Author: VD

He who must not be named

Commentary is terrified by the online brigades of the Alt Right:

The unapologetically racist element of neo-reactionary thinking connects intellectuals like Yarvin and Land with the masses they otherwise disdain, evincing the rumblings of a nascent neo-reactionary political coalition. But what really ties together all these seemingly disparate strands—the neo-reactionary intellectuals, the crude Twitter trolls, the highfalutin white supremacists, and the billionaire presidential candidate—is misanthropy. Pollsters may need to develop a new category in the wake of the Trump phenomenon: “resentment voters.” Within the demographic of lower-middle-class white men, Trump is popular in a variety of misanthropic subcultures, many of which did not really exist until the Internet provided them with a way to communicate and organize. Unsurprisingly, he is the subject of a great deal of discussion and admiration in the pickup-artist, or “seduction community,” of men who chat online and gather at conferences to complain about how feminism has destroyed dating culture while simultaneously discussing strategies for bedding as many women as possible. After Trump declared early in the campaign season, apropos of nothing, that supermodel Heidi Klum was “no longer a 10,” a popular blogger from the “men’s rights” movement approvingly wrote, “The alpha does not qualify himself to women, ever. He expects women to qualify themselves to him.”

What also unites the alt-right is a conspiratorial anti-elitism. Policies and principles don’t matter, nor do obsolete ideological divisions like left and right, because the American system itself is a sham. “Why are sh-t-tier whites voting for Trump, a barbarian who can’t even write a grammatical tweet in fourth-grade English?” Yarvin asks. “Because they’re done with being sh-t on by their ‘betters,’ who think invading Iraq and starting civil wars in Syria and Libya is a brilliant use for a third of their income.” In distinction to Bernie Sanders supporters, who at least know what they want to do with the reigns of power, these people loathe our social and political institutions and offer no alternative. Trump and the alt-right want to break everything and watch the world burn, like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, and they believe (hope?) that somehow everything will sort itself out. America, using a term that will be familiar to the real-estate tycoon, is a “tear down.”

What we are seeing here is a convergence of three phenomena: neo-reactionary philosophy, popular discontent, and a charismatic leader. Successful political movements need all three. As far-right traditionalists, Yarvin and Land claim to despise populism, and people more generally. “Predisposed, in any case, to perceive the politically awakened masses as a howling irrational mob, [neo-reaction] conceives the dynamics of democratization as fundamentally degenerative: systematically consolidating and exacerbating private vices, resentments, and deficiencies until they reach the level of collective criminality and comprehensive social corruption,” Land writes. And like many of the Republican office-holders and conservative media personalities who’ve glommed on to Trump while railing against “elites,” the neo-reactionary thinkers are themselves elitists.

But they, too, are just as unscrupulous in hitching their wagon to a popular movement in hopes that it will advance their agenda. In a 2008 installment of his Open Letter, Yarvin mused about himself as the Vaclav Havel of neo-reaction—the philosopher king who may one day find himself carried on the shoulders of a society demanding revolutionary change—or, failing that, its Machiavelli. For, “in order to make an impact on the political process, you need quantity. You need moronic, chanting hordes.” Well, he has them now.

One doesn’t have to share the normative interpretations of alt-right counter-history to believe that these thinkers have a point in arguing that human societal development is not a process of inexorable progress. Though conservatives have criticized President Barack Obama’s frequent invocation of “the right side of history” to justify his positions on issues ranging from gay marriage to counterterrorism, Americans have become largely inured to the idea, expressed by Ronald Reagan, that their country’s “best days are yet to come.” What if they’re not? What if things are about to get a whole lot worse?

I take no little pleasure in the fact that while the mainstream media doesn’t have any trouble in naming Allum, Milo, Moldbug, or Nick Land, they need to resort to weird, inaccurate descriptions –  a popular blogger from the “men’s rights” movement – rather than mention me directly.

