Yip, Yip The Puppy Said

The so-completely-moved-on-from-Sad-Puppies denizens of Mad Genius Club are busily re-prosecuting for the nth time the Sad Puppy Hugo campaign. However, this time it is in defence of Larry Correia.

For those who haven’t heard (or are reading this further into the future) the Origin Game Fair initially promoted arch-Sad Puppy Larry Correia as a Guest of Honour. There was an immediate (but not actually that large) pushback and Origin immediately disinvited Larry. You can read the details here: http://file770.com/?p=42224

Not a good look for the organisers, who managed to make everybody angry.

However, coming off the back of John Ringo being disinvited from ConCarolinas for more complex reasons, Larry Correia’s disinvitation is causing some ructions in Puppy Land.

Amanda Green has a long post at Mad Genius entitled ‘It is time to fight back’ https://madgeniusclub.com/2018/05/15/it-is-time-to-fight-back/

“You see, Ward — along with the few who whined and whinged about how evil Larry is because he doesn’t walk in lock step with their agenda — made a mistake. They assumed that just because we haven’t pushed back, and pushed back hard, we wouldn’t do anything this time. What they didn’t plan on was one simple fact. We. Have. Had. Enough.”

And gets angrier from there:

“What happened to Larry — as with John — is exactly what the other side has accused us of doing. Bullying, trying to keep us from making our livings, doing their best to prevent us from attending events where we can meet and mingle with fans. And we are the bad guys.”

Of course, Larry has not actually been prevented from attending, he has been disinvited as a Guest of Honour but I guess this may be a reference to Jon Del Arroz being banned from Worldcon.

At a much nastier blog there is a post then really goes off into some pretty nasty invective against two of the people who complained – in the process demonstrating the first key fail of classic Sad Puppy tactics. I won’t quote it but here is a link http://victorygirlsblog.com/origins-game-fair-caves-to-sjz-brownshirts/ which makes the usual confusion about what Nazis are. And of course, Jon Del Arroz has a post up as well: http://delarroz.com/2018/05/14/bestseller-larry-correia-removed-as-guest-from-origins-game-fair-over-politics/

All three posts are calling for a counter-campaign, listing contact details of people supporters can contact.

“We need to get active and fight back against these collectivist groups who think they can silence us. It’s an epidemic and it’s escalating to proportions we never thought possible. The incivility of the left is going to keep pushing until we make sure this is deemed unacceptable.

Boycott Origins. Demonstrate outside of it. Email the con and tell them what you think:” http://delarroz.com/2018/05/14/bestseller-larry-correia-removed-as-guest-from-origins-game-fair-over-politics/

People are entitled to complain but that works both ways. People who find it objectionable that Larry Correia be honoured by a convention have a legitimate complaint and people who think he was treated unfairly have some cause for complaint. However, tactically, the Sad Puppies are once again falling for the same mistakes.

A sustained campaign against Origin will make it less likely people like Larry Correia get invited in the future. Any con organizer looking at the oncoming shit-storm should be able to see that the easiest way of avoiding the mess was not to have invited him in the first place. No invite, no involvement, nobody campaigns. The easiest way to win the game is to never have a connection with those who use outrage marketing tactics.

The Sad Puppies inevitably get pulled along by those who like the struggle for the sake of the struggle. For Vox Day and former Gamergaters, winning is less of an issue and often so poorly defined that anything counts as victory. The aim is to radicalise and create a fuss and when the dust has settled have a group of people who have become more marginalised in the process.

In Larry’s case? Well he was a big fan of Gamergate and he likes to be outspoken but as always he doesn’t seem to grasp that a side effect of that is a lot of people don’t want to associate with him. That in itself isn’t bullying.

 

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66 comments

  1. Kathodus

    Once again I am ambivalent about a loudly jerky jerk having their GoH status rescinded at a con I won’t attend. I’m getting a definite other people’s problem vibe from all this, but I suspect this is going to lead to more escalation of the Culture Wars. I suspect only the outrage mongers are happy about this.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Mark Hepworth

    That’s an unusually feisty rant from Amanda.

    What I’m finding interesting is the belief that this is a continuation of attacks on them by “the usual suspects”. In some ways it is a continuation – of Larry et al finding there are consequences to their actions – but as far as I can tell it all the complaints about Larry as GoH originated in games fandom, not book fans. Obviously there’s a strong crossover between the two, but I was surprised at the extent to which the games designers I saw speaking up were familiar with SP.

