Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
John Ringo and the Convention Conflict Controversy
I’m often accused of being a geek. It’s a fair cop. I’ve been reading science fiction books for over 40 years, ever since I learned to read. But I’ve never been the kind of geek that goes to conventions. I’ve been perfectly happy just reading the books. But then along came the internet and with it new chances to join the community of science fiction fans. So I started participating in some message boards and getting to know some of my favorite authors online.
As with any group of people, there’s a great number of different worldviews in science fiction fandom and sometimes that leads to conflicts. That’s nothing new but in the past few years the fights have been more public and more intense. Social Justice Warriors have, well, declared war on anyone not “woke” enough to bow to their left-wing demands. Two of the authors at the top of their enemies list are John Ringo and Larry Correia. Both are outspoken conservatives and prolific writers. But what really upsets the SJW types is that both of them are very, very successful.
The most recent kerfuffle started about a month ago and was covered in a post here on Ricochet by @dbroussa. That post states that John Ringo was disinvited from ConCarolinas, but that turns out not to be quite right. David Weber, another very successful and talented author, has been working with John and Jada Hope from the ConCarolinas convention committee (concom) to get the true story out there. What happened is that several SJW types tried to get John disinvited by spreading a false rumor about him, and in order to not cause problems for the convention, John voluntarily withdrew. That didn’t work out the way they intended. In retrospect, they probably should have pushed back instead of folding. ConCarolinas also made the mistake of not making it clear what had happened and left the impression that they were ok with what happened to John.
At the end of the convention, Jada formally apologized to John for not making it clear in their original statements that John was the one being bullied and harassed and stated that going forward they would not be taking political stances or allowing online mobs to dictate who is and isn’t an acceptable guest. The SJW crowd did not take this well. In their view, attempting to remain apolitical is no different than taking a conservative position. A petition was started to remove Jada and another committee member, Luis Diaz, from the convention committee. In response, David Weber started his own petition in support of Jada.
As of this writing, the SJW petition has 116 signatures and David’s has 1,925, one of which is mine. To back it up, I put skin in the game and bought a membership for next year’s convention. So now I’m going to be the kind of geek who does attend conventions (or at least one convention). For this cause, it’s worth it.
Published in Culture
For being a David Weber petition I was expecting more discourse on relative time differences between planets.
Good to see these guys taking a firm stance on not disinviting anyone for scurrilous reasons.
I applaud David Weber’s effort, though I’m not a CarolinaCon future attendee. DragonCon here in Atlanta soaks up all of my bandwidth for cons.
I suspect Sharon (David’s wife) might have written it. Otherwise it would be about ten times as long and require a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters.
Either that or the petition site has a word limit.
The problem with petitions are they give the Left’s SJW a list of targets to attack. While I may support Ringo, Weber’s position, is it worth losing my job over? Is it worth endangering my family over? Is this a hill to die on?
Why do these people seemingly live to take all the fun out of everything.
While there are many people with a legitimate reason to control their public exposure, I think there are plenty of people (like me) who don’t have to. So it’s worth it to take the SJWs on in their home court (change.org is an Obama creation, after all).
Remember, the details do not matter. Actions such as this are about intimidation, nothing more.
For some people I’m sure that’s true. If you work in certain industries or live in a particular area it might be wise to keep a low profile. But most of us don’t have to worry about it. No one who knows me is going to be in any way shocked to find out I’m a conservative. Some members of my family might not care for some of Ringo’s books (cough Ghost cough), but the left will be wasting their time attacking me with their usual tactics.
An Obama creation and thus not secure in giving your data to0. Have no doubt your data will be distributed and used against you. This is how politics works especially Democrat politics.
one visit to DC is worth several to other cons
I started reading Sci-Fi in roughly 68 or 69 when a guy I worked with slipped me a copy of The Stars My Destination. I was hooked forever, though I’ve not kept up with the modern authors. I’ve read Nancy Kress and Jack McDevitt, though, and enjoyed both immensely.
I was not even alive then
I remember when they posted on the internet the names and addresses of registered gun owners in New York, including those of Judge Jeanine Pirro.
How about what they did to the Prop 8 guys. Many supporters of traditional marriage lost their livelihoods over that. Basic if the libs get your name they may use it against you. I would be willing to stand and fight this stuff but from what I see while the Left will front stab you any chance they get the Right seems very happy with backstabbing you or supporting the Lefts attacks.
I’ve never been really clear on this, but didn’t the “alt-right” (whatever that is) have it’s genesis as a reaction to social justice infiltrating gaming?
Sort of. From what I can tell, alt-right is basically the new neocon, in that it can basically apply to anyone, but I think that was one of the beginning factors.
That’s OK. You can still read the book. Alfred Bester had two classics: The Stars My Destination, and The Demolished Man.
I hope you have a good time, Nick. I’d encourage more Ricochet SF fans to visit conventions. If any of you are in the western part of the country, perhaps you would like to join some of your fellow Ricochetti next year for WesterCon 72. I have a post about it here.
@bryangstephens, next time you are going to go to a DragonCon, maybe you should write a post about it in case some others want to meet up with you there.
I’m not an expert in “Gamer-Gate”, but from what I understand part of it was a reaction to very SJW biased reporting by some of the gaming media. Some, but by no means all, of the more outspoken people in the whole mess have also become prominent in the alt-right fringe. The media has used that to retroactively tar all of the anti-SJW side of the GG controversy as being “alt-right”. They did something similar with the Sad Puppies campaign, claiming it was an Gamer-Gate spinoff even though it predated GG by a couple years, just because one or two of the same people were involved.
Nancy Kress did an outstanding exploration of the problem of superfluous labor in a high-efficiency technologically driven society (Beggars in Spain, et al). Her plot resolution, of course, was leftist magical thinking – humans infused with chlorophyll to lounge around free from imperatives to provide for themselves – which echoes from my memory upon hearing children such as Senator Sanders.
Kids.
Aw now. They just want to make the world safe for their kind. Entirely safe. Antiseptic, even.
And there would be telepathic cats.
You mean like in The Game of Rat and Dragon?
Bryan, let’s just say things were different back then
Not to mention the food.
This is the root of the problem. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.
Oh. Not their fun. Only other people’s fun. They like the power.
How about telepathic dogs? See “A Boy and His Dog”, Harlan Ellison.