It’s rather amusing. For over a decade, I was inaccurately described as a “conservative”. For perhaps the last three years, I’ve been described as an MRA, again inaccurately.

Is it really that hard to say “Supreme Dark Lord of the Evil Legion of Evil” or “bestselling political philosopher” or even “right wing radical”?

Apparently.

Anyhow, they shouldn’t be terrified of us. They should be terrified by the fact that we are right and their system, the one that they believed had ended history, has failed. Everything is on the table now and anything can happen.

How to save science fiction

Brad Torgersen explains how the Tor Cabal is going to save science fiction from the badthinkers:

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Back when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, the Hugos represented something special in this field. They were the yearly culmination of the collective Fannish spirit. Our communal celebration of what is best in this genre. We did this together — the many, come to unite as one.

AUDIENCE: (tepid applause, some straining forward in their seats, not quite sure where this is going)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Now, it’s all well and good to get rid of the Bad People™ because Lord knows I’m as sick of them as you all are.

AUDIENCE: (a spontaneous roar of agreement)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Our genre has never, ever been about Bad People™ nor should we ever be forced to tolerate the intolerant, who of course were never real Fans in the true meaning of Fannishness anyway, because we say so.

AUDIENCE: (collective orgasm of hearty ascent)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: But this has to be done very politic-like. Why do you think all the great Socialist reformers of the past hundred years, have always staged elections? It didn’t matter if they were at the pinnacle of a one-party system, and gave themselves titles like “President.” What mattered is that their subjects — excuse me, citizens — were able to vote. That is the basis of the Republic — allowing people to pretend that there is actual democracy happening.

AUDIENCE: (murmurs, a few shouts, some scattered golf claps)

MODERATOR: (coughs nervously) But, sir, how are we to preserve and protect our glorious accolades?

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: I know nobody included me in this conversation, but I am going to include myself anyway, because everybody knows it’s all about me, in the end — me, me, and me. In fact, the only reason the Bad People™ exist at all, is because they are out to get me. That’s why there’s trouble in the Peoples Republic of Science Fiction. There are individuals who don’t like me, and have decided to get militant about it.

MODERATOR: (fawning over Shrimpy Famous-On-The-Internet Author) Well, please, by all means, have my chair! We would love to hear more.

AUDIENCE: (cheers, laughter)

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: I agree one hundred percent with my lovely and esteemed colleague, who is wealthier and more famous than me, so I will suck up to him at every opportunity — just like I do with that rock star Sandman guy. We of the pure and true fold, don’t need to tolerate the intolerant. Diversity means ensuring that a rainbow spectrum of ethnicities, genders, and sexualities — who all vote the same in national politics, have the same ideas on economics, and also literary taste — are afforded the opportunity to come celebrate with us, this most wonderful thing we call Science Fiction and Fantasy.

AUDIENCE: (massive, outlandish, squeeing approval)

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: But we have to be careful about how we go about ensuring that the Baen people, the FOX News viewers, the homophobes — did I tell you this hour how much I love and adore all gay people, for all time, everywhere? Because I, like, totally do! — and the transphobes, islamophobes, and other assorted Heinlein devotees, are kept out of the awards process. Do it too bluntly, and we risk sacrificing the public face of the field. We have to be sure we can say to the world — with straight faces — that Science Fiction and Fantasy is still a field that celebrates all ideas. Even though we want to make damned sure that SF/F’s power people and core literary prizes remain firmly on the side of the right ideas. Progressive ideas. For all definitions of Progressive which include, “Whatever Jon Stewart is being cute about this week.”

AUDIENCE: (murmuring wonderment at the great man’s epic intellect)

MODERATOR: (crying) My God, that was so beautiful . . . (reaches for tissue)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: (steeples fingers) We’re kind of stating the obvious at this point. So, since we agree that we can’t be direct in addressing the problem of Bad People™ meddling in our business, what’s your proposal?

