Category: Uncategorized

Reddit is dead

Roosh absolutely called this one after Pao was appointed CEO. Ruled by SJWs, Reddit is a dead site walking:

When failed discrimination plaintiff Ellen Pao was appointed CEO of Reddit last January, many predicted that it would herald a new age of censorship on the link-sharing and discussion site. Those predictions appear to have come true, as a number of communities on the site (known as “subreddits”) have just been unilaterally shut down.

The sudden move resulted in the removal of one popular subreddit, /r/fatpeoplehate, which until its closure was the 13th-most active community on Reddit. The subreddit was dedicated to mocking fat people and the “fat acceptance” movement, although it was not known for engaging in any off-site harassment. Other Redditors have cited the subreddit as an important source of motivation to maintain a healthier lifestyle.

The crackdown came after a week of censorship on Reddit, including the mass deletions of links to media stories and even satirical cartoons concerning CEO Ellen Pao. There was also a bizarre incident in which a moderator of a gaming community demanded a user write a 500-word essay on trans acceptance before being unbanned. The user’s crime was using the word “trap”: a common, but not derogatory, term of Internet slang to describe crossdressers. Despite protestations from transwomen who said they were not offended, the moderator refused to relent.

There are early indications that the Reddit admins may have finally crossed the Rubicon on the road to alienating their user base. User activity on their main competitor, Voat.co had been rising steadily since social media censorship became an issue during the #GamerGate controversy, but in the past few hours their figures have skyrocketed.  At the time of writing, there are over 3,700 active users on Voat’s alternative to /r/fatpeoplehate —almost double its number of subscribers.

The lesson that conservatives and even liberals have to learn is that there can be no toleration for SJWs. There can be no support for SJW organizations and institutions. Their entryists must be guarded against. The prideful, self-centered declaration that you are above all cultural war and will nobly go down to graceful defeat rather than dirty yourself by choosing a side doesn’t mean that you have higher ideals and standards, it means that you are observably stupid and self-defeating.

Fence-sitting doesn’t make you a better person. Especially when the fence is in the process of being knocked down by SJW bulldozers.

Yes, but…

A File 770 SJW frets that we won’t be satisfied with Gallo’s resignation:

And “Tor employs people who openly call their authors and their customers Nazis” will be written into the anti-SJW litany to be recited with all the other sins of the enemy as part of the Puppy creed as often as possible, along with others like “John Scalzi was mean to VD” and “They call us wrongfans having wrongfun” and “SWIRSKY!” No matter what happens as an outcome for Gallo, which is why it infuriates me even more that they are trying so hard to get her fired. They would wreck her life and dance in the wreckage and go right on complaining what an awful hive of SJW-ness Tor is.

Well, that all depends on how many SJWs Mr. Doherty and/or Macmillan have the good sense to stop inflicting on science fiction. But (and this is the relevant point), thousands of current customers attacked by Ms Gallo won’t stop buying their books. If Gallo was a fry cook or a sales clerk, she’d be gone already. You don’t show that kind of disrespect and hatred for your customers and keep your job. You simply don’t.

I am under no illusion that anyone at Tor or Macmillan like me or wish to do me any favors. But I do assume that they are capable of doing basic math and grasping the lesson of Fox News. Of course, if they instead decide that they want to play the role of CNN and sell only to the left one-third of the population, well, that is certainly their prerogative.

UPDATE: Mr. Doherty, you clearly have a very serious problem at Tor Books. You need to resolve it. Now.

I am not only not “a neo-Nazi”, but I cannot “fairly be described” as
one. I am, as it happens, one of the Internet’s leading libertarians. One has to be remarkably stupid, or shamelessly dishonest, to claim that a well-known libertarian is a National Socialist of any kind.

Sad Puppies stop rape!

