Almost a month to the day when it was announced John Ringo would NOT be a Guest of Honor at ConCarolinas, Origins Gaming Fair decided it wanted to play too. First it announced Larry Correia would be its literary guest of honor. Then, very shortly after that, the invitation was revoked. All signs indicate the decision was made by one man, John Ward. It didn’t take long for the tidal wave of reaction to set in and, since then, Origins has done everything wrong in how it has handled the situation.
In fact, we very well may be watching the slow suicide of a con that decided to follow the saying, “Get woke, go broke.”
You see, Ward — along with the few who whined and whinged about how evil Larry is because he doesn’t walk in lock step with their agenda — made a mistake. They assumed that just because we haven’t pushed back, and pushed back hard, we wouldn’t do anything this time. What they didn’t plan on was one simple fact. We. Have. Had. Enough.
But let’s look at the journey Origins made in a matter of hours yesterday via a series of screen caps. Why screen caps and not links to their actual comments? That’s simple. They are too cowardly to allow the comments to remain live on their page. First, they removed the review tab from their Facebook page because folks were rightly letting them know what they thought of the way the ConCom dealt with Larry. Then they completely deleted the thread where they posted the “amended” announcement of who would be appearing as guests of honor, the thread where Ward tried to “explain” why Larry was no longer part of the con.
There he is. One of five guests of honor.
Now compare this to the image now on their Facebook page. Oh, wait, that image is gone too — or at least buried deep on the page. But the information contained on the image I grabbed from their FB page last night is confirmed here.
Hmm, notice any difference? Yep, Larry’s gone. What gives? Oh, here is what gives.
Now, how many problems can you see with this statement by John Ward? I see a number. First, it is all about him. He didn’t know. He wasn’t aware. He felt it necessary re “recend” Larry’s invitation. No mention that he discussed it with the rest of those folks involved with the running of the con. No mention that he did due diligence ahead of time to see who his guest of honor was or what he did. Note also there is no mention of the fact Larry is an avid gamer. Nope, Ward was told Larry was a bad man and knee-jerked his reaction. Now he is running and hiding and refusing to answer simple questions like “exactly how are Larry’s views specifically unaligned with the philosophy” of the con?
I find it amazing Ward could issue this statement within an hour or so of first announcing Larry would be GoH and then the revocation of his invite and yet he couldn’t be bothered to answer the many questions about why?
Oh, there’s more.
Even as the con removed the thread on their Facebook page about Larry, they left this thread up. For those not wanting to go there, here’s the image you need to be aware of.
Now, if you had seen this yesterday before Larry was uninvited, his name would have been included as one of the tagged authors. In fact, if you look at the book cover, you see him listed as the third author. So the con has no problem making money off of him. He’s just not good enough to attend their con. Needless to say, there are a number of folks asking how long before this image is changed as well, possibly with the con organizers blacking out Larry’s name or even asking for volunteers to help tear out the pages on which his story is printed. After all, we mustn’t risk letting his annoying and dangerous ideas out into the gaming public.
Damn it, I’m sick of this shit.
What happened to Larry — as with John — is exactly what the other side has accused us of doing. Bullying, trying to keep us from making our livings, doing their best to prevent us from attending events where we can meet and mingle with fans. And we are the bad guys.
But puppies. Remember the puppies and the fact the puppy kickers are the good guys.
NOT!
One of the best descriptions I’ve seen of those who have used innuendo and lies against good men — and women — simply because they won’t toe the approved party lies is this: dirty little cultural Marxists. That is exactly what they are. Or perhaps, better still, the Nazis they accused us of being.
What is Larry’s sin? He advocated following the rules of the Hugo Awards and letting the readers nominate and choose the winners. He said it shouldn’t be left to just the insiders and Fans (as opposed to fans). He pointed out the system was rigged — and proved it. Don’t believe me? Look at the way they’ve gone through all sorts of contortions to make sure books they don’t approve of will never have a chance of winning ever again. He pointed out there is nothing wrong with having books that are fun to read be nominated and, gasp, actually win. He said — and many of us agreed — that the message in a book doesn’t have to beat you over the head. You can have a great plot and entertaining story as well. In fact, message should not be so prominent the story is no longer entertaining because people will quit buying if they aren’t enjoying what they read.
But that was bad. This dedicated family man, a gentle man and gentleman, was attacked and vilified. Now, five years or so after this began, the other side is still doing all it can to destroy him and those like him because they dared rock the boat. It is time to stop. It is time to call these sons of bitches attacking anyone who doesn’t fall into lock step and mind lock with them.
They call us bullies but who are the real bullies here? We aren’t going out and doing all we can to prevent them from attending cons as guests or guests of honor. We don’t take to Twitter and other social media platforms to spread lies about them. Yet we are the bad guys.
That term doesn’t mean what they think it does and it is past fucking time for ConComs to grow a pair and quit caving to the demands of a few. There is a reason why so many cons are bleeding money and membership and it isn’t because of the conservative or libertarian fans. It isn’t even because of many of the liberal fans. It is because of the few very vocal folks who think they should be determining not only the direction of the genre but who should be allowed to take part in it.
Let’s take a look at Origins’ code of conduct.
Hmmm, as I write this, I tried pulling up their code of conduct. Of course, it isn’t listed specifically in their menu. So, let’s do a search for it. Hmmm, I had to change browsers for it to come up but I finally found it here. Now, let’s see what it says.
Origins Game Fair is dedicated to providing a harassment-free and positive experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of convention participants in any form.
Sounds good. But their own conduct regarding Larry seems to mean they will take steps to avoid having anyone come who might be harassed. After all, it wasn’t Larry who took to social media to attack his critics. They attacked him. Worse, John Ward did not give him the chance to respond. Nor did Ward explain to those asking for clarification what about Larry meant his attendance might possibly violate this part of the con’s code of conduct. But let’s look further.
If an Origins Game Fair attendee engages in harassing behavior, the convention organizers may take any lawful action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to warning the offender, expelling them from the convention with no refund, or a possible permanent from future Origins Game Fair events.
Wow, somehow this pretty straight-forward statement about behavior at the con has now been expanded to include imagined behavior before the con. I know gamers are considered geeks, but have they perfected Minority Report and know ahead of time what evil Larry might have been going to do?
Origins Game Fair expects its attendees to respect each other and behave in a generally civilized fashion. Attendees should respect common sense rules for public behavior, personal interaction, common courtesy, and respect for private property.
Too bad Origins only applies that rule in one direction. It is obvious it isn’t applying it to those who have accused Larry of all sorts of behavior — behavior he is not guilty of. Where is the respect and the behaving in a generally civilized fashion? Or do those rules only apply to conservatives and libertarians?
