John Scalzi Profile picture
Aug 3, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read
1. It's really frustrating to me that more people don't understand that racist/alt-right people have gamified their rhetoric; they're not interested in discussion, they're slapping down cards from a "Debate: The Gathering" stack, and the only goal is taking heads.
2. They gamify their rhetoric because essentially this shit is a low-stake game for them, whereas for other people it's their actual lives. That's an advantage they have. If they lose, they shuffle their cards and go on to the next thing. If others lose, their life takes a hit.
3. And because their rhetorical strategy is essentially card-based, actual knowledge of issues is unimportant and probably a hinderance. They don't want or need to understand the issues that affect others, they just need you to play their game so they can win.
4. I don't have time anymore to diddle about with children who think other people's lives are some sort of turn-based game, especially when all they want is to hurt other people. And it bothers me more people, especially those with power, don't understand this shit.
5. I'm not going to tell people not to engage with these chuckleheads. But don't engage with them on their terms. Engage with them on your own. One, they hate that, and two, it exposes what they're doing as a pointless, hateful exercise, and them as awful people.
6. In sum: Understand what these folks are doing. Refuse to play along. And if you choose, point out to others the hollowness of their game. Because their "game" is to hurt other people, and then go on to the next target. Their game is other people's lives.

(/end)

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More from @scalzi

Feb 15
1. In one month EXACTLY*, The Kaiju Preservation Society will be unleashed upon the world! To prepare you for the MASSIVE AWESOMENESS THAT WILL ENSUE, a brief thread.

(*one month and two days in the UK, just because of how they release things there)
2. Want to be sure you get it the day of release, in these days of supply chain issues? Pre-order today! You can pre-order from your favorite local bookseller - they will appreciate your business! - and also from your favorite online retailers.

us.macmillan.com/books/97807653…
3. Want a signed copy? Come see me on tour and I'll sign your book for you! If you can't make it to a tour event, you can still order books from those stores and I will sign your book when I arrive. Here are the tour dates for this year:

tor.com/2022/02/11/ann…
Read 7 tweets
Jan 30
To be fair Ohio has a lot to answer for by promoting Cincinnati Chili as a valid and responsible life choice
Also to everyone saying WHAT ABOUT YOUR BURRITOS YOU STINKING HYPOCRITE I am perfectly willing to acknowledge my burritos as the second worst food atrocity to come out of the Buckeye State
HOWEVER to soothe the hurt feelings of Cincy folk regarding their cinnamon meat gruel, I will acknowledge this food fact: goetta is the objectively superior "pork leavings + binder" food compared to any other. Sorry scrapple fans, scrapple is perfectly fine, goetta is just better
Read 4 tweets
Jan 29
In an email, I was asked, given the rise of book bans in schools/libraries, if it made sense for me/other authors to ask publishers to stop sending our books to affected states until they pulled their heads out - a boycott, basically. So here's why I think that's not a good idea.
First, as a strictly practical matter, it wouldn't work. Anyone can order anything online these days and have it arrive at their home. The people this sort of action would hurt would be small local indie booksellers and libraries, who are, to be clear, not the enemy in this case.
Second, while boycotts are often indiscriminate tools in terms of who they affect, in this case a boycott would work to the short-term advantage of the censors by punishing innocent local booksellers/libraries, ie, the entities the censors want to punish anyway...
Read 12 tweets
Jan 18
So, I do have a take on how this movement functions, strictly as a practical matter, and involving the Hugos and other awards. I will share it with you in further tweets in this thread.

(Quote is from Elizabeth Sandifer and taken from here: eruditorumpress.com/blog/four-tiny…) "For three years running there have been precisely zero
How it works:

1. The modern corps of acquiring editors, in both NY publishing and in short fiction, has SIGNIFICANTLY more women and/or (out) LGBTQ+ folks, and more diversity generally. Stories they buy reflect their interests, and the sales numbers are good, so they keep at it.
2. When the Puppy nonsense happened, people committed to more diverse storytelling either entered or re-entered the Hugo voting pool to counteract the Puppy brigade. When they were routed, Puppies and their sympathizers flounced. Those interested in more diverse stories stayed.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 4
"We turned the planet into an overheated pile of microplastics and saddled our children with debt and shitty-paying jobs, plus we're totally cool with creeping racist fascism. Why are our kids angry and hate us so?" "Millennials Are the S...
The rest of the piece is smug self-congratulatory wankery and chiding generalizations, as you might have guessed from the headline, which is actually less egregious than the text. It's in the WSJ, one of the largest newspapers in the US, so the silencing is imaginary at best.
ALSO, at this point in time, with the elder millennials trudging past the 40-years-old mile marker, this piece feels like an unwanted encore by a Boomer aching to play a golden oldie to a thinning crowd, the "Freebird," if you will, of generational warfare. Clear the stage, sir.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 2
1. Lol, no. I show off piles of books to show people what's coming out; I also give authors space on my site to promote their latest books. But the number of books I actually *blurb* - give a quote for their cover - is actually pretty small, limited to books I've read and liked. "Follow John Scalzi and you'll see him get a pile of bo
2. Nor do I (or the authors I know) engage in simple logrolling. Do I endorse the books of friends? Sure - if I like them. I don't endorse books of authors I know if they're not to my liking. And I endorse books of authors I don't know when they come to me and are amazing.
3. I decline to endorse the large majority of books that I'm sent to blurb. Mostly because I just don't have time to read them (I warn the editors up front that might be the case) but sometimes just because it's not the book for me, even if it will be a fabulous book for others.
Read 10 tweets

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