The Hugo Awards, the “Puppy Coup” and #GamerGate

First off, I’d like to wish all my readers a very happy and blessed Easter. I was unfortunately forced to attend church by my parents: it’s not what you think, we’re Episcopalian and both our Interim Rector and Bishop are women. Hopefully all of you out there in the alt-right have better churches to visit. And for my Odinist readers, next time you want to torch a church, consider burning an Episcopal one if you can’t find any Unitarian Universalist ones.

Now then, let’s move on to the big story of the weekend: The Hugo Award nominations. Let’s start by looking over the nominees, shall we? I copy/pasted this from their website, with my own observations:

Best Novel

• Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
• Lines of Departure, Marko Kloos (47North)
• Skin Game, Jim Butcher (Roc Books)

Best Novella

• Big Boys Don’t Cry, Tom Kratman (Castalia House)
• “Flow”, Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, 11-2014)
• One Bright Star to Guide Them, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Pale Realms of Shade”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “The Plural of Helen of Troy”, John C. Wright (City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis, Castalia House)

Best Novelette

• “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”, Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, 05-2014)
• “Championship B’tok”, Edward M. Lerner (Analog, 09-2014)
• “The Journeyman: In the Stone House”, Michael F. Flynn (Analog, 06-2014)
• “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, Rajnar Vajra (Analog, 07/08-2014)
• “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)

Best Short Story

• “Goodnight Stars”, Annie Bellet (The End is Now (Apocalypse Triptych Book 2), Broad Reach Publishing)
• “On A Spiritual Plain”, Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, 11-2014)
• “The Parliament of Beasts and Birds”, John C. Wright (The Book of Feasts & Seasons, Castalia House)
• “Totaled”, Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, 07-2014)
• “Turncoat”, Steve Rzasa (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)

Best Related Work

• “The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”, Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)
• Letters from Gardner, Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)
• Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, John C. Wright (Castalia House)
• “Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd Roberts (Baen.com)
• Wisdom from My Internet, Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)

Best Graphic Story

• Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)
• Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery, written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)
• Saga Volume 3, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics))
• Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick, written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)
• The Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate, Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier, screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, concept and story by Ed Brubaker, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)
• Edge of Tomorrow, screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, directed by Doug Liman (Village Roadshow, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)
• Guardians of the Galaxy, written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)
• Interstellar, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)
• The Lego Movie, written by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, story by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, LEGO System A/S, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner Animation Group))

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: “Listen”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)
• The Flash: “Pilot”, teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (The CW) (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)
• Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper”, written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
• Grimm: “Once We Were Gods”, written by Alan DiFiore, directed by Steven DePaul (NBC) (GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)
• Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”, ” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)

Best Editor, Short Form

• Jennifer Brozek
• Vox Day
• Mike Resnick
• Edmund R. Schubert
• Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Best Editor, Long Form

• Vox Day
• Sheila Gilbert
• Jim Minz
• Anne Sowards
• Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist

• Julie Dillon
• Jon Eno
• Nick Greenwood
• Alan Pollack
• Carter Reid

Best Semiprozine

• Abyss & Apex, Wendy Delmater editor and publisher
• Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, 2014 editors David Kernot and Sue Bursztynski
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
• Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant
• Strange Horizons, Niall Harrison, editor-in-chief

Best Fanzine

• Black Gate, edited by John O’Neill
• Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
• Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Colin Harris, Alissa McKersie, and Helen J. Montgomery
• The Revenge of Hump Day, edited by Tim Bolgeo
• Tangent SF Online, edited by Dave Truesdale

Best Fancast

• Adventures in SF Publishing, Brent Bower (Executive Producer), Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward & Moses Siregar III (Co-Hosts, Interviewers and Producers)
• Dungeon Crawlers Radio, Daniel Swenson (Producer/Host), Travis Alexander & Scott Tomlin (Hosts), Dale Newton (Host/Tech), Damien Swenson (Audio/Video Tech)
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
• The Sci Phi Show, Jason Rennie
• Tea and Jeopardy, Emma Newman and Peter Newman