EDITOR TO THE SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: (clears throat) Actually, it’s not his proposal, it’s mine. Because when it comes right down to it, we all know you writers would sell your souls for the right offer; from my house specifically. I can make or break any of you, any time I want. Same goes for people like that chump moderator over there, licking the hand of the caterer who’s putting out the lavish spread of food and treats — a spread my company is of course paying for, because the best way to win the hearts and minds of Fandom, is to give them free shit. Anyway, you all will rubber stamp whatever I want, in the end — just like when we split the editor category — so I’ll have my wife draft something on our blog later in the week. We can assume it will pass with flying colors at the business meeting, right?

It’s funny because it’s true. A lot of people don’t realize that EPH is a mandate straight out of the Nielsen Hayden family blog, previously known for creating the Best Editor Long Form award so I could be nominated every year Patrick Nielsen Hayden would finally get a few Hugos and stop crying about always losing out to Gardner Dozois.

Meanwhile, the second stage of my master plan is rapidly coming to fruition.

To the CEOs of Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster

We, the undersigned, are writing on behalf of the Black community, which has long supported the publishing industry despite being shut out of it. College-educated Black women are the group most likely to read books in the U.S., and Black people read more of every type of book. People of color make up 37% of the US population. The publishing industry cannot continue to shut out and ignore the literary interests of communities of color.

Black authors, reviewers, and editors are being shut out of the publishing industry. Despite pledges and commitments from the most influential institutions to rectify this imbalance, little progress has been made. The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey, conducted by Lee & Low books, shows just how racially homogeneous the publishing industry is. 79% of publishing and review journal staffers are white. A full 86% of executives are white. The dearth of racial inclusion within the publishing industry is reflected in the books that are accepted, produced, and sold. Only 10% of children’s books published since 1994 have been by, or about, people of color.

Major publishers have been historically averse to publishing books by or about Black individuals, averaging fewer than four African-American biographies a year. Journalism outlets like the New York Times and NPR regularly publish reading lists comprised almost exclusively of white authors. In majority non-white cities like New York, more than 60% of the cultural sector, which includes museums, theaters and other organizations, are white. And lack of editorial insight into sensitive historical and cultural issues can lead to harmful, ignorant books by white authors being published despite protest from Black communities.

The reality is that people of color often come from low-income backgrounds and have less access to professional opportunities or mentorship networks within the publishing industry. Unless the publishing industry makes a concerted, well-resourced effort to lower barriers that keep out minorities, the status quo will never change. Participating in voluntary diversity surveys or pledging to pay more attention to racial demographics is only an acknowledgement of the diversity crisis. Large publishing institutions should fund initiatives that foster inclusion and create opportunities for authors, reviewers, and editors of color to thrive within the industry.

There have been myriad discussions on the necessity of diversity, on the importance of inclusion, on the value of equitable racial representation in not just publishing, but every industry. But we have come to a point where those words and sentiments must be matched with actions. When presidential candidates feel comfortable spewing hateful rhetoric to their supporters, it is a sign that all of us must do more to fight back against ideas and beliefs that divide or endanger people of color. Books shape our perceptions, give us insights into different experiences, and teach us lessons that we carry our entire lives.

Will you support a future that recognizes and values the literary voices and talents of Black people and people of color?

Yes, yes, absolutely yes! I could not agree more and I signed the petition. I absolutely support it, in fact, I will go one step further and demand that the CEOs of Penguin, Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster publish ONLY black WOMEN and women of color and/or diverse sexual orientations and identities. After all, “black people read more of every type of book.”

You can’t argue with that.

This year’s Nebula Awards, where 24 out of the 34 works nominated for the award were written by women from multiple racial and cultural backgrounds and a spectrum of sexual orientations, and only 5 works were written by straight white men, is a step in the right direction. But we’re not there yet! Not yet!

We must not stop until Pink SF is 100 percent SJW-converged, and 100 percent of the authors, editors, and awards are black women and women of color!

