Tag: Puppies

They can’t say we didn’t warn them

Some of you may recall this back on August 23, 2015:


No doubt George Martin, John Scalzi, David Gerrold, The Guardian, and
the rest of the SJWs will try to portray this as a resounding defeat for
us, but keep this in mind: the side that resorts to a scorched earth
strategy is the one that is losing and in retreat. All they have
accomplished is to convert many Sad Puppies into Rabid Puppies.

 
They have talked about sending us a message, and we have heard it. I
don’t know about you, but the message I heard was “bring more Puppies.”

Give them credit where it is due. They made a serious effort, leading to 4,032 nominating ballots this year, nearly twice as many as last year’s record total. It didn’t matter. We heard the message. We brought more Puppies.

Well done, all of you Rabids. Very well done. According to Mike Glyer, the Rabid Puppies placed 64 of its 81 recommendations on the final ballot. I understand we actually would have done a little better than that were it not for the odd withdrawal or disqualification. (I’ll do my own count tomorrow; David Barnett had it at 62 of 80 in the Guardian.) You understand, as the other side does not, that there is no end to cultural war. They still think we can be intimidated, or shamed, or guilted somehow, because those are the tactics that have worked for their kind for decades, if not generations.


But we are immune to such things. Let them scoff, let them minimize, let them posture, let them cry, it makes absolutely no difference what they do or what they say. There is nothing that they can do except vote No Award and change the rules. 


We have succeeded in breaking the Tor cabal’s deleterious death grip on science fiction. Next year, the next phase will begin. And we will be ready for it.

Are you not entertained? And more importantly, are you in?

Stop! Puppy Time!

If you can get away, work at home, or have a sufficiently relaxed employer, don’t hesitate to join us at the Rabid Puppy Hugo Nomination Party, being held at Brainstorm today. The Party kicks off at 12:30 Eastern; the shortlist announcements are scheduled to start at 1 PM. Everyone is invited, so register here if you want to join the party.

Considering that we had a great time being No Awarded last August, I can guarantee that we’ll have a good time whether we sweep the whole damn thing or we are skunked. I’ve already got a very good bottle of red wine awaiting the ritual uncorking, so you may want to contemplate your own libationary strategy.

Also, if you happen to see the vote totals being reported, please write them down.

500 more votes

MidAmericaCon II reports more than 4,000 nominating votes for the 2016 Hugo Awards:

Over 4,000 nominating ballots were received for the 2016 Hugo Awards, nearly doubling the previous record of 2,122 ballots set last year by Sasquan, the 73rd Worldcon held in Spokane, WA.

I would assume that this bodes poorly for the Rabid Puppies, as it tends to indicate a stronger turnout by the No Awards than predicted by Chaos Horizon. His prediction assumed 3,620 nominating votes, about 500 short of what we will assume was 4,100 votes.

So, I have to conclude that expectations of a second-straight Puppy sweep are highly unlikely, although we will likely get a few nominations where there is an amount of crossover appeal. If the vote had come in around 3,000, I would have felt reasonably confident. Over 4,000 and I tend to doubt the 500-strong Rabid Puppy vote can compete effectively with what has become an increasingly uniform SF-SJW vote until EPH passes.

However, this still indicates a high probability of an entirely satisfactory result, as our primary goal was to break the Tor cabal’s stranglehold on the awards, not to dominate them in turn.

SJW attack on Jim Butcher

This is one of the many, many reasons that an alternative to SJW-run Wikipedia is badly needed. To the admins’ credit, at least it has been tagged as “persistent vandalism”.

It seems to have less to do with his inclusion on the Rabid Puppies list than it does with some SJW activist with a particular axe to grind at a literary celebrity’s expense, but it tends to demonstrate that anyone, no matter how publicly apolitical, is subject to SJW attack.

Personal life

Butcher was born in Independence, Missouri, in 1971.[1] He is the youngest of three children, having two older sisters. He lives in Independence, MO, and has one son.

[Information about Butcher’s personal life redacted.]

Following Spencer’s lead, the moderators of the /r/dresdenfiles sub-Reddit proceeded to threaten any posters making negative comments regarding Butcher with a ban and deletion of their content.[3]

Many Reddit users protested, alleging that the moderators’ actions constituted censorship, a practice that is generally regarded as anathema by artists, authors, and others in the creative fields.

