Before we go into why they will lose, this comment, in an excellant article about gamergate (well worth reading) is apropos, becuase it ties together the argument in SF with that in gaming.
#notyourshield I'm not a gamer, but what I saw at #gamergate I have seen MANY times before e.g. in education, law, govt, academia, politics
— Angry Harry (@AngryHarrysPage) September 8, 2014
It is worth noting that the intensity and hatred is coming from the Social Justice Warriors. Most SF readers don’t care. I don’t I enjoy Larry Correia and Charles Stross. I enjoy Michael Williamson, who hates Charles Stross. If it has plot, rivets and the occaisional alien, I’ll read it. However if you are boring, doctrinaire, and preachy, I’ll stop. I think Jerry Pournelle used to quote Robert Heinlen who said that you could let preach, but only if the characther dod not know he was doing this. [And then promptly broke his own rule with the Notebooks of Lazarus Long]
I don’t know if the author knows this, but recently the SJWs have been on the march in science fiction and fantasy fandom. It’s supposedly a hotbed of racism and sexism and homophobia, a bizarre charge to anyone who has been in it for a long time. The evidence for this seems to consist of things like: some guys pestering some women, convention committees (100% voluntary) being overwhelmingly white, a white male author once said something mean to a black female author he was feuding with, a fan once asked a black fan a well-intentioned but awkward question about race, some black fans felt uncomfortable because there weren’t enough people at a con who looked like them, and someone once printed some offensive jokes. The SJW conclusion is that fandom is an “unreconstructed institution” (a telling phrase) filled with “institutional racism” and “heteronormativity” and so on. There have even been calls for what amount to racial and gender quotas in fiction.
Now, of course there has been bad behavior by fans: they’re socially-awkward geeks! But in the SJW worldview, it’s not enough to tell individuals to knock it off. Instead, anything the most thin-skinned object to is a manifestation of a dreaded “ism” or “phobia,” so everything is escalated to a civil rights issue, if not civil war.
Gamers: We want ethical journalism.
Press: You racist misogynists!
#GamerGate You know it makes sense
— Knight-Errant (@MGTOWKnight) September 6, 2014
Well, yeah.
I was talking with a co author today: we have been good friends for years. We were saying that one of the virtues of being single is that there is a lot less trouble. Less anxiety. Less need to worry about status. An ability to do what you enjoy, to have hobbies. It seems that a lot of middle aged people have just given up on the dating game because it’s far more peaceful alone.
If you are a nerd, a gamer, a geek, much of what you want to do is not cool. It is probably not bad for you or evil: but it is not cool. Listening to me learning Bach is not restful for others. Nerds, introverts need space to decompress, and to do things.
Getting booth ready. Row 700. pic.twitter.com/f0iuXLQFx3
— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) September 4, 2014
To do that, we have learned to ignore social cues. The more adept agree and amplify because the snark amuses us. We don’t need to be lectured to by the brain dead.
Indeed, we have a code word for the SJWs: Zombies. Residual Human Workers. Drones. Lusers. Those for whom the Halon extinguisher , and other LARTS, were created.
