Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
It’s interesting, watching the leftist fan community finally realize that their favorite conventions are going away, some of them permanently. It takes a certain amount of cash to put on even a small convention, and that cash gets eroded quickly when you go for more than one year without putting on a show for your customers.
It gets even worse when the small to medium convention facilities start closing. Some of those are shutting down forever, because the hotels can’t even afford to pay the people who own the land they’re leasing.
The final nail in the coffin is that a lot of the leftist types are so invested in “COVID kills everyone” that, when the cons come back, a lot of them will be staying home out of fear, even years down the road.
Maybe we can hope for a real resurgence of Trufans – the ones who go to cons because they love the genre, not to make a social point. Maybe some of the old SMOFs will come out of retirement and lead the way.
Sarah Hoyt on her experiences with the Science Fiction Writers Association. A very funny post about a very serious topic.
See also my post Life in the fully politicized society, continued.
If anything, they are over represented. They are an extremely noise and noisome minority. I have nothing against gays or lesbians, I knew many through my life. A few were close friends. I simply have little or no tolerance for people who try to get above everyone else by claiming victimhood. Everyone is an individual. I judge each person individually based on their own particular and peculiar merits. I expect the same for myself. Being a member of a “group” renders no particular value or privilege, or, at least, shouldn’t. This has all become a bit more than tiresome. As for those buffoons who want to virtue signal by lauding the LGBT, etc., community, they should all be placed on a rail and run out of town.
Geek/nerd culture was roughly my beat for the few years of occasional freelancing I did, and the events of this year has made me all but give it up. Publishing is absolutely dominated by wokeness—to the point some publications flatly tell white men their submissions are low priority. Sure, I could keep to my “corner” of conservative and Christian outlets, but that’s not where the market for this kind of content is. It’s my experience that if you want to be in the world of sci-fi/fantasy and videogames, comic books, and all that, you’d best bring your biggest rainbow flag to wave.
“We’re excited about the upcoming classical music convention… Who is your favorite BiPOC, LGBTQ+, or otherwise underrepresented composer?”
Do the same for Victorian novel gatherings, model rocket enthusiasts, hair-band groupies…
The Seattle library does a summer bingo activity. I did it the first year I was here, it was fun. Mark the spots for “Biography”, “Historical novel”, “Graphic novel”, etc. But now most of the spots are reserved for “Work by Trans writer” or “Depiction of Systemic Racism”. So, pass.
Reylos are are people who loved the potential love affair between Rey and Kylo from The Last Jedi. In case you didn’t know, the film caused a backlash for just how political (#Resistance) and woke it was (“the force is female”). The backlash to the backlash produced the ultra woke “SJWs” known as Reylos. If they are being attacked then this really is the left eating their own.
I’ve followed some of this on YouTube. Conservative Bill Whittle argues that this is the real frontline of the culture war. Explaining it all would be an essay in itself and it is real geek and nerd territory but, as Tom Wolfe pointed out about a decade ago, the geeks and nerds are the new masters of the universe.
Jordan Peterson has spoken of this often. That it’s very obvious when the Right goes too far; not so with the Left. We’re watching that play out in real time.
This looks like an ad for Star Trek: The Woke Generation . . .
I enjoy going to science fiction conventions, but if a convention’s web site is talking about diversity on their home page you can bet they aren’t talking about ideological diversity.
Hoyt is reliably funny.
Diversity of alien species?
N.B.: Hoyt’s SFWA posting is amusing, but dates from February 2014.
The Reylos’ underlying crime is that “the potential love affair between Rey and Kylo” would necessarily be heterosexual in nature.
I must say, I find this definition to be the single most needlessly specific sci-fi grouping I’ve ever seen.