Origins Game Fair forbids abusive, insulting, harassing or intimidating behavior or any kind.
So, are they going to revoke the memberships of those who have been insulting and harassing Larry and his supporters? Or are Ward and the others going to continue being cowards and bowing to the will of a few in the hope they get to play with the popular kids?
What happened with Larry regarding Origins Game Fair is the same thing that happened to John Ringo and ConCarolinas. This is an orchestrated attempt to silence voices in the genre a few folks don’t want to hear. These people are sooooo fragile, they can’t stand even the thought someone might not agree with them. These are the people who claim they are all about inclusivity and yet who wants to forbid others from coming? Them. They want to be inclusive as long as you only believe what they tell you is appropriate. Everyone else is a “danger” and must be excluded.
That isn’t how inclusivity works, folks.
It is time we stop letting them tell us where we can go and what we should say and think. These folks are like the schoolyard bully. They will continue until we take a stand. More than just men like John and Larry are being hurt by this. So are the fans. How many people bought memberships to ConCarolinas or Origins Gaming Fair? How many made hotel reservations, took time off from work and bought airline tickets? How many will lose money because they were planning to attend the con(s) to see a favorite author who is no longer welcome there? Will the cons make good on their losses? Hell no.
So let’s make sure not only John Ward and the con know what we think but also the con backers and vendors. The only real way to make sure these folks understand just how large the pile of steaming dog shit is they just stepped in is to hit them in their wallets. If you bought a membership because Larry was going to be a GoH and no longer desire to attend, demand your money back. When they refuse — and I have a feeling they will — note that you bought based on false advertising and that you will file a complaint with the city/state because of that if you don’t get your money back. Use the screen grabs that have been immortalized on the internet as support.
Contact the powers that be for the con. You can find a list of them here.
Contact their sponsors and let them know you will be voting with your dollars where they are concerned as well if they continue to sponsor the con.
Contact the GAMA board to let them know what you think about the way John Ward treated a best selling author and well-known gaming fan.
It is past time for us to stop playing by the other side’s rules. You know the rules I mean. They get to do and say whatever they want and we have to sit back and take it. No more. It is time to act. No, we aren’t taking back the genre. We never really lost it, at least not where the readers — or gamers — are concerned. What we are taking back is the social side of it.
You see, what cons like ConCarolinas and Origins Gaming Fair don’t realize is that we don’t need them. They, however, do need folks like Larry and John. They are why fans come to the cons. Without them, the draw isn’t there. How long before we start seeing more and more of these organizations falling to victim to “get woke, go broke”? If that happens with Origins, I won’t cry any tears. Maybe after a few more of them go belly up, the bean counters and concoms will start to realize where the real fans and the real money happen to be.
Oh, and it is now 0815 Central, more than an hour after I said I needed a comment from Ward and company. No response to my email or to my PM on Facebook. Why am I not surprised?
Mad Genius Club 
182 responses to “It is time to fight back”
Saw this last night and saw the “recend” thread. Holy cow! Talk about being raked over the coals. There were a few people that were saying “good” and implying vicious things against Larry. All of them were called out and asked for proof which was never shown.
I would say start our own cons but that’s conceding the field of battle. Targeting conservatives though started with World Con’s barring of Jon Del Arroz though and I guess the SJZ/CHORF’s seeing this figured that it was time for all out war.
No, it started long before WorldCon and JDA. He just was the most vocal about it. During SP3, there were attempts by this same group of special folks to not only get Larry, Brad, Sarah and others banned from cons but to convince their editors not to publish them any longer unless they changed their ways.
As for starting our own con, the other side told us to do that instead of “destroying” the Hugos. So, what happened when the Dragon Awards came to be? The other side mocked them and then started trying to be nominated for them as well as for Hugos. They want everything to be theirs and no one else’s.
Should have been clearer. This is the first year they’ve been successful in getting bad thinkers banned. I have been following all the puppy sagas and there’s a few or more authors I will no longer support or read.
And it’s either their way or they will do their duplicitous best to tear it all down. Case in point their packing the supporting rolls and voting NO AWARD for what was it seven of the categories and if that wasn’t enough added salt to the wounds with that disgusting asterisk award business.
Like the old saying goes, this is why we can’t have nice things any more.
23skidoo
[…] Read the rest here. […]
Saw how fast word got out last night. Origins seems to have forgotten the lesson of GamerGate. The Supreme Dark Lord (V-x D-y) picked it up in a flash and Redditers also grabbed it. Not smart, Origins, seriously not smart.
They believed the few and accepted that Larry’s fans were few and docile. What they didn’t get is 1) Larry’s fans are many and vocal and 2) there are others who might not necessarily be fans of his but who are tired of this shit. What they might be seeing is that the silent majority is tired of being silent and even more tired of being bullied.
And yes, it is the so-called advocates of inclusivity who are doing the bullying right now.
But you see Amanda the bullies need attention desperately and cannot wrap their tiny pea brains around the idea that anyone else might feel differently.
It’s a foreign concept that they will never embrace, but in fact both John and Larry were doing the respective cons a favor. It was the conventions that benefited from the popularity and draw of very popular name authors.
This is nothing more than the natural extension of the Sad Puppy vs puppy kicker conflict. During its four year run SP demonstrated beyond doubt that a small incestuous group had co-opted the Hugo awards to the point that they had succeeded in destroying any value that award might have once had.
Many of Larry’s (and John’s and Sarahs) fans are just sick of being treated like this.
Re GamerGate, I think that the SJW’s still think they won that one. They’re certainly still fighting it, tooth and nail. They’re still full on with “I have a right to be a political asshole, but someone else being an asshole is reason to destroy them. Attack!”
SJWs seem to believe simultaneously that Gamergate was an insignificantly small group of basement dwelling neckbeards who were easily defeated—and were somehow responsible for the election of Donald Trump.
Gamergate – the people who were deeply involved are amused that they’re still living rent free in the heads of the anti-GG, years after GG was done.
Much in the same way Sad Puppies are still living rent free in the heads of ASPs.
Y’know, there’s always the way of increasing LibertyCon’s profile, and plugging DragonCon more. Let the small cons die, focus on promoting the cons that really don’t bow down to the social justice zealotry – the market will go where the market will go, and the businesses will see where the money is. The ones that don’t, die in a firestorm of financial loss.
Been in touch with the movers and shakers at LC. If these sad pathetic bullies try any of this crap with them they will quickly pull back a bloody stump. Liberty is too tight knit and Dragon is just too big for their tactics to work on either convention. Or so I sincerely hope.
