Recently I’ve been reminded of the sad existence of a guy, internet handle of Vox Day, who frothily hates pretty much everyone who isn’t a white, straight, Christian man. (And no, not linking to his site, because gross. Google it if you want to end your evening snorting borax. Actually check that, I think I should be fair and link to what he’s posted of his platform.) The reminder came in the form of him throwing his hat in the ring to run for SFWA president, and oh hell no. Because of things like this:
[F]emale independence is strongly correlated with a whole host of social ills. Using the utilitarian metric favored by most atheists, a few acid-burned faces is a small price to pay for lasting marriages, stable families, legitimate children, low levels of debt, strong currencies, affordable housing, homogenous populations, low levels of crime, and demographic stability.
Which he later defended as “science” somehow, and I’m not sure if I find this more despicable as a scientist or just as a general human being. As someone who isn’t Christian, male, or all that straight, the ways in which he offends my sensibilities could be a dissertation all its own, and would probably end with this:
So anyway. I don’t get to vote in these elections since I’m a lowly associate member, so all I can really do is just sort of stare at the process. I imagine the expression on my face while doing so is similar to the first time I saw a roadkill armadillo by the side of the road in Texas.
Rather than raising my blood pressure over an awful little internet circlejerk of hateful and small-minded people, I would much rather do something good. John Scalzi came up with a good thing to do: every time Vox Day shits forth a blog post that mentions Scalzi, directly or indirectly, Scalzi will donate money to charity. And we can play along at home, too! The more he hates, the more we give.
I once donated $50 to a candidate for state senate purely because her opponent sent me transphobic campaign advertising. I’ve given money to Jane’s Due Process and Planned Parenthood before just because the Republicans did something to piss me off. This is right up my alley. I’ve committed to $1 per hate-filled screed, up to $200 at the end of 2013. Come, join in the fun!
Enjoying my weekly internets of a Sunday morn, I’m seeing this embittered middle-aged lad’s name(s) everywhere today. (As a (very) lapsed Catholic, I also spotted the oh-so-clever reference, i.e. Vox Day = Vox Dei = Voice of God… Er, just the SLIGHTEST been presumptuous, my dear boy?).
Who -is- this Monsieur Voix de Dieu that everyone’s suddenly talking about, I ask myself?
So I look him up and… At the risk of sounding rude, I see that Voce di Dio is barely a tadpole in the sea of literature. He’s got a couple of books out from a tiny publisher that doesn’t even distribute to bookstores, and precious few other arrows in his manly little writing quiver.
Regretfully, it must also be admitted that in his posturing hate-filled “ideology,” of which there are copious quantities on his nastily redolent blog, Senior Voz de Dios is precisely the sort of repellant being that Signore John Scalzi describes him as being, in phrasing which has already become notorious, I see. I do not myself use such language and will not repeat it here, but note that I also do not attempt to rephrase or replace it here, since it is nonetheless simply TOO APT to tinker with.)
Honestly, I think the only reason he makes a splash at all is nothing to do with his writing and everything to do with the fact that he’s a giant asshole, and has attracted a vocal following of similarly giant assholes because he affirms their little hate-crushes with a sufficiently large vocabulary. Sorry to hear you subjected yourself to his site.
I’m TOTALLY joining the fun. I just need to find a charity that supports everything the douchecanoe hates. I’m thinking the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado…
Woo! :) The more the merrier!