Author: Allan Davis

Cry Havoc!  And meme the frogs of war! Shades of Gamergate.  The Internet is on fire–again–with angry memes, and again, journalists have managed to run afoul of the “memelords and cyberbullies.”  But this time, it’s not about gamers, it’s about CNN. Katherine Cross at the Daily Beast points out the similarities: Many of the same tactics and major players that made names for themselves in GamerGate—from Mike Cernovich to Weev—are being used to push a wide-scale harassment campaign against CNN….In August of 2014 Eron Gjoni, the ex-boyfriend of Zoë Quinn, a game developer, posted a lengthy screed in which he … Continue reading →

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Does the science fiction community discriminate against people? That appears to be the question over the last several years, as the war over the Hugo awards between “True Fans” and “Puppies” rages on.  2015’s  Hugo awards saw a record number of “No Awards” handed out, as 2500 “True Fans” voted in lockstep to shut down nearly every category where a Puppy-chosen candidate stood any chance of winning. The 2016 Hugo awards saw fewer “No Awards,” but the few that did win demonstrate a clear political bias.  Toni Weisskopf, long time editor at Baen, was shut out again.  Larry Elmore–arguably (alongside … Continue reading →

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Without Gamergate, there might not have been a President-Elect Trump. One of the primary weapons of SJW’s and the left, in general, is what they call “no-platforming.”  Basically, it means refusing to allow political or philosophical opponents any voice in the dialogue, usually under the idea that some ideas are just too extreme or dangerous to be allowed.  It’s the same sort of reasoning that leads to “anyone who challenges global warming or vaccine efficacy should be treated like a Holocaust denier.” No-Platforming was the trigger for Gamergate, as anyone who questioned the narrative was blocked, deleted, ignored, insulted and … Continue reading →

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To Recap: In 2013, Larry Correia set out to demonstrate that the Hugo Awards were handed out more for political reasons than quality.  He created the “Campaign to End Puppy-Related Sadness,” Sad Puppies for short, with a Spokesmanatee named Wendell.  The first campaign–an attempt to get Correia’s “Monster Hunter Legion” nominated–failed. He continued the effort with Sad Puppies 2 the following year and managed to get quite a few of his selections nominated.  Vox Day’s “Opera Vitae Aeterna” was deliberately chosen to incite apoplexy.  Larry wrote   I said that for the Hugo’s the writer’s politics were more important than … Continue reading →

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“Are you, or have you ever been, a supporter of Gamergate, NotYourShield, Sad Puppies, Rabid Puppies, Men’s Rights Activists, Ron Paul, Donald Trump, White Supremacists, etc, etc etc?” Blacklists have come a long way since the bygone days of McCarthy. With the power of modern database and data processing systems, a list of targets can be drawn up in a matter of minutes, regardless of the criteria used to populate that list.  And with the Internet, that same list can be in place, worldwide, in hours. Two fairly recent examples are Randi Harper’s Good Game Auto-Blocker and Vox Day’s SJWList. … Continue reading →

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There has been an invasion occurring.  Not an invasion of people, but more an invasion of philosophy, as Political Correctness has marched in lockstep across the country.  Political Correctness forces everyone to walk on eggshells, afraid to tell a joke, afraid to deal with people as people, because someone, somewhere, might “be offended.” The advance of PC has seemed unstoppable.  No one, apparently, is safe from these shrieking monsters; they point, and they howl, like a bad remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and all of their co-shriekers arrive on cue to denounce the target and tear them down.  … Continue reading →

Saturday, August 22, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington, the Hugo awards were announced, and this year’s chapter in the continuing saga of Science Fiction Fandom versus the Puppies came to an end.   With five categories cancelled out, it would appear that the Puppies were handed a resounding defeat.  Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, Best Short Form Editor, and Best Long Form Editor–five of the six categories where the Puppies swept the nominations–were “cancelled out” by the will of science fiction fandom.  Over 2500 Hugo award voters banded together to ensure that no … Continue reading →

Imagine, for a moment, that the top twelve websites devoted to libertarian thought– including LewRockwell.com–all decided to run a series of articles, on the same day, without any admitted cooperation.  Imagine these sites each released material carrying the same general theme–that “libertarianism is dead,” and “there’s no longer a reason to write to, or about, libertarians.” If you can understand the resentment that such an event might cause, then you might begin to understand the core trigger of Gamergate. —– It all started with a sex scandal… In mid-August 2014, a programmer wrote a blog post detailing how his ex-girlfriend … Continue reading →