I’m holding out hope that the DragonCon organizers response to Larry originally not wanting to draw controversy to the first Dragon Awards (which IIRC, was summed up with “We don’t care about that stuff, let your fans know!”) will stick to it. So far, they have.
Yup. There’s no way LC would ever countenance this sort of crap. And if they did, us regulars would tear them down.
IIRC, there was the possible beginnings of an attempt to put a wedge in the door two years ago. I don’t remember the exact complaints, but I remember that at the time, I thought they sounded like the kind of complaints that SJWs would use to start trouble. No such complaints last year, though.
LC has the problem that since it’s capping it’s attendance, it is not able to accept all the fans who want to shift from other cons
What are the chances of them growing their attendance caps? Finding a larger venue? etc?
I have no skin in this game, because the chances of my ever being able to attend are very, very small, but… For people who want to shift, and the fact that Libertycon seems very, very popular.
didnt they already move to a larger venue?
I don’t know? I tend to glaze over on Libertycon convos because I can’t afford to go, even if I’d like to. I vaguely remember that the old venue isn’t what they’re using any more.
/me starts a ‘fly shadowdancer to libertycon’ fund
*chuckle* I appreciate the thought and the sentiment, hon. *hug!*
BLACK SCREEN
Cue Sad Puppies Music.
FADE IN a picture. Pictures continue to fade from one to another.
VO
This is Shadowdancer Duskstar. She would like to attend LibertyCon, but she lives in a far faraway land called Australia, Please help us avoid Shadowdancer-related sadness…
😀 😀 😀 😀
*sigh* *tosses wallet*….. :p
I’d contribute to that.
Draven, my darling; I’m easy to make happy. How low is my bar? *looks at the deep-fried Mars bar that is dessert, that my husband saw and recalled that I’d said I’d never had it and didn’t find it when I went to London.* Low. And tasty.
A single, rightly timed Hershey’s kiss has been known to make my day. (So would a can of Coca Cola, but supposedly they’re shifting from using sugar to Stevia or other substitutes, so I can’t have it any more.)
Shush. He’s creatifying here.
Oh, okay then. Creatify away~!
IIRC LC attendance cap is based on the type of corporation they organized as.
Apparently for them to allow for greater possible attendance would mean going through a long & complex procedure to reorganize.
From what I remember hearing, Brandy (?) and company aren’t sure that it would be worth the trouble.
If that’s the case then people need to stop saying ‘but we already have libertycon’
It might be worth it now. Perhaps.
It’s built into their charter and any change would impact their tax exempt charitable status. Done that way on purpose to ensure that it never got so big that the folks in charge lost control. Note, those originally in charge have passed that control to new blood, so it was never onerous control just enough so that they never lost the family reunion feel of the con.
Soooo, perhaps an LC-West might be in order. No necessarily an official branch of LC, but the philosophical offspring, if you will.
Manifest Destiny.
I second that motion and add the friendly amendment that it be held in the western part of Texas.
Yes please. That may or may not be where next I reside.
If the demand gets great enough, the logical thing would be to create a new convention.
Seems kind of odd, a convention that sells out, vs. the usual “declining attendance” complaints.
[…] Girl Amanda Green wrote of this fiasco earlier today, and she’s had enough […]
So, we must respect all cultures, except our own.
We must be tolerant of everyone’s views, but no one must be tolerant of ours.
The concepts of fair play, consistency, honesty, and thoughtfulness are totally foreign to the SJW cabal.
Too bad I’ll be in St Louis and couldn’t go to the LibertyCon. I see it’s sold out. /cheer!
— This is an orchestrated attempt to silence voices in the genre a few folks don’t want to hear. —
Rather more ominously, this is an attempt to silence voices a few folks don’t want to be heard by others. The silencers are straining to harm Larry and others who hold comparable opinions by denying them access to one of the available outlets for promoting their books: convention attendance and the opportunities to mingle with potential readers.
Think “long march through the institutions,” and why Antonio Gramsci emphasized it as the proper strategical path for the Marxist Left.
BINGO.
Yep. But they see themselves as the great liberators and heroes of the downtrodden. If only they would look in the mirror — with their eyes open and their brains functioning.
(chuckle) Now you’re asking for a lot!
I know. Worse, think about the mess someone would have to clean up if they actually did as I suggested. All those heads exploding. I wonder, how much noise and energy would be generated in that moment?
Oh my, yes. If all that power could only be harnessed to the good of Mankind…!
About the same level of noise as the climax scene from Kingsman. Exploding heads indeed. Campy as heck. But hilarious.
Check out Marta’s take on it over at Victory Girls. http://victorygirlsblog.com/origins-game-fair-caves-to-sjz-brownshirts/
From a comment on Vile 666:
Yup, this is exactly what was meant: It doesn’t matter whether or not they’re actually racist/sexist/homophobic/sinful, only that their words can be twisted or misquoted or lied about to make them appear racist/sexist/homophobic/sinful—and these lies can forever afterward be pointed to and used against them.
But of course, we already understood the threat back when it was made.
“Look what you made us do! You made us lie about you! You are BAD people!”
Right, Synova? Standard abusers.
Well, that’s why we call it Vile666, and that’s why China Mike is banned at MGC. Because they’re a wretched hive of scum and villainy, populated by liars and block captains.
Where else do Zampolits have a place to hang out?
Joel, the thing is we weren’t hurting our CAREERS. We were hurting our traditional careers. (If what’s come back at me from three secondary sources, they might have killed my traditional career. I’m the expendable one of the lot, you see.)
We were not hurting our CAREERS.
Sure, maybe I’ll never publish traditional again. But my indie book made me twice what my trad books make me (and it was a very WEIRD book) and there are people making fortunes in indie. I’m reorienting to MOSTLY indie. My career isn’t over, anymore than if I had left a publisher for another that pays better in the old days.
As for conventions? Writers go there to meet their friends. It used to be they were VITAL for our marketing. You get a few GOH, your publisher sees how fervent your fans are, he pushes your books, and voila, best seller. Now? Bah. Most publishers don’t attend conventions. “Push” marketing is less effective every year. Many fans are even turning away from cons because it’s all wokeness, no fun. Honestly, they need us more than we need them.
We can always visit our professional friends at their places. Or arrange to meet somewhere.
They think they’re destroying our careers, but the truth is, our careers will continue in ways and paths they aren’t even aware of. Paths that reach most of the reading public which has stopped buying traditional.
Meanwhile, they’ll fight desperately over a shrinking slice of pie, because they’re not entrepreneurial enough to try anything, they want the approval, and they desperately need those awards so they can get academic jobs.
