This week on the Badger Pod Nerd Cast … the Honey Badgers discuss the social justice invasion of science fiction and fantasy with special guest author John C. Wright.
The social justice invasion
The sci-fi/fantasy genre has always been an interesting place. It is a place where stories new and old weave tales that not only entertain but also teach us about ourselves as well as the world around us. It is a place of imagination where we can explore perspectives different from our own and view a portion of the universe in the eyes of another.
But just out of sight is a battle raging within the writing community. Long gone are the times when authors could be judged on their work alone. Now it’s about more than ability. It’s about politics and political correctness.
The realm of fantasy that once existed without boundaries is quickly shrinking. It is now being claimed by narrow-minded social justice types who feel there is no room for people of different opinions and viewpoints. But it wasn’t always this way.
Writers in the not-so-distant past could have their personal beliefs and still be recognized for their achievements in the writing community. It is especially troubling to think that writers like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien might not be welcome among their ranks if they lived in this time. We might not even know the name H.P. Lovecraft or the work of Mark Twain.
In truth, it is we who will suffer. As consumers of fiction, we are losing the world’s next great writers to this world of ultra-PC thought police, acting as gatekeepers to the human imagination—telling us what we can or cannot read because of who wrote it.
The cult of political correctness shows no signs of stopping. It grows in the realm of science fiction and fantasy like a cancerous tumor—perhaps it’s not too late to find the cure.
- Angry White Men - August 4, 2015
- Amy Everson is a fucking lunatic - June 6, 2015
- Honey Badger Radio: The unkindest cut - January 16, 2015
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Political correctness is about reducing an individual to the social groups he or she belongs to with no allowance for uniqueness as an individual. It doesn’t account for the fact that each of us has experiences that no one else can speak to. I’m male… I’m white… I’m cis gendered… I’m also someone who no one else could ever be. Respect that in yourself and in others.
That is well put and right on target. Everyone is smeared with a group’s perceived nobility or lack of it. In short, it’s a double knockout of supremacy and defamation.
[…] https://www.honeybadgerbrigade.com/2014/09/16/badger-pod-nerdcast-10-the-social-justice-invasion-of-scifi… […]
God bless John C. Wright for pointing his readers to this pod nerdcast! YAY!! Other women who love being female and love men being male! YAY! I am delighted to have this to add to what I listen to online. Thank you!
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” — Thedore Dalrymple
Ie
PC is an assault against the gifted by the mediocre so they may stage superiority through guile rather than talent.
It’s science fiction. A cure can be found for anything!
[…] SCIENCE FICTION WRITER JOHN C. WRIGHT talks to the Honey Badger Brigade. […]
Independent writers — writers who, in Groucho Marx’s phrase, “would never join a club that would have me as a member” — don’t have such troubles. That’s why the future of fiction is in the indie writers’ movement.
Read books from Baen Publishing. They have a stable of writers from left to right who all know how to spin a riveting yarn. They also avoid DRM on their electronic offerings and encourage new talent even if it comes over the transom in their hat rooms (Baens Bar).
In a sense, America was founded for people to have a way to avoid centralized govt & social gatekeepers, so that individualism could prosper. The PC movement is an attempt to restore a social homogeneity enforced by gatekeeping; thus the best medicine for individuals is, again, to find ways around the place where the gate is. Independent publishing, market support of publishers who don’t bend to the PC movement and its SJW crazy-fringe activists, etc.
The politicization of SF fandom is nothing new. Back in 1971 (and if you don’t believe me, I’ll hit you with my slide rule), Donald A. Wollheim pointed out that Campbell-era Analog won very few awards even despite its large circulation.
The gamers are fighting back against the leftie SJW types. Is there any way sci fans can fight back against these guys?
Apparently, the only fiction SJWs want allowed in the world today is the genre of “Patriarchy”
I’m usually a solid fan of this broadcast, but to be honest, I can’t say that I really took anything of the supposed topic from the content of this week’s episode. Wright rambled (nigh preached) into a general sense of tension and awkwardness among the participants, and by the end, I came away with more of a sense that Wright feels that God hates fags than what the state of sci-fi/fantasy is in relation to SJW/feminist imperialism. Better luck next week.
Can you add a volume control to the playback? I’d like to listen to this while playing a game or something.