Larry’s blacklisting from Origins follows ConCarolina’s disinvitation of best selling conservative author John Ringo last month.
Taken together with Mark Waid’s potentially criminal interference in Richard Meyer’s comics business, there’s an emerging pattern here which author Richard Paolinelli spells out:
Conservative creators are being banned from Cons.
Conservative creators are being threatened at Cons or if they even attempt to attend a Con.
Conservative creators are being attacked and bullied on social media.
Conservative creators are having their social media platforms deleted and demonetized.
Conservative speakers are having their public events canceled.
Conservative speakers are having their public events shut down by protestors refusing to let them speak.
Larry has issued a response to Origins Director John Ward’s rank cowardice. A relevant excerpt was posted on Facebook:
So I’m no longer the writer guest of honor at origins. My invitation has been revoked. It was the usual nonsense. Right after I was announced as a guest some people started throwing a temper tantrum about my alleged racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever (of course, with zero proof or actual examples), and the guy in charge (John Ward) immediately folded. He didn’t even talk to me first. He just accepted the slander and gave me the boot in an email that talked about how “inclusive” they are. I actually heard about it on facebook before I even saw the email.
Oh well.
They did this to John Ringo at ConCarolinas a little while ago, and took a lesson from it. This is just another new way for bullies to target people who disagree with them. Throw a fit, make up some accusations, and cry about how you feel unsafe. Now that they know it works, it is just another tool in their tool box.
For the record, I’m not any of the things they accuse me of. Despite writing a whole bunch of books, and a ton of political articles, and all of my many personal interactions with fans (I’ve done up to 15 cons and events in one year), none of these people can ever find any actual examples of me being sexist, racist, or homophobic (and the Guardian looked hard and still came up with nothing).
That’s because in reality, I’m a libertarian who does not give a shit who you are, or what you do, and it is none of my business, as long as you stay off my lawn. 🙂
This time they kept calling me a “rape apologist”. They dug up that classic that John Scalzi created about me several years ago. It’s total nonsense. I spent many years teaching self defense to women, and I’m all in favor of every rape attempt ending with the rapist receiving a couple hollow points to the chest. But that just goes to show the power of lies, rumor, and narrative.
So years later, complete strangers come out of the woodwork to talk about how evil I am. Yeah… That does get tiresome. It is wearying.
I’m really sorry for any fans who were planning on seeing me at Origins. Hopefully I’ll get to meet you at some other event.
For me personally, meh. I go to enough events. I’ll just do something else fun that weekend.
The saddest person in all of this is my son, who was my plus one. He was looking forward to playing a bunch of games, and then we were going to go to the zoo on Sunday. (they have manatees there!).
Larry is absolutely correct that the SJW intimidation campaigns will continue because they know that intimidation tactics work.
In light of D&C’s response to Waid’s intimidation of Antarctic Press, it looks quite possible that the SJW mobs are committing criminal acts by interfering with legitimate businesses. The situation goes beyond libel–which is difficult to prove–although that’s clearly going on, as well. There are federal laws protecting consumers’ access to products and services and forbidding attacks on individuals’ livelihoods.
John Ward committed an act of despicable cowardice by caving to a rage mob. gamers and SFF fans are right to call him on it. We should also ask why he thought it was better to immediately throw Larry under the bus rather than stand up to the SJWs.
A criminal gang is terrorizing a neighborhood; forcing the shop owners to pay protection money under threat of having their merchandise destroyed and their stores vandalized. The neighbors see the shop owners bowing to the gangsters’ demands. Perhaps one man sees a jeweler offer up a fine gold necklace in tribute to the gang that said customer had on layaway for his wife.
The neighbors are rightly angry. They upbraid the shop owners for giving in to the gangsters and correctly point out that the gang will not only keep coming back; they’ll demand more and more each time, all because the store owners keep rewarding the criminals’ behavior.
But it’s not just the shop owners who are enabling the gangsters, is it?
When we see someone committing a crime, we have a moral duty to call the police so the criminal won’t be free to prey on someone else. Yet the shop owners’ neighbors never call the police. They’d rather complain about not being able to get the products they want. Besides, the gangsters have high-priced lawyers who will probably just get them off. Pressing charges is too much trouble.
The neighborhood residents aren’t the only people the gang is preying upon. There are manufacturers whose products are increasingly targeted for theft by the gang. Their wares sometimes don’t even make it onto the shelves. These businessmen produce commodities of the finest quality. They have earned the loyalty and trust of countless customers. They regularly perform generous acts of charity to benefit the people of the neighborhood. Moreover, they have families who depend on them.
There are also smaller startups who are struggling to get into the market. They don’t have anywhere near the customer base, clout, and connections of the big manufacturers. The gang’s depredations are keeping the small manufacturers out of the neighborhood altogether. Their relative lack of resources means they are effectively shut out of that market. They are forced to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Who suffers? The neighborhood residents, whose range of choices is reduced, and the big manufacturers, who lose a source of healthy competition.
The big manufacturers also know what’s going on, but they also never call the police. It’s still too much trouble, and the mob lawyers will probably win in court. Besides, the besieged neighborhood is a minuscule part of the big manufacturers’ market. Their products are available everywhere, and the customers served by the gang-predated stores can do their shopping on the next block.
As for the small manufacturers, the industry leaders already bend over backwards to help newcomers. They have programs in place to connect startups with lucrative distribution channels. Let no one doubt that the big producers earned their success and lavishly share their time and treasure with folks who need a leg up. They are men of honor and pillars of the community.
Perhaps these good and successful men could help form an association to protect their smaller colleagues from the gang, much as an older organization once did before the gang took it over. But that’s a subject for another time.
Everyone understands. Sometimes there are circumstances that complicate, or even abrogate, the performance of certain moral duties. This is especially the case when good men have their families and reputations threatened. We have reached the point where standing up to the gang is a matter of heroic; not ordinary, virtue.
Yet what core principle binds all of us more strongly than the need for heroes–in everyday life as well as in science fiction?
Understand, I’m not asking anyone to do what I’m unwilling to do myself, but my resources are limited. You probably wouldn’t want to know what I’d do to the lawless scum who’ve planted their filthy boot on our industry’s throat if I had the means.
Evil prevails when good men do nothing. Oh, the neighbors boycott the crooked stores. Squeezed between the gang’s demands and the neighbors’ complaints, one store after another closes up shop. Enterprising folks open new stores, but it’s not long before the gangsters show up. What do they care if the business goes broke in six months? They’ll burn it down for the insurance.
And they will suffer absolutely zero consequences. Of that we’ve made them certain.
As a small businessman, I rely entirely on my readers’ patronage for my living. Thank you for your readership, and please support authors like Larry Correia, John Ringo, and me who strive to bring you entertaining stories free of ideological browbeating.