In response, the /r/dresdenfiles moderators proceeded to codify their censorship by requiring users meet certain requirements prior to being able to post comments and also that new users or users with ‘unpopular’ points of view must have their comments approved by a moderator before publishing.[4]

On or around April 9, 2016, several of Butcher’s fans posted an open letter requesting that Butcher comment on the North Carolina transgender law. Other fans requested that Butcher adopt a more public stance, similar to the actions of Bruce Springsteen.

There have been many concerns by Butcher’s fans that Butcher’s books were not friendly to LGBT issues.[5][6][7]

The /r/dresdenfiles moderators proceeded to delete and censor all comments regarding Butcher’s views on LGBT issues, under the posture that those comments were “spam” or “shitposts.” [8]

The /r/dresdenfiles moderators proceeded to post in other sub-reddits regarding LGBT issues and political issues in order to discredit the legitimate concerns of Butcher’s LGBT-friendly fans. [9][10]

This is the great challenge of crowd-sourcing, as we’ve already seen on The Complete List of SJW. The problem is less the purely destructive vandals, who are easily anticipated and blocked, than those who see an opportunity to hijack the platform and try to use it for their own particular interests.

It would be good if we were also able to identify people like the vandal responsible for adding this to the page about Butcher.

As a general rule, if it is even necessary for you to explain your position, let alone rationalize or justify it, it does not belong on a wiki. The moment you find yourself telling someone “well, this is okay because”, the moment you even use the word “because”, just stop and give it up. If it’s not so absolutely obvious that there is no need to explain it, then it does not belong.

If you’re going to contribute to The Complete List of SJW, an excellent place to find SJWs is to look for quotes in articles by SJW journalists. For example, this pair of articles by SJW journalist Tess Townsend, who is running interference for the LambdaConf no-platform campaign, exposes several SJWs. They will readily hang themselves by their own words through their endorsements of no-platforming people on SJW grounds.

Also, Cynic in Chief: a) email me and b) lock it down now. We need admins.

Rampaging Puppies

It has been brought to my attention, by several critics, that we of the Rabid Puppies have unfairly focused our attention on the Hugo Awards, and that it is only due to the unique nature of the Hugo Awards rules that our presence is able to make itself felt.

It has been suggested, for example, that were we to turn our attention to other awards in the field, with other, more democratic systems, that our dearth of numbers would become apparent to all and sundry.

Which is why, sweet, slavering Puppies, I would direct your attention to the venerable Locus Awards, that bastion of science fiction history, where Tor Books has won the Best Publisher award for 27 straight years, and which we are informed is more representative of the science fiction mainstream than the elitist Hugo and Nebula Awards. For those of you who were unable to afford the entry fee or otherwise missed registering for MidAmericaCon II, this is your opportunity to respond to the Call of the Dark and run with the Puppies.

You can enter your ballot here; though keep in mind that the voting ends in one week, on April 15th. My recommendations are as follows, although in many cases you will have to write them in, since Locus mysteriously tends to leave books published by Baen Books and Castalia House off its list of recommendations.

An unfortunate oversight, no doubt.

UPDATE: SJW author Matthew Woodring Stover doesn’t take the idea of expanded inclusivity well.

Matthew Woodring Stover April 08, 2016 12:40 PM  
You better hope we never meet in person, Beale. I will knock out all your nazi teeth. Same warning goes for Wright and Correia.”

It’s rather cute that he thinks he would be permitted an audience with the Supreme Dark Lord. Now, where were we? Ah, yes.

Best SF Novel

1    Golden Son, Pierce Brown (Del Rey)
2    Seveneves, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
3    Somewhither, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
4    Agent of the Imperium, Marc Miller, (Far Future)
5    A Borrowed Man, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

Best Fantasy Novel

1    Son of the Black Sword, Larry Correia (Baen)
2    The Aeronaut’s Windlass, Jim Butcher (Roc)
3    Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
4    The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf)
5.   A Net of Dawn and Bones, C. Chancy (Amazon Digital Services)

Best YA Book

1    Half a War, Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey; Harper Voyager UK)
2    Half the World, Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey)
3    The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)

Best First Novel

1     Agent of the Imperium, Marc Miller (Far Future)   
2     Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho (Ace; Macmillan UK)
3     The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
4     Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Solaris)
5     The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury)

