On RaceFail 09, The Fucked Up Sequel

[bofoddity]

So there has been more race fail going on (short summary: published authors wanked, coffeeandink was reasonable, published authors decided to punish her for that, more here). The main issue these people have now is that some bloggers prefer to use pseudonyms instead of their real names, because apparently wanting to protect your privacy is actually an act of cowardice. Or about making yourself a non-person, as one wanker seems to indicate:

Much has apparently been made of my posting her real name in my demand for an apology. But is was not a pseudonym that wrote the lie for which an apology is needed. It was a real live person who has a body and a name. And that is who needs to apologize.

(Full post here to be gawked at. It's special.)

Except who is actually being dehumanized here? The threats and demands for silence come from the big, known names, not from those who use pseudonyms; it's these people who use their influence in order to smear reputations of others and endanger them to harm. Look at that post I linked after the quote: who is making demands here? Who started the hostility again?

It's funny to watch these people demand responsibility from others while blissfully ignoring their own shit, only it's really not. It's not nice to see bullies get to be entitled, arrogant and threatening and get away with their behavior without even a slap on the wrist from their own community. It's not nice to see that these adults, these professionals actually take pride in getting to ignore concerns voiced by their fellow writers, readers and everybody else who aren't willing to tiptoe around them. Are they honestly incapable of seeing their own hatefulness? If they are, it would be nice to get to live in their bubble.

I don't have personal experience with anybody involved with this, but it's easy for me to see which side has decided to be a martyr. It's easy to be one when you have decided to be the one to call the shots, and that the other side is just a target.

Comments

[shardsofblu.livejournal.com]

I'll have to read up more on this, but as far as I can tell basically it's about how people shouldn't be published under pseudonyms...?

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

That and how your opinion doesn't matter if you use a pseudonym. This post (http://rydra-wong.livejournal.com/155427.html) summarizes what happened pretty well, but this seems like a fail that will last long. :(