The Puppies need to thank these recruiters

The Sad Puppies really do need to thank some people who are not of their number. I’ve been watching this fiasco as someone who is in sympathy with the SP movement without being one myself. The truth for the rank and file SP members is basically that they were informed that they could vote on the Hugos and actually get books they liked on the ballot. From the point of view of the rank and file Puppies this was information on how-to and some recommendations they could follow, but were not required to. Most of the rank and file used some of the suggestions and substituted others as they saw fit. Admittedly this did cause those who did not have enough recommendations in their own reading to use the list as a source for filling out the rest of the nominations. After all, they knew a bit about Brad Torgerson and Larry Correia and could rely on them to suggest good books. Which they could then read in the voter packet and vote upon.

This is not to get into the various claims of machinations by The Mystically Powerful Larry Correia who can magically be both Portuguese and transform into a white KKK member by the simple expedient of not kowtowing to the superior beings of TrueFandom. Nor into the Machiavellian nature of Brad Torgersen who could take a few recommendations and turn it into  a reign of terror destroying all vestiges of honor among the Truefen and pillaging, burning, and killing all of them. Nor does it speak to the ultimate Satan Vox Day, whose evil knows no bounds causing innocent puppies to become rabid just by having his shadow pass over them. This is simply a bit of things from the point of view of the puppies.

For those with a deficiency of intelligence the description of the three men generally acknowledged as leading the Puppy movements was what is known as tongue-in-cheek. I thought I should mention that simply because the people who I will be thanking in the rest of this post would believe that description. A sad comment on their grasp of reality.

We’ll start with the trio from Tor. Teresa Nielsen-Hayden, who is sometimes known as The Toad of Tor, may not actually belong to Tor. There are reports that she was fired. Whether she is still associated with them contractually or not, there is no doubt her husband is, and that she claims a connection. Making Light, her blogspace, has attacked the Puppy movement continually. Even accusing the Puppies of getting advance notice of nomination results for the Hugos. This was several days after she and her husband were bemoaning the sweep of the nominations by the Pups, making one wonder who had advance knowledge (as this happened before the big reveal of the nominations, and none other than the committee ought to have known who was on the list). She and her husband Patrick Hayden-Nielsen therefore were instrumental in the attacks that began the groundswell of Puppy support. Therefore the first set of thanks goes to them. The puppies owe them a debt of gratitude.

The third Tor Turd is Moshe Federer, whom for some reason my autocorrect wants to call Mushie. Moshe has for a long time benefitted from the cabal that was using Tor employees to game the Hugo system. His rantings on Facebook and in other places have driven many into the Puppy camp. He considers  himself a mensch and a maven. His total disconnect with reality is a great recruiting tool for the Puppy camp. They should thank him.

Brianna Wu also deserves the acclaim of the Puppies. She single handedly brought the Hugo situation to the attention of Gamergate. Gamergate, though a much more recent group than the Pups has a much more massive membership. The members of Gamergate who have noticed and allied with the Pups are strictly her doing. Had she not railed about a connection they would never have noticed.

Now we will look at Betsy Wollheim. I have only  noticed her recently. She is one of those whose publishing house, started by her father, is losing readership. I think her command of the English language may be the reason. She started a diatribe about those who were wasting the time of George R.R. Martin, distracting an important writer from his real work of writing. GRRM was having a dialog in blog with Larry Correia and Brad Torgersen. She then attacked the followers of those GRRM were writing to. After being called on this she claimed not to be attacking the Sad Puppies but only Vox Day’s group the Rabid Puppies, even claiming that since she had not specifically said Sad Puppies she didn’t mean Sad Puppies. Even though the conversations GRRM was having were with the Sad Puppies. This dishonesty or lack of understanding of the English language (in an editor/publisher no less) helped drive new supporters to the Puppies.

I think I’ll just name the rest of the culprits, err people to thank because the list goes on and on and most of these people are absolutely unimportant other than the fact that their combined ravings have been instrumental in driving Puppy membership upward.
David “I did not steal flatcats” Gerrold
John “What’s in it for me” Scalzi
N.K. “I’ll make you out to be a racist to hide my own racism” Jemisin
Arthur “Too perverted for his own side” Chu
Tempest “I really am black and a victim” Bradford (edit)

A special mention to Mike Glyer, his attempt to be reasonable for a leftist has made him a less effective Puppy recruiter, but the unchecked comments on his blog more than made up for it.

You see,what these scathingly brilliant leaders of the Insulata failed to realize was the basic nature of the Puppies. The Pups are overwhelmingly independent and contrarian in nature. The only real way to drive them in a direction is an attempt to drive them in another. Larry and Brad said “We are going this way, care to join us?” and a few did. The Masters Of The Insulata said “You are forbidden to go that way” and caused a swarm.

Loncon bragged about 3K votes. The morons fine folks above have tripled the vote this year, I do not think it was by galvanizing their base. If it were, why hadn’t they done it before?

Also, should you be interested in joining the Hugo Awards voting, you can find out more information here, and you will be eligible to help choose the locale for the 2017 WorldCon. Don’t be shy, get involved!