Sucks to be them.
I’d love to run into Larry at a gun convention, or shooting competition someplace.
I wouldn’t. It’d be like running into a rhinoceros. ~:D
Nah, not at all like running into a rhino. Rhino are mean, ill tempered, and stinky beasts with a yen to murder. Larry is a laid-back, well-groomed, happy gentleman who wants everyone to have fun – and he gives the best hugs.
😛
Amen to this. Conventions are no longer a make-or-break deal. It’s a social gathering, which is nice, but most writers are never going to meet enough paying costumers to justify the expense of going there. Meeting editors and publishers might have been a thing once, but not so much nowadays, and that’s if you are going traditional. For indies, it’s unnecessary; IMHO, it’s a waste of time.
I’ve been to tons of conventions when I was doing tabletop RPGs (Gen-Con and GAMA Trade Show mostly but also a few Origins cons). For companies with dozens of products, renting a table was worth the trouble; you could break even (unless you actually paid the booth people for their time, which none of the companies I worked for did).
But that was before the Maoists seized key strongpoints in the convention circuit (and that’s what they are; they are so fond to throw Nazi around, let’s call a filthy Commie a filthy Commie). Now, most conventions are an invitation to be attacked if you aren’t to the left of Che Guevara. The few exceptions are going to be under constant attack, too.
Their level of tone deafness is incredible! They actually think this HURTS Larry’s career? OMG! These morons don’t understand the level of hell they unleashed on Origins and their parents and sponsors.
Here’s hoping that John and Larry’s new collaboration shoots up the sales charts. 🙂
From your keyboard to the NYT list!
Okay, I’ll do my part to get their new book on the NYT best seller list. Even though I despise the NYT.
Well, I’ll be helping it along in about 4 more books. Thank God for Kindle Unlimited, otherwise I’d be hard pressed to justify my addiction to my wife.
Isn’t this the second one this year? I can’t help asking myself what is different about this year, why escalate this far now?
Sad Puppies is pretty subdued. (One interpretation is bowing to pressures put on Toni Weisskopf. I don’t believe that, but some of the anti-puppies may.) Do they naturally escalate on sensing (correctly or not) weakness?
Is it nerves about the future impact of B&N’s collapse? An attempt to boost sales in some insane theory of the market?
Or is this how they think you get serious about midterms?
I think it is a combination of Trump’s popularity and libertarians/conservatives/don’t-care-leave-me-alones being less and less afraid to speak out. The progressives don’t know what to do, besides ban any idea that might draw people away from their own institutions and philosophies.
That’s my take, at least.
TXRed, absolutely. How dare we speak our minds and not bow to their vastly more “enlightened” world view? How dare we call them on their double-standards? Because they have no answer for us, they try to silence us. It’s time to show them they can’t.
As long as they could make libertarians/conservatives/don’t-care folks feel isolated, they had control. Same tactics as in the USSR, you may not have liked what was going on, but you were only one person and didn’t dare say anything. Silence=Consent as far as the Progs go – and if they can force you to stay silent, that’s a win for them.
But when people are aware there’s more who feel like they do? They won’t stay silent any longer. And the more the Progs screech in horror and hate, the less credibility they end up with…
Yep and the internet is helping us realize we aren’t alone. It also lets us memorialize their idiocy for future reference. The internet never forgets.
On being less afraid to speak out… while it was difficult it used to be possible to be neutral and there were *rewards* involved in not making waves or being apolitical as a professional.
And there were and still are tons of people who are naturally neutral. They just don’t want to deal with it and I think that a lot of them, not given the option anymore will nod and say “sure, whatever, I believe in inclusion” and brush it off. It’s ultimately an “eat me last” sort of strategy but people are people and humans are human. (And who *doesn’t* believe in inclusion? Anyone? Hello?)
In any case, there are no longer rewards for being apolitical in your professional persona. None. I think that people are still afraid, they’re just less likely to think that they’ll be allowed to or rewarded for keeping mum.
— (And who *doesn’t* believe in inclusion? Anyone? Hello?) —
Well, I don’t — not as an enforceable mandate. In fact, I believe in EXCLUSION, or perhaps it’s better known by another name: DISCRIMINATION.
You see, I believe in choosing my own associates. I believe that to be a fundamental right of free men. This nonsense of mandatory inclusion is exactly the same as saying “No one has a right to his own standards.” Roll that one around in your cerebrum for a while before you reflexively endorse the Gospel of Inclusion.
Not as an enforceable mandate. Dur.
This ties to Sarah’s article the other day about how the left steals and twists all the English words into something that means the complete opposite.
Inclusion, or making everyone welcome, is a normal sort of feeling of graciousness that very very few people oppose in any sense. Except that it’s twisted into a mandate to force people out if they aren’t exactly the right sort of “diverse” and making only people who conform perfectly welcome, but with extra points if they perfectly conform while having a different skin tone or identity.
Which is another word (diversity) that doesn’t mean what the simple English word means. And yes, “discrimination” means that you pay attention and have your own standards. If you feel like forcing those standards on others as a “mandate” then you’re the asshole. So you know, the activists certainly *discriminate* and they certainly try to force a mandate and they do NOT have any goal of graciously making everyone feel welcome while expecting public manners.
As I said of a very famous sci-fi author many years ago after attending a convention… she wouldn’t know “manners” if they bit her in the butt. The notion of public manners, of living and let live, of keeping in mind that your audience includes all sorts (including those who discovered sci-fi and fantasy through Narnia or who voted for the “other guy”) and you LIKE your audience and don’t want to drive them away so maybe you ought not go on a rant about how horrible they are… some people don’t know manners if they bit them in the butt.
Inclusion simply means that everyone is invited and when they show up they get to play. What it doesn’t mean is that those who show up to play get told to leave so that they “make room” for others. That’s the opposite. It’s exclusion.
It’s a HUGE ball field. Everyone can play.
— Inclusion simply means that everyone is invited and when they show up they get to play. —
We differ there. Public events billed as open to the public? Yes, of course; in fact, to do otherwise would be against the law (though even at such an event there will be rules of decorum, which are inherently discriminatory). But most of life is not public events open to the public, and the apostles of “inclusion” are campaigning to politicize much that is (and should be) properly private, under the cuddly shibboleths of “inclusion” and “diversity.”
“Inclusion” and “diversity” are thoroughly politicized words that, for the moment at least, belong to the SJWs. You cannot use them without first winning them back — and you cannot win them back as matters stand. It is a tactical error to allow your enemy to decree the vocabulary of the contest. And be under no illusions: the SJWs are enemies who seek your destruction.
