You can't sit at my lunch table anymore.

[rinue]

There are a lot of jerks in the science fiction community. I don't think I'm throwing open any windows to say that. I don't know whether it's a field that attracts jerks (the self-labeling "elite"); I'm inclined to believe it's more a matter of exposure. When you predict the future, you show the inside of your heart.

Nevertheless, it makes me angrier when science fiction writers are stupid than when the general population is stupid. I hold us to a higher standard, because come on.

I'm patting myself on the back real hard today because I told an extremely self-satisfied luddite he's saying idiot things, but did not say "you're so self-righteous you might as well be an antivaxxer."

Patting real hard.

Comments

[sovay]

Nevertheless, it makes me angrier when science fiction writers are stupid than when the general population is stupid. I hold us to a higher standard, because come on.

Did something else high-profile happen that I haven't heard about yet?

[rinue]

Nah, nothing big. It was a conversation on an email list about philosophical bases for space exploration, and somebody was very sure he was right about the way the future is going to go, but all the facts he was extrapolating from were things he had wrong about history. It was basically that fallacy where you assume that your personal present is normal. I'm not going into details because it was a confidential conversation, but it's kind of like if somebody insisted the Vikings used trench warfare, and all warfare had always involved trenches and always would.

All of us do that to some extent, but this person also believes he is the only righteous man, and all of his writing carries a tone of "this is the last word on the subject." Which was particularly offensive because there were plenty of other people in the conversation who had more interesting things to say, all of which he completely derailed with his need to demonstrate how clearly he could see the "truth." Plus rhetorical flourishes where along the lines of "I'm just playing the devil's advocate, although actually I believe everything I'm saying."

In other words, nothing but the usual bullshit.

[sovay]

In other words, nothing but the usual bullshit.

Still sucks when it happens, especially if it's the usual. Unusual bullshit at least makes a change.

[valancy_jane]

That novella I just completed? All about Our Hero, the Vaccine. Put slightly more subtly, but still. I was so fed up with a recent Facebook vaxxy thing that the story changed from Evil Overlords to Evil Fungi and Stupid People Who Don't Trust Medical Authority. lol