I just can’t how what wow just wow:

Sad/Rabid Puppies are ultimately self-defeating. They want long stories about traditional white men raping and killing things in traditional fantasy settings — but every time they do something else to disrupt the Hugos, George RR Martin, the current king of long stories about traditional white men raping and killing things in a traditional fantasy setting, stops writing Winds of Winter and writes a novel-length essay on his LiveJournal about why the Puppies are ruining his favorite awards.

We haven’t been on the field. That’s the only possible answer for how we’ve been losing to these utter lunatics for the last three decades. That’s a comment from the Gawker piece on Tor’s failure to ask Irene Gallo for her resignation… yet.

Meanwhile, John Scalzi is showing his childhood scars on Twitter again.

I know of someone whose biggest life achievement is being a bigoted shithole of a human being. He’s going to be very sad on his deathbed

Actually, I expect I’ll be rather looking forward to seeing what comprises Level 2. One can only laugh at the degree of Gamma required to not only formulate, but make public that sort of lame passive-aggression. You’ll show them once you grow up, Johnny! Your time is coming. You’ll show them one day!

Johnny, I’m not one of those boys who made fun of you when you couldn’t go out and play at recess with everyone else. And I wouldn’t have done so had I been there. So grow the fuck up already and get over it.

Peter Grant issues a second warning

Does Tor really want war to the knife? Peter Grant counsels action:

I’ve been . . . not astonished, really, because I’ve seen it all before, but . . . taken aback, at least, by the depth of ignorance, prejudice and blind, religious-fervor-style ‘group-think’ displayed by many of those arguing in favor of Ms. Irene Gallo’s comments that precipitated the crisis concerning Tor….

Those tactics are not going to work in this case.  I’ve had enough.  So have many other people. Ms. Gallo’s words were the last straw for us, as I explained in my earlier posts.  They’re merely the latest example of a long-standing pattern of behavior by senior employees at Tor.  I’m not joking about my response, either.  I’m willing to give Tor a few days – a week at most – to rectify the situation and deal with all those involved, not just Ms. Gallo.  If the company fails to do so, I will call for a boycott of its products and publications . . . and I won’t do so alone.  I’ve consulted with a large number of fellow authors and other individuals about this over the past few days.  There are some influential figures involved, as Tor may soon find out to its cost.

If that happens, some readers may be surprised to learn how widespread is the anger and bitterness that has built up during the past few months and years concerning the individuals I’ve identified at Tor.  Their conduct and attitudes have become inseparably intertwined in the minds of many – including myself – with the conduct and attitudes of their employer.  We don’t believe they can be separated.  It’s for Tor to prove us wrong . . . but I suspect that’s not about to happen, because to my mind – our minds – Tor really is standing behind them, despite Mr. Doherty’s attempts to distinguish between the company and its senior staff.

I truly hope it doesn’t come to a boycott . . . but if it does, so be it.  We no longer have anything to lose by acting.  Tor, on the other hand, risks losing everything by not acting.  I say that as a former director of companies, with post-graduate business education and a good understanding of the financial pressures on Tor and companies like it.  (Yes, individuals at ‘some companies’ do talk about such things to outsiders, particularly when they’re also angry over what’s happening internally.  The numbers are . . . interesting.)

Your move, Tor . . . for a short time.  I truly hope you make the right one before it’s too late.

The Evil Legion of Evil has not yet called for a boycott by the many Tor customers attacked by Ms Gallo. It has, after all, only been two days since the management at Tor Books learned about her attack on them. But the one thing they must understand is that an apology is not enough. We expect a resignation.

Sooner or later, Ms Gallo will resign. It’s only a question of how much damage Tor Books, and perhaps more importantly, Macmillan, are willing to take first.

Meanwhile, John C. Wright clarifies a previous statement:

A reader asked what I meant when I said, that as a matter of formality, Irene Gallo’s pro forma and possibly insincere apology for her pro-forma and possibly insincerely insult satisfied my sense of honor.

It is difficult for me to explain something that is second nature to me, which is alien to the modern world at every point. In the military, the soldier is obligated to salute the uniform wore by officers of higher rank, not the man wearing it, and the man wearing it is obligated to behave as the uniform requires. The salute satisfies the formality.

