And it’s not merely Amazon that is scaring them. What’s amusing about this is that the truth is finally beginning to dawn on Damien… that he and all his weird little friends are in the minority. Their little freakshow extravaganza of diversity and left-wing ideology only existed thanks to the gatekeepers and now they’re getting blown out of the water by people like Larry Correia, Tom Kratman, John Wright, Sarah Hoyt, the Mad Geniuses and hundreds of other ambitious writers who don’t have to kowtow to their ridiculous demands or respect their absurd dogma any longer.
One noticeable difference between John Scalzi and Damien Walter is that McRapey is a master of self-marketing who always understood that there were as many, if not more, people on the right side of the ideological fence as the left. And Scalzi was, in the past, assiduously careful to maintain good relations with the other side, until he lost his temper and let the mask slip too egregiously. Damien, on the other hand, simply doesn’t grasp that Fox News is not an outlier, it is an indicator. He simply cannot fathom that there are far more people who, if forced to choose, will genuinely prefer what I stand for, sanity and civilization, over his diverse band of deviants, weirdos, race hustlers, and outright sex criminals.
Damien Walter @damiengwalter
Vox has a core of a few hundred regular readers. They may be sad losers, but they’re enough to effect a small Hugo voter pool.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter @mareinna Vox Day is a racist rightwing nutjob. He gathers in his umbra, many of the same. This isn’t really surprising.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
Exactly why letting this clique have a platform within the niche SF community is a very bad idea. @E_M_Edwards @mareinnaE. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter @mareinna I don’t see how they threaten SF -as a community; outside of their circle, they’re routinely laughed at & despised.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter @mareinna And SF has a not insignificant share of (historically and currently) rightwing, racist, nutjob writers & readers.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter @mareinna They have a platform because, unfortunately, they represent a portion of the human spectrum.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter @mareinna A portion that is pretty awful, even by human standards, but I don’t understand why VD creates such a stir.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
@damiengwalter @E_M_Edwards @mareinna I’d be happy if they stuck to their own little niche, but they want to take over the genre.Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath
@damiengwalter So why would you tweet links to their hateful words?E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna That’s not going to happen though.Damien Walter @damiengwalter 2h
Only because at this point he’s been allowed a platform. Kick him off that platform and there’s no problem.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna And I fear it’s wishful thinking to consider racism & fascist tendencies a ‘niche’ in SF.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@martinmcgrath Because he’s already got himself a Hugo nomination. Ignoring the issue became moot at that point.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna Certainly from a historical point of view, it is a recognizable thread in genre. As it is in the worldDamien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards If that as the case I would leave the community. It’s a *tiny* minority, but vocal.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna I think you have to support a more diverse SF community because you’ll not ever stamp it out.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna But I’m less sure you’ll ever snip it out of the overall pattern. It will remain, and reappear.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
@E_M_Edwards @damiengwalter @mareinna I was lucky that my early exposure was via bookstore which kept fascist books off their shelves.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna And I’m not saying that out of some ‘free speech’ argument.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
@damiengwalter @E_M_Edwards @mareinna Whenever these jerks spew their crap again, I feel like leaving.who needs words @mareinna
@E_M_Edwards @damiengwalter maybe because he kerps writing tirades against writers who in turn give him publicity by defending themselves?Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
@E_M_Edwards @damiengwalter @mareinna The SFF community is getting more diverse, that’s why these folks are furious.Arthur Wyatt @arthurwyatt
@damiengwalter I’m pretty sure it’s not people who have actually read his stuff you need to worry about.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter You’re an idealist. I don’t see VDs values as those of a tiny minority. He’s just more visible.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter In no small measure, I suspect, because it is a part – and I dread this phrase- of his personal brand.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards If you prove to be correct, I’ll leave the community. In an instant.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna Agreed. There is always a push back by groups who have had more of a majority share, when it shrinks.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
@E_M_Edwards @damiengwalter @mareinna VD is the radical fringe. IMO the Correias, Kratmans, Ringos, Hoyts are the bigger problem.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna But that doesn’t mean they’re going to disappear. Which is why diversity best use of energy, I feel.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert 2h
@E_M_Edwards @damiengwalter @mareinna Cause they pretend to be the reasonable mainstream and silent majority.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter Your choice, OC. But why? Better to add your weight to the counterbalance then throw out your toys.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna Again, I agree, mostly. Though I suspect some of their ‘moderate’ stance is just as calculated.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards Why? If SF is mostly bigots and racists it can go fuck itself. But, it isn’t, you’re wrong on this.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@CoraBuhlert @damiengwalter @mareinna Which doesn’t mean they disagree with people like VD. But they’re rather he be the lightning rod.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter I don’t believe it is however, a ‘tiny’ minority. Or even a radical fringe.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards If it was even a substantial minority. It isn’t. @CoraBuhlert @mareinnaE. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter Is VD radical within it? Likely yes. Both personally and due to his positioning, but a black swan? No.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards Again, if you prove to be right, I’ll leave it. No point repeating this again.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter OK. I can hear you don’t want it to be. It would be more useful perhaps, to have real figures.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter Which I don’t have either, so I’m not saying you have to have them to have an opinion.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter But I’m not swayed by your conviction, without them.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards Do you think VD deserve a Hugo award? You’re derailing on to an irrelevancy here.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter I hope not. Even if we don’t agree on much. I’d rather you were out there in it than VDE. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter Which sounds like weaker praise than it is meant. 😉E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter I’m hard pressed to think of anyone I’d rather have active in SF than VD. Likely they’re out there.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards I’ll happily go back to ignoring the idiot when the SF community stops letting him hijack it as a platform for his bile.E. M. Edwards @E_M_Edwards
@damiengwalter And if he does or doesn’t, how exactly – considering the limits & flaws of the Hugo – prove a point?@damiengwalter I’m not sure that will happen. We make our own platforms these days and the margins are very porous.
