tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post3153199617931520652..comments2024-03-08T08:23:19.959+00:00Comments on Paul Anthony Shortt - Author: The Mess That is the 2014 Hugo AwardsPaul Anthony Shortthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14393249001158230985noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post-7813409891725135832014-03-14T09:46:05.918+00:002014-03-14T09:46:05.918+00:00Thanks for commenting, Colum. You've given me ...Thanks for commenting, Colum. You've given me some things to think about, regarding how the SFF community can often react to things they disagree with. Honestly, I see that attitude a lot, not just in SFF, and it scares me. <br /><br />As for Ross' reaction, I maintain that if you can advise an author to not respond to a bad review, you can certainly expect that a person with Ross' experience being in the public eye should know to let himself calm down before responding to angry commenters. Or at least, to accept that there are consequences to snapping back against them.Paul Anthony Shortthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14393249001158230985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post-49783603793998517212014-03-14T09:29:12.070+00:002014-03-14T09:29:12.070+00:00Darn, there's a bit missing in the opening lin...Darn, there's a bit missing in the opening line of my post. It should say that: 'people claiming that Ms Maguire was targeted because of her gender or sexuality are also seeing things that aren't there'.<br /><br />ColumColumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780753778872137937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post-81268129900092210682014-03-14T09:27:25.900+00:002014-03-14T09:27:25.900+00:00# And the wrong people are being labelled as the &...# And the wrong people are being labelled as the "leaders of a bullying campaign" against their family.<br /><br />This is entirely true, but people claiming that Ms Maguire was targeted because of her gender or sexuality. Ms Maguire became the focus because Charles Stross said she'd be angry at Mr Ross being chosen, then she turns up and is angry, then Mr Ross's daughter engages with her, this makes her effectively the whole event in one person, even though she is at no point the leader or the instigator. It was probably the reply from Mr Ross's daughter that finally put Ms Maguire into the frame.<br /><br />I don't see that Ross was that unprofessional. When you suddenly find yourself under unexpected mass attack, you're going to hit back, that's just human nature. Asking us to not do that is asking us to be more than professionals, it's asking us to be angels.<br /><br />Behind all events like this is a culture of anger and high-handedness (and often outright bigotry) in SF that many people seem not to see. A few years ago someone called for me to be beheaded over a comment that had been misunderstood when I asked it at a panel (It did come out wrong, but the question is, is it appropriate to call for someone's murder, whatever they've asked?) After that I found myself targetted on people's blogs, and I discovered that many others had had similar experiences.<br /><br />In the four years I've been involved in the community I've experienced a barrage of hate and unpleasantness, and it's all been about my race and gender. You can see in tweets about Ross that many people do not object to him as an indivdual who has said/done questionable things, they actively mention is race and gender (and sometimes sexuality and that he's cis). I've seen this community support death-threats or calls for writers to have acid thrown in their face because of things they wrote, yet now an off-color joke that's not even happened yet is the end of the world? <br /><br />This community allows, and even supports, attacks on members when those attacks are coming from a 'progressive' platform. This makes no-one safe, because it allows grudges to be settled by looking through someone's work until you find something in there that you can build a case around (which you always can) and then denouncing them and getting a shitstorm going. I've seen some remarkable interpretations of things I've written. <br /><br />In seeking to make a better community for all, we've managed to create something akin to the cultural revolution, and these outbursts are where the outside world gets to see that.<br /><br />Unless the community really commits itself to treating everyone with a basic degree of respect, and views its members (including those who happen to be white/male/cis/straight) as either individuals, or as human beings, rather that members of groups who are at war, then this is just going to keep happening and getting worse. Sadly, I don't think the community can do that any more. Too much radical theory about priviledge and patriarchy is now in the mix, and anything that anyone does or says is seen through these prisms. I think a lot of people in the community simply can't see others as full human beings any more, they can't see them in terms of the things we all have in common, only in terms of the things that divide us.<br /><br />This isn't Ms Maguires, or anyone else's fault. This is all our faults. We let ideology get out of hand, and it's harmed people. I see stuff being written by writers whom I once had regard for, and I wonder if I could go back in a time-machine and say to them "one day you will write this", what would the reaction of their younger selves be? <br /><br />Shouting and hurling accusations has been the conduct of this community for a long while now, people are too practiced at it to ever give it up.Columhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780753778872137937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post-39024132043324419972014-03-07T14:49:26.459+00:002014-03-07T14:49:26.459+00:00I disagree on one point: you assert that "thi...I disagree on one point: you assert that "this is not the playground," and this is the internet we're talking about. It's worse than a playground because people think they have anonymity!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07162627515033695214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282504373890041231.post-19657556370150421482014-03-07T14:42:25.242+00:002014-03-07T14:42:25.242+00:00Great post, Paul. Not enough people are putting th...Great post, Paul. Not enough people are putting the blame where I feel it should go, which is to say Everywhere. Nobody did the right thing, nobody looks good, and this is gonna hurt everyone for a while.<br /><br />Frickin Yay.Aonghushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00361595573746038705noreply@blogger.com