Aliette de Bodard inadvertently makes a powerful case against my assertions of savagery in the SFWA on Twitter:
“When I was 13 or so, I stabbed boy who was bothering me with pointy end
of a pair of compasses (planted it in his hand when he reached out)”“to be fair, I didn’t have much body strength; they barely broke skin. He was mostly surprised that I attacked…”
“Felt quite happy (still do).”
All righty then. I stand corrected. She only stabbed him, after all, it’s not as if she dismembered and ate him or anything. Civilization is a relative concept, is it not? But let’s not let our expectations rise too high, as the woman actually defends “death threats… made to various writers” on the grounds of them being “performance rage”.
“[B]y “performance rage”, I mean that RH doesn’t actually intend to send
minions to decapitate all white men, or to carry out the death threats
she’s made to various writers. But I’m pretty sure she’s genuinely
furious at the cultural appropriation and misogyny that is unfortunately
rife in genre; and that posts like the one I pointed out stem from
genuine anger rather than a simple desire to rile people up.”
So, death threats are acceptable so long as one is genuinely furious. Got it. Remember, these are the very pinkshirts who claim that straight white men are full of hate, rage, and fear.