An apology satisfies the demand for apology; if the person proffer it did so with deceptive intent, God Almighty, who sees and knows the hearts of the sinners, will punish the falsehood with penalties nightmarish, vehement, absolute, and infinite, that my heart quails to contemplate them. I cannot burn a disembodied soul in hell forever, and neither can I read minds and hearts. Hence, I am not in a position judge the sincerity of an apology, nor do I have the least desire to do so.

Honor is an external thing, a matter of form. If the form is satisfied, honor is satisfied. Refusing an apology on the grounds of it insincerity is a privilege reserved to women.

In the case of Irene Gallo, I do not need any further words from her, nor does she owe me anything more. I look forward to working with whomever Mr Doherty hires to replace her.

Mailvox: favorites in A GAME OF THRONES

AL is curious about the characters in A GAME OF THRONES:

Who is your favorite character? Would you be interested at all in a discussion on that on your blog? Maybe you discussed it before but after searching through your posts I couldn’t find who you thought your favorite character is.

I think one has to distinguish between the characters as written in the books and the characters in the TV show. For example, I think Roose Bolton is creepy and disgusting in the books, but I rather like him on the show. The former is The Leech, the latter is not.

On the show, easily my favorite figure is Littlefinger, Lord Peter Baelish. He might occasionally overreach himself, but I like his ambition, his ruthlessness, his confidence, and his style. I don’t like the Littlefinger of the books as much, as that Littlefinger is more of a self-conscious social-climber who tends to lack the confidence and style of the TV Littlefinger.

In the books, I liked the two Starks, Ned and Robb, although I found their cluelessness about the nature and behavior of evil, untrustworthy men to be as frustrating as it is realistic. I see them in many a conservative who is determined to lose as nobly and graciously as possible. I liked Tywin Lannister of the books and absolutely loved Charles Dance in that role – how could you not – although I found his hatred for Tyrion to be somewhat inexplicable given that he has no other heirs. I also found it highly implausible that he didn’t free Jaime from his Kingsguard oath; these are not people who respect oaths, priests, or gods.

The female character I find most attractive is Myranda, the psycho little daughter of the kennelmaster. The female character I most disliked was Caitlyn Stark, in the books and on TV. She was nasty to Jon Snow and kept trying to interfere, ineptly, in things of which she knew nothing. The showrunners were wise to leave her undead version out of the TV show. And the Sansa of the TV show is much more interesting and complex than Martin’s Sansa, who appears to exist mostly to absorb Martin’s Gamma hate for female innocence and hope.

Two schools of customer care

Now, I have no standing to tell Tor Books how it should run its business or interact with its customers. But I do find the difference between the two rival schools of thought on the matter to be pretty astonishing when you compare and contrast them. One of our customers recently sent us this note

An unsolicited endorsement….

Recently I took advantage of a “buy vol 1 and get vol 2 free” offer from Castalia House on a Friday. Saturday I opened my email to see two links to the books.

I clicked vol 1 and it downloaded, I clicked vol 2 and got the message “you have reached your download limit”..

I sent an email asking for the link to be reset, I expected to hear a reply on Monday.

But instead (on a Saturday), I received an email apologizing and asking me about the format I needed. I replied and within a few minutes received an email with vol 2 attached. (on a Saturday!)

That is the definition of good customer service.

I fear, however, that we completely failed to call him a neo-nazi or an unrepentant racist homophobe at any point in the process. Now, every company has different ideas about how to best interact with their customers, and I expect there is probably something to be said for hurling vituperative insults at people you would like to buy things from you. Precisely what that might be, I have no idea, but then, we’re relatively new to the publishing game. I know we have a lot to learn.

I guess I’m just a techno-caveman. I don’t understand these newfangled means of “marketing”, all this flashy “social media”, all these “tweets” and “follows” and “likes”.

Is it a sort of Soup Nazi spin? You know, “no books for you!” Does anyone know of any market research indicating precisely what insults tend to be most effective in improving brand loyalty?

