Standing up

DISCLAIMER: I speak for no one but myself, the pixie folk of the Lost Wilds, the Five And A Half Kings of Ennui, the Dark Riders of the Widdershins Plain, and a wombat. No, not that wombat, the other one. None of them asked me to.

After a small internal debate I thought I'd post this. Mostly the debate was because a good chunk of my Facebook friends, which, as a whole, is most likely a good chunk of my blog readership, will have no idea what I'm talking about unless they've followed where I comment on Facebook. Even then I've not said much on this issue. So.  It is time.

If you don't understand, don't worry about it. Consider yourself fortunate.

Here goes.

I stand by Irene Gallo.

Perhaps I would not have said the same thing as she said it, but it's essentially the same sort of thing I've said. I do not disagree with the essence of it.

There are two right wing groups, Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies, and they are calling for an end, not to social justice in science fiction, but to what they see as a glut of social justice messages in science fiction.

(Personally, I suspect it's a perspective thing, that they see an overload because there's simply more than previously. It's like rain in a desert... no, wait, let's go SF with this. It's raining on Dune and they're sandworms.)

Are they 'unrepentantly racist, sexist, homophobic'? One or two certainly are. Others have made some statements and comments I see as very dodgy, skirting the lines here and there. Others certainly scoff - and some scoff quite vigorously! - at the concepts and precepts of social justice. And it seems like a number simply don't give a tinker's cuss about social justice and are perfectly happy to let the bad actors keep acting badly. Others are more concerned about not being called racist for being associated with racists, rather than not associating with racists.

Remember, the true evil is not racism, it's calling someone racist. Oh, the horror, the soul-searing, festering wound of being called a, gasp, bigot.

Wherever they fall on that spectrum, they are unrepentant about that.

Some may have expressed misgivings with the darker portion of the overall movement, but it hasn't really led to much self analysis that I've seen. They still cling to what they believe the Puppies stand for.

I envy that self-delusion.

As for the charge of bringing in Gamergate... not going to argue that one. I've certainly seen tweets and post from prominent Puppies that constitute reaching out.

As for the quality of the works on the ballot, that is a matter of opinion. I haven't heard much good, but I haven't read the works myself.

The response from Tor is... not surprising? An attempt at PR and damage control, in the craptastic way that only a corporation can do. Psst, hey, Tor, most of them already hate you for their own bullshit reasons. This doesn't help, but it does undermine Ms Gallo. Well done! Two thumbs up!

And I stand by all of that.

So I stand by Irene Gallo.

Game on.