Descent Into Madness

There’s a plague in our country.  It sets in when folks are least expecting it, and it takes once healthy, vibrant pieces of society, and it rots them from the inside.  This plague is hard to eliminate, as it requires a degree of both foresight and courage many are loathe to display.  Am I talking about Coronavirus?

Nope.  I’m talking about the woke-scolds who screech and shame until they get their way, and then they form a shell against anyone not inside that mindset, keeping them from reclaiming once great organizations.

A recent article from Quillette regarding the Romance Writers of America caught my eye.  RWA, an organization of around 9000 members, formed in 1980 to promote the interests of romance writers and the romance genre in general.  It flourished for years, building careers and getting romance novels out of the shadows and into the mainstream.  Unfortunately, along the way, those that took it over either forgot or ignored that the main purpose of romance novels, much like the main purpose of any novel, is to tell a good story.  Instead, it descended into the madness of identity politics, arguing that stories should be more about inclusion and political outlook that pushed an agenda rather than keeping readers engrossed in a great book.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for inclusion, and those who can write good stories should be welcomed, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality.  From my point of view, such characteristics are irrelevant to someone writing good books.  Moreover, if a writer feels the need to include such details in his or her work, then do so.  The issue is when such immutable characteristics become the point of the story rather than simply a part of it.

But beyond dinging people for not being inclusive in the way you view inclusion, it becomes an even worse sin to ding people for their political outlook.  The RWA, led by Carolyn Jewel(its President-Elect at the time), decided to excommunicate a buyer of romance that once worked for Borders Books and had since gained employment with a small, startup publishing firm as an acquisition editor(Glenfinnan).  Well, the woke-scolds descended on her boss and the firm because they employed notorious racist Sue Grimshaw.  Her crime?  Liking the tweets of a few conservative political figures, like Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson.

My own thoughts on Carlson and others isn’t relevant.  Nothing he says or does impacts me or my life in any way.  He’s a political commentator, and I’m a writer.  With that out of the way, it’s worth noting that neither Carlson nor Kirk are fringe figures.  They’re pretty mainstream conservatives.  You may dislike their views, but they’re not Nazis, and caricaturing them as such is a despicable act that lessens the crimes of the actual Nazis.  Folks like Carlson hold some views folks on the other side of the aisle dislike.  That’s their right as Americans.  Beyond that, it’s nobody’s business who likes whatever political views.  If the writer puts those views into a story, then criticize the story, but someone’s personal political outlook is not your business.

The woke-scolds in RWA went after Grimshaw, then her boss, with a frenzy, doing all they could to destroy them.  They cried out that Grimshaw had been engaged in discriminatory buying when she worked for Borders Books, despite the fact that book placement, and even romance novels from minority writers, wasn’t part of her job.  Nope, she’d liked a few conservatives, and Borders had some policies that weren’t as progressive as one might like, so she was instantly guilty.  And as a guilty racist, she had to be expunged.  Then, the folks that came to her defense, like Suzan Tisdale, were also branded as racist scum to be purged.

As you can read at the link, as well as this one here, the entire ordeal descended into madness, led by a few woke-scolds who feel the need to always be angry.  They ranted and raved about the way the majority of romance novels held their plots, who they included in those plots, and why they weren’t more risqué.  Never mind that on of the big purposes of being a writer is to sell books, and folks should remember that the audience decides what to buy and what not to buy based on individual preferences, but die had been cast, and those not sufficiently woke enough, or unwilling to kowtow properly, were heretics.  And it was at that point that a great number of RWA’s writers decided to say “fuck it,” and they began walking away in increasing numbers.  The entire organization had become a shell of itself, devoted more to political messaging instead of good stories.

And RWA isn’t alone.  SFWA has also become increasingly more concerned with diversity and inclusion being the story rather than elements of it, which is why The Hugo Awards have become such a joke.  The woke-scolds in charge think that the writing community and reading audience will continue to buy books that suck because they want the message involved.  If that’s the case, then they don’t know the audience very well.

Most folks don’t have the backbone to fight back.  Most will just walk away and try to live in peace, but it’s the growing fungus of the woke-scolds that makes that an impossibility if we want to enjoy good stories rather than be dictated to by a commissariat.  The woke-scolds have nearly unlimited energy, fueled by their own rage, and they don’t stop…ever.  If we want to overcome them and get back to writing being about telling good stories again, then we have to oppose them at every turn.  This should not be a left versus right issue – this should be a freedom issue.  If a story is awful enough, then the market will decide not to buy it.  But a group of hardcore screeching harpies who are mad that their worldview isn’t worshiped by everyone does not get to decide that.  Even if you’re normally on the side of those with the politics that lean that way, I promise that you’ll eventually say or do the wrong thing, since the goalposts are always shifting.  You’ll find yourself in the crosshairs of some angry mob who thinks you’ve strayed, even if only a little, and you’ll go down in flames.  Remember, even Robespierre was eventually guillotined.