Hugo Nominations, Sad Puppies, and Vox Day

If you don’t know what’s going on with the Hugos, go here. Or here. Or here.

The organizers and supporters of the Sad Puppies slate are complaining that they’re being unfairly conflated with the Rapid Puppies slate created by Vox Day. I’m going to leave it as an exercise for the reader to investigate the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies and see why this conflation is decidedly fair. For this discussion, I’m stipulating the fairness.

Why, therefore, should the Sad Puppies be punished by their association with VD? Isn’t free speech a right that should be respected? Shouldn’t we evaluate works promoted by VD based on their content and quality? No matter how much we revile VD’s opinions and statements, shouldn’t all the other authors be given the benefit of the doubt?

Yes. No. No.

Some detail.

  • Isn’t free speech a right that should be respected? Yes it is, however freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. You can say whatever you like, but others do not have to approve. That disapproval may be so severe that whatever you are associated with will be tainted. This is just a fact of human nature and is a feature not a bug of a free society.
  • Shouldn’t we evaluate works promoted by VD based on their content and quality? No. Vox Day has demonstrated thoroughly through his many writings that he has an agenda that is so far outside the mainstream that his opinions are not worth considering.
  • No matter how much we revile VD’s opinions and statements, shouldn’t all the other authors be given the benefit of the doubt? No. See above.

VD is a living, breathing example of a failure of Godwin’s Law. He can be compared to Hitler in the sense that he has extreme and unyielding prejudices that cannot be tolerated. He tries to frame his prejudices in the context of “logic” and “science” but the fact is that he’s just plain wrong. His wrongness is so wrong that it’s difficult to find an appropriate superlative.

The Sad Puppies organizers have stated that they do not approve of his messages and opinions, even going so far as to declare them extreme, however they have not explicitly repudiated him. This needs to happen. Again, VD’s opinions and statements are so far outside the mainstream of acceptable that they defy description by this poor author. If the Sad Puppy organizers had a close associate who strongly and repeatedly advocated for the return of chattel slavery for the lesser races, would they still maintain his “right to say what he likes?” I doubt it. Yet this is precisely the same type of opinion that VD issues daily. The comparison is apt. If you don’t believe me, go to his site and read for a while. I do not recommend this if you like your blood pressure low.

The Sad Puppy organizers have no legs to stand on with their complaint of a broad brush. If they want to disassociate themselves from VD, they need to do so, publicly and clearly. Without a statement to that effect, we will not believe them.

With respect to the Sad Puppy slate of candidates, I feel sorry for some of them. A small set of them have obviously been caught up in a mess that they were not aware of and had no desire to be a part of. Speaking for my own self, I respect Marko Kloos’ withdrawal from the Best Novel category, particularly because his type of fiction never gets a Hugo nod without this sort of boost. I’m actually more inclined to read his work due to this action, while previous to his withdrawal I had earmarked him as a never-read-again author.

The other candidates on the Sad Puppy slate should realize that there are those of us who will read their works, for purposes of this Hugo process, but may never do so again, precisely because of this Hugo process. Many authors during this mess have stated they don’t care if you never read them at all/again, but it’s something that every author should be aware of.

Outside of the mess surrounding the slate nomination itself, to be associated with the Sad Puppies and Vox Day is to be on the wrong side of a social question that will stain an author by association. Forget this year’s Hugo; this will affect them for years to come.

This mess has brought a particular division in Fandom into sharp relief. These divisions exist and will continue to exist, but don’t be on the side of Vox Day. You might as well have a tattoo on yourself that says “white-supremacist, anti-woman, racist asshole.”

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