And would “buy our bad-to-reprehensible books, racist neo-nazi homophobes!” be a good place to start?

Descent into darkness

 VDH warns of the end of an age:

History is not static and it does not progress linearly.  There was more free speech and unimpeded expression in 5th-century
Athens than in Western Europe between 1934-45, or in Eastern Europe
during 1946-1989. An American could speak his mind more freely in 1970
than now. Many in the United States had naively believed that the
Enlightenment, the U.S. Constitution, and over two centuries of American
customs and traditions had guaranteed that Americans could always take
for granted free speech and unfettered inquiry.

That is an ahistorical assumption. The wish to silence, censor, and
impede thought is just as strong a human emotion as the desire for free
expression — especially when censorship is cloaked in rhetoric about
fairness, equality, justice, and all the other euphemisms for not
allowing the free promulgation of ideas.

George Orwell devoted his later years to warning us that while the
fascist method of destroying free expression was easily identified
(albeit only with difficulty combatted), the leftwing totalitarian
impulse to squelch unpopular speech was far harder to resist — couched
as it was in sloganeering about the “people” and “social justice.” 

He’s right. The descent into the Dark Ages will not end well. It never has in the past. We must fight the barbarians at every step, within and without, because even though we will probably lose, we will preserve the seeds from which future civilizations will grow.

The rules of the game

VFM 0007 illustrates why the Supreme Dark Lord does not leave the philosophizing to his minions:

I’m not entirely at ease with this. It doesn’t seem just to demand that she be fired for her personal opinions. Would someone explain how it is, please?

The rules of the game of Cultural War, as defined by the SJWs, is that when a member of the other side is foolish enough to overstep the current PR bounds, their employment is a legitimate target. See: Brandon Eich. Or see: every attempt to DISQUALIFY and expel and blackball and disassociate me for the last ten years. Remember that a single tweeted link to a measured response to a vile personal attack was all it took justify the SFWA witch hunt against me, a witch hunt in which Tor Books Senior Editor and Manager of Science Fiction Patrick Nielsen Hayden not only participated, but co-orchestrated. Note the dates below.

John Scalzi @scalzi
I just renewed my @sfwa membership!
2:18 PM – 14 Aug 2013

P Nielsen Hayden ‏@pnh Aug 14
@scalzi So did I! What a coincidence! @sfwa

If a CEO can lose his job for donating to a successful political campaign in the past, an Associate Publisher can, and should, lose her job for attacking her publishing house’s own authors and customers. That is not only just, it is entirely fair play. It doesn’t matter if Gallo apologizes or not. Eich apologized even though he did nothing wrong and he was still pressured into resigning.

Gallo issued an unapology under pressure from her employer and she will probably end up issuing another one before she eventually resigns. Unless, of course. Mr. Doherty or someone higher up the chain finally does what should have been done yesterday and fires her. If someone at Castalia House were ever to attack our authors or customers in that way, they wouldn’t even be given the chance to apologize. They would be fired on the spot. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly out the door. The fact that neither Mr. Doherty nor Mr. Patrick Nielsen Hayden saw fit to fire Ms Gallo for cause speaks volumes about where their priorities are.

Those priorities, of course, are their prerogative. Unlike Tor Books, everyone at Castalia House, from our volunteers to our Publisher, respects and values our authors. We value every single one of them, even those with whom we inevitably disagree on one issue or another. We value our customers as well, and as those who have had the occasional problem with getting their books delivered know, we go out of our way to take care of them even if the problem is on their end.

The idea of actually attacking them is the polar opposite of our attitude towards our customers. Without our customers, we not only don’t exist, we have no reason to exist. Tor Books appears to have forgotten that.

Stephen Ashby is nevertheless dubious:

You expect a resignation? I can see why you want one, but I don’t see what would lead you to expect it. Personally I expect Tor will simply pretend the matter is dealt with, and if you don’t accept that then they will claim you’re the one being unreasonable.