Best Fan Writer

• Dave Freer
• Amanda S. Green
• Jeffro Johnson
• Laura J. Mixon
• Cedar Sanderson

Best Fan Artist

• Ninni Aalto
• Brad W. Foster
• Elizabeth Leggett
• Spring Schoenhuth
• Steve Stiles

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

• Wesley Chu
• Jason Cordova
• Kary English
• Rolf Nelson
• Eric S. Raymond

Looking through the list, you’ll see that I colored a few different nominees. The ones colored in bright red are nominees from Brad R. Torgenson’s “Sad Puppies” slate. The ones colored in dark red (or maroon if you want to be picky) are from Vox Day’s “Rabid Puppies” slate. A number of nominations were on both slates, but I colored them bright red since Sad Puppies was the more well-known one.

I’m sure regular TRV readers are well aware of what the “Puppies” slates are. For those of you not in the know, let me explain. The Hugo Awards are a yearly series of awards presented by the World Science Fiction Society for outstanding work in the science fiction/fantasy genre. They date all the way back to 1953 and are awarded during the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or “Worldcon” as it’s known. A number of right-leaning or even moderately leftist SFF writers have pointed out that the SFF community, and by proxy, the Hugo Awards, are controlled by an elitist clique of Social Justice Warriors who demand that everything fit within their bounds of political acceptability. Obviously, the awards themselves are not rigged, we’ll get to that later. But the voting process of the Hugos is privy to the manipulation of the masses through soapbox demagoguery and media manipulation of the public narrative. Sound familiar? It should.

Sad Puppies, and now Rabid Puppies as well, are all part of an effort to push back against that. The goal is simple: create a slate of works for prospective voters to nominate. While the slates are curated based on what the curator in question thinks are objectively good works, special preference is given to works that were ignored or overlooked by the SJW elite, sometimes just because the author was too white and male, or more likely he happened to have the wrong political opinions. It’s an effort to fight back against SJWs.

Now then, go back and look at that list. All but one of the Hugo Awards have a Sad Puppy candidate eligible. Two categories ONLY have Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies candidates. While this is the third annual Sad Puppies slate and the first Rabid Puppies one, this is the most effective push to date. Both Sad and Rabid Puppies have stormed the gates and forcibly occupied the Hugos. This is not a revolution. This is a coup. A Puppy Coup.

The rage from SJWs is there, and it’s visible. There’s an overwhelming demand to change the Hugo Award nomination process so that the Puppies can’t “game” the system. Some people want a change in the rules to make creators with non-kosher opinions automatically ineligible. Most are insisting that people choose the “No Award” option over giving any Puppy-approved candidate a vote. I’ve seen at least one goony beard-man who thinks that the 2015 Hugos should just be canceled altogether. This is a collective SJW meltdown, and it’s glorious.

This is what #GamerGate needs to watch and take note of. The Puppies brute-forced their way into the Hugos and took control of the nominations. They have the numbers and the outreach to take control. #GamerGate most likely has even more raw manpower than they do. We’ve shown our ability to take control of a twitter hashtag and shut down any SJW discussion. We’re so effective that our opponents had to build a bot just to hide from us. If that bot is taken down, then it won’t be long before the SJW twitter exodus begins. We need to take a page from the Puppy playbook and be more aggressive and organized in our efforts to take back gaming.

When award season rolls around next year, #GamerGate should already have built our own slate. Then it’s a matter of mobilizing voters for the march on the ballot box. In the case of the Hugos, the Puppy forces have already explained how it works and are even recruiting from #GamerGate. Hell, if I could come up with 40 bucks for the Sasquan supporting membership fee, I’d be filling out my ballot right now. Then we inevitably watch as #GamerGate breaches the gate and dominates the awards scene. Remember TotalBiscut’s win last year and the fallout that ensued? Imagine something ten times as big. Even if our slate isn’t entirely about spiting SJWs, it would still showcase how much power and influence #GamerGate has. Because in the end, it’s about power. It’s about reminding the SJWs that they don’t own gaming: we do. The Puppy Coup is an amazing show of force that will go down in SFF history. Let’s make sure #GamerGate can pull off something just as awe-inspiring.