Moon v. Wiscon Follow-up

[jimhines]

I’m still sorting through my feelings on Wiscon rescinding Elizabeth Moon’s Guest of Honor invitation.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened.  William Sanders’ GoH invitation to ICFA in 2008 was rescinded after his “sheet head” rejection letter, for example.  (Thanks to Nick Mamatas for that historical pointer.)

Basically, I

Comments

[jimhines]

Do you think this was a reflexive thing? Remember, this was a decision made after *six weeks* of fairly intensive debate and discussion.

[kosarin]

What are you basing that on? I've been trying to follow the discussions, but perhaps I'm missing something.

[pantryslut]

...yeah.

[furikku]

How is politeness an unhealthy thing for society?

[furikku]

There's also a difference in doing that and offending a potential market. Muslims exist in places other than the Middle East, for example. Many SFF fans in the US, for example, are Muslim.

[furikku]

...and if one has a REPUTATION for being polite to Muslim fans, one might find more and more Muslims and empathetic people gravitating toward one's product.

Of course, leaving all that aside, it's also generally a good thing to avoid offense with others in cases where there is nothing terrible happening. It's not like politeness and consideration totally prevent pointing out when one's ass is showing, after all.

[anonymous]

...I laughed. in fact, i'm still laughing.

[jimhines]

"So basically if you can't make any money off them, you don't need to be polite?"

I don't think that's quite what he was saying, though I could be mistaken. I read it as a response to furikku, who brought up the issue of offending a potential market.

Though my in-laws are Vikings fans, so I'm sure they'd happily join you in cutting loose on the Green Bay lover.