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I threatened to write a post about what Republican Party's current fascination with Ben Carson and Donald Trump says about the typical party member. Then came the flap over who the Republicans would elect to be Speaker of the House. Then came good Doc Gannon's posting of his relatively mild essay on Monster Hunter Nation, which yielded a roasting in comments and the Doc being branded a liar and a coward (or was it the other way round?) by Vox Day. Then I realized they were all instances of the same problem, to wit: the Republican party and the Sad Puppies 1) lack a grasp of reality and 2) value appearances over substance.
Grasp of Reality
The reality is that, politically, Congress has to increase the debt limit. The argument over not increasing it is like deciding to cut spending by not paying your credit card bill. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of those who can be bothered to vote in the Hugos have tastes in fiction not shared by the typical Sad Puppy. The reality is that as long as the Democrats control the Presidency and have more than 34 votes in the Senate, overturning major policy initiatives (Obamacare) isn't going to happen.
The reality is that marching into a new car dealership demanding to pay no more than $1,000 for a new car is not a way to get a cheap car. It's a way to get (literally) laughed out of the building. The reality is, as Jim Butcher noted, that the current Sad Puppies flap is to real warfare what blowing on a cup of hot tea is to a hurricane.
Appearances over Substance
Much of Trump's appeal is that he's a "successful businessman." Yet the guy managed to bankrupt casinos 4 (four) ((!!!!)) times! There is no reset button in world politics, no equivalent of bankruptcy. Trump's claim to "successful businessman" lies primarily in his playing one on a TV show. Ben Carson is undoubtedly a successful surgeon, but he's been clearly ignorant of politics and never managed anything larger than his medical practice.
The Sad Puppies claim conspiracy in Hugo voting. They point to the shocking phenomenon of popular works winning a popular award, somehow finding in that the appearance of conspiracy. They take affront at works, like Ancillary Justice, that appear to advocate a message, ignoring the fact that, in the book, the people advocating the offending message are the bad guys! As stated elsewhere, saying Ancillary Justice advocates abolishing gender differences is like saying Star Wars advocates choking people.
Grasp of Reality
The reality is that, politically, Congress has to increase the debt limit. The argument over not increasing it is like deciding to cut spending by not paying your credit card bill. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of those who can be bothered to vote in the Hugos have tastes in fiction not shared by the typical Sad Puppy. The reality is that as long as the Democrats control the Presidency and have more than 34 votes in the Senate, overturning major policy initiatives (Obamacare) isn't going to happen.
The reality is that marching into a new car dealership demanding to pay no more than $1,000 for a new car is not a way to get a cheap car. It's a way to get (literally) laughed out of the building. The reality is, as Jim Butcher noted, that the current Sad Puppies flap is to real warfare what blowing on a cup of hot tea is to a hurricane.
Appearances over Substance
Much of Trump's appeal is that he's a "successful businessman." Yet the guy managed to bankrupt casinos 4 (four) ((!!!!)) times! There is no reset button in world politics, no equivalent of bankruptcy. Trump's claim to "successful businessman" lies primarily in his playing one on a TV show. Ben Carson is undoubtedly a successful surgeon, but he's been clearly ignorant of politics and never managed anything larger than his medical practice.
The Sad Puppies claim conspiracy in Hugo voting. They point to the shocking phenomenon of popular works winning a popular award, somehow finding in that the appearance of conspiracy. They take affront at works, like Ancillary Justice, that appear to advocate a message, ignoring the fact that, in the book, the people advocating the offending message are the bad guys! As stated elsewhere, saying Ancillary Justice advocates abolishing gender differences is like saying Star Wars advocates choking people.
