Moon v. Wiscon Follow-up

Oct 27, 2010 09:30


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  William Sanders’ GoH invitation to ICFA in 2008 was rescinded after his “sheet head” rejection letter, for example.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 ( Read more... )

elizabeth moon

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amy34 October 27 2010, 15:38:12 UTC
WisCon's decision made me put them on the very short list of "cons I will never attend." I didn't see any bigotry into Moon's post. Some of her points were debatable and possibly wrong, but the extreme reaction has had the effect of shutting down any useful conversation, and my takeaway has been that certain topics simply can't be discussed on the internet ( ... )

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sixteenbynine October 27 2010, 15:54:21 UTC
I suspect it's because there's now the unspoken sense that what matters most is not making your case, but keeping your audience. It doesn't matter if your point of view is wrong; if you have enough sympathizers, that renders the correctness of your position moot, because you will be correct by fiat.

This isn't so bad when it comes to matters of taste or aesthetics. When it comes to using such things to ignore simple physics -- like, say, how much of any given resource is left on this planet -- the results are increasingly deadly.

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zornhau October 27 2010, 16:04:50 UTC
I'm afraid Americans of both parties stopped regarding the opposition as human and at the same time decided that truth is relative. It's rather terrifying to watch otherwise sane people construct crazy arguments just in order to damn the other side.

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fantasyecho October 28 2010, 02:52:23 UTC
A lot of us with mental illnesses manage to be crazy without being bigoted, rude, and/or hateful, thanks very much.

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trinker October 27 2010, 16:56:07 UTC
If you would care to have a quiet conversation somewhere about what bigotry was in Elizabeth Moon's post, I'm open to a PM from you, or a discussion at a location of your choosing.

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