They get to play – in the ballpark – but not necessarily on my team; it’s full and they don’t get to kick anyone off so they can play there. Inclusive discrimination!
If you are a jeweler you don’t like inclusion. Unless they are in a large pink diamond and look like a panther…
Sad Puppies did precisely what it set out to do, demonstrate that the Hugo awards had been taken over by a tiny cabal of low talent trad pub hangers on. The only reason it still exists is to provide a suggested reading list for the Dragon awards and to prevent outsiders from taking over the name for their own aggrandizement.
Toni is doing her level best to carry on Jim’s legacy. But she’s not Jim and has serious blind spots regarding the true motives of some in her back office.
ConCarolinas was a trial balloon that worked better than the bullies could have hoped for. Now with that taste of blood fresh on their lips they naturally targeted next on their list, Larry Correia. And sure a good part is the desperate panic of the red diaper socialists watching as their absolutely guaranteed path to glory gets shredded and diced by one Trump win after another.
But mostly it’s the tale of the spoiled child, not content to take his ball and leave, but must destroy all the balls, bats, and gloves, and ruin the ballpark. Either play by his rules or he’ll see that you never enjoy a game again.
Suggested do-not-read list for the Dragon awards, maybe. ~:D
The Hugos are a do-not-read list for Dragon, to be clear. Just read my comment above and realized it made no sense.
MOAR COFFEEEEE!!!
what do you mean about Toni’s back office?
Mid term elections?
Yeah. That is one of my suspicions given the unusual level of activism we are seeing in other places.
Apparently through some path someone knows who complained at Ward to elicit the rescension. Who was the alleged complainer, and how is this known?
In several other places — I even went to Vox Populi, where I have never posted before — I made the suggestion that someone should tell the other Guests of Honor what is going on. They may not know.
Apparently it was the wife/girlfriend of the guy who Larry fisked for writing a ‘gencon is racist’ article.
The gencon thing was so stupid but when someone writes a confession about their trauma of how awful and racist their white gaming buddies were (what a way to treat your friends, right?), everyone is supposed to respect the rawness of their hurt.
And she’s apparently a professional racist — a “diversity consultant”. The “GenCon is racist” screed aligns with her professional goals. So for her, this is all about ca$h.
The evidence presented for it is in the Victory Girls link Amanda posted.
George, they know. They have been tagged on FB and Twitter, among just some of the social networking platforms. Whether they have paid attention and whether they have the guts to stand up for what they believe is something else.
As for who told who what, within minutes of the announcement Larry was going to be a GoH, several of the usual suspects attacked on Twitter and FB. In his response — and it is clear it is HIS response and no one else — John Ward decided to react instead of make a calm, level-headed decision based on research. Now he, and the con, get to reap the rewards of his actions.
Good,. But it matters that they were told these things lest they be taken by surprise.
Whitney (the strix) Beltran is apparently taking credit
I saw her patting herself on her back about it yesterday. Bullies gotta bully and then brag about it.
Not surprised to see a personal vendetta is involved. Larry’s been to lots of cons since the days when Sad Puppies was still going and no problems.
c4c
“THE UNPERSONINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES!” they explained. 😉
“And morale will improve. We command it!”
The thing that chills me the most about this is that all it took to get the ConCom to RESCIND the invitation was the word of some lady on Twitter- a woman on twitter who then REFUSED to provide the concom with links to Larry’s supposed “harassment.”
AND THEY ACCEPTED THAT.
Why does that surprise you? Their entire worldview requires ignoring the available evidence.
Possibly a meme infection from #believeallwomen
Why are you surprised? After all, it’s not like the complainers or the ConComs pay any obvious price for this. They get the pleasure of being bullies and the warm glow of virtue.
Amanda said: “He pointed out the system was rigged — and proved it. Don’t believe me? Look at the way they’ve gone through all sorts of contortions to make sure books they don’t approve of will never have a chance of winning ever again.”
Just look at the crap that got nominated this year, if you want to know if its rigged. Crapestros Flopatron for best fan writer. Scalzi’s Prolapsing Empire for best novel. Norah, again, for Stoned Soup or whatever the hell its called. I can’t be bothered to look it up.
Completely Puppy Free, but they still can’t get enough of kicking them Puppies.
This is the thing about Lefties that is the most pernicious, in my view. They will never, ever, ever stop. Never. It is war to the knife with them, every time. Us leaving them alone is not sufficient, we must be PUNISHED.
I don’t have a problem with it, ultimately. Origins Gaming Fair is a -capitalist- entity, and they just announced they don’t want my money. No problem. You don’t want it, I’ll keep it to myself. Have fun going bankrupt, bitchez. Punish us some more.
You hit on it. Sad Puppies accomplished what it set out to do. There was no real SP movement last year or this. Yet the other side can’t let go. We are the monster under their beds and in their closets. If I didn’t know better, they continue to attack us because they know we were right about it all. Not that they would ever admit it. So, in order to insure no one else realizes it, they have to make sure we are silenced — except they are failing and failing miserably at it.
It’s been really fascinating to witness that since the Puppy-free Hugos were announced, the Puppies are back to being the greatest threat to all of fandom forever.
Perhaps someone should send up the Cute Kittens to see if the response is different next year.
I dunno; tbh I’d like to see recommendation lists for the Dragon Awards – I’m pretty bad for dates of publication and what would qualify for stuff. Happy Book Kitten Recommendations. (Goodness knows I see enough of those pictures with the kitten or cat ‘reading’ a book…)
As Larry said the other day when the John Ringo thing blew up, we live in their heads rent free forever. Flopatron is up for Fan Writer Hugo purely on the strength of his continued Puppy kicking, as he doesn’t really do anything else. That’s what fan-writing is these days, apparently. Berating the empty air and exhorting violence against “fascists.”
Somebody should send this John Ward guy the screen-cap of China Mike’s traffic stats, complete with bots. Just to rub salt in the wounds already opened by the rage-tsunami currently drowning their email servers. (Larry says the con is sending him private email, begging him to call off the Hell Hound pack, which shows how much they understand who we are.) Mr. Ward should get a look at exactly how many SJZs there are on his side.
Important safety tip Mr. Ward sir, Chinese web bots do not attend cons, they do not buy gamer merch, they do not rent hotel rooms.
Full disclosure, I’m not mocking China Mike’s traffic per-se, as my own little blog gets mere hundreds of hits per day. But I am saying that when Sarah Hoyt links me in Instapundit, I get more hits in a couple of hours than Mikey gets in a month. Not because I’m so awesome, but because that’s how big the audience is.
