Quickies: These Puppies Have Staying Power And Teeth

     You might not be interested as a matter of the entertainment you prefer...but you’ve got to be interested in the cultural associations:

     For the second year in a row, nominations for the prestigious Hugo Awards for science fiction & fantasy have been swept by the Sad Puppies & Rabid Puppies, two groups of authors and fans who oppose left-wing domination of the community.

     The Sad Puppies were formed in 2013 by bestselling author Larry Correia, amidst growing domination of the Hugo Awards by left-wing cliques — who, in 2012, successfully agitated for the cancellation of an appearance by British comedian Jonathan Ross at the awards due to fears that the entertainer might make a “fat-shaming” joke.

     Correia, along with a number of other conservative and libertarian-leaning authors, contended that a large chunk of Hugo voters voted on the basis of authors’ personal political beliefs rather than the quality of their writing. The Sad Puppies aimed to change that, by nominating authors on the basis of perceived quality rather than perceived politics. The Puppies have a particular opposition to “message fiction” — works that are primarily intended to convey a political message rather than tell a good story.

     That the Puppies have remained engaged is very much to their credit...but I seriously doubt that the “social-justice warriors” who predominate at Worldcon 2016 will react otherwise than they did at Worldcon 2015:

     No doubt my Gentle Readers have noticed that three of the pieces linked in the post below are about the 2015 Hugo Awards and the huge foofaurauw that’s surrounded them for some weeks. The contretemps has concluded with a shameful display of petty spite as the “social justice warriors” banded together to ensure that no work, writer, or editor on the Sad Puppies’ nominations list would receive a Hugo. To this end, “No Award” dominated an unprecedented five categories – those categories in which all the nominees appeared on the Sad Puppies’ slate. Moreover, this year’s award winners have all been marked with an asterisk.

     What the Puppies’ persistence has demonstrated – “right out in front of God and everybody,” as the saying goes – is the SJWs’ insistence on excluding those who won’t toe their social and political line. This is consistent with a previous observation of mine:

Organizations are magnets for those who want power over others. They who desire power above all other things will eventually get it. After they have it, they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that it cannot be taken from them.

     Never doubt this. Consider the recent case of ESPN’s firing of Curt Schilling -- an organization that has modest influence over a relatively narrowly focused audience – and ponder the implications.