Breaking news.
Only a few hours ago, Origins Game Fair released their announcement of their guests of honor, among which was New York Times Bestseller, mega-successful rockstar writer, Larry Correia.
Immediately, SJWs took to the comments to harass and libel Correia, calling him a litany of names as is the standard fare given to conservative or libertarian authors.
Not even a day went by before the convention lost its mind and caved, uninviting Correia:
This is unequivocally over political stances as it’s about “personal views that are unaligned with philosophy.” Larry Correia is a center-right figure, and the convention has now targeted him over unspecified views. Good luck getting them to clarify which views are offensive.
Origins has followed Con Carolinas and Wolrdcon on this path where they are trying to deplatform anyone who’s even remotely on the right. This needs to end now.
We need to get active and fight back against these collectivist groups who think they can silence us. It’s an epidemic and it’s escalating to proportions we never thought possible. The incivility of the left is going to keep pushing until we make sure this is deemed unacceptable.
Boycott Origins. Demonstrate outside of it. Email the con and tell them what you think:
John Ward – Executive Director
ed@gama.org
Angela Ward – Deputy Director
award@gama.org
Dominique Thobaben – Social Media and Marketing Manager
media@gama.org
Ian Hall – Sales Manager
sales@gama.org
Jessica Davidson – Administrative Assistance
Paul McGraw – Events Coordinator
events@gama.org
Patti Brendlinger – Finance Assistant
office@gama.org
Kelly Hyme – Convention Coordinator
convention@gama.org
Don’t let them get away with this any longer. This has happened too many times and our civil rights to speak, be authors, and live in a free society is at stake.
If you like my blog, support my fiction. My sci-fi novel The Stars Entwined is getting rave reviews, event though I’m blacklisted from every major publishing house because I stand up to the bullies in the industry. I write compelling books that are fun, and it scares them. Check it out.
Larry “VOICE OF REASON” Correia?
Wow… this is pathetic. I hope the Manatees feast on the SJW bones.
Have to give the SJWs credit: there are few remaining on our side that would put up with – much less apologize to – their crap any longer.
But with Soros and the (((rest))) shutting down venues, where do we turn? Will the next DragonCon be held in the woods of Tennessee?
It may be that SF/F cons for the Dissident Right become, in the 21st Century, like the house churches of the followers of the Way in the 1st & 2nd Centuries.
Being the Remnant is hard work.
You’re a very obvious ‘off the plantation’ star, Jon. Take care. Of yourself & your family.
Hey…the woods of Tennessee are a pretty darned nice place to be! LibertyCon could be one of the major cons in the world if it wasn’t intentionally size-limited to keep it family-oriented. But as you say, we’re not going away, we’re just going away from the SJW-infested venues that don’t want “our kind.” As the saying goes, “Get ‘woke,’ go broke.”
I’ll see you there.
That was a backhand reference to the AmRen Conference; no slight of TN meant! In fact, part of my 2nd novel & several of my short stories take place in Knoxville – Oak Ridge. Beautiful place!
I’m of two minds about this.
On the one hand I definitely know that this crap will continue and attempt to swallow all of us unless we all follow Vox Day’s advice on how to fight SJWs.
On the other hand … I’ve been waiting for the 2nd Hard Magic trilogy for a long time and, as a reader, consider these cons to be a waste of an author’s precious time. So if he doesn’t blow his now-free weekend working on his mountaintop castle and does some writing instead, I call it a win.
Dealing with SJWs is so 2015.
Don’t deal with them at all other than to drop them out of helicopters.
This is not only a cultural war. It’s economic war. Careers and reputations are being smeared and degraded.
So return fire.
Supporting authors like you and Correia are important steps. If you are inspired to buy a book by you, Correia, Vox, Ringo, or whomever as a result of these con attacks, contact the author through email or social media and let him know that you did so not only for a good read, but as reaction and show of support. Let them know they are not left adrift and that the the cons and SJWs are not the sole voices of scifi-fantasy readers.
As you suggested, emailing the con’s management and demonstrating are also good steps.
If you were planning on going to the con (or a future con that caves like this), let the hotel know why they are losing your business. Same for car rentals and airline reservations. Tag the companies in social medial posts for exposure.
