Statement from John Ringo: SJW is out; SJB is in
This was too good not to share. The original is here: https://www.facebook.com/john.ringo.90857/posts/10152765320275887
n 2004 or so there was an ‘incident’ at a convention in Virginia. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Virginia fandom is split. There are very outspoken liberals mixed with very quiet (by and large) conservatives. The ‘incident’ involved very outspoken conservatives.
The next morning I was more or less accosted about the situation and was polite to the accoster. The conversation ended something like this:
Accoster: I didn’t even know there WERE conservative science fiction fans! (The tone was clear. There SHOULD NOT BE conservative science fiction fans. Certainly not at HER convention.)
Myself: You know when you go to cons and there are a bunch of people who never talk with you? Those are the conservatives.
Which, alas, is true. Until very recently there were very few conservatives who were willing to be ‘out’ in most of fandom. (I don’t get that option.) Because you get continuously bombarded with ‘you’re a homophobic, xenophobic, racist, misogynist asshole!’ (Go look up my RavenCon AAR to see a very extreme example.. But I’ve been subjected to less extreme examples repeatedly. One of the reasons I rarely attend conventions anymore. And the description is, by the way, a very direct and public quote by an SJW NYT bestselling author about, well, me.)
Because as a conservative, that’s what you are to all the hardcore liberals. Purest evil. ISIS has nothing on being an American conservative. There is nothing worse than being a conservative white male. We are the ultimate super-villain and nothing can be anything like our equal. (Thus the humorously entitled ‘League of Evil Evil’ started by Sarah Hoyt of which I am a card-carrying member.)
* see footnote
Which is why there have arisen conventions that really avoid letting the CHORFs in at all. So the conservative SF fans can get together and let their hair down and talk about stuff they want to talk about (like books with actual plots and dialogue) and not be continuously insulted by the CHORFs. And even large cons that are ‘balanced’ tend to toss the SJW contingent the minute it starts to be a problem. Because nobody CARES about their issues. Not in the broad sense of what is marketable. (Just as at ‘balanced’ conventions conservatives who insist on being buttheads are tossed. I’ve seen both and I’m all for it. When it’s balanced.)
By the way, I prefer SJBs to CHORFs as a term. SJWs, social justice warriors, is not an insult as many articles have indicated. It’s the preferred term of the SJWs. And there are SJWs who are not SJBs. An SJB is a ‘Social Justice Bully.’ Because they are bullies. They are not even about social justice. They’re about being bullies.
So, yes, there are two different fandoms. And it’s very much a Political divide. And it’s not going away any time soon.
Oh. Ahem. The above convention later purged the conservative members of its con committee (who were the people who had been getting Baen authors to attend.) But they asked all the Baen authors to come back because we were their primary draw. We all declined. Some politely, some less than politely. Even Eric Flint who is anything BUT a conservative declined. Impolitely I might add.
That convention no longer exists. Nor does Trinicon which was solely focused on having only ‘literary’ guests. Nor do any number of other cons who allow themselves to be overtaken entirely by SJBs. Most of the ‘old guard’ conventions died for similar reasons. (‘We are a LITERARY convention and only LITERARY writers and award winning artists need attend!) ArchCon is going to have a very hard row to hoe in the next few years. (See also ‘Uncle TimmyGate’ which was the prequel to this kerfuffle.)
The SJBs, CHORFs, what have you are facing an uphill climb. Their ‘award winning authors’ are hardly popular in the mainstream (also frequently boring as shit on a panel) and every convention which has tried to stay entirely ‘SJW’ has found it has little or no market.
The CHORFs accuse the SPs of ‘fighting to retain white-male privilege.’ The reality is that the CHORFs are desperate to retain any sort of relevance at all. ‘Their’ conventions are failing. ‘Their’ books don’t sell as well as ‘pulp crap’. ‘Their’ magazines are losing circulation and closing. Lose control of the Hugos and they become irrelevant. And desperate regimes get crazier and crazier the more desperate they become.
So sad.
John Ringo
* footnote: For the record, Sarah Hoyt was the second member of the Evil League of Evil. I am the one who created it.
Here is where I announce the creation of he Evil League of Evil (Later changed to the Evil Legion of Evil) http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/06/the-evil-league-of-evil-is-given-pious-advice/
Here is my announcement of the formation of the Evil Legion of Evil Authors as a literary movement, initially called the United Underworld, later called the Sad Puppies. http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/06/united-underworld-literary-movement-manifesto/
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
