos; typing on a phone here…
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Agreed
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Well, I’m not going to “ban” TOR, but I have a limited book budget, and I’ll bet I can spend every bit of it (less the $25 I’ll need for Terry Pratchett’s final book) on books with a cute little rocket ship logo on the spine.
I’ll probably fell different a few months after worldcon, but right now, a little disgusted.
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*feel
(damn spell check for not catching what I meant!)
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I would never say not to spend your money on books with a cute little rocket. I happent to like a lot of Baen’s output and most of my purchases for years have had their logo. My first choice for spending money with another publisher is ROC because I love me some Dresden. After that, well I never felt that most publishers had any sense. I look for authors. These days I am much more likely to read a small press or indie from Amazon. Better bang for my buck
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[…] “I’m sick and tired of the Hugos” […]
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If you ever forget which is which, slander or libel, just remember this:
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Thank you sir, but I think it’s a mental block from something I detest. And congratulations on the record sir
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Thank you!
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