Damien Walter @damiengwalter
@E_M_Edwards Given the small number of votes required, and coordination with other cons, it seems possible.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
If he or Correia win, the Hugos will have become a complete joke.Cora Buhlert @CoraBuhlert
Actually, these people are a big part of the reason I’m not going to Loncon.
TL;DR: We’re winning. Already.
First of all, it is, as usual, amusing to see them still failing to understand that this blog is considerably better trafficked than the blog that was celebrated and respected for years as the biggest blog in science fiction. Prior to the SFWA’s decision to purge me, the blogs were running just over one million pageviews per month. They’re now running at 1.4 million per month, a 40 percent increase in only one year. No one is “letting me have a platform” and SFWA has already tried to kick me off it. How did that go for them?
Second, I don’t have a core of a few hundred regular readers. I have a core of a few thousand regular readers and a hard core of a few hundred Dread Ilk. I don’t lead them and they don’t follow me. If I quit tomorrow, a dozen would take my place, some of them smarter and more articulate than me.
Third, to quote the Real Slim Shady: “I have been sent here to destroy you.
And there’s a million of us just like me, who cuss like me; who just don’t give a fuck like me. Who dress like me; walk, talk and act like me.”
Every day. Literally EVERY SINGLE DAY, I get emails from people who thank me for speaking out, who tell me how glad they are that someone is finally standing up to the freaks and deviants and pedophiles, who let me know that they are reading SF again for the first time in years, who send Castalia submissions saying how glad they are to know they will get a fair shake and an impartial reading that isn’t based on political correctness and diversity checkboxes.
E.M. Edwards is more right than he knows. Damien reminds me of the troll, Andrew Marston, who once said that it made him feel suicidal to know that I had over 200 Twitter followers. Well, Damien should throw in the towel and quit right now, today, because the sane, civilized, and traditional side of SF/F is not only bigger than he knows, it is bigger than he fears. And it is going to grow bigger still.
The pinkshirts are hoping the worst has passed and yet we have barely even begun to get started. They have no idea, none, about what is coming down the pipeline. Just wait until there are ten bestselling Correias and 20 outspoken VDs and even more young right wing radicals who make Tom Kratman look soft and have less sympathy for the pinkshirts than we do.
Baen is kicking ass. Castalia is exceeding every expectation. The selfies and indies are eviscerating the gatekeepers as Amazon crushes the Big Five. Read those frightened tweets and smile, because we are only now beginning to light the fires that will engulf them.
UPDATE: Now Damien is demonstrating, again, that he can’t comprehend what he reads. This lack of reading comprehension may be related to his dearth of literary success:
Damien Walter @damiengwalter
You see, this is what happens when you let racists on your award ballot. Hugos utterly discredited at this point.Damien Walter @damiengwalter
“So who are the Hugo noms this year?” “Oh you know, some Hard SF, some Fantasy…and a man who advocates acid attacks on women.” +Damien Walter @damiengwalter
+ Do you see where that departs the usual “Hugos are broken” narrative?
The fact that I can understand and even articulate a logical case for acid attacks on women when challenged to do so does not mean that I endorse or advocate it. Damien is reduced to trying to score cheap rhetorical points; he hasn’t learned yet that if you want any credibility in the public commentary game, you simply cannot fold, spindle, or mutilate the object of your criticism’s words.
In any event, it’s not as if the Hugos could further discredit themselves after awarding Best Novel to Redshirts, a mediocre one-joke derivative of a previous parody of Star Trek. And has he read “If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love”? Ye cats.
Call people “fucking cowards” and whatever other names you want, Damien. It doesn’t matter. It’s over. Your nightmare is just beginning.