Has anyone else tried to contact John Scalzi about his Straight White Male article?

scalzi · 2013-12-24T21:32:46+00:00

"However, it's been a week and no additional response."

You e-mailed me on the 20th. Four days is not typically understood to be a week.

Also, I noted to you in my immediate response I had impositions on my time. As I did not specify what they were at the time, these included a holiday party on the 21st, my daughter's birthday on the 23rd, prepping for having family over for Christmas Eve tonight and of course Christmas tomorrow. This on top of other last-minute business that I think most people will understand happens as one is trying to clear the decks for the holidays.

During this time I have let most of my e-mail lie unresponded to; I will note that I specifically immediately responded to your e-mail so you would not feel it had been sucked into a hole. With that said, given the time of year and the fact I let you know I was busy, I don't believe the delay in a fuller response is unreasonable.

"Until he replies, I refuse to buy his books."

I don't think you will find that I respond particularly well to people trying to hold sales over my head for any reason. My general response, historically, has been "kiss my ass." (Source: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/01/12/celebrities-ruining-everything/) I fully endorse the right of any person to boycott any author for any reason they want, including me (Source: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/07/17/boycotts-creators-and-me/), so go right ahead.

However, it won't get me to respond any quicker. You'll get a fuller response when I have time to give it. Or you might not get one at all. Exaggerating to the Men's Rights subreddit regarding the length of time I have taken to respond to you as a way to imply that I have been blowing you off, etc, does not fill me with confidence as regards the potential benefit of having further discussion with you.

Having now taken five minutes to respond here, please do excuse me as the rest of my afternoon and evening will be taken up in hosting the family for Christmas Eve. I'll be busy for a while.

2013-12-24T18:26:04+00:00

However, it's been a week and no additional response.

Give him another week as its likely due to the holidays he is busy with various things. If he hasn't reply back in another week send him another e-mail.

giegerwasright · 2013-12-24T21:04:45+00:00

I like his Old Man's War series, even read all his ebook episodes earlier this year. I did stumble upon his blog and his pro-SJW stuff is rather cringe worthy. I figure guy grew up relatively privileged and thinks every other guy has it just as easy. I'm not white, so I really have no personal reference for the whole white guilt thing, but seems like he's got quite the case of it. Most my friends read the same sort of books I do, and they do not thank me for the day I exposed them to Scalzi's views. It does make it difficult to enjoy his novels. I think he could really end up alienating a large swath of his fan base with his one-dimensional categorical thinking of privilege if more of his readership bothered to care about his personal opinions.

ravinglunatic · 2013-12-25T14:51:05+00:00

Serious question for critics of the article who are SWM's: do you believe your life would be less difficult if you were a single, non-white female?

Celda · 2013-12-25T01:37:07+00:00

There statistics aren't going to do anything to win over SJWs. They just twist them to prove that it's actually sexism against women that's causing the issues, and since feminism is the panacea for all things things patriarchy that they're working on these issues. Here's the mental gymnastics they use:

Men have constituted 99% of military deaths

That's actually sexism against women. The patriarchy has decided that women aren't strong enough to die.

95% of industrial accident deaths are male

Because patriarchy and sexism keep women from entering these professions.

80% of homicide deaths are male

But they're getting killed by other men. So it's men that are the problem here, and we're trying to deal with that by dismantling the patriarchy.

Men only win 20% of child custody battles.

That's because patriarchy says that only women know how to raise children. Real feminists want to share this responsibility.

Men are 3-4 more times more likely to commit suicide than women

But women attempt it more, so this is actually a female issue, not a male one. The patriarchy just makes men act in more violent ways.

Women are outpacing men in most fields of education

That's because men have the option to work in the more dangerous jobs that the patriarchy says that only men can do. Thus, women don't have any other option than to get a degree. So less men going to college is actually sexism against women.

Men are far more likely to be homeless

This is just the patriarchy and male privilege backfiring.

So, be prepared to answer these relies. Also remember that you won't convince a SJW of anything, they're already decided what the truth is. The only people you will be able to convince and people who are open-minded about gender issues, so keep this in mind when you're thinking about your replies. Stay level headed and don't resort to petty name calling and appeals to emotion.

King_Turnip · 2013-12-24T20:10:58+00:00

Until he replies, I refuse to buy his books.

You would buy his derivative tripe in the first place?

giegerwasright · 2013-12-26T17:32:06+00:00

Alright, Scalzi. It's on.

People (sockpuppets) in this thread are naysaying OP for being overly needy in his demands for your attention, but not really paying attention to the content of his post. So let's drive that bit right out of the park. Meh, OP has his hackles up and he wants satisfaction. I can't say that I blame him in that. Scalzi demurs with "Whoa, dude... hey, dude.. duuuuuuuude it's only been four days and it's Christmas. Duuuuuuuuuude. Dude. Dude." I'm calling that a draw. Scalzi is looking for excuses. So, it's only been four days. It's Christmas. It's Halloween. It's May Day. It's the 157th anniversary of the release of Ride The Lightning. Whatever. He's going to come up with an excuse no matter what. And, since we're talking about white privilege... isn't Christmas just another prototypical celebration of white colonialism and patriarchal values? Personally, and I'm an atheist, I think Christmas is great. The religion part has always been optional for me, and I prefer to stick with the spreading cheer and trying to make others happy. So, sure, Scalzi, it's only been four days. And it's Christmas. And to you, your Wassail too.