That’s the magnitude of difference we’re talking about. And just in case somebody thinks this is about Instapundit, the same thing happens when Kate McMillan links me at Small Dead Animals, or Kathy Shaidle at Five Feet of Fury. Thousands of hits in a couple hours from a one-line mention with a link.
We are not small. They are. Put some swagger in your step, you Puppies.
Even better, the DEMONS in their heads…
Heh heh, heh.
“Contact the GAMA board to let them know what you think about the way John Ward treated a best selling author and well-known gaming fan.”
I’ve got contacts in the gaming industry who indicate this problem actually originates with the GAMA board and they are using John Ward as their fall guy. I have no proof nor do my contacts, but that’s their feeling on the matter. Stuff certainly blew up on social media but the GAMA board might be the ones who caved and issued the order to John Ward.
I had wondered, but they still need to know this is going to hit their bottom dollar.
I agree completely. Honestly, it will be easier to hit the GAMA board than John Ward since they represent businesses that will see a falloff in sales faster. I’m exactly their target audience, owning hundreds of board games and dozens of RPGs, and will make my opinion of this fiasco abundantly clear to them.
I sent GAMA a very professional email asking them WTF. I also tweeted at them, and nothing. No reply. I’m guessing you’re right, and it starts with GAMA.
Larry’s statement regarding the situation: http://monsterhunternation.com/2018/05/15/statement-concerning-my-being-disinvited-as-the-guest-of-honor-for-origins-game-fair/
Reblogged this on westfargomusings and commented:
Fuck Origins Game Fair. Fuck ConCarolinas. Fuck John Ward. Fuck Whitney (the strix) Beltran. May they all rot in a festering pool of maggots.
thanks!
I knew after what happened to Ringo the Seriously Judgemental Weasels would pull this crap again. And why not? All you need is someone with a personal vendetta, a few retweets and bam! You too can get a New York Times bestselling author kicked from a convention because he hurt your fee-fees.
Same here. I didn’t think they would be foolish enough to take on Larry so soon. Now I’m popping the pop corn and settling back to watch the show. I have a feeling they aren’t enjoying the consequences of their actions right now.
I expect more of this soon.
Part of me really hopes so. Especially if the usual suspects are foolish enough to keep bragging on social media about what they’ve done. That creates a pattern and patterns can be used to show intention to harm, be it financially, emotionally or physically.
As for Christopher’s SJW definition above, I think he misspelled “Stupidly”. Either will work, though.
And now they have removed the thread about the anthology from their FB page. The data scrubbing continues. I wonder if they are going to go through every thread and delete all the non-supportive comments as well?
Are there going to be any cons left?
Some, but smaller cons who refuse to consider the consequences of their actions will soon be few and far between.
But how many will conservatives be able to attend without running 24/7 audio / video recordings to disprove #MeToo accusations, assaults, etc.?
*shrug* Intending to wear bodycam to disprove that is enough to get someone disinvited/ticket canceled, etc.
I wonder how they’ll approach those people who are wearing livestream cameras… Badly, I imagine.
I wonder how they’ll approach people wearing things they can’t identify as cameras.
No idea.
A real shame. This is one of the few times I have seen Mr. Correia listed some place close enough for me to go. It would be nice to meet a male who can write realistic female characters – not supper woman or wilting flowers, but honest, competent women. The kind of characters Doc Smith might have written.
Supper women: the ladies with no shoes that SJZs keep telling us about, trapped in the kitchen making supper?
[running away now!]
😀
not supper, samiches. And, when they aren’t making food, they’re saving the world from dirty laundry.
Based on my time in a college dorm mumble years ago, some of that laundry qualifies for PUFF payments.
😀
I’ve seen some of those.
…right, time for me to get off the computer and tackle the laundry. Thanks for the reminder!
…mine contains no monst… okay, well it inevitably contains two cats wanting to play when I’m trying to snap out a shirt to fold it.
Cat hair – a must for food and laundry.
Ah yes, samiches. Food of the Gods.
Just don’t pair them up with the Wine of the Gods unless you’re ready to deal with the consequences*.
* Nine months later.
Supper women. Ladies who are an entirely satisfying, 7 course dinner. Not some measly snack you pop in your mouth and still leaves you hungry.
The best revenge we can have is to continue to simply not give in to these bullies. Grow our fandom, and let theirs wither and die. A convention headlined with Larry Correia or John Ringo at the top that draws 80k-100k will piss them off far more than anything we can do in response.
Has anyone approached Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games (a libertarian and regular attendee at Libertycon) to give his opinion on this, and Origins/GAMA’s colossal reactal-crainial inversion?
That I don’t know.
Ooooh, did I catch ConCarolina in a WHOPPER!
See my capture of the email in the link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wbi94RluF4FYnPmP3T7dESpnNIud24fN/view?usp=sharing
It was John Ringo who was disinvited from ConCarolinas, not Larry.
Just checked Baen.com, Larry has two more books coming out this year that I NEED to buy.
How to ruin your con:
1) Be unable to discern the difference between the screeches of the perpetually offended, and actual real and honest concern.
2) Have a quick knee jerk reaction with absolutely zero research into the issues
3) Double down on your stupid knee jerk reaction
4) When it becomes obvious to everyone that you just stuck your unmentionable into a hornet’s nest, pretend that 1-3 was all a misunderstanding, misquote, and mistake on everyone else’s part
We’ll probably see #4 in the next day or two.
#2 above might be changed to read: “See an excuse to do what you would have wanted to do but were too cowardly to do on your own.”
Being the nasty sort that I am, I can’t see that wossname invited Larry blind, without at least checking his genres and sales figures. Type “larry correia” into Google and Sad Puppies is in the very first result, which is his Wikipedia page. Assuming he’d never heard of Larry Correia, which would be pretty hard for a gamer, SF reader, or action/adventure reader.
Inviting him was deliberate and intentional.
So that they could publicly disinvite him.
High-fives and virtue-signaling for all!
“Let me know how that works out for you.”
Here’s another update. Note how John Ward is doubling down on the rhetoric without giving any proof or answering any of the questions about why he booted Larry. But he wants to deal in “facts” — too bad he won’t man up and present any, isn’t it? http://victorygirlsblog.com/the-lies-of-john-ward-update-to-origins-post/
Yeah, I’m sorry, the SJWs need to be taught that they can’t talk the kind of trash that significantly impacts people’s careers without proof. They need to have a judge explaining exactly to them what ‘slander’ and ‘libel’ are, and why they will be sending a chunk of their paycheck to Larry’s lawyer for a few years. They’ve been allowed to pull this crap without consequences for too long and they need to be taught that yes, they have free speech, but words can have consequences. They seem to think that our words are violence, but their words are unvarnished truth that cannot be challenged…. its time to challenge them in a court of law to prove it or STFU.
