Has everyone gone insane?

The past few weeks have been strange, and it's not just me. I know it isn't.

Hell, start with 2018. Cons have gone straight downhill.

WorldCon: "We must ban Jon del Arroz! He might record us doing something untoward to him! He's wearing a body camera to prevent us from taking him outside and beating him with baseball bats! We must pre-ban him! Something we did once to child molester Walter Breen, and never to his accomplice Marion Zimmer Bradley!"

We go from that to

ConCarolinas: "Oh, people just didn't feel safe about John Ringo. We had to get rid of him for safety's sake."

And now .... WTF?

Origins: "Larry Correia believes in the wrong things. We won't talk about what he believes that is BadThink, we'll just disinvite him as the Guest of Honor the same day he's announced."

Now, people were annoyed about WorldCon screwing around with Jon. WorldCon deliberately worked around their own rules to do it, but they at least tried to cover it up within the letter of the law.

People were really freaking irritated when they did it to Ringo. Ringo tried to blow it off at first, claiming that they made his life easier. Then ConCarolina worded it in such a way that it looked like Ringo was the problem.

Then, within the month, another lynch mob forms on Larry Correia and boy are his fans pissed. Origins can't even be bothered to answer Larry's questions about rescinding his invitation. Hell, they didn't even bother talking to him first -- a consideration ConCarolinas at least gave Ringo. Though Origins organizer Jack Ward seems to have more than enough time to send out consoling emails to the vendors, explaining that no one who complains was ever going to attend....

Excuse me, jackass-- er, Mr. Ward -- but did you consider that a bestselling author might -- just might, grant you -- be a bigger draw than .... whoever else you have on your list? (No, seriously, I looked at the image they had for their big names this year. I can't pull them out of a lineup.) And how exactly would you know that "they were never coming"? Because I know people who are asking for refunds over this. Better question: how do you know that any of the people slandering and libeling Larry are coming to the convention?

But, Hell, Origins didn't even try to cover up what they did to Larry. "Oh, he indulges in WrongThink, we're kicking him out."

Are ... you ... fucking ... kidding me? What is the point of this? "Hi, I'm going to slit my own wrists by uninviting a big name bestselling author from my flailing convention, and double down by trying to besmirch his good name behind the scenes, opening myself up to all sorts of lawsuits, BUT I'VE FLOWN THE FLAG FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO LIKE ME."

There's stupid and then there's suicidal. Hence "Go woke, go broke."  Can't you just wait to see what Origins attendance is going to be next year?

You know, way back when, I tried to keep my politics low key. I generally don't like opining in public. The closest I ever wanted to come with Sad Puppies Bite Back, and that was so detached from politics, I'm happy it even made contact with reality from time to time.

Last year was insane. Last year incurred threats, rumors, lies, and BS from people who would have been on "my side" the year before.

This year, we have this BS.

 I think I'm just about done with playing nice.

Here, have the book that pissed off everyone because it was nominated in the first annual Dragon Awards.

And let's see if we can get one of its sequels a follow up nomination in horror, for Good to the Last Drop.

The Dragons are coming.

Here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.