I was born in 1984, and for most of my life, stories with black and white morality—in other words, stories about the struggle between good and evil, with good guys who are good and bad buys who are bad—have been considered unfashionable and out of style. This is especially true of fantasy, where grimdark has… Continue reading In Defense of Black & White Morality
Tag: racism
Confessing My White Privilege
From the title of this post, you’re probably expecting a snarky takedown of the concept of “white privilege” and a good solid fisking of critical race theory. And while I thoroughly despise everything having to do with CRT, liberation theology, and Ibram Henry Roger’s X Kendi’s ideas of “anti-racism,” I do have one point of… Continue reading Confessing My White Privilege
Why I won’t be watching Amazon’s Rings of Power
Believe it or not, I actually did not have an opinion on Amazon’s latest boondoggle, the Lord of the Rings TV series called “Rings of Power,” until about three days ago. I expected it to be a disappointment, partially because I expected it to be woke, but mostly because all the major TV series seem… Continue reading Why I won’t be watching Amazon’s Rings of Power
“It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
So I DNFed Timescape by Gregory Benford today. I didn’t like any of the characters, and the retro-future view of the 90s as a dystopian post-climate catastrophe wasteland was predictably bad. But this quote from the afterword got me to thinking: Habitual readers of science fiction will feel right at home with some features of… Continue reading “It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
White Science Fiction and Fantasy Doesn’t Matter
If you are white, and you write science fiction or fantasy, it is only a matter of time before you are cancelled. This is the logical end of intersectional identity politics, which is really just the resurrected, zombified corpse of Marxism. White people are the oppressors. People of color are the oppressed. All white people… Continue reading White Science Fiction and Fantasy Doesn’t Matter
Marxism is the new Black
The 21st century disciples of Karl Marx have a problem: all of Marx’s theories have been debunked, and all of his predictions have failed. The workers of the world never rose up. Capitalism never gave way to communism. The class wars ended because extreme poverty ceased to be a global issue. The labor theory of… Continue reading Marxism is the new Black
Speaking Out Again
Hello there. It’s been a very long time since I posted on this blog. I wonder if anyone is still following it. About a year ago, I pivoted from the blog to my newsletter, and while that’s going well, this blog has been mostly neglected. And it would have continued that way, if not for… Continue reading Speaking Out Again
2019-11-14 Newsletter Author’s Note
This author’s note originally appeared in the November 14th edition of my author newsletter. To subscribe to my newsletter, click here. So the latest controversy in SF&F fandom is the stripping of John Campbell’s name from the Campbell Award. The latest issue of Locus magazine has an op-ed from Cory Doctorow defending that decision, and… Continue reading 2019-11-14 Newsletter Author’s Note
A Much Deserved Fisking
In the November issue of Locus magazine, Cory Doctorow wrote an op-ed piece defending Jeannette Ng and the decision to strip Campbell’s name from the Campbell Award. At least, that’s how it started out, but it quickly devolved into a hatchet piece against everyone in science fiction whose politics lie somewhere to the right of… Continue reading A Much Deserved Fisking
Racism is trendy again
“People of color” is an inherently racist phrase. There. I said it. I may get into trouble for saying it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Before we unpack the phrase “people of color,” let’s first define our terms. This is where the heart of the controversy lies. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, racism… Continue reading Racism is trendy again