Best Collection

1    Dancing Through the Fire, Tanith Lee (Fantastic Books)
2     Three Moments of an Explosion, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey 2016)
3    The Best of Gregory Benford, Gregory Benford (Subterranean)
4    Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi (Tachyon)
5    Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, Neil Gaiman (Morrow)

Best Anthology

1     There Will Be War Vol X, Jerry Pournelle (Castalia House)
2    Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan, Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington, eds. (Haikasoru)
3    The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-second Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
4    Old Venus, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Bantam)
5    The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, Joe Hill & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)

Best Nonfiction Book

1     SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police, Vox Day (Castalia House)
2     Beyond Light and Shadow, Marc Aramini (Castalia House)
3     The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks, Simone Caroti (McFarland)
4     Ray Bradbury, David Seed (University of Illinois Press)
5     The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales, Jeffrey Shanks and Justin Everette, (Rowman & Littlefield)


Best Art Book

1    Julie Dillon, Julie Dillon’s Imagined Realms, Book 2: Earth and Sky (self-published)
2    Petar Meseldžija, The Book of Giants (Flesk)
3    The Fantasy Illustration Library, Volume One: Lands & Legends, Malcolm R. Phifer & Michael C. Phifer (Michael Publishing)

Best Novella

1 Fear of the Unknown and Self-Loathing in Hollywood, Nick Cole (Tales of Tinfoil)
2 Penric’s Demon, Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)
3 Perfect State, Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
4 Teaching the Dog to Read, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean)
5 Slow Bullets, Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon Publications)
Best Novelette

1 Flashpoint: Titan, Cheah Kai Wai, There Will Be War Vol. X (Castalia House)
2 Folding Beijing, Hao Jingfang (Uncanny Magazine)
3 What Price Humanity?, David VanDyke, There Will Be War Vol. X (Castalia House)
4 Hyperspace Demons, Jonathan Moeller (Castalia House)
5 Obits, Stephen King, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (Scribner)
Best Short Story

1 Space Raptor Butt Invasion, Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)
2 Seven Kill Tiger, Charles Shao, There Will Be War Vol. X (Castalia House)
3 If You Were an Award, My Love, Juan Tabo and S. Harris (Vox Popoli)
4 The Commuter, Thomas Mays (Amazon Digital Services)
5 Asymmetrical Warfare, S. R. Algernon (Nature Nr. 519)   
Best Magazine or Fanzine

1    Black Gate
2    File 770
3    Analog
4    Asimovs
5    Sci-Phi Journal

Best Book Publisher

1     Castalia House
2     Baen
3    Gollancz
4     Orbit
5     Del Rey

Best Editor – Pro or Fan

1     Jerry Pournelle
2     Vox Day
3     Mike Braff
4     Toni Weisskopf
5     Jim Minz
    
Best Artist – Pro or Fan
   
1    Michael Whelan
2    Rowena Morill
3    Lars Braad Andersen
4    Michael Karcz
5    Larry Elmore

Chaos Horizon predicts Best Novel finalists

I respected the work that Brandon Kempner does at Chaos Horizon even before he went six for six in correctly predicting all the novels nominated for the 2016 Nebula Awards. Sure, the SJWs are getting more than a little predictable, but even so, that was an impressive performance.

He’s onto the 2016 Hugo Awards now, for which the nominations are now closed, and he has attempted to sort out how the three major factions, the Not-Puppies, the Rabid Puppies, and the Sad Puppies, are going to turn out in order to predict the Best Novel shortlist that will be announced on April 26th.

Some of his assumptions, all of which are reasonable, but not necessarily correct, are as follows:

  • Turnout will be higher than normal, but generally in line with past percentages of total eligibility.
  • There is no whisper slate among one or more groups of Puppykickers.
  • The Rabid Puppies are subject to normal group indiscipline.
  • The 2016 Sad Puppy list indicates how 2015 Sad Puppies will vote.

The latter is the most questionable assumption, and is almost certainly incorrect. The others are more reasonable and may well hold. His numbers indicate a maximum turnout of 709 nominations for the top Not-Puppy novel, 440 for all of the Rabid Puppy novels, and 360 for the top Sad Puppy novel. And although there is no formal Not-Puppy list, as noted before, the behavior of the SF-SJWs in fandom is so predictable that he was able to assemble the equivalent of the Not-Puppy slate, which is as follows:

  • Uprooted, Naomi Novik
  • Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie
  • The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin 
  • Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson 
  • Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

Note that I correctly identified three of them back in December. The notable omission is any novel published by Tor Books; if Chaos Horizon is correct, 2016 would mark only the third time since 1997 that Tor Books was not represented on the Best Novel shortlist. (This may explain the Torlings’ determination to push through EPH and guarantee Tor a permanent slot on the shortlist.)