    Liked by 2 people

    • camestrosfelapton

      Yes. I think I keep a close eye on the Puppysphere but by the time I was aware of any fuss, Larry C had already been disinvited. This wasn’t some huge Twitter mob or people who have had lots of interaction with Larry but a couple of people who had a justifiable objection to him who also pointed out his involvement in Sad Puppies.

      Acting quickly was rude of the con but there is some wisdom in it. The Puppy backlash was inevitable and wouldn’t have been smaller if they had taken longer to disinvite him.

      Liked by 2 people

      • peer sylvester

        It was mainly boardgamers. As you said, there is a big overlap of these fandoms (Hey, look at me!), but I think the Sads are on the wrong target here. The boardgame scene is not without fault (far from it), but at least its more publich faces are very outspoken for more diversity etc. There really is no equivalent of sad Pups in the boardgameworld. It is a more social hobby then reading obviously, so that might be the reason.
        Anyway: Someone like Mr. L.C. with his anti-diversity-views (to say the least) sticks out more (which made it weirder for him to get an invite in the first place) and was bound to draw critism. The Puppy-fandbase is much smaller in the boardgame scene, so there was much less support.

        Liked by 3 people

  3. Lurkertype

    Larry’s such a big gun guy, you’d think he’d know not to shoot himself in the foot.

    Cam: apparently it was all of 4 hours between the announcements of his inviting and uninviting. A long nap would have caused you to miss it.

    I doubt Origins cares if Puppies attend or boycott or whatever. And I doubt Puppies really care enough to demonstrate. Apparently most of the comments in favor of LC were from people who never heard of the con before this, whereas the ones opposed to him were regular attendees. So they’re gonna boycott something they never heard of till yesterday? That’s like me boycotting CelebrityEarwaxCon. 🙂

    Besides, marching around offended in demonstrations is an SJW tactic, innit? And very collectivist; the only groups who do it regularly are unions — of parasites like teachers and nurses. Origins made a decision based on feedback from regular customers that LC would be detrimental to their business — and now Puppies are telling them they can’t do that? Going against the will of the free market? Why I never.

    Just once I’d like to see a concom able to operate Google search about potential guests so they can figure out whether or not their attendees would be happy to see said guests, though.

    Liked by 2 people

    • camestrosfelapton

      My old pal Dave Freer was calling for boycotts of all sorts of people but as he didn’t use the word ‘boycott’ then I assume he can continue to see himself as part of the side that doesn’t do anything as gauche as a boycott.

      There are no logic contradictions so long as they avoid thinking about the two things at the same time.

      Liked by 2 people

      • camestrosfelapton

        I’m pretty sure that Verdant website data was first mentioned in my Petunias post back in 2015. I was sceptical of its usefulness. For Dave’s previous argument it would be fatal if true as it demonstrates that there is NO bias in the *Hugo* process (which was his original claim) as without the Hugos writing/publishing already leans further left than the general population.

        Luckily Dave has no need to maintain logical consistency and I also suspect the data Can’t be taken as representative.

        Liked by 1 person

      • delagar

        Can I just say I love “hrable grable” and I hereby move we adopt it into common usage forthwith?

        Can I get a second?

        Liked by 7 people

      • Kathodus

        2nd fifthed. Hrable grable is the Dave Freer version of garble garble. I’m shocked he remembers not to breathe underwater.

        Liked by 4 people

      • KasaObake

        I sometimes play a fun game where I go to the MGC main page and try to guess which of the posts are Freer’s before I click through. I’m right, like, 99% of the time. Because he’s the one that makes absolutely the least sense right off the bat.

        This is just to say that hrable grable is absolutely perfect for Freer.

        Liked by 4 people

  4. Jessica

    I think that the big problem is that there isn’t a space for collective con-running knowledge and repositories of ‘lessons learned’. So many individual concoms have burned their fingers over things like this that it strikes me as a good idea for there to be some way to pass along the wisdom so painfully gained in the hopes that others wouldn’t make that particular mistake again.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Jenora Feuer

      There are such places, and even pre-Internet there were things like SMOFcon, which is basically a convention for convention runners. There are a couple of issues, though:
      – There are always going to be new people who don’t realize that there are things they need to learn; (I’ve seen a fledgling con where the chair actively told a whole organized group of volunteers with collective decades of experience that they weren’t needed. The con died pretty quickly, and not just because the con chair micromanaged everything.)
      – Groups of collective knowledge have the potential to become active crusaders for the status quo, partly because some of that knowledge is basically ‘but we’ve always done it this way’ and will resist changes for the better, and partly because of the old ‘close ranks to protect friends’ aspect.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Jessica

        Yes, there can certainly be traps and the temptation for the One True Way To Run A Con attitude to develop will be strong. I had in mind a website with “these are the things to never, ever do, these are the things to think carefully about before doing, and these are the things which tend to work well” sections. Perhaps I’m just too much of a Pollyanna.