UPDATE: And you thought I was kidding.

Dear Vox,

Thank you for taking action and adding your voice to the demand that the “Big Five” publishing houses create internships specifically for Black people and people of color. With your help we can ensure that diversity is more than just a buzzword used by companies. We can ensure that racial inclusion and equity become a reality, and that we are included in the portrayal of our stories.

Sincerely,

Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Bernard, Brittaney, Evan, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team 

Book Bomb: Nethereal

Larry Correia has announced his latest Book Bomb in support of 2016 Campbell Nominee Brian Niemeir. Brian is a friend of the blog, and of Castalia House, and so I’m quite happy to support Larry in his efforts.

Nethereal is the first book in the Soul Cycle series. It’s $3.99 and is currently at #43,662 in Kindle. Larry describes it as “Space Pirates Go To Hell.”

Of extinction and diversity

Rhinos are being sent to Australia to save them from Africans:

Eighty South African rhinos may soon be on their way to Australia in part of an ambitious effort to establish an ‘insurance population for the world.’ The Australian Rhino Project, spearheaded by South Africa-native Ray Dearlove, plans to fly 20 rhinos per year between 2016 and 2019 to Australia, where they will make up a breeding herd to protect against possible extinction.

The number of rhinoceros is rapidly declining with figures estimating that one is poached every eight hours in South Africa, according to the organization. The animals are tracked and killed and their horns are cut off for illegal trade, primarily to Asia, where they’re sold for tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram….

Ultimately, Australia is serving as a secure place for the animals to live and breed – for now. If and when Africa becomes safe for rhinos again, the animals will be repatriated to their homeland – a feat that may not occur for generations, Dearlove believes.

The non-profit is awaiting various clearances before the first rhino is airlifted overseas, but the organization continues to raise money.

Some of the biggest expenses include the numerous 6,500-mile cargo flights which will transport the 2-ton animals over the next four years.

Apparently it is not only humans who must engage in white flight for survival. It’s all about time preferences in the end. In the case of the rhino, the demand for its horns is not going to go away, but the way in which that demand is met makes all the difference between survival and extinction.

With the revival of safe spaces, it has taken 60 years for progressives to come around on the issue of segregation. But the freedom to segregate is both an unalienable right and a prerequisite of maintaining a functioning society as well as a civilization. No one likes this, but it is reality and an observable fact of history. To destroy a society or an organization, integrate it, either forcibly or by removing the right of free association.

And one cannot integrate a nation. One can only dilute and subsume it, as we have seen with the increasingly defunct American nation as well as the many dead and dying Indian nations.

Consider this. If present trends hold, the future will no more consider your descendants to be Americans than many of my critics consider me to be an American Indian.

Importing disease

Tell us again how immigrants are beneficial to the native population, even when they are literally disease-infested:

One of every five refugees resettled in Minnesota by the federal government tested positive for latent tuberculosis in 2014, according to the state’s Department of Health.

Only 4 percent of the general population in the United States tested positive for latent tuberculosis in the most recent report provided by the Centers for Disease Control.

The April 2016 edition of the Refugee Health Quarterly, published by the Minnesota Department of Health reports that:

Minnesota had 150 cases of TB in 2015, compared to 147 cases in 2014 (a 2 percent increase). The most common risk factor for TB cases in Minnesota is being from a country where TB is common. TB screening is offered to all refugees during the domestic refugee health exam.

In 2014, 22 percent of refugees screened tested positive for LTBI (latent tuberculosis infection).

26 percent of all foreign born cases of tuberculosis in Minnesota were from people born in Somalia. Somalians almost exclusively enter the state through the refugee resettlement program.

Meanwhile, we’re simultaneously told by the same government that is importing disease-ridden aliens that if you don’t VACCINATE YOUR INFANT, you are practically committing murder.

Shades of infected blankets for the natives.

