The Evil of the Puppy Kickers

A bit of a note here. Yesterday's blog went over very well. Surprisingly well, really. It was linked to by both John C. Wright (mostly for making an observation) and File 770 ("Going 15 rounds with Walter Damien a bit of overkill, since he stretches Damien on the deck in the first round.") I think that went over well.  

This one has a slightly different tone, especially by the end. My major hope is it all meshes together. I've had three people tell me it makes sense. But I'm running on two hours of sleep, so I'm just happy that individual sentences make sense.

You will notice some weasel-words here and there, mostly because there are some things I cannot know for certain. Is Cat Valente being misinformed in an echo chamber, suffering Stockholm syndrome (suggested yesterday in the comments), or just a vile person? I've heard multiple opinions arguing for all of those points of view. Damien, however ... well, you'll see.


The worst thing I have ever heard said about Supreme Dark Lord and Rabid Puppy Supreme Vox Day is that he's a racist. Perhaps a white supremacist. I find him strange, and his statements come off as highly eccentric.

Which is just another way of saying "Wait, what?"

To be honest, before Sad Puppies 3 came out last year, I had only read one thing by Vox, his book The Irrational Atheist. The person who wrote that book seems vastly different from the one who tried to label Sarah Hoyt a "transnationalist." There's a reason Id on't follow him that closely.

But last time I checked, Vox Day has really never dismissed his enemies as being subhuman. Nor has he suggested murdering any of them. Not even NK Jemisen, who has her own little war with Vox going that stretches back at least two years. He'll still debate, or reason, or scream right back at her, but he'll at least reply to whatever is thrown his way.

You may not like what he says, but he at least acknowledges that she's someone worth having a fight with.

Can't say that for the Puppy Kickers. They like being the ubermensch of their own little Reich, and it's getting tiresome, really. The ones who are really in charge rarely, if ever, acknowledge any argument outside of their own little echo chamber.

And why should they? Puppies are evil. Puppies are ... well, not even human.

Look at it for a second, shall we? The Kickers seem to dismiss us, won't acknowledge our arguments, jazz-hands any appeal to sanity, and we won't even go into the bomb threats of Arthur Chu's people. They're just bat-guano.

But let's look at it from Sarah Hoyt's point of view a moment.

you’re worse than the Soviets who condemned the Kulaks during holodomor, worse than the people on the street who mouthed the Nazi lies about Jews during WWII.  Why worse?  Because those people lived in fear of their lives. They had to say what they did because they feared being next on the kill list.

But you? You willingly go along with slanders and destroy reputations and attempt to destroy livelihoods for the sake of a plastic rocket.  To coin a phrase:  It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world … but for Wales, Richard?

She gets extra points for the A Man for All Seasons reference.

She's also right. Can we think for one moment about what they're fighting for? Once upon a time, they declared that the Hugo was "science fiction's most prestigious award." Now, they can't seem to decide if it's "only" for the people of WorldCon, or for the "TruFan" elite.

Either way? They're trying to destroy people all for the sake of a plastic rocket. It doesn't even vibrate.

The jokes are just so easy.

But it's important because it's about making sure the correct people get the award. It must go to the TruFans. And of course, the "TruFan" must have the right way of thinking. They must say the right things, read the right people, never read the wrong people, and above all, mustn't be associated with any of the wrong think. The books being read must be "art" and never written for anything so low and so common as money.

Though in this case, "TruFans" starts to sound like "ubermensch."

No, I'm not actually going to call them Nazis. They're not going to send us to concentration camps. Oh, no no no. They're called reeducation camps. They're Soviet, not national-socialist. We must be accurate about such things.

Of course, as I said the other day, they might merely be insane. Now, that might work for some, but not all.

It makes me wonder about Damien Walter and some of the others. Do they really believe all of this crap they spew? If they're so superior, why do they hate the Puppies? They're so much better than we are, after all -- so snobbery would be appropriate. But, no, you had Walter Damien dismissing the Puppies, demanding they they never sully his internet feed, ever. We're so far beneath him, we should apparently be stepped on.

Apparently, we're not so far beneath him that we are below contempt. We seem to be hovering just around contempt.

It makes you wonder if, deep down, some of these Puppy Kickers know that their real importance does not support their egos. It would explain why they're so angry all the time.

