Surprisingly exactly no one, the right-wing contingent of SFdom have taken exception to the Legend of Korra finale. Jim Hines takes this to task right over here. And on cue, the individual with whom he takes exception has brought a coterie of followers to come take reciprocal exception in Mr. Hines’ comment thread.
Caveat: Dara and I both appear in this comment thread, Dara more often than I do, as she takes potshots at several of the typical anti-queer propaganda points as well as the specific objections that the ending came out of left field. (Note: It didn’t, as Dara points out, with quite a few high-profile sources noting how the setup for Korrasami was not remotely subtle.)
Me, I’m mostly there to celebrate the ending of the show. But there is one thing in there that I want to call attention to, and that is this: how the gentleman with whom Mr. Hines is disagreeing pronounces in the comments that he “did not call for the extermination of people, but ideas.”
This would be chilling coming out of anyone. But it’s particularly egregious coming out of an SF writer.
Science fiction is, after all, the literature of ideas. None of us in the genre, writers or readers, should be calling for their extermination–even the ideas we might personally find reprehensible. It is as treacherous a slippery slope as slopes of that ilk get, because all too often, advocating the extermination of an idea leads to advocating the extermination of people who have them.
You need look no further than Uganda or Russia, where being queer of any stripe is essentially a death sentence. Even right here in the United States, queer people of all kinds continue to be the targets of prejudice, hate crimes, and bullying. Certain states have taken it upon themselves to pass laws legalizing discrimination against queers on religious grounds.
Nor is this limited to queer people. As the entire GamerGate debacle this year demonstrated, any woman who dares speak up loudly enough on the Internet risks getting doxxed, getting rape threats, and getting death threats. Just because she spoke up.
And all of this boils down to “I don’t like your ideas so I’m going to make your life as miserable as I possibly can for having them.”
For the record, I’d just like to say that even though there are indeed ideas I find personally reprehensible–like, say, the idea that queer people should be discriminated against, bullied, or punished with death, or the idea that women should be shouted down off the Internet with doxxing, rape threats, or death threats–I’m not going to tell someone they can’t have those ideas. I defend their right to have them.
But at the same time, I defend my right to call them utter horseshit. And if those ideas are put into actions that harm me and my loved ones or others like us, I defend my right to stand against them.
And here’s another idea I find reprehensible–the idea that Legend of Korra, by ending with two women walking off into the sunset spirit world together hand in hand, is somehow Harming the Children. As if anything that might demonstrate to queer children–and queer adults!–that yes, there are role models in fiction for them too might somehow make straight kids’ heads explode. It’s the same destructive logic I see in the assertions that boys wouldn’t possibly be interested in girls as lead characters, an assertion which, I recall, was launched against Korra for even existing as a character long before she became interested in Asami.
I’m pretty damn sure kids’ brains can take it.
As we move into 2015, I hope this year to come will bring us fewer of these particularly toxic beehives. I’m not betting on it. I’m not going to be pulling off the gloves any time soon, since I’m no fan of my hands getting stung.
But for once, it’s a pleasure and a delight to know that Mr. Konietzko and Mr. DiMartino have our backs. It makes me proud to be on Team Avatar.
Merry Korrasamimas to all!
editing to add
- 11/6/2024: Geez, this post is nearly ten years old, and it’s still relevant today. But I still stand by every word. Also, I have done a slight edit of the picture placement as part of porting this over onto the new edition of angelakorrati.com. And I gave it a new featured image header.
Comments
7 responses to “One last buzzing beehive for 2014”
For the record, I am honoured to call you friend, and anybody who gets up in your face – or worse – about who and what you are is going to have to contend with *me*, too… You and far too many people like you have stood by me when the fit hit the shan too many times for me to stand idly by when the h8ers start throwing vitriol.
And for the record, I know at least two young ladies – not related – who don’t care who their mommy’s partner is so long as said partner doesn’t make mommy cry. Kids don’t hate unless they’re taught; they won’t flip out unless someone scares them into it.
The h8ers are scared of being WRONG. Well, they *are*… but they’re not going to hell for being wrong. They are *in hell*, *right this very second*, one of their *own creation*, for hating anything and everything that is different than they are. And they can leave, anytime. All they have to do is let go of the hate.
Always ready to ignore the individual and thrown him/her into a category, aren’t you?
I am not a “follower” of Mr. Wright, I merely recognize his vast superiority as a dialectician over Jim C. Hines, who is at best a mid-wit.
Read Mr. Wright, study him. You may not agree with his views but you will learn how to argue your views logically. Try it.
Ah, so you’re the first wave of Team Wright deciding to follow me over here to my space, are you?
Pro tip: Opening your argument with insulting me and deriding my apparent lack of logic is not a means to get you listened to or respected in these parts. This is the only thing I have to say to you, until and unless you want to try this again with actual manners.
Wow, from reading the comments of his supporters, it’s clear maybe we can get some lessons in pretentiousness from his blog. However, as someone trained in and who teaches logic, uh, no, I for one will pass on taking lessons in logic over there.
I have read many others I disagree with who are leaps and bounds better at presenting their views and arguing their side than Mr. Wright or any of his supporters I have read during this. The comments on this topic, and yours here, have been rather underwhelming and unoriginal in their execution. So, no, I don’t think studying Mr. Wright’s ranting will be very informative in learning proper logical argument. Quite the contrary.
Regardless of any question of learning logic or lack thereof, I myself am going to stay out of Mr. Wright’s comment thread. For one thing, I have too much respect for my own blood pressure. For another, I do actually respect his right to say what he likes in his own space, and I’m not going to go over there and try to challenge him on it.
Not that logic ever really enters into these arguments, because hi, yes, I’m familiar with how Internet fights tend to work. 😉
And for the record, I don’t even really have an issue with his being anti-Korrasami (and by extension, anti-queer) per se. As I said in my post, the only thing I really wanted to call out as problematic is the notion of extermination of ideas.
“you will learn how to argue your views logically [by studying John C. Wright]”
Now that’s a thought. A couple of years ago he published a hatelist (on LiveJournal, I believe), and it irritated me enough to post a comment. In the “debate” that followed I was amazed by his utter inability to make any kind of argument. While talking to his followers he seemed witty and reasoned, but his replies to me seldom rose over the “you’re a dumb-face” level. When he couldn’t brow-beat me to submission he told me I wasn’t allowed to disagree with him in his comment area, and soon after he blocked me and started erasing my comments.
I wouldn’t say this taught me anything about arguing my views logically. 😉
[…] One last buzzing beehive for 2014. A nice answer to the bigoted writer who has proclaimed, “did not call for the extermination of people, but ideas.” […]