Contact the local chamber of commerce and city council and let them know why you will not be spending your tourist dollars in their city. Perhaps go as far as identifying individual city leaders for contact. Tag these entities and leaders in social media posts. Conventions are a big economic draw for cities. Make them reconsider dealing with cons and vendors like Origins. Cities hate bad press related to tourism.
Contact the authors attending the con and sitting on panels, let them know why you are not attending. If they voice support of a ban like those on Correia, ask yourself if they deserve some of your earned income. No? Don’t buy their books, and let them and their publishers know why, both through direct contact and on social media.
Fighting back is justified and necessary, but lets expand the area of operations and not focus on striving for victory based only on calls for “civil rights”
and “free society.” Go for the pocketbooks.
I’ve been on a panel with Larry and had a great time. His Monster Hunter books are a lot of fun. While I disagree with his politics, he at least has the ability to turn that crap off when it isn’t relevant to whatever is being discussed, and he comes up with better rationale for his positions than the rest of you Sad Puppy lot. He’s even called you out publicly and privately on your nonsense. I think Origins really screwed the pooch on this one. This crap would never happen at Dragon Con, where Larry, Ringo, and the whole Baen gang are a big presence every year.
That being said, I think this just feeds into your own persecution complex. You’re making it out to be slightly bigger than it actually is. “civil rights to speak, be authors, and live in a free society is at stake.”? Really? A con declining to invite you doesn’t infringe on your right to be an author or live in a free society. You can make a decent living as an author without ever setting foot in a convention. Not being GoH at a con will not stop you from writing and publishing, or gaining fans. Making a pain of your ass on Twitter, however, will.
We don’t have to be intolerant of others’ intolerance. That’s what we’re sick of: people who say hurtful, demonstrably untrue nonsense without any consequences. I’m not saying Larry has done those things, but you and others on the far Right have. Larry’s a big boy, and can take care of himself.
James,
Now that you’ve done the obligatory pat on the head your making it bigger than it actually is gesture, can you find me an example of a non-conservative/non-liberal author being removed/dis-invited from a con for their publicly expressed views please?
This crap wouldn’t have happened at any well run con. But its Origins, and two things you will never find in the same sentence are “Origins” and “Well Run.”
Agree 100% with the second paragraph about Origins being ineptly run. As for the first paragraph, how is that relevant to the discussion? I can’t name a non-conservative/non-liberal author who has been removed for their publicly expressed views. I’ve seen plenty of fans get the boot for touching the cosplayers, but that’s a different conversation.
It isn’t the views that are the problem so much as they way they are being expressed. If someone calls a female POC an ignorant half-savage, threatens violence against women and minorities on their blog or Facebook page, or in any way suggest that they don’t know how to properly behave themselves at an event, then everyone their words affect are within their rights to not want to plunk down hard-earned money on travel and lodging to be stuck in a hotel with them for three days. The perpetrator doesn’t then get to cry and play the victim and act all innocent and claim that everyone else is picking on them. Not talking about Larry here. This didn’t happen in Larry’s case, and he has acted like an adult even though if anyone should be able to throw a temper tantrum this time around, it’s him.
“As for the first paragraph, how is that relevant to the discussion?”
You an SF author. Think about it. Really. Because one day the other side is going to regret being forced to live by the rules they make.
“It isn’t the views that are the problem so much as they way they are being expressed. If someone calls a female POC an ignorant half-savage, threatens violence against women and minorities on their blog or Facebook page, or in any way suggest that they don’t know how to properly behave themselves at an event, then everyone their words affect are within their rights to not want to plunk down hard-earned money on travel and lodging to be stuck in a hotel with them for three days. ”
Great. Where’s the proof in Larry’s case?
Numerous cons over the years, numerous book signings, Numerous other events attended, in this day and age where everyone and their three year old has a device with a camera and recording capability on it, where has Larry’s bad behavior been documented? They’ve looked, they;ve been looking since he first announced Sad Puppies. And they’ve turned up nothing, except that he has said things other people don’t agree with. Which I am pretty sure is the hallmark of a healthy democracy and society, right?
Yet a couple of tweets from a couple of people who Larry pissed off because he’s well, Larry, gets him dis invited. Why is that right? Why is that good? Why is it proper? Do you agree with Origins? If not, why? If you do, why?