Chaos Horizon presented 27 possible models. I selected max Not-Puppy, max Rabid Puppy, and max-min Sad Puppy to come up with these results, with the first five qualifying for the Best Novel shortlist.

918 Seveneves
853 Uprooted
800 Somewhither
782 The Aeronaut’s Windlass
774 Ancillary Mercy
522 The Fifth Season
522 Aurora
480 Golden Son
440 Agent of the Imperium

This was in line with Chaos Horizon’s own conclusions, which were revealed in the comments of his most recent post:

Jacob:
My prediction of the five nominees: Uprooted, Seveneves, The Aeronaut’s Windlass, Somewither, and Ancillary Mercy

chaoshorizon:
Way to spoil the surprise! But that’s what I think as well.

However, no one should start celebrating or cursing their stars yet. I suspect the Hugos will turn out to be less easily predicted than the Nebulas. First, the Rabid Puppies may outperform. A disciplined Rabid Puppy performance combined with half the Sad Puppies turning Rabid would mean Golden Son (which may be the best SF novel of the entire lot) would get 810 votes, which would allow it to knock Ancillary Mercy off the shortlist. Combine that with a half-hearted Not-Puppy effort, and the much-feared Rabid Puppy sweep becomes theoretically conceivable.

On the other hand, if the Puppykickers show the same ability to march in lockstep on the nominations that they did in voting No Award last year, even Seveneves won’t be nominated. In that case, we’ll probably see Barsk, The Fifth Season, and The Traitor Baru Cormorant in addition to Uprooted and Ancillary Mercy. And then there is always the possibility that one or more authors decline a nomination and render the entire nomination process irrelevant.

NOTA BENE: as Marc DuQuesne points out, the predicted outcome can be accurately characterized as a Puppy sweep, since both Ancillary Mercy and Uprooted appear on the Sad Puppy list. However, since only Uprooted
appears in the Sad Puppy top five, I don’t think that would be a
reasonable characterization of a shortlist containing the Leckie book.

Regardless three of five in Best Novel (four of five if we count SP) would exceed last year’s net Puppy performance, and would be quite satisfying in light of our known numerical disadvantage versus the entirety of SF fandom. It would also suffice to put EPH through, which would be very useful by guaranteeing the Puppies a permanent seat on the Hugo Security Council. And considering that Uprooted is not only a Sad Puppy recommendation but a pretty good fantasy to which I gave serious consideration to putting on the Rabid Puppies list, if Chaos Horizon is right, we would be very pleased should the outcome he anticipates come to pass.

Rabid Puppies 2016: updates and estimates

Chaos Horizon estimates between 20 percent and 80 percent of the Rabid Puppies will show up to nominate:

If the Rabid Puppies had around 550 votes in 2015, how many will they bring to 2016? Since all those who voted in 2015 can nominate in 2016, I imagine it will be a big number. Even so, I can’t imagine carrying 100% over—the nomination stage is simply less interesting, less publicized, and more difficult to vote in. Let’s imagine three scenarios: an 80% scenario, a 60% scenario, and a 40% scenario. I think 80% is the most likely; this is the group most invested in impacting the Hugos and the most likely to team up again. And since they don’t have to pay an entry fee to participate in the nomination stage . . .

I also think this group will have solid slate discipline, voting the list as Vox Day published it. If you want to factor in some slate decay, I’d do so for lesser known books like Agent of the Imperium.

I, personally, consider this to be an inadvertent affront. I would be surprised if only 80 percent of the Rabid Puppies could be bothered to show up and nominate – and remember, tomorrow is the last day in which you can submit your nominations to MidAmericaCon II. If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, don’t put it off any longer. Do it today.

What Chaos Horizon means by “slate decay” is a simple failure of discipline. Last year, for example, far more Puppies submitted nominations in Best Novel than in other, less important categories or went lone ranger on occasion. And while I can’t see what slate decay could possibly have to do with what is merely a list of recommendations, and by no means a direct order to
anyone, least of all the Rabid Puppies, the Sad Puppies, the Ilk, the
Dread Ilk, the Vile Faceless Minions, or the Evil Legion of Evil, by
their Supreme Dark Lord, I do think one would be remiss were one to fail to fill out the entire nominating ballot.

