Posted on 04/08/2015 6:43:22 AM PDT by Salgak
This is the era in which we are all being drafted in the Culture War. It doesn’t matter if you’re secular or religious, political or apolitical, frat boys or geeks, hipsters or bros. Nobody gets to be neutral or sit on the sidelines, because we’ll all be expected to make our obeisance to the latest politically correct opinion handed down to us by a Twitter mob.
By now, we know the basic ingredients of a typical skirmish in Culture War 4.0. It goes something like this: a) a leftist claque starts loudly pushing the “correct” Culture War position onto b) a field previously considered fun, innocuous, apolitical, purely personal, or recreational, and c) accusing anyone who opposes them of being a racist, sexist, bigot who relies on oppressive “privilege” to push everyone else down, while these claims are d) backed up by a biased press that swallows the line of attack uncritically and repeats it.
Any of that sound familiar? It’s just daily life for anyone on the Right, and it’s slowly becoming daily life for everybody else. Ask Comet Guy.
The innocuous field in which the personal is suddenly discovered to be very political might be fashion, music, toys, sports, or sex, not to mention weddings, flowers, cake-baking, and pizza.
Or video games. Or science fiction.
Which explains the latest, wide new front of the Great Social Justice War: Gamergate and its latest outgrowth, the battle over the Hugo Awards, a prestigious annual fiction award for science fiction and fantasy writers.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
In Argentina and Chile, every time the pendulum swings to one side or the other, tens of thousands disappear overnight.
And, get a reading pack with (probably most of) the nominated works! This year they might be worth reading!
I don’t get here much anymore since I cant find a decent mobile agent/app. But I am loving how the SJW et al are tossing “freeping” around as a verb.
Even though my Browns fans groups were doing it long before I hear of FR. :)
There is a MAJOR uproar about this. One of the presenters (Connie Willis) has now said she won't do it because the voting was obviously rigged. The host of the Hugos this year, David Gerrold (also one of the Guests of Honor), is quite saddened that his 1st chance to host the Hugos has been tainted by the controversy.
I've been thinking about this, and the conclusion I came to is...
...conservatives F-ed this one up. BIG time.
We have no right to push our agenda on others, just as the Left should not push their agenda on us. Quite frankly, people who read sci-fi and fantasy tend to fall into the Liberal category. Sure, there are conservatives out there who like sci-fi, but the majority do not think like we do.
Nor do I want them to.
Many of the people who I know in the sci-fi/fantasy fandom community are ‘free-thinkers’. They don't fall into the category of ‘normal’ in any way, shape, or form. They are the people who make life ‘fun’ and ‘interesting’. Although many of them are Liberals, the majority of them ‘wouldn't hurt a fly’, as it were. Peaceful, kind people who...even after they find out you're conservative, say “That's okay” and offer you a beer or a glass of ‘Klingon bloodwine’ at a room party at a con. The Sad Puppies and the Mad (or Rabid) Puppies had no right to force their opinions as the 'only' or 'best' options in the Hugo nominating process. They took advantage of a loophole in the nominating process, thereby violated the spirit of the proceedings, and managed to upset a large number of people. I am of the opinion that they didn't have the right to do what they did. What's worse is that this may have the unintended consequence of ending the Hugo Awards altogether. (Yes...some are talking about that).
I am a conservative, and I support conservative values. But this time...it went WAY too far.
Congratulations on drinking the Kool-aid!
Gerrold and Willis are well-known and exceptionally vocal hard-left Libprogs.
So, you want us to lie back, and think of SF while the Lefties do us all up the back door ??
Sorry, Charlie, but we’re fighting. All WE ask is that people vote based on the merit of the story, NOT the political message and stance of the author.
And rigged ? We showed up to vote. That’s it.
And if leftists so overwhelm SF fandom, then why was it so easy for the Sad Puppies (and Rabid Puppies) to sweep the nominations? Maybe the leftists don't really constitute a majority of fandom... maybe they just yell loudly enough to make it sound like they do. In any case, I think it's worth the effort to push back and see.
There, I agree. “Story first”...if it’s good, then by all means, it should be nominated. And, you may indeed be right about the Left being ‘louder yellers’.
OMG! He should have his own level of Hell!
I thought the whole idea behind the Sad Puppies thing was protest against the “powers that be” locking conservatives out of the genre?
No, I disagree.
I am attempting to break into SF/F as a writer. I have had mild success. If my author name became linked to my Freeper name, pretty sure I’d never get a contract again anywhere but Baen (and while I adore them, my stories aren’t their usual cup of Romulan ale). I’m not the only newbie author in my circles with the same fears. We talk among ourselves, and we’re all afraid. Even the left-leaning ones know if they don’t toe the line enough they’re out on their ears.
This campaign is the first hope we’ve had that this crap will get dragged out into the open and hit with a flamethrower of truth.
And the Sad Puppies didn’t force their opinions as the only ones. They only had a full slate in one category. What loophole was violated? Perhaps a “spirit of the law” issue but I fail to see it.
And Connie Willis, while being a brilliant writer, probably only knows what she’s been told by others, since my guess based on her books is she’s never seen the Internet in her life.
I think I may have posted too soon.
After doing a little more research, I think this may be what the SF/F world needed to shock itself out of the stupor it was in.
I know this is going to make some of the high muckety-mucks in SF/F a bit crazy, and it might (hopefully won’t) damage this year’s Worldcon, but it needs to play out how it will play out.
So...I withdraw my statement and apologize for saying that conservatives ‘F-ed up’. We’ll see how this goes.
I hope you're right on that.
And, no apology necessary. I apologize myself if I sounded at all strident in my earlier post.
Heh, welcome to the fun side of things. However this shapes up will be... interesting.
Well, the Hugos were awarded tonight. They made sure that this year’s awards were to be marked with an asterisk. In fact, an Alaskan artist made up a bunch of laser-carved wooden disks with asterisks cut out of them. (They’re also available for sale.)
It seems that the majority of the Sad/Mad Puppies-nominated stories...well...the fans spoke. There were no less than FIVE categories where the fans voted “No Award”. Since, after all, it is the FANS who vote (or at least the fans that pay enough to be voting members of Worldcons), then I guess the sci-fi/fantasy fans don’t want to see the conservative side of things.
Their loss.
I am attempting to break into SF/F as a writer. I have had mild success. If my author name became linked to my Freeper name, pretty sure I’d never get a contract again
Look up Joe Konrath’s blog for detailed advice on how to do it.
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.