> why they will be sending a chunk of their paycheck to Larry’s lawyer for a few years.
Assuming they have jobs, which with some of these people is a big assumption. 🙂
It’s part of why they have so much free time to go after us – they don’t have lives, they don’t have responsibilities, or more important things to do.
And the sad thing is, this is what they do, for their ‘fandom.’
I was chatting with my mom today; she is a fan of a local (in the Philippines) actress / actor pair (or love team, I’m vague on this stuff), who have garnered something of a cult of personality. However, what the fans of these two do is to organize, amongst themselves, to do good works and charitable causes, inspired by the focus of their fandom. Apparently one of the things ‘The Fandom’ has done was put slightly over 50 students through school via scholarship; I’m going to guess that these students were chosen through some merit or contest or something (I said I am vague about this stuff, but Mom sounded happy.)
This sounds similar to what Robert E. Howard fandom does. The REH Foundation gives a scholarship every year to a graduating senior at Cross Plains High School. Plus they are involved in other fundraising things for the town throughout the year.
I’m not caffinated enough to remember it wholly, but the whole thing about not having anything better to do, and not doing good reminds me of a saying about idle hands and the devil’s work. I just cannot fathom choosing to do evil when given the opportunity to choose what to do with one’s own free time. I mean… there’s always naps!
I really like what Mad Mike suggested professionals and authors do, and what cons should do.
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=462
oh, they have jobs. Most of them have to ask if you want a muffin with that, every day.
“I’m a beverage artist, not just a coffee server!”
Just make my latte and hand it over before someone gets clawed, OK?
I take it that you’re not planning to follow the advice in Sarah’s post today to “stop clawing.”
As I like to say, you can’t get blood out of a turnip, but the attempt rarely works out well for the turnip.
I think people are tired of being hectored and lectured and told that they are horrible people if they don’t immediately tow the SJZ line.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
[…] WELL PAST TIME: It is time to fight back. […]
[…] AND FROM VICTORY GIRLS THIS: It is time to fight back. […]
Why haven’t the other Guests of Honor been asked to support Larry and come out against bullying by refusing to attend.
The leftist vermin will keep behaving like this until they’re routinely, violently arrested and dragged, screaming and crying, off to jail if they so much as step foot on the private property of decent people across the country. The day that I see leftist vermin like this being hunted with dogs is the day I’ll dance with delight. Force and fear is the only language these filth understand.
Like the protesters in DC who discovered to their horror that 1) the DC police take the “no masks” rule dang seriously and 2) that the organizations that promised to get them off the hook… didn’t. Felony conviction isn’t fun.
I am a copyright attorney. My guess is the inclusion of Larry Correia’s story in the 2018 Origins Anthology was part of the agreement of Mr. Correia being an invited guest. With that being revoked, the permission to publish may also have been revoked as a matter of law. Thus, the publication may well be a copyright infringement. Mr. Cordelia should see his attorney and may end up owning Origins.
Taking such an action might be emotionally satisfying, but I suspect that Mr. Larry Correia would prefer to avoid giving the leftists ammunition with which to hysterically label him as an “overly litigious person,” which propaganda might make other publishers silently avoid publishing his stuff. I’m not a lawyer myself, but I’ve smelt the stench of the “majesty of the law” enough times to see this rank unfairness happening very easily.
Besides, isn’t there an old, deeply cynical saying about getting all the law you deserve? As someone else pointed out, even if Mr. Correia has rock-solid footing for suing jerkoffs such as this John Ward fellow, there’s a significant risk of a leftist judge essentially refusing to allow the case to win on its merits. Judges have a lot of power to be giant jerkoffs themselves. -_-
Thus proving the point I’ve been making: rule of law is dead in this country, and if you want it back, strong language won’t do the job.
I was at Wally World the other day and a guy was trying to get people to sign a petition to get an ‘ethics commission’ on the ballot to rein in the politicians.
“That’s what ropes and lamposts (or trees, they’re free) are for.”
Just tweeted this:
@originsgames Time to #BoycottOrigens until they #FireJohnWard
Get the message, @Gen_Con, @TheGAMAOnline , @VanRyderGames ?
I note that Vile is now doing archive links to us. Yeah, that’ll really hurt us. /sarc
I admit I looked at Vile today, briefly. I suffered so y’all don’t have to. I will provide no link, people interested in wading through the sewerage may Google Vile666.
As expected, China Mike chose his quotes in a very interesting, one might almost say un-representative way if one were feeling uncharitable.
The comments are, as expected, hateful. As in filled with hate. Apparently Larry Correia is a “Nazi” because he once “promoted” “known Nazi” Vox Day. Floppy Cameltron is doing a big push for his Hugo of course, concern-trolling his little heart out. Any commenters arguing that the con was unprofessional or that they screwed up are being shouted down by the H8erzzz.
So, business as usual.
Evidence that they have literally nothing else to do, the paroxism of H8-y H8 is over 450 comments at this point. This is what Science Fiction Fandom has devolved into, a bunch of superannuated, scooter riding sea-mammals being vindictive in an on-line chatroom. So classy.
I must say that the chances of me going to one of these SF/F cons have shrunk to zero. Going by Vile666, Fandom, capital F, seems mostly composed of assholes.
yeah well, they are getting older… and so the people that made me mildly uncomfortable at local cons in the 80s are being replaced by rabid sjwhiners.
over 450 comments at this point
Somebody started up China Mike’s bot farm again? Or just the three real people who follow Vile666 having a long winded conversation?
“meet the authors”?
That’s a blatantly and completely false statement. By revoking Larry’s invite, nobody is going to be able to meet him. That’s false advertising. A strongly worded complaint to the FTC about this ought to rain some hellfire down on Mr. Ward.
Since leaving Farcebook, I’ve missed Dinerzens, and all. I ditched Worldcon for their “wokeiness”. Williamson advised Con organizers in this post: http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=462
Miss y’all.
Ted Ung
Readers might consider that people who today go after cons about their guests of honor may tomorrow go after publishers about who they publish. See Antarctic Press as a target of this.