The unglamorous reality of the media

A 10-year news industry veteran explains that it’s a lot different than it looks from the outside:

After spending over a decade working in medium-sized cities for different television affiliates of ABC, NBC, and CBS, I came to the conclusion the industry does nothing but spew corporate, government, and Marxist propaganda nonstop. I was not content to spout this propaganda any longer, and I had to get out.

I went into the career with quite a different illusion. From childhood, growing up in the country we believed in the illusions the puppet masters in the “big city” media were creating. The media’s vision of the world and of our government led us to believe it was all truly a shining city on the hill, and journalists were wonderful people serving the public interest and looking out for the little guy.

Growing up a poor kid, with no connections, no race or gender card to play, and no money, landing a job as a news anchor seemed like a far off fantasy. Many in high school, including my teachers believed I could never make it. After driving off to college in a broken down car with $800 in my pocket, hitting the ground running in a different state 500 miles from home, often working two jobs, I pushed harder than the other kids at my school and landed an on-air position while in college.

Further hard work and sacrifice landed me another job and then another in a highly competitive field. Meantime, I could have been out doing blow off a whore’s ass instead of studying calculus and other tough subjects, effectively sacrificing some of the best years of my life, but I figured the payoff would be worth the sacrifice and pushed through.

However, I began to lose respect for the media once I found out the truth about who works in it, how it operates, why it operates, who it operates in the interest of, and how it was treating me. Here are five reasons I grew to despise the mainstream media before striking out to do my own thing.

Can confirm. I was frankly astonished when I visited the building at KARE-11 in Minneapolis in 1993 or thereabouts. I had an on-set test there when they were considering the idea of having a regular segment on games; it did not go well, partly due to me, and partly because they insisted on having me play the game live while the anchor stand-in was talking to me.

But having been accustomed to corporate comfort, and being familiar with corporate luxury, it was really bizarre to see the faded carpets, the seventies furniture, and the cheap office furniture that looked like they’d inherited it from Honeywell in the 1950s.

And the sets are freaking cold! That’s why you never see them sweat, they’re all half-frozen to death.

Due to my newspaper column and being on the board of a TV station, there were a few media folks I got to know over time, and one or two I even came to like. But in the case of the latter, they were guys who had other things going for them than just their news media careers.

Do you even game, bro?

I can’t even what OH COME ON!

Polygon released a video last week of one of its reviewers playing the first 30 minutes of the new Doom. But it wasn’t the review that caused a storm. The reviewer’s playing was so bad that Polygon had to disable ratings and comments on the YouTube video to save themselves the wrath of online vitriol.

One fan even posted a video to YouTube highlighting the reviewer’s incompetence.

The reviewer picked to play the demo is someone who earns a living testing out video games, and yet he or she plays this shooter like a four-year-old. And it’s not the only time that reviewers from Polygon, which is part of Vox Media, have simply quit playing a game because it too hard.

All of this begs the question: Are the site’s reviewers skilled enough as gamers to be evaluating a wide swath of gaming titles?

This is horrifically embarrassing. I mean, I haven’t been a professional game reviewer in over a decade and I am MORTIFIED for this person. About the only thing he didn’t do was run into a wall and get stuck there with his nose pressed against it. Let’s just say skills and standards have dropped considerably from the time TC and Scorpio and I were reviewing for CGW, and Paul the Pro Player was reviewing for Game Informer.

It’s also conclusive evidence of pretty much everything #GamerGate ever said about game journos.

An announcement from Dr. Pournelle

From Chaos Manor: Announcing Hardbound Edition: There Will Be War, Volumes I & II. The first two volumes of the 1980’s anthologies bound together in a hardbound edition. Obviously these are available as eBooks for considerably less, but if you want them as a book, this is your opportunity.

There Will Be War Volumes I & II is 702 pages, casebound hardcover, and retails for $34.99 at Amazon. It may show up at other brick-and-mortar bookstores, but when that will be we do not know. It contains the complete contents of the first two volumes of Dr. Pournelle’s classic military science fiction series and marks the first time There Will Be War has ever been available in hardcover.

