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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
1968 is when it all seems to have gone south, two years before I was born.
See what Roberto said. These people are totalitarians who want not only that you be made to do what they want, but that you be made to at least say, if not made to think, what they want. In short, the SJWs in their petty and not so petty ways are the real-world human Daleks, Borg, Cybermen, Peacekeepers, Children of the Damned, etc., in sort, every group mind/collectivist/exterminate the non-us type of Sci-Fi monster put on the screen or on the page.
Paul George is the better author.
I was thinking more of the Honor Harrington series, where they’ve slowly morphed from a minor plot element to the saviors of the human race.
(Or at least it seems that way; I’m only on Shadow of Victory, which so far seems to be a recap of minutia that was mostly handwaved in the previous book)
That’s the telepathic dog who was trained to find women for his owner to rape, right? Why haven’t the SJWs burned all copies of that yet?
Yikes!
The whole Honorvsere lost me when it turned out there were hidden bad guys that were the real bad guys all along!
Bleh.
With their centuries long master plan!
It’s even more ridiculous when you consider that, as a critic of socialism, Weber is acutely aware of how bad humans are at planning anything more than a few years in the future for anything as complicated as a single nation state on a single planet. You could say that’s the premise of all the books where there’s war with Haven.
Yes. I just could not buy it at all.
Weber also is a clear believer in using magic to ensure noble and good Monarchs, who will help solve the issues of lessor political types who have just hoodwinked The People.
Actually, in my job, I’m thinking I sign the petition and then go ask for a raise.
I can’t do that. I’m overpaid as it is.
Apropos of nothing: @bobarmstrong, outstanding avatar.
You’re just trying to make us uneducated members feel bad.
Oh, stop. The Army tortured me until I had a reasonable grasp of Arabic.
Bob’s avatar is the Arabic letter for “n.” Depending on where you’re at, it’s pronounced either “noon” or “noun.”
Christians throughout the Middle East are forced to mark their persons, businesses and domiciles with the letter, so that rampaging Muslim crowds know exactly where to riot, vandalize, and burn. The “N” stands for Nazarene, those who follow Jesus of Nazareth.
Outside the ME, it’s a counterpoint, in a molon labe kind of way.
Ok, yeah, that’s pretty awesome.
@philturmel They are doing the same to Dragoncon they are already putting pressure to get rid of Correia I hear.
DragonCon just fired an SJW who was pitching/supporting these bans. DragonCon created its Dragon Awards specifically in response to the Hugos shutting down fan input to its award. And Correia won the first one.
I’m not worried about DragonCon.
Hmmm. The editors decided to add a bit to the headline when this got promoted to the main feed. I suppose it never hurts to add John Ringo’s name to something to get clicks, but the post is more about David Weber’s petition than Ringo. That and it messes with the “Con” theme I had going.
DragonCon, best I can tell, is not trying to play politics, but present the best Con they can. Considering its growth from a half a hotel takeover, I’d say they are doing it right.
@nickh, I’m more than sure you’re plugged into Monster Hunter Nation. Correia gives a good explication of his “disinvitation” to Origins, while doing a great job of, basically, calling the Con’s chief organizer less than a man. Good stuff.
I have a friend who has been plotting to overthrow Mr. Ward of Origins for several years now.
Yeah, I’ve been following that too. Larry does have a way with words, especially when he’s eviscerating those foolish enough to get him riled up.