Categories
Uncategorized

Lighting a candle instead of cursing the disturbing internet circlejerk of hate.

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!