I’ve long said that it’ll be necessary — most likely in this modern age with a crowd-driven cloud application — to relentlessly track toxic individuals and make every legally viable effort to get them abruptly fired from their jobs, to get them forcibly evicted from their homes, to get them banned as terrorists from tens of thousands of private businesses across the country, to get them violently arrested on the smallest of pretexts, to get them instantly sued for the tiniest torts, and to otherwise make their lives sheer, unending hell. They want to act like nasty little goblins, well … they have no idea of the sort of nastiness that can emanate from a furious group of decent folks who’ve finally had it up to orbit with the hostile, creepy shenanigans of “social-justice” howler monkeys and other leftist vermin.
I’ve been a voice in the wilderness on this for twenty years and more, and it gives me little satisfaction to see the zeitgeist finally shifting to acceptance of the need to strike back, terribly and overwhelmingly, against the arrogant leftist filth. The culture war, verging erratically as it has into actual murder and raw thuggery against conservatives, libertarians, objectivists, and other decent folk in the United States and other supposedly advanced countries, will be ugly indeed before it’s over. They started it, but we will finish it with the near-total destruction of the enemy’s physical ability to attack, harass, frighten, injure, or murder true human beings.
most likely in this modern age with a crowd-driven cloud application — to relentlessly track toxic individuals and make every legally viable effort to get them abruptly fired from their jobs, to get them forcibly evicted from their homes, to get them banned as terrorists from tens of thousands of private businesses across the country, to get them violently arrested on the smallest of pretexts, to get them instantly sued for the tiniest torts, and to otherwise make their lives sheer, unending hell.
For some of us, sections of that list is what’s happened; there have been SWATting attempts on conservative writers (I remember reading about such from Popehat) and it’s spread further and further into public awareness. But such tracking and being careful in the verification of the toxicity of such individuals would require a very high technical backbone, a greater awareness of cybercrime (in order to defend against it) than the average author would ever want, and essentially make this sort of thing their life and have a constant financial support for this, as opposed to doing things like writing, creating art, having a life outside of constantly defending and hunting.
The people who do that list of horrible things you wrote out above do this because it is gratifying to them. They enjoy it, they’re the weaponized attack dogs used by the ‘leftist filth’ – and they’re far, far better at finding these people and recruiting them to their cause, while the Gramscian march through the institutions and society have weakened the ability to fight back against them socially, legally and otherwise. And yes, I agree that things will get much, much worse and uglier. It’s slowly growing. The only thing that’s kept me from despair is the fact that America (and more locally, the Philippines) pretty much went “NOPE. WANT BETTER THAN THIS” – it gives me hope that not everyone is mentally dead and heart-withered.
“NOPE. WANT BETTER THAN THIS”
Great minds think alike! Yes its true, most people are good and only a very few are assholes. I will say there does seem to be a high concentration of assholes in on-line Fandom. Nice of them to self-identify like that. ~:D
Go to bed, you’ll feel better in the morning.
I’d suggest that the strongest basis for hope is the extreme likelihood that truly evil leftists make up only a tiny slice of the populace in the United States and other countries, which I think is what you’ve just said in other words. Most of the scuttling goblins in the leftist mobs are noisy but weak-minded followers who will hastily return to the shadows if their ugly behavior becomes sufficiently painful for them.
As it is now, the nastiness is almost exclusively initiated by the goblins against normal human beings like Larry Correia, which simply encourages still more nastiness. Viciously turning the tables on the goblins will result in much howling and yipping as they turn tail and run, run far away from the pain and the torches and the pitchforks.
“…relentlessly track toxic individuals…”
Yeah, that’s what they’re doing to us. I’d prefer a solution that doesn’t end in civil war and violent murder, thanks all the same Mr. Furious.
The thing about civilization is that it is -civil,- and we will win by rejecting incivility. Shunning it. The pathway you are suggesting leads inevitably to war, pestilence, famine and death. Most recently tried in Syria, and we can all see how that is turning out.
This falls under the “be careful what you wish for” category.
“The thing about civilization is that it is -civil,- and we will win by rejecting incivility.”
No, you won’t, because your civility is seen as weakness, and a tool to be invoked against you.
The Geneva Conventions make it a point to tell signatories that they are not bound by the conventions when dealing with those who are not observing them. Why? Because even they recognized where handcuffing yourself with principles when facing those who have none leads, and they wanted signatories to be able to establish the proper incentives.
[…] help anyone when it caves to the whining and whinging of a few loudmouths. As I said the other day, it is time to fight back. John’s suggestions are just part of what needs to be […]
Given what Securus is doing through third party apps, there will likely be a similar version available to the general public, probably through an offshore company that the US legal system can’t easily touch. It won’t be long before every person with a cell phone will be under surveillance by people who want to do them harm professionally or physically.
sorry, that last was meant to be a response to Shadowdancer, but WordPress is being WordPress again.
Hi,
I do not know of anyone else getting pulled from the schedule except myself.
My name is Louis Desy and in 2016 I was scheduled to give a total of ten hours of lectures as part of the Origins War College lecture series. Eight of those hours were on the economy between the World Wars. Two of the hours were a one hour on a lecture titled, “The Culture Wars” and another hour on “GamerGate”.
I thought those topics would be of interest since the lecture series is about the instruments of national power, history, warfare, economics and politics. “The Culture Wars” and “GamerGate” I thought the topics would be of interest since it has been discussed that “Culture drives politics” which then effects the use and deployment of the instruments of national power, and those seemed to be recent topics on culture that was and is driving politics.
Because I had dared to put those topics on the schedule without realizing that the ones that are really in charge had forbid any such discussion in any forum of said topics, I was banned from the lectures. The proposed lectures had been seen by a number of people before they ended up on the schedule and no one thought it was out of place or a problem to give such lectures at Origins.
Once the schedule was posted Origins got comments in its social media, and then took me off of the entire schedule for all lectures, forever.
I was never sent anything in writing or email, and John Ward himself would only deliver the order through another person that I was working with and in the area of Columbus, OH; and even delayed relaying any message for several days as I wondered what was going on.
It all seemed to be a very sneaky and underhanded way of dealing with the situation.
As if that was not bad enough, Origins left my eight hours of economic lectures still on the event worksheet through the entire Origins 2016 event, so anyone looking at that would have thought that I simply did not show and the failure to give any lectures was on me.
I think that part that myself and others do not understand, is that they was no proof that the people calling for the lectures to be shutdown even attended Origins! Also, in my case, some of those people were ‘running around’ checking to see if I was scheduled for any other cons, like Gencon, with the objective of doing the same thing there to me.
Take care,
Louis J. Desy Jr.
Monday, May 21, 2018
[MODERATOR COMMENT: Louis, we have removed your email before approving the comment. No, seriously, you don’t need the harassment some of the other side would visit on you. Lots of them read this blog, though they don’t comment (and the worst are banned.)]