Absolutely. I expect one because I don’t believe Tom Doherty or Patrick Nielsen Hayden are entirely stupid. If they don’t accept her resignation soon, then I expect Macmillan, who I don’t believe to be stupid in any way, shape, or form, to not only fire Gallo but also remove those executives who have been derelict in their management duties.

The further away one is from the cultural battle in SF/F, the more totally inexcusable Gallo’s behavior appears. Especially from the purely corporate perspective. Not only was Ms Gallo’s attitude and statement in direct conflict with the Macmillan Code of Conduct, it is is direct conflict with one of the most basic rules of business: cherish your customers and treat them with care and respect.

Many of us are waiting to see how Tor is going to respond. If Mr. Doherty thinks his initial statement is sufficient to conclude the matter, he is woefully mistaken. If no further action is forthcoming I expect that more than a few people, myself included, will be publicly endorsing the boycott for which some writers and SF readers have already called.

Mr. Doherty, with the greatest possible respect to you as an individual:  until Tor publicly dissociates itself from the outrageous positions taken by the individuals I have named (all of them), publicly rebukes those concerned, and takes steps to make sure that no such statements are ever again made by senior members of the company, I shall be unable to believe any assurances that their views are not those of Tor.  Actions speak louder than words – and so does the absence of actions.  All Tor has offered is words.  It’s time for actions.  What is Tor going to, not say, but DO about the situation? – because unless and until it does the right thing, others are going to do what they believe to be necessary and appropriate under the circumstances.

There is very little time left to address these issues before this situation gets out of control.  For the sake of all of us in the SF/F community, I hope Tor uses it wisely.

You can leave your own comments on Mr. Doherty’s statement at Tor.com. And speaking of management duties… Malwyn? It appears #7 wants further instruction in the art of proper minionhood.

An unapology, unaccepted

Tom Doherty, Publisher of Tor Books, disavows Irene Gallo’s views, but does absolutely nothing to resolve the situation.

Last month, Irene Gallo, a member of Tor’s staff, posted comments about
two groups of science fiction writers, Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies,
and about the quality of some of the 2015 Hugo Award nominees, on her
personal Facebook page. Ms. Gallo is identified on her page as working
for Tor. She did not make it clear that her comments were hers alone.
They do not reflect Tor’s views or mine. She has since clarified that
her personal views are just that and apologized to anyone her comments
may have hurt or offended….

Tor employees, including Ms. Gallo, have been reminded that they are
required to clarify when they are speaking for Tor and when they are
speaking for themselves. We apologize for any confusion Ms. Gallo’s
comments may have caused. Let me reiterate: the views expressed by Ms.
Gallo are not those of Tor as an organization and are not my own views. 
Rest assured, Tor remains committed to bringing readers the finest in
science fiction – on a broad range of topics, from a broad range of
authors.

D. Jason Fleming points out that Irene Gallo, Associate Publisher of Tor.com and Creative Director of Tor Books, didn’t actually apologize and is clearly of the same mind still.

She does
not apologize for impugning the characters of a very large number of
people. She does not apologize for impugning authors who work for her
employer, in particular. She does not apologize for her immaturity in
prancing about demonstrating that she’s not part of a tribe she hates.
She does not apologize for her bigotry in any way, shape, or form.

She only apologizes for the feelings of people who might have been hurt by what she said.

What she said, then, must still stand.

 So what did she actually say?

I don’t know about the rest of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies she called right-wing extremists and neo-nazis, or the authors she described as writing “bad-to-reprehensible works”, or everyone she called “unrepentantly racist, misogynist, and homophobic”, but as for me, I’m not hurt. So why is she apologizing for nonexistent events she hypothesizes rather than her rank unprofessionalism, her shameless bigotry, and her unprovoked attack on the right two-thirds of SF/Fdom? Especially when she still hasn’t informed us whose works are bad and whose are reprehensible.

I don’t want an apology. I don’t expect an apology.

I expect a resignation.