        Like

      • JJ

        Jessica: I had in mind a website with “these are the things to never, ever do, these are the things to think carefully about before doing, and these are the things which tend to work well” sections.

        One already exists. They’d probably be delighted to have your contributions. The Guests of Honor page does not say anything about vetting potential GoHs, if that’s something you’d like to remedy.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. Pixlaw

    Jessica –

    hope is a good thing. I doubt it will come about, but stranger things have occurred.

    And re Amanda Green, I’m struck by just how umm … fierce she sounds. “We. Have. Had. Enough.” The only thing to say is Wow! She’s clearly had it and is going to strike back, presumably by raising an armed revolt against, let me see, a *gaming convention held in Columbus Ohio*. I’ll admit to living within 3 hours drive of Columbus and now I find myself worrying if I should evacuate my wife and children to an undisclosed location. What a pickle.

    This reminds me of Sarah Hoyt’s “I am Spartacus” screed back several years ago. It would be one thing if we were talking about, say, people getting shot by snipers in Gaza, or the apparent willingness of the EPA to cancel the release of data about drinking water contamination, or the extra-legal execution of people by President Duterte, but in this circumstance I find it hard not to just tell her to take a Valium, for Christ’s sake.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Pixlaw

    Oh, since I refuse to click on any of those links, can someone tell me what an ‘SJZ brownshirt’ is? Is that one step beyond an SJW brownshirt, or just a typo? Enquiring minds want to know.

    Like

    • Cora

      Apparently, some puppy types have now taken to calling Social Justice Warriors Social Justice Zealots. The first time the acronym came up, people tried to figure out what it meant and came up with things that were a lot funnier such as “social justice zeppelins”.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Bonnie McDaniel

        Social Justice Zebra–See the world in black and white!!
        Social Justice Zipper–Pull it and listen to opponents’ teeth gnash!
        Social Justice Zucchini–Taste the green of conservatives’ envy!!

        Liked by 4 people

      • kiptw

        I used to watch the Power Rangers sometimes, so Social Justice Zord here.

        And if I can have an adjective, I’ll borrow from Gilbert Shelton’s super-villain, “The Zymotic ZOOKEEPER!” because meaning is less important than alliteration any day.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Jessica

        I just love how multitudinous right-wingers are trying so hard to make “social justice” a Bad Thing ™. Right away it gives their entire game away.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Bonnie McDaniel

        @Jessica

        I just love how multitudinous right-wingers are trying so hard to make “social justice” a Bad Thing ™

        Because they are convinced that “social justice” is a zero-sum game, and therefore Justice for Those People (women, minorities etc etc) means less for them.

        Or, as I’ve seen it put before, “when you’re on top, equality feels like oppression.”

        Liked by 1 person

    • JJ

      I’ve always figured it meant “Social Justice Zombie”, because of the way progressives keep catching them and eating their brains.

      Oh, wait, that didn’t actually happen. They never had brains to begin with. 😜

      Liked by 5 people

      • Johan P

        I think I’ve seen the phrase Social Justice Zombies used in earnest. I actually thought it was kind of clever – as in, it sends the right kind of signal to the congregation. It paints the Right’s enemies as a horde of brainless creatures, who shambles around, attracted by the vitality of Manly Heroes, dangerous for the unprepared but relatively easy prey for Manly Heroes with enough firepower.

        Liked by 1 person

    • stevejwright

      I have to admit, I welcome this change, if only because SJW happens to be my initials, and every time I see “SJW this” or “SJW that”, I get a momentary feeling of “oh no, what have I done now?” It’s distracting….

      Mind you, when I hear the full phrase, “Social Justice Warriors”, the first thing that springs to mind is a group like, well, the Knights of the Round Table, or the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne, or Robin Hood’s Merry Men. It’s amazing how little I dislike being lumped in with people like that….