Is what happened with John Ringo right?
Should authors, all authors, be judged on not what they write, but who they are in public and private?
Is that how you want your books judged?
I never said there was any proof in Larry’s case. In his case, it looks like there isn’t any proof, and that he is a sad victim of blowback from the Puppies’ whole movement. I’ve heard enough about Ringo over the years to think it was the right call, though not one I personally would have made. I’d prefer to kick them out once they’re onsite if they misbehave, but it wasn’t up to me.
And no, I want my books to be judged by their content, not on my political beliefs. And Jon and the rest of the Puppies shouldn’t either. That’s my whole point. They’re making stuff political when it shouldn’t be. They’re creating a toxic environment for all involved when it shouldn’t be. And now one of their own, who is actually innocent, has paid the price.
James, your sad hatred of conservative rears its ugly head again. This is real, and it’s happening to literally every author who is a big name and is known as conservative. It needs to stop.
“I never said there was any proof in Larry’s case. In his case, it looks like there isn’t any proof, and that he is a sad victim of blowback from the Puppies’ whole movement.”
Larry as a victim? I would disagree with that notion.
” I’ve heard enough about Ringo over the years to think it was the right call, though not one I personally would have made. I’d prefer to kick them out once they’re onsite if they misbehave, but it wasn’t up to me.”
Have you not read Ringo’s response to the Con? Or do you think he is the characters he writes? Wait, don’t answer that…
“And no, I want my books to be judged by their content, not on my political beliefs. And Jon and the rest of the Puppies shouldn’t either. That’s my whole point. They’re making stuff political when it shouldn’t be.”
Larry didn’t make it political. His opponents did with their actions and words prior to SP1. Larry set out to prove them right with SP1, and he did. In Spades.
“They’re creating a toxic environment for all involved when it shouldn’t be. And now one of their own, who is actually innocent, has paid the price.”
If only he had kept his politics quiet….Right?
You realize what that line of thinking makes you?
Okay James, I’d like to know what exactly did he say?
I don’t hate conservatives. I’m related to conservatives. My mother is conservative. I just don’t put up with their nonsense. What needs to stop is far right conservative authors using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false idealologies. A progressive literature like SF has no place for such regressive and oppressive ideas. If you really want to be accepted into the wider community you’ll write really good books that a lot of people will love and keep your public persona as free of politics as you claim your books are (I don’t know. I haven’t read them, and everything else you’ve said and done has soured me on ever reading them).
“I don’t hate conservatives, I just put up rambling blogs about other authors who sell better than me because I’m frustrated that THOSE people are getting success.”
I write great books. Why don’t you check one out. https://www.amazon.com/Stars-Entwined-Aryshan-War-Book-ebook/dp/B079VVFJMZ/
“I don’t hate conservatives. I’m related to conservatives. My mother is conservative. I just don’t put up with their nonsense.”
Way to be condescendingly tolerant Jimmy.
Replace Conservative with nearly any other adjective and the statements become… unacceptable, but because he’s a Progressive it somehow is ok. I suppose.
“What needs to stop is far right conservative authors using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false idealologies. A progressive literature like SF has no place for such regressive and oppressive ideas.”
Bite my ass, James. You spew vitriol, be ready to get in back in spades, especially when you move goalposts (when has a liberal writer EVER been uninvited for politics) and claim conservatives are the bad actors.
Hate to break it to you but literature does not have to be progressive, whatever your definition of that is. More and more of us think the “progress” this country has experienced is for the worse, not better. Maybe consider that and its implications to your potential customers before trying to alienate them.
I wasn’t speaking for all literature, just science fiction. You regressives tend to forget just how democratizing all the new technologies we read and write about actually are. And any actual future will not be mired in the 1950s social constructs you lot have wet reams about. Time always bends toward more justice, more equality, so it must really suck if you are against those things.
Equality is a fiction. If it were real, we would all look the same, have the same abilities and problems. Once skin color, one height, one body type. Equality of opportunity doesn’t even exist, but that is what most in the US strive for, to reward hard work and let a person advance further based on their work ethic.
That you conflate equality of opportunity and some social justice imperative shows what a complete lack of mental faculties you have.