Speaking of which, I have updated the Rabid Puppies 2016 list with some of the additional information requested by the ballot form, such as the writers, directors, and editors in the Dramatic Presentation and Semiprozine categories. Be sure to check out your ballot before the end of day tomorrow to ensure that your voice is heard properly at the 2016 Hugo Awards. UPDATE: Note that as I have been unable to ascertain Rowena’s eligibility for Best Professional Artist, I am replacing her with LARRY ROSTANT who does some excellent blended work.

There are two big questions that will dictate how the 2016 shortlist turns out. The first is whether the Tor cabal has enacted a whisper slate or not, although the one-year recusal of John Scalzi and others tends to indicate that the Torlings have elected to sit back and anticipate that events will provide the necessary support required to ratify EPH this year. Given the way EPH will ensure them at least one permanent nomination in every category, that would be a reasonable, if surprisingly strategic, approach. The second big question is how many Sad Puppies were converted to Rabid Puppies by the various antics of the Puppykickers; if this has actually happened, the RP turnout could potentially exceed 750.

But that, my dear canines, dolorous and corybantic, is entirely up to you. By the way, be sure to save the copy of your ballot that MidAmericaCon sends you after you enter your nominations. We will need them in order to verify the announced results.

UPDATE: MidAmeriCon II ‏has announced that the shortlist ballot will be announced on 26th April. Voting will open 15th May and close July 31st. Hugo/No Awards ceremony 20th August.

A review of “Safe Space as Rape Room”

Lela Buis reviews the series:

This work is an expose about pedophilia within the SFF community. It’s posted by Castalia House in five parts on their website, plus three appendices for supplementary information. Like most people, I’ve been aware that particular members of the community had a dark side to their reputations, but this is an eye-opener. I’m impressed by the author’s integrity, and the challenges he brings about dealing with the problems. The law is the law, and everyone needs to observe it, regardless of their personal philosophies.

The only issue I have with this is that it gets sidetracked with attacks on John Scalzi as past president of the SFWA, and others, as enablers. However overwrought the charges, I have to admit Daniel does have a point with some of these complaints. I’m tempted to say this series should be required reading, but readers should keep in mind that Castalia House has an axe to grind, especially with Scalzi.

Four stars.

For me, the most damning thing has been the reaction to the series on the part of the SF community. Instead of grasping that they have a serious and ongoing problem on their hands, they have tried to minimize the extent of the problem, claim that it is just a few bad apples, and resolutely ignore the indications that there are more bad apples still active in their midst.

It’s not important that many of the people associated with Castalia House harbor contempt for SF fandom. What is important are the facts of the matter. And it is disingenuous, in the extreme, to claim that they have done anything but attempt to sweep the latest revelations under the carpet as fast as possible.

Contrast the claims of the Pedofilers at File 770 that the series is either old, irrelevant news or circumstantial evidence versus Ms. Buis’s statement that it is “an eye-opener”. While “Safe Space as Rape Room” is neither definitive nor conclusive, it is a very important first step in discovering just how pervasive the sickness in science fiction is and putting an end to it.

SF-SJWs always double down

A PedoFiler defends last year’s lies about the Sad Puppies at the Mad Genius Club while telling new ones about the Rabid Puppies:

As far as people wanting off the list goes, it’s strictly a problem of branding. In branding, perception matters. Perception is everything, and the “Puppy” brand has come to be associated with “cheaters who flooded the ballot with very poor stories” at best and “white supremacists who want to kill gays with tire irons” at worst. You can debate whether you think this is fair, but that’s why very few people want to be associated with “those bad people who want to destroy the Hugo Awards out of pure meanness.”

I agree that Kate did a lot this year to improve things. I read and reviewed all of the puppy-nominated works, and the Sad-Puppy ones are mostly pretty good this year.

But she didn’t do anything to fix the branding problem. The Sad Puppies kept up the same, tired campaign of name calling–the same name-calling that the Rabid Puppies use. They kept repeating the same conspiracy theories. And–unfathomably–they refused to repudiate Vox Day. Given the history, it would take a stupendous effort to disassociate themselves from him–an occasional mild “we’re not Vox Day” is nowhere near what it would take–but making a statement to the effect of “we will not endorse or condemn anyone” was broadly heard as “we really are Vox Day.”

