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Reading about further shenanigans surrounding the Hugo award I am reminded that it really became irrelevant in 2012 when the nominations and awards went full liberal.
The Sad and Rabid Puppy campaigns simply proved that the nomination and voting were compromised and the WSFS was not going to return to allowing the fans to pick what they wanted without a filter to exclude "undesirable" conservative stories and votes.
The bullshit at the Chengdu Worldcon is just another cherry atop a very large sundae.
I used to read a LOT of sci fi but after around 2000 I pretty much stopped, but still will watch some sci fi movies when they are good. Of course I have to quit in the middle of some of them due to the fact that many are simply woke movies disguised as actual sci fi.
ReplyDeleteI do however remember when the Hugo awards went bad, and I spent some time reading the opinions of actual sci fi authors who were pretty much getting screwed over to let the liberals have their day, which of course turned out to be a heck of a long day.
Sadly it was only the start of things to come, in every area of our lives. The left has a couple of things that can be said about them. First they know how to play the long game, and they play it very well. Secondly they know a lot about the American people.
They know that once they get something either passed by legislation or by actions of theirs, it is highly improbable that it will ever be reversed. I am thinking at the moment of the ACA or as most know it, Obamacare.
The Democrats knew that passing that monstrosity of a bill would be committing political suicide for their party. But they also knew that once they gave the American people all the goodies up front, with the bill coming due way down the road, it would never be possible to get rid of Obamacare.
Of course much of the blame rides on the shoulders of the Republican party. Paul Ryan kept sending bills to the desk of Obama knowing that he would veto it. When former president Trump too office, suddenly the Republicans acted as if they never heard of the ACA, with Trump asking for a bill to sign deleting Obamacare, and the party refusing to send the same bill to him that they peppered Obama with.
Of course we also have SCOTUS Roberts dodging the whole mess by coming up with a ridiculous claim that the fine was really just a tax.
I hope that at one point the majority of the American people have enough and stop letting the liberals change the entire character of our nation. Then again, I hope the Easter Bunny brings me presents on Easter. I know which one is most likely.
I was involved with sf fandom for a time during high school, my first college stint before entering USAF in late 1977. Some years later I had the pleasure of working with the wife of a leading fan who was a designer at my then employer in upstate NY. While physically very unattractive, she was an outstanding drafter in a specialized aspect, and she was devoted to her husband, who treated her like manure.
ReplyDeleteOne of the other people I got to know fairly well was a writer and member of the Futurians; as well as a bright high school nerd could get to know someone that prominent.
SF fandom was arguably degenerate from the first days in the late 1930s, and I don't think it ever was something worthy of respect. There were respectable people in it, but not that many that I was aware of.
I have to add that conservative youth groups were also pretty foul in the 1970s, and I have some "funny" stories that I've told to my wife and to a few very close friends many years ago.
(If this comment is too off topic, please feel free to delete it; my feewings won't be hurt...)
The Cabal of SF&F writers in and around the San Fran area in the 1950's and 60's were, well, quite the degenerate bunch. Especially those who hung around with Marion Z. Bradley and her husband.
DeleteBut... overall... there were and are lots of undegenerate sci-fi/fantasy writers and fans and they don't deserve to get lumped in with the freaks and geeks.
Monk, you're not off topic, I don't think, but you ARE rambling a bit.
DeleteThe fandom I was around in the mid-80's (before Army) and 90's (after Army) weren't degenerates. For the most part they were very bright people interested in the ideas being put forth by the fiction we were reading.
Lots of "what if" sort of stuff.
You might also try to use a different word. "Degenerate" has proven to mean, "people having fun differently than *I'M* having fun" far too often in my experience. Quite often because the people having fun aren't presently praying for the souls of the damned or something.
Yeah, from reading what I could about the utter clustergrope of ChinkyCon, yeah... From the way the city was awarded, with ballots about as secure and safe as those in the 2020 election (ballot stuffing, huge numbers with the exact same handwriting, yada yada yada) and the horrid way that writers were disqualified by censoring leftists...
ReplyDeleteWait...
Hasn't that been every Worldcon since about 2000? Maybe earlier?
Worldcon and the Hugo Awards doesn't represent most of the sci-fi fandom that I know. Hasn't for 30-40 years. When the shift to sci-fi-whiny occurred, that was the endpoint for most sci fi.
Thank God for Jim Baen, elsewise we wouldn't have a lot of the good stuff from the last (quickly checks wiki) 40 years.