The omnibus edition of Volumes I & II contain 42 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note are “Reflex” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the original “Ender’s Game” novella by Orson Scott Card, “In the Name of the Father” by Edward P. Hughes, “Cincinnatus” by Joel Rosenberg, “On the Shadow of a Phosphor Screen” by William Wu, and “Proud Legions,” an essay on the Korean War by T.R. Fehrenbach.

We do not plan to release There Will Be War in paperback. The next hardcover edition will be Volumes IX & X. We designed these editions for serious fans of the series who intend to collect them; as you can see, the Vol. II cover is featured on the front while the Vol. I cover is on the back.

SJWs never learn

This brilliant and totally new idea that has never been thought before by anyone in the science fiction world amused me when it was broached on Rape Rape’s blog:

mrjoshuaspeaks
Is it not time for a simple “Bannishment” of the Pet Leech? I realize that nobody wants to open up a “BlackList” situation but why not just say “you are done” to V.D. and his publishing house and obvious cohort saboteurs. If that is to much at least cut out V.D..

As a diverse and open fanbase it is completely justified and to our collective benefit to say you are a problem and we do not acknowledge you. Let him prove his point on the web by spewing hate speech and gibberish, nobody but his little niche of followers would care. It may leave out a small sum of quality works that sadly will not be recognized but that is a small price to pay for the quality we lose with his contributors sweeping the votes.

Simply saying we do not want V.D. and his views and actions as a representation of fandom as a whole sounds “great” does it not? Let him slaver and spew from afar.

Duly noted. I acknowledge SF fandom’s refusal to acknowledge me, accept it at face value, and for my part, promise to continue to ignore their opinions, feelings, and perspectives. As for “bannishment” that is a tactic that has clearly worked out very well for Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, SFWA, and others. I would absolutely welcome another banishment, not because I am a gamma male engaging in the customary public posturing, but because the most recent one resulted in a one-million monthly increase in my average pageviews. I expect a Martin-inspired Worldcon banishment could prove even more productive in this regard than the Scalzi-driven SFWA “expulsion” was.

  1. Nielsen Haydens condemn VD’s presence on a Nebula jury 
    • Nebula juries canceled
  2. SF SJWs proclaim VD will never be published by mainstream SF publishing houses
    • Castalia House launched.
    • Multiple bestselling authors join Castalia House.
    • VD writes and publishes four category bestsellers in nine months (with assistance from John Red Eagle, Dr. James Miller, and Dominic Saltarelli.)
  3. SFWA Board votes to expel VD from SFWA
    • John Wright joins Castalia House
    • VD’s average monthly pageviews grow from 1.2 million to 2.2 million.
    • VD collects first Hugo nomination
  4. SF fandom votes to No Award “Opera Vita Aeterna” in 2014.
    • Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies take 57 nominations.
    • VD collects second and third Hugo nominations
  5. SF fandom No Awards the Puppies in 2015
    • Rabid Puppies take 69 nominations (5 games DQ’d)
    • VD collects fourth and fifth Hugo nominations
    • Hugo rules changed: EPH and 4 of 6 pass.
    • “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”

Apparently SJWs aren’t gifted when it comes to pattern recognition. By all means, open up your hate and let it flow into me. Who could possibly doubt if they redouble their efforts one more time, just this one more time, their exclude-and-disapprove-and-refuse-to-acknowledge tactics will finally succeed!

Meanwhile, Yagathai not only confirms that Larry Correia was correct all along, but justifies the ongoing campaign against Tor Books:

yagathai
I have not read Between Light and Shadow. I do not plan to. I will nevertheless vote against it. Castalia House is the propaganda organ of an odious white supremacist and obscene misogynist, and I will fight to deny it even a breath of legitimacy.