You can argue all day that that’s not fair, but that’s the perception, and in branding, perception is everything.

You might think his omission of the rather important fact that the so-called “branding problem” was entirely based on blatant lies about the Puppies, and me, by people at Tor Books running to the media, was an innocent oversight. But Greg Hullender’s response to Joel Salomen makes it clear that the dishonesty, as well as the sexual deviance, runs deep in the little freakshow.

Joel Salomon   
You’re completely right. Of course, this implies that all those upset at being included in SP4 should direct their ire at the liars who created this false perception of the Sad Puppies brand.

greghullender
It’s a fairly accurate description of the Rabid Puppies, though, and you guys should take some responsibility for allowing the confusion. 

As the Overgrown Hobbit pointed out, it is not “a fairly accurate description”. It is “a damned lie”.

It is considerably more fair and accurate to say “homosexual pedophile and predatory chickenhawk” is a “fairly accurate description” of Greg Hullender than it is to say “white supremacists who want to kill gays with tire irons” is a “fairly accurate description of the Rabid Puppies”. I have absolutely no problem asserting that I have never been a white supremacist and I have never wanted to kill gays with tire irons, or anything else, for that matter. Now let us see Mr. Hullender publicly attest that he has never been attracted to anyone under the age of 18. And let us see the rest of the Puppy-kicking Pedo-Filers do the same.

If they don’t, they will stand condemned by their own silence, just as they stand condemned for the decades of silence in which they have been harboring multiple predators in their community.

Notice how the SF-SJWs shriek that it is unfair to label them as sexual deviants and defenders of pedophilia and child molestation even as they continue to defend the celebration of individuals such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Samuel Delaney, and Arthur C. Clarke, and try to justify their lies about the Sad and Rabid Puppies. The fact is that none of the SJWs who spent last year lying about the Puppies, and calling us racists and Nazis, has any right to complain about being correctly found guilty of their well-known associations with multiple alleged and confirmed child molesters.

Meanwhile, Sarah Hoyt explains the reason for the SF-SJW need to constantly decry, denounce, and disqualify:

I’ve said before that years ago, being mentioned at Instapundit would have meant the end of my career.

It wasn’t a stupid fear.  It was real.  Even though writers can’t control who reads them and likes them, if you’re liked by the “far right” you must be using “dog whistles” — and thus the blacklisting starts.

So those people asking to be removed from the Hugo recommendations which were made by fan vote?  Perfectly logical.  Getting tainted by association is a thing in their circles.

The people proclaiming that we: Larry, Brad, myself, John C. Wright, I don’t know if they were stupid enough to include Kevin J. Anderson and Butcher in that, but definitely everyone else in the list, had “ruined their careers” are right.  For their world and their definition of career.  None of the big four will ever publish us again, except Baen.

They are stuck in the old push-model days in their head.  They think that everyone down the chain will now boycott us.  And they want to make d*mn sure it doesn’t splash on them.

They don’t have the power to intimidate the right into silence anymore, so they are frantically casting about to find other ways to shut us down. But what they simply don’t realize is that they’re not dealing with the frightened, cowering conservatives of the past. They’re dealing with the criticism-hardened, ruthless Alt-Right of the present and we don’t run from conflict with them. We run towards it.

Let me explain how this Internet thing works

Bryan Thomas Schmidt doesn’t seem to realize that it’s a very bad idea to say one thing in public and another in private.

He posted this on Facebook yesterday:

“So apparently the abominable Vox Day put me on his Hugo list this year. First I heard if it. I have paid NO attention this year to lists, etc. I would demand removal but he clearly cares not what people think and states flat out he will not entertain removal requests. I “No Awarded” him last year and would again. I do not approve of this and see it as his attempt to do me further harm. Just going to ignore.”

Just a few hours before emailing me this:

don’t have eligible works of any note this year for Long Form Editor. FYI. Would appreciate being left off the list.

Thanks.
BTS

Now, I find it mildly amusing that Bryan Thomas Schmidt thinks I care enough about him to attempt to do him any harm, especially because he has managed to destroy his credibility more thoroughly than I could have if I tried. But as we are reliably informed that he has no eligible works of any note, I have replaced him in the Best Editor, Long Form category with Jim Minz of Baen Books. I trust he will be suitably grateful for my kindness.

I respect confidences, I abide by NDAs, and I keep the secrets I am told, but I do not provide cover for liars.