General Discussion

sweetloukillbot

(11,028 posts) Tue Apr 26, 2016, 04:24 PM Apr 2016

White Supremacist Vox Day trashes the Hugo Awards again

The nominees were released today, and they are as bad, if not a worse, a shitshow as last year. White Supremacist Vox Day led his Internet followers in stuffing the ballots again, getting such works as "Safe Space As Rape Room", "SJW's Always Lie", and "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" nominated.

Some background - the Hugo Awards are the preeminent award in Sci-Fi, but they are voted by members of the WorldCon convention, and represent a small sample of readers. They are also easy to game. A few years ago, a right-wing writer, Larry Correia, got upset that he didn't win, and started a campaign called the Sad Puppies, based on the idea that his loss was politically motivated. The movement didn't gain any traction until last year, when Vox Day joined the fight, starting his own campaign, the Rabid Puppies. The two dominated the nominating process, leading the Convention voters to completely reject even giving awards in some of the categories.

This is now the second year they have controlled the nominating process, and likely the second year that "No Award" will dominate.

There are some wonderful works and deserving nominees (NK Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, Ann Leckie, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman), but as a longtime SFF reader and a recent WorldCon member/voter, I'm disgusted by this.

A list of the finalists:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/here-are-the-2016-hugo-award-finalists-1773157497

And some commentary/background:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-john-scalzi-hugo-award-nominations-20160426-story.html

13 replies

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Highlight:

White Supremacist Vox Day trashes the Hugo Awards again (Original Post) sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 OP

That's really disappointing. Svafa Apr 2016 #1

Thanks for posting this. SheilaT Apr 2016 #2

Some categories are strong this year sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 #3

God, what a jackass nemo137 Apr 2016 #4

This year seems to be divided into "fuck you" nominations and "you like this" nominations sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 #5

The racists have spoken. Initech Apr 2016 #6

And apparently they love gay dinosaur erotica and My Little Pony. sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 #7

I need some more info on this one! Initech Apr 2016 #8

Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 #9

OMG!!! Those are real? Initech Apr 2016 #12

So they are like the tea party of Comicon? Rex Apr 2016 #10

Pretty much... sweetloukillbot Apr 2016 #11

Yuck...I guess even shitbags have an imagination. Rex Apr 2016 #13

Svafa

(594 posts)

1. That's really disappointing.

Reply to sweetloukillbot (Original post)

Tue Apr 26, 2016, 04:29 PM

Apr 2016

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)

2. Thanks for posting this.

Reply to sweetloukillbot (Original post)

Tue Apr 26, 2016, 04:35 PM

Apr 2016

I'm actually a member of SFWA, and this year I'll be at WorldCon. Since I've read very few of the nominated pieces, and have seen exactly two of the movies and none of the short form dramatic presentations, I doubt I'll bother to vote. There's not even an author I happen to know personally on the ballot!

But the Sad Puppies and their ilk have virtually no sympathizers in the world of s-f. It's just them. And they're essentially unimportant.

sweetloukillbot

(11,028 posts)

3. Some categories are strong this year

Reply to SheilaT (Reply #2)

Tue Apr 26, 2016, 04:45 PM

Apr 2016

Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Short Form Editor, Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation and the Campbell are pretty solid, despite some Puppy influence. The other categories are absolute garbage, especially Best Related Work.

nemo137

(3,297 posts)

4. God, what a jackass

Reply to sweetloukillbot (Original post)

Tue Apr 26, 2016, 07:34 PM

Apr 2016

You'd think the absolute, resounding "nah" they got last year would have sent a loud and clear message from the rest of the fandom, but I guess the think everyone else's attention span is short enough they can get away with it.

sweetloukillbot

(11,028 posts)

5. This year seems to be divided into "fuck you" nominations and "you like this" nominations

Reply to nemo137 (Reply #4)

Tue Apr 26, 2016, 07:54 PM

Apr 2016

So the rabid puppies put forth quality work like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King in order to force the non pups to either no award worthy work, or have them win and then crow about how Vox "won".
And there's the joke nominations, like My Little Pony and Chuck Tingle. Those are the "Boaty McBoatface" nominees.
And then there's the blatantly political and offensive garbage like "Safe Space As Rape Room" and "The Story of Moira Greyland" that are simply there to get a rise out of people.

I can't wait for the reforms to go through and end this garbage. I also wonder how many of Vox's GG friends who registered to vote last year and nominated this year are going to pony up to vote again this year.

Suffice to say, I think there's going to be some diverse victories this year as NK Jemisin grabs the best novel, Nnedi Okorafor the best novella and Alyssa Wong the Campbell. And a ton of No Awards.

I can't argue with any of those choices.