      Liked by 3 people

      • lenorarose

        I’m 100% sure I’m a social justice bard and have been since the first time someone linked the warrior part to RPG classes.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Msb

    “We must fight back!”
    They’ve been doing nothing but fight for the past approx 3-4 years. Apparently nobody has considered any other responses?
    I would like to be a Social Justice Xylophone, sounds like a Z but looks cooler.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Aaron

      Oh no! If the Scrappy Pups start fighting back they might:

      Engage in a multi-year attack on fandom and the most prestigious award in science fiction, or
      Send a letter to the police asserting that the GoH at a Worldcon is mentally unstable and needs to be watched, or
      Try to get people fired because they are mad about things they said, or
      Harass numerous people online, or
      Write pieces about how awards won by women and minorities are undeserved, or
      Create an award that almost no one other than them care about, or
      Create another award that absolutely no one other than them care about, or
      Sue conventions for banning harassers who announce their intention to continue harassing, or
      Boycott Tor books, or
      Boycott conventions because they decided that Scrappy Puppy related authors shouldn’t be guests of honor, or
      Launch tirades against conventions because they didn’t offer some Scrappy Puppy or another a place on programming, or
      Attack John Scalzi some more (including attacking him because he’s not “manly” enough, or
      Attack people using homophobic slurs, or

      Do I need to list more?

      Liked by 3 people

      • Andrew M

        They announced it. Is there any evidence that anyone refused to buy a book that they would otherwise have bought? Certainly you saw people saying things like ‘I will not buy any more Tor books, except the next episode of The Stormlight Archive, because I was looking forward to that’.

        Liked by 1 person

      • JJ

        Andrew M: They announced it. Is there any evidence that anyone refused to buy a book that they would otherwise have bought? Certainly you saw people saying things like ‘I will not buy any more Tor books, except the next episode of The Stormlight Archive, because I was looking forward to that’.

        Not that I saw — although JCW did offer to give people for free the e-book version of his book which had been published by Tor, so they might have lost a few sales there. I’m pretty sure that JCW lost any further chance of having more books published by Tor though, so I’d call it a wash.

        I did see a whole lot of Filers saying that they bought Tor books during the boycott, however. I bought at least 3 myself. John Scalzi’s Amazon rankings shot close to the top for a while during the boycott, so clearly it was having an effect — just not the effect that the Puppies expected it to. 😀

        Liked by 2 people

  8. Jack Lint

    Has anyone done Zod yet? Kneel before Social Justice Zod!

    Or Zuul. Except kids today might think I meant Juul which makes no sense at all.

    Maybe I’ll stick with Zouave.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Kat Goodwin

    They’re the ones who have had enough? Please. LC led a group that started out accusing numerous SFF authors and industry professionals of conspiracy fraud with no evidence in blatant libel. They escalated to swatting attempts, doxxing attempts, homophobic slurs and calling gay authors pedophiles, allied themselves to an open racist and sexist and to Gamergate, leading to authors who didn’t even know who LC was getting harassed online. And all to benefit LC and get him a Hugo nomination.

    I will admit I’m kind of surprised that vendors and exhibitors at a gaming convention knew who LC was and protested his participation as a GOH. I wouldn’t think, given how most of them acted during Gamergate, that they would care. But apparently they did feel Gamergate and similar campaigns are causing them business problems, because they don’t reflect the real, wider market for games.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Owlmirror

    Social Justice Zymurgist:

      • Hoppy Happy Feminist IPA
      • Egalitarian Wheat
      • Black Lives Matter Coffee Chocolate Stout
      • This Bottle Is Not a Gun Porter
      • Biracial Solidarity Nitro Milk Stout
      • Nonbinary Belgian-style Tripel Ale
      • QUILTBAG Raspberry Ale

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Lurkertype

    So Pups are worried that they’re being blocked from going to certain cons, which will affect their business… yet they also plan to boycott the exact same cons, which means they won’t be doing any business.

    It seems to end up in the same place, doesn’t it? They won’t be at the cons either way.

    And very few of them have managed to rise to the level of being discouraged to attend*, so if they boycott the cons, they’re keeping themselves out entirely of their own volition.

    The old saying about cutting, noses, and faces comes to mind.

    *AFAIK, JDA is the only one to be banned from attending one particular con for one year, and a) he’s a Scrap b) it was for threatening to do something both against the CoC and illegal. LC was only told he wasn’t going to be GoH, but still could have gone to the convention to schmooze or whatever. I can see where he might not want to spend his time and own money traveling there, but he wasn’t officially banned. Ringo was un-GoH’ed and there was a mutual decision for him not to attend, but he wasn’t officially banned either. If either of them suddenly showed up at the door at those cons, they’d probably get in.

    Liked by 1 person

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