Which brings me to John C. Wright. He had a post commenting upon the coverage of David Hartwell's death. His comment was about the sort of people who spit on graves, but I think the rest of his statement covers it admirably. Because the primary Puppy Kickers -- the Scazlis, the Damiens, the Gerrold -- seem to hate the Puppies, anyone connected to the puppies, or anyone who the Puppies speak well about. We had a small sample the other day when it looked like Cat Valente was either desperately misinformed, or desperate to disavow being liked by anyone who would vote in SP4 -- it truly made me wonder how much she was just ignorant of SP4, or if she was terrified of professional blow back. Puppies are so hated, it looks like anyone they express enjoyment of must disavow them, lest they suffer the harsh consequences of the Kicking overlords.

As JCW wrote:

Such reckless hatred makes the hatred-eaten man his own victim, and makes his mind his own dungeon and torture chamber. He claws out his own entrails and gnaws them. All good things, like cherishing the memory of the beloved dead, become, for him, a cause of malice and pain. Sunlight to him is darkness, and life is nightmare.

I begin to understand why so many of them speak of being frightened when no one menaces them, or of feeling unsafe when nothing threatens.

According to Thomas Aquinas, evil is merely a damaged, or imperfect good. Sex is a good, but rape is "the good that is sex" minus everything that makes it a positive (consent, love, commitment, etc). There is the basic pleasurable element that is a part of sex, but everything else that makes it a good is not present, and it becomes an evil. For example: a good boxcutter is sharp. A good plane flies. But if you use the boxcutter to take over a plane, and smash it into a building, you do not have a good, you have 9-11.

Aquinas suggested that no one loves evil, but they love the parts of it that is good, even the damaged goods that are evil actions.

One of the things that make Orcs in Lord of the Rings evil is that they seem to embrace, enjoy, and worship the evil parts of evil, and none of the goods. Just look at the ones who have more than just a name names: "the defiler," "Man-Breaker," "Flesh-Render," "Plague-Bringer," etc. These are the positives of Mordor, or pure evil that shuns anything good.

And some of the CHORFs are already there, but not too too far in. The ring leaders praised the train wreck that was the 2015 Hugos. And while some among them (those who dislike the Puppies) hated the way 2015 fell out. The out of control No Awards? The pathetic jokes, the dictatorial air, everything rubbed a lot of them the wrong way (yes, I hear rumors). 

I'm starting to wonder if Damien and Scalzi are getting to the point where they are so consumed by hate, they'd start to praise the first person who tried to put a stake into Larry Correia's heart. Because I have to ask: where does it stop? They'd like to destroy the livelihood of the Puppies. Many have gone out of their way to spam one-star reviews onto novels, so that other readers might be discouraged by them. When do they stop being content with livelihood, and when do they praise the hate they claim to despise.

At the end of the day, I do not know anyone's heart, merely my own. And what's in my heart will get me halfway to Hell (bonus points for anyone who can footnote the quote). But you must start to wonder about what drives such endless, poisonous drivel. Because, people, let's face it, THIS IS OVER A PLASTIC ROCKET. It's not worth the level of hatred that damages the immortal soul. True, Damien may not believe in such a thing, but there's enough biological data in psychoneuroimmunology (yes, it's a thing) to show that it's not healthy for the body, nevermind the afterlife. So you'd think one or the other would make these people care about how much anger they're carrying around..

[... This is what happens when I read enough John C. Wright. I start bringing out my inner Chesterton]

I came into Sad Puppies about this time last year. And I've had multiple reactions to the Puppies over the past 11-12 months. I've been angry at the racist bitching at Brad Torgersen (first rule of villainy: DON'T GO AFTER THE FAMILY). I've laughed at them. I'm occasionally mocked them, though never as much as they themselves have delved into self-parody.

But at this moment, I simply pity them. They are sad, sad people who seem to be composed of hatred and rage. Reread Wright's paragraph on people who hate like this. Imagine living like that. Yes, it is a condition that's brought upon themselves, and we can smirk and thank God we're not like the tax collector -- sorry, the Puppy Kicker -- but there should be some pity.

But I won't tell Damien to go to Hell, because Hell is not a place to wish on people -- purgatory will be quite bad enough. Were it in my power, I would try to dissuade him from making the trip.