Hugo this way, I'll go that way

Wow, I was really stunned at the Hugo nominations Saturday afternoon. There were the usual suspects of well-connected types, such as Rachel Swirsky and Mary Robinette Kowal, but a surprising number of fresh faces, and some pleasantly refreshing surprises. Larry Correia was nominated in the novel category, and Brad Torgersen - a fellow SASS member - garnered two nominations in the novelette and novella categories. Neither Brad nor Larry are the typical run of the mill self-hating leftists who dominate the genre.

But the nomination of Vox Day (Theodore Beale) in the novella category sent the usual suspects running around like a chase scene in Benny Hill. Wow! I can't pass judgement on Beale's work because I don't read it, and I really don't agree with the way he conducts himself in public.He's very rude and confrontational. But he pushes the buttons that drive the pagans and atheists bananas, and they're frothing at the mouth.

Last year, when he ran for president of the SFWA and got ten percent of the vote, I predicted in advance he would be expelled from the organization because it is run according to traditional revolutionary socialist doctrine, which rejects dissent. I was right. He was the first person ever expelled from the SFWA.

I'm not even sure Beale voted for himself as SFWA president. Most of the votes he got, I'm sure, were protest votes. In the U.S., a protest vote might mark you as a crackpot. In places where the politics derive that dominate the opinion leaders in the s-f community, a protest vote will get you in front of a firing squad.

I have no idea whether that "gig the assholes" sentiment motivated some people to nominate his story. From comments I have seen, his nominated story is actually very good. Like I said, I don't read his stuff. But if anyone cast their nomination for him to piss off the sneering left, it seems to have worked.

Cynical British aristocrats have a saying, "If the gentleman can't win the game, the gentlemen change the rules." That pretty much covers it.

I'll say right now he will be the first person ever to have a Hugo nomination cancelled. I'll add that he will be banned from the World Science Fiction convention.