This past weekend saw an unusual event in science fiction fandom. The con chair of Balticon apologized for the convention’s treatment of a guest, removing her from a panel in progress. This follows the blowback SFWA received for removing Mercedes Lackey from the Nebula conference after naming her a Grand Master. Could the era of bullying of convention volunteers and program participants be coming to an end?
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The lack of pushback against the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu is disturbing. Boycotting the 2022 China Olympics is one of the few things Democrats and Republicans agree on. It should be obvious that a science fiction con, which is supposed to be about open discussion and speculation, can’t function under a government that monitors and censors ideas as pervasively as China does. Fans should find it repugnant to give any support to a government that persecutes minorities and violates human rights on a massive scale. Yet we’ve seen hardly any protests.
I’ve been looking for videos addressing these points to add to my YouTube playlist for boycotting Chengdu. So far I haven’t found any from fannish sources. If you know of any that are good enough to add to the list, please let me know in a comment.
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The 2023 World Science Fiction Convention will be in China, a country notorious for suppressing dissent, persecuting minorities, restricting communication, and monitoring its citizens. Worldcon sites are selected among bidders by members of an earlier Worldcon, as just happened at Discon. It appears that the selection was the result of a large number of votes sent in from China from people who purchased supporting memberships. In other words, China bought the Worldcon.
Science fiction is the realm of speculation, exploration of ideas, and examination of alternatives. The idea of a Worldcon in such a repressive nation is absurd. Hopefully few fans in free countries will have any interest in this charade, and they’ll sit it out.
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