Sad Puppy activist Peter Grant was one of the most vocal people pushing for this week’s hatemail campaign directed at Tor. I happened to read one of his more recent posts in which he is lamenting the tension in the fandom and hopes for a more peaceful way to discuss things. (Maybe one can say that he should’ve thought about it before joining the bully campaign orchestrated by Vox Day, but better late than never.)
He says:
I’ll do my best not to stoop to name-calling, with the exception of referring to the other side as ‘social justice warriors’ or SJW’s. I do so only because I have no other name in my vocabulary to adequately or accurately describe them. If anyone can suggest a better, more acceptable alternative, I’ll be grateful.
I replied in the comments that the best alternative would be Happy Kittens. Sadly, it seems like my comment was deleted.
I’d like to rephrase my suggestion here: please drop the SJW and start using Happy Kittens if you insists on having a handle for the people who are critical of Sad Puppies. It’s not offensive. It’s kind of funny in the same way as Sad Puppies. It looks ridiculous in an angry sentence. Plenty of good reasons.
How about it, Peter?
Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens 
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I’d be fine with “Happy Kittens.”
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I like Happy Kittens. When trying to explain the kerfluffle to someone and describing Puppydom, he asked what the other side was called. I told him “everybody else”.
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I’ll be happy to be a kitten!
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Tell ya what…..
We’ll start using the term Happy Kittens when the folks on your side of the ideological divide stop using the terms “racist”, “misogynist”, “homophobe”, “neo-nazi” and – with a tip of the hat to Mr. Scalzi – “sh*tl*rds”. At least when referring to anyone who isn’t named Wright or Beale.
When that happens, be sure to wheel yourself out to the garden in the old folks’ home and let me know. I’ll be the one playing chess with the pigeons.
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Maybe you won’t but Peter Grant was asking for a more acceptable term, so there it is. I have never used any of those terms for all Sad Puppies, if memory serves.
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It doesn’t matter whether you have actually used those terms or not. The anti-Puppies have built their opposition on guilt-by-association, so it must be considered an acceptable tactic. We’re all a little tired of the double standard at play in this debate.
I’ll break it down for you:
Stimulus: Beale says something stupid, hateful and untrue.
Response: “All Sad/Rabid Puppy authors, readers and supporters are unrepentant racists, misogynists, homophobes, neo-nazis and sh*tl*ords because he obviously is.”
Stimulus: Irene Gallo says something stupid, hateful and untrue.
Response: “Oh, that’s just HER opinion, and she doesn’t represent anyone else.”
Just run the phrase “I stand by Irene Gallo” through any search engine, and you’ll see plenty of examples of both.
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Your logic just doesn’t cut it. A leader of the slate that swept the ballot saying something probably does at the same time say something about what the slate is about, especially when no apologies are coming.
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No, it’s your logic that fails. First of all, there’s two slates, not one. Second, the Sad Puppy slate came first; Beale just copied most of it for his own slate. So Beale’s noxious comments do not inform on the Sad Puppy slate at all.
But if you want to continue to use the guilt-by-association strategy, then it’s fair game. You forfeit the privilege of distancing yourself from the liars on your side of the dispute. If you stand with the liars, you stand up in support of the lies.
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Beale’s slate swept the ballot. Therefore, Beale’s opinions on what the slate is about do have some relevance. As far as I can see, all Sad Puppies don’t buy into his racist lunacy and I’ve never said that they do, so I’m not sure what you’re complaining about.
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Then you concede that the puppies are greater in number, and therefore, are just reclaiming what was already there’s – SFF fandom.
It’s simple. One person = one fan = one membership for Hugo voting = one vote. If Vox’s slate swept, this imply that there are a greater number of vote casting members who agree with him then not. Thus, more of them theN Of you.
This is called democracy in action, otherwise known as playing by your own rules.
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Bullshit, Wayne. Puppies are a minority that swept the ballot by voting tactically, as we all know.
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What I’m complaining about is that I made it clear in my first comment that I neither support Beale nor would consider any criticism directed against him to be excessive, and yet you mention him in every comment, insistent on drawing connections between him and everyone who is on the SP slate or supports what they are doing. He is nothing more than a bandwagon-jumper who has seized the reins for his own gain.
The sickening truth is that the anti-Puppies need Beale more than the Puppies do. He’s done nothing for my side except stir an increasingly rancid pot. Those of us who have distanced ourselves have learned that we are wasting our time, because all we hear from the other side is, “because Vox Day”. You need him to be your bogeyman, the focal point for your opposition. If he didn’t exist, someone would have invented him.
A week before the Hugo nominations were announced, a pizza parlor in Indiana came under attack when the 62-year-old wife of the owner told a reporter her husband’s business wouldn’t cater a gay wedding.
Glossing over the absurdity of having a pizza parlor cater a wedding, the wave of hatred directed against this business was horrific. Its website was hacked and filled with porn. The owner and employees were harassed by phone, mail and in person to the point where they had to close the business. A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER tried to mobilize a mob to burn the place down – fortunately the school board she worked for found out about before she got too far. The owners and several employees had to move out of their homes. A family lost its livelihood and twelve people lost their jobs.
All that over one comment.
One. Comment.
When the Hugo nominees were announced and the first wave of hatred against the Sad Puppies started, it all seemed like deja vu to me. I’d bet money Beale noted it too, realized how easily enraged people of a certain political persuasion could be, and exploited it. He wanted to strike back as WSFS for kicking him out and the people who hated him happily played along and continue to do so. They actually managed to make a vile, toxic egomaniac look like a victim.
Look, if you’re opposed to slate voting, Sasquan’s website had documented a proposal to change the nomination process. A nominating voter can only nominate four choices per category and the shortlist will have six nominees per category. This sounds to me like a sensible method to prevent a sweep in any category. Forget Beale and put your support behind that. But I guarantee, human nature being what it is, if the SP/RP nominees have any success in this year’s Hugos, then next year, EVERYBODY will be using slates – including a lot of people who have spent the last two months working themselves into a froth about how they “ruined” the Hugos. I’m working on getting more people involved in nominating and voting. The larger the voting pool, the more difficult it will be to “game”. That is the part of the Sad Puppies’ goal that I support.
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Thanks for the comment. I discussed your points in a new post: https://sfkittens.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/kittenpuppy-dialogues-on-pizza
You got the end of the pizza parlor incident wrong.
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Isn’t this Tor “boycott” just Beale throwing a tantrum because his arch-enemy John Scalzi got a sweet book deal with them? It’s hard not to get the impression that the Puppies are guilty by association when they copy everything that sad little man does.
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I tought I taw a putty-tat.
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