I am against giving to others to alleviate (false) guilt about having more. I am against turning my country into a shithole because I was fortunate enough to be born here but others weren’t and we somehow owe them for that.
“A progressive literature like SF…”
Having last night written the dedication page of the 2nd edition of my 2nd novel, that quote made me smile.
The dedication? To Jerry Pournelle.
Whoa. That mask slipped off pretty darned quick right there:
“What needs to stop is far right conservative authors using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false idealologies. A progressive literature like SF has no place for such regressive and oppressive ideas.”
Dude, you just made sure that we know every other thing you have responded with was just padding. Fluff: “I don’t hate conservatives, BUT…”
Who’s the fascist? Who’s the totalitarian?
Thanks for enlightening us.
Dude, again, one blog post. And other authors selling better than me was never the point. I don’t care about that crap. I only need to make enough for me.
“I don’t hate SJW’s. I’m related to an SJW. My mother is SJW. I just don’t put up with their nonsense. What needs to stop is SJW authors using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head who doesn’t agree with their identity politics and worldview. Literature like SF has no place for oppressive ideas unless those ideas check all the approved right boxes.”
Fixed it for you.
“If you really want to be accepted into the wider community you’ll write really good books that a lot of people will love and keep your public persona as free of politics as you claim your books are (I don’t know. I haven’t read them, and everything else you’ve said and done has soured me on ever reading them).”
If you’re judging an Author like Larry or John Ringo based on their personal politics as to the stories they write, let me give you a hint:
YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.
Or, to borrow from SM Stirling: There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.
I don’t judge Scalzi by his politics, I hated his writing long before he went full left. I disagree with Cat Rambo and Laura Resnick on almost everything political, but they write a good story more often than not. I think James Osiris Baldwins Hound of Eden is a great urban fantasy series. I could care less he’s a trans gendered Australian.
Do you honestly think if Larry kept his politics quiet, he’d sell even more books? Really?
Ah, the age old I’m rubber you’re glue argument. It didn’t work on the playground in third grade, and it won’t work here now.
I have no idea if Larry would sell more books if he kept his politics quiet. He’s a good writer. I like his Monster Hunter books and I know exactly what his politics are, and as I stated above I was on a panel with him and had a great time. He’d probably do OK either way. I’m saying people like Jon and Vox Day definitely would.
I refuse to keep my mouth shut just for a few extra sales. But thank you for agreeing that I’m a solid author. 🙂
Is anything above inaccurate or wrong? Show me where its wrong, by all means.
Tell you what, I’ll make this easy for you.
Answer Yes or No to the following questions. No reason for your answer is needed. Or desired really.
You do know that in SP 1 Larry nominated Vox not because of Vox’s views, which he disagrees with, but because he felt the story Vox wrote was one of the best he had read that year for that category. And he did so knowing the shitstorm it would create. Do you think Larry made a mistake nominating a story based on what he thought of its artistic merits without taking the writers personal views into account?
Are you OK with conventions, any sort of convention, disinviting/removing people based on their views, political or otherwise?
Should my opinion of your beliefs have any bearing on my opinion of your abilities as a writer?
If my politics/beliefs don’t align with yours, would you rather I not buy your books?
You didn’t really think he had the GUTS to answer, did you?
Soon as I saw that idiotic ‘i’m rubber an you’re glue’ line I understood that person to be a pathetic know-nothing.
If he chooses not to answer, thats fine. Just made the decision making process for me buying his books a bit more streamlined.
I’ve already got a kindle full of writers I disagree with on many issues, one less doesn’t affect me.
“I don’t hate conservatives. I’m related to conservatives. My mother is conservative. I just don’t put up with their nonsense. What needs to stop is far right conservative authors using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false idealologies. A progressive literature like SF has no place for such regressive and oppressive ideas.”
Are you actually saying that far left liberal authors AREN’T using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false ideologies?
That’s hilarious! Or it would be if it weren’t so extremely arrogant and hypocritical. Much of early SF was written as a warning against the evils of progressivism’s extreme leftist Marxist-socialist-fascist-collectivist-borg-hivemindset. Left-wing totalitarianism is extremely dehumanizing, oppressive and murderous. Liberalism is the regressive ideology. Marxism in practice is nothing more than a throwback to feudalism where the citizens are now the peasant slaves of the state ruled over by one man, the dictator-king. Or Big Brother and his minions, who burn books at 451 degrees F. And identity politics is a throwback to skin color tribalism. And 64 different sexes? Are you kidding? Talk about demonstrably false, not to mention wacky stupid!