That may not be all Castalia is. It may also publish serious works of scholarship, but that’s immaterial — lay down with puppies and you get fleas. Any work published by CH is tainted.

You can call this a “political reason” if you like. I don’t. I see it as a matter of common decency.

He has a right to his opinion, as silly as it may be. As do we. Tor Books is the SJW-converged propaganda organ of an unreconstructed Stalinist, feminist, and dyscivilizationist, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and while it may publish a few works that are not Pink SF, that is immaterial. Any work published by Tor Books is tainted.

It is a matter of common decency. Boycott Tor Books. Tor delenda est.

And finally, one of the authors of EPH shows his true colors. Remember, Worldcon kept going on and on about how impartial their very professional statisticians were, right up until those statisticians discovered that the Puppies were not the only slates in play and promptly buried the evidence by refusing to disclose the information they’d previously promised to disclose.

jamesonquinn
I’m the person who put together the ideas for EPH in the first place; a co-author of the analysis that prompted this post; and the person who first suggested a strengthened version of EPH (being called “EPH+” on File 770) for 2018. Clearly I’m not unbiased, but I am an expert on voting systems….

(VD is currently crowing about how GRRM is not a real hard science fiction writer like Piers Anthony was or else he would have realized that EPH wasn’t a panacea, and about how he will always have another plan and thus can never be foiled. As a voting theorist, I can say to him: I may also be no golden age SF author, but I do know how to shut you, and your innumerable plans, down. And what it looks like is exactly like what you’re seeing: an inexorable reduction of your ability to create the chaos you desire, step by carefully-considered consensus step.)

All things are possible, Mr. Quinn. I will certainly welcome adding the scalp of a Harvard statistician to my growing collection. I note there is already one strike against you; I knew, as you did not, that EPH would fail from the start. And I take no small pleasure in being the first to inform you that EPH+ will as well, as you quite clearly do not understand its inevitable consequences.

Do try to keep up

George Martin and the SF-SJWs are a bit downcast at the belated discovery that E Pluribus Hugo is going to work about as well as relying upon one recommended individual per category withdraw after being nominated:

Over the past few months, I’ve read countless variations of the statement that goes, “well, this is the last year we will have a problem, come summer we’ll pass EPH and all will be fine.” I had my doubts about that every time I heard it, and this new report just confirms them. We may indeed pass EPH, and it may help… a little… but all will not be fine.

We may pass 4/6 too, and that could also help… slightly… but it’s easily thwarted, if you have hundreds of followers who will do exactly as you tell them, and the Rabids seem to have just that.

If EPH and 4/6, or both, are passed at MidAmericon II, and work more-or-less as advertised, the slates will no longer be able to completely dominate entire categories by taking all five slots. The reforms should ensure that there are at least one or two legitimate nominees in every category. Which is better, certainly, than what has happened to Best Related Work the past two ballots, say. But it is still far from ideal. Future ballots will instead look more like last year’s Best Novelette, Best Professional Artist, and Best Fan Writer shortlists, or this year’s Best Fan Artist, all of which featured one legit choice and four slate candidates. Maybe we’d see some improvement in some categories, and have two finalists to choose between.

Better than what we have now? Sure. But comparable to being able to choose among five strong candidates to decide which one was the very best of the year? Not even close.

I can hear the proponents of EPH and 4/6 saying their reforms were never meant to be a cure all. Yes, I know that, I never believed otherwise, and I applaud your efforts to help. I just wish these reforms helped more. Neither EPH nor 4/6 is going to prevent us from having VD on the Best Editor shortlist from now until the heat death of the universe.

This is evidence in itself of the decline of science fiction. The “beardy middle-aged middle-Americans” of the sort that NK Jemisin decried had sufficient math to see this coming. What passes for today’s “science fiction” writers, not so much.

If they think they’re tired and demoralized now, well, just wait. The Rabid Puppies haven’t even begun to exhaust their tactical arsenal.