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I Can't Believe You Went There
Sunday, 11 May 2014 23:05There is currently a snit, a war, an angry online fight, concerning the Hugo nominations and voting this year. This blog entry isn't about that. But...
I looked at the comments on one post, and it was observed that a photo showed one guy with a fedora and a neckbeard -- BINGO on the checklist, that makes him a douche. I know, I know, you should never read the comments. But the piling on continued in this vein, except for a side issue regarding fedoras versus trilby and other hat styles.
It would be one thing, easy to dismiss, if I saw it once. But I didn't and so now I'm calling you on it. (And if you think that means I automatically am defending all the other mouthbreathing issues involved with the original trolling yahoos, maybe you should stop reading here.)
Take a good look at the icon for this entry. Dr. Phil at ConFusion in 2009. Hat? Check. Beard? Is it on the neck? Check. Check. I guess that makes me a neckbeard...? [ADDENDUM 5/12/2014: Nick Mamatas points out that "a neckbeard is a guy who can't really even grow a beard, so they just have scraggle on their necks and under the jaw" -- guess that explains some of the poser references. This negates a piece of a perfectly good rant. But the overall concept is still there...]
So that makes me a racist, homophobic, ugly-form conservative and Internet asstard, right?
HELL NO.
I can't believe that these people have gone there. Basing your opinion and declaring one's political and cultural affiliation based on appearance. Really? REALLY?
I am white and something of an Internet mole. I sunburn easily. My left arm ends up darker in the summer.
So, I'm an Internet troll who lives in the basement at home with his mother, redneck, trucker... see how ridiculous this sounds?
I have a beard because my skin irritates too much that I stopped shaving. On 1 May 1981. Really.
I wear a hat because I wear glasses and I dislike getting glare and reflections off them. Also I am one of those people sensitive to the flashing of ordinary fluorescent lights and so need a brim indoors as well, or I get headaches. Really.
I am a writer and a professor of Physics. Computers are my tools. Really.
I live at home. My home. With my wife of thirty years. My mother lives six states away and given my leg and travel issues, there is the possibility that I may never see her again. I don't live in a basement. Really.
I'm also fat, wear suspenders. In fact, I resemble best-selling author George R.R. Martin. Which means... absolutely nothing. Doesn't it?
And anyway, the Hugos are a science fiction award. Who the hell are you to cast stones at geeks?
I really do sunburn easily. And when I commute to campus, I drive south on US-131 in the morning and north in the afternoon. So the sun is to my left. Hence the trucker's arm. Really.
So here's the deal. Don't you dare cast aspersions on a person based on their appearance in a photo. It makes you sound terribly stupid and shallow, as well as massively un-PC. You lose all street cred.
I haven't entered the fray about the Hugos. Fact is, you can nominate anything which is eligible. You can vote for anything on the ballot. If you want to be a jerk and try to skew the results with your minions, there's nothing to stop you, save basic human decency and professionalism.
I say judge a work based on the work. We tell new writers they are not their story, so they can better survive the inevitable and numerous rejections. It follows that the story is not the writer. Though if you choose to punish a story because of the author's actions and views -- go ahead. There is nothing in the rules that prevents it.
At the moment, I have no dog in this fight, other than the umbrage of being pigeonholed based on my appearance. I am thinking of getting a Supporting membership in Loncon, not to cast a negative or positive political vote, but because the entire Wheel of Time series, which my late father adored, is in the Hugo e-packet. Which accidentally makes it one helluva bargain. Anybody can play this game -- a membership compels you to vote no more than a U.S. citizenship does -- though voting is most definitely encouraged and I'm too cheap to buy a Supporting membership and not vote.
Make of that what you will.
Dr. Phil
I looked at the comments on one post, and it was observed that a photo showed one guy with a fedora and a neckbeard -- BINGO on the checklist, that makes him a douche. I know, I know, you should never read the comments. But the piling on continued in this vein, except for a side issue regarding fedoras versus trilby and other hat styles.
It would be one thing, easy to dismiss, if I saw it once. But I didn't and so now I'm calling you on it. (And if you think that means I automatically am defending all the other mouthbreathing issues involved with the original trolling yahoos, maybe you should stop reading here.)
Take a good look at the icon for this entry. Dr. Phil at ConFusion in 2009. Hat? Check. Beard? Is it on the neck? Check. Check. I guess that makes me a neckbeard...? [ADDENDUM 5/12/2014: Nick Mamatas points out that "a neckbeard is a guy who can't really even grow a beard, so they just have scraggle on their necks and under the jaw" -- guess that explains some of the poser references. This negates a piece of a perfectly good rant. But the overall concept is still there...]
So that makes me a racist, homophobic, ugly-form conservative and Internet asstard, right?
HELL NO.
I can't believe that these people have gone there. Basing your opinion and declaring one's political and cultural affiliation based on appearance. Really? REALLY?
I am white and something of an Internet mole. I sunburn easily. My left arm ends up darker in the summer.
So, I'm an Internet troll who lives in the basement at home with his mother, redneck, trucker... see how ridiculous this sounds?
I have a beard because my skin irritates too much that I stopped shaving. On 1 May 1981. Really.
I wear a hat because I wear glasses and I dislike getting glare and reflections off them. Also I am one of those people sensitive to the flashing of ordinary fluorescent lights and so need a brim indoors as well, or I get headaches. Really.
I am a writer and a professor of Physics. Computers are my tools. Really.
I live at home. My home. With my wife of thirty years. My mother lives six states away and given my leg and travel issues, there is the possibility that I may never see her again. I don't live in a basement. Really.
I'm also fat, wear suspenders. In fact, I resemble best-selling author George R.R. Martin. Which means... absolutely nothing. Doesn't it?
And anyway, the Hugos are a science fiction award. Who the hell are you to cast stones at geeks?
I really do sunburn easily. And when I commute to campus, I drive south on US-131 in the morning and north in the afternoon. So the sun is to my left. Hence the trucker's arm. Really.
So here's the deal. Don't you dare cast aspersions on a person based on their appearance in a photo. It makes you sound terribly stupid and shallow, as well as massively un-PC. You lose all street cred.
I haven't entered the fray about the Hugos. Fact is, you can nominate anything which is eligible. You can vote for anything on the ballot. If you want to be a jerk and try to skew the results with your minions, there's nothing to stop you, save basic human decency and professionalism.
I say judge a work based on the work. We tell new writers they are not their story, so they can better survive the inevitable and numerous rejections. It follows that the story is not the writer. Though if you choose to punish a story because of the author's actions and views -- go ahead. There is nothing in the rules that prevents it.
At the moment, I have no dog in this fight, other than the umbrage of being pigeonholed based on my appearance. I am thinking of getting a Supporting membership in Loncon, not to cast a negative or positive political vote, but because the entire Wheel of Time series, which my late father adored, is in the Hugo e-packet. Which accidentally makes it one helluva bargain. Anybody can play this game -- a membership compels you to vote no more than a U.S. citizenship does -- though voting is most definitely encouraged and I'm too cheap to buy a Supporting membership and not vote.
Make of that what you will.
Dr. Phil