If anything, SF is a conservative literature, often determined at all costs to save the human being from a totalitarian nightmare, an intelligent ape takeover, a cannibalistic soylent green society, a dehumanizing cyborg machine usurpation, or from a youth society that kills everyone over 30. SF is often about the hopefulness of the human being living on in the future – and against great odds. The preservation of humanity and all that is good in a human being is a very conservative position to hold.
Are you actually saying that far left liberal authors AREN’T using science fiction and fandom as a bully pulpit to bash everyone else over the head with their narrow-minded, hideous, demonstrably false ideologies?
Yes. I am saying that. How is wanting to be left alone, wanting to be treated with the same dignity and respect and have the same economic advantages that white male Christians have enjoyed for centuries bashing anyone over the head? If you think that others getting rights you’ve always enjoyed takes those same rights away from you then you are sorely mistaken.
Conservatives always go for far left political idealogies like Marxism when they aren’t necessary for a functioning egalitarian society. I’m against those things too. But we have just as much, if not more, to fear from Rightwing idealogies. Hitler’s Nazis were Rightwing. Muslim terrorists are Rightwing. Trump is an authoritarian in the making, if he had an iota of statecraft.
And identity politics is a throwback to skin color tribalism. And 64 different sexes? Are you kidding? Talk about demonstrably false, not to mention wacky stupid!
You guys are the only ones who use the term identity politics. If you were truly concerned with having a classless society where any color was not a hindrance or an advantage, then I’d agree with you. But based on the actions I’ve seen from conservatives, it’s more about preserving white priviledge.
And remember, sex is a biological concept: male and female. Gender is a social concept: boy and girl. And if science says there is more than one gender it is because more than one gender has been observed. Just because you personally think it is icky doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I believe things based on evidence and make no value judgements about them. A thing is true if it can be demonstrated to be true.
I still maintain that SF is very progressive, but its readership does tend to be very conservative.
SF is often about the hopefulness of the human being living on in the future – and against great odds. The preservation of humanity and all that is good in a human being is a very conservative position to hold.
I think this is a very human position to hold. But it depends on what you consider good in a human being. I hold that this definition must change if we are to survive long enough to become a spacefaring species. Humankind, like most of nature, is far more plastic, mutable and complex than conservatives are comfortable with.
‘I am saying that. How is wanting to be left alone, wanting to be treated with the same dignity and respect and have the same economic advantages that white male Christians have enjoyed for centuries bashing anyone over the head? If you think that others getting rights you’ve always enjoyed takes those same rights away from you then you are sorely mistaken.’
WOW. The lack of self-awareness is appalling.
I suppose you also believe that conservatives such as Tom Sowell are white males? Or are they ‘uncle toms’?
James
You’re aware that Nazi is an acronym for national socialissmus? And Hitler and his crew were left-wing despite the cool looking uniform fetish.
Jihadists aren’t right wing. That’a totally ahistorical and irrelevant to a way of life that’s core to Islam.
Gender follows biology: deviations are mental illnesses. Ift it’s totally abnormal to amputate a healthy limb afortori the same for the male and female organs.
Define white privilege because i’ve never benefitted from that fiction
xavier
That complicated moniker reveals more about the image the party wanted to project and the constituency it aimed to build than it did about the Nazis’ true political goals, which were building a state based on racial superiority and brute-force governance. Next you’ll tell me that the Republican-voting, Trump-supporting Ku Klux Klan are liberals.
And I don’t know where you’re getting that Jihadists aren’t right wing. Their fundamentalist relgion has much in common with rightwing fundamentalist Christianity: subjugation of women and anyone who isn’t a member of their religion, an establishment of a religious state, and elaborate wet dreams about an apocalypse where their guy comes down from the sky and punishes everyone who isn’t them.
And gender is wholly separate from biology. Deviations in gender break away from societal norms, while deviations in biology have physical causes. Someone being born with too little or too many X or Y chromosomes is not a mental illness. You don’t need a science ficiton novel, you need a biology course.