Before I actually get to Scalzi's tripe, let's address the dressing. The top comment on it, by Scalzi himself is;

I should note that I’m planning to Mallet anyone who decides to start a debate on the word “privilege” in this thread.

So. Step one, as always, with the SJWs is in effect. No debate that they don't approve of. The narrative is controlled and an easy out for eviction and ostracization of anyone who might disagree is instated. No surprise there. SJW rhetoric can't exist in an open market of ideas, they need an iron fist clutching a thought terminating cliche as tightly as it can.

I’ve already established that straight white dudes often cannot deal with the term rationally; there’s no need for a) any of them to prove it, b) anyone else to reiterate the fact.

Well, Scalzi, what you've done here is assert that straight white dudes lack rationale when discussing privilege. You haven't actually proven it, though. You know what lacks rationale? Closing debate, banning anyone who fails to bow, and insisting that anyone with a cogent argument to the contrary either doesn't exist or is patently incorrect. I'd consider that rather irrational.

This is also one of those threads where I will remind people to be civil to each other because there is a lot of opportunity here to slip into incivility. The usual suspects, I assume, know who they are.

Here, we have Scalzi imposing his own morals on others. Civility is a subjectively defined term. Scalzi has his own definition and his own standards for it, and he is imposing those on others. Sounds like a pretty privileged and imperialist attitude to me. Sounds a lot like the what I keep hearing the patriarchy does.

I should warn people that I’m feeling slightly cranky today so my tolerance for rhetorical nonsense and bullshit is going to be lower than usual. Bring your very polite “A” game today, kids.

So, in other words, Scalzi, you're feeling rather than thinking. Sounds kind of irrational, if you ask me. Fuck you and fuck your subjective context and demands that others cater to them, you imperialist twat. Scalzi, let's just get this out of the way. You're a fucking coward and you've spent too long (probably your whole life) in an ivory tower. I get the impression that what I'm about to read is a long drawn out bit of projection where you assuage your guilt about your privilege by tossing every person who shares a list of arbitrary attributes with you under the bus. You have the privilege of doing so, of course but uh... right. Let's just move on.

Finally, I will credit the genesis for the “lowest difficulty setting” concept comes from this article at Cracked, by Luke McKinney, in which “straight male” is described as being the lowest difficulty setting for sexuality. I’m expanding on the idea a bit.

Blah blah blah, I saw how much the girls love it when men toss each other under the bus and I would absolutely love some of those DINK dollars to land on my publishing. (reading a few of the top comments, and I gotta wonder, Scalzi, how raw did you rub your dick while reading those, you pompous egotist?)

So, we start with a graphic. It looks like it was ripped straight out of Fallout New Vegas' menu. "Select Difficulty" with options of "Easy," "Medium," and "Hard." Interesting. Was anyone else here offered that option? I don't recall ever actually being given an option. Don't get me wrong, I guess I had the option of dropping out of school. I guess I had the option of joining the clergy, becoming a civil servant, or signing up for the military. I can't really say that any of those options were inherantly tied to a difficulty setting on my life. So, Scalzi, where's the menu? How do I get up in that because I'd love to coast for a couple levels. It's been a rather rough ride. I wouldn't consider it Sudanese Lost Boy rough, or Liberian child soldier rough, but by the standards of the country that I live in... it certainly hasn't been growing up in the suburbs of LA and studying under Saul Bellow easy. Projection much, there, cuntyballs?

I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon.

Right out the gate, we see what a pompous ass Scalzi is. The sentence is pandering. It's like he's abdicating in front of a fucking tribunal. "Hey, guize, I'm toooooooooooooootallly not like those other guys! Srsly! Plz buy my bookz nao?" You can explain how life works for me, Scalzi? Really? Who paid for your college, son?

It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not their word. When confronted with “privilege,” they fiddle with the word itself, and haul out the dictionaries and find every possible way to talk about the word but not any of the things the word signifies.

It's not "our" word? The fuck does that even mean? Who the fuck owns a word? "Privilege" is a word. It has a set definition. Use it accurately or don't. That's how words work. You have made a living with those words, one would think that you comprehend that. I think you do. When it's convenient. You also know, Scalzi, how to play an audience. Remember that word I used earlier? Pandering? Yeah. We're probably going to see that a lot in this post.

So, the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word “privilege,” in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?

How about you just concentrate on using the word accurately rather than being such an underhanded manipulative cunt?

Being a white guy who likes women, here’s how I would do it:

Really? You like women? All women? Isn't that rather sexist? Isn't it rather pat on the head condescending? You do know that giving someone your approval based on their gender is just as sexist as refusing it, right? Oh. Wait. Dat Noble Savage bullshit. Damn, this ivory tower of yours smells familiar.

Dudes. Imagine life here in the US — or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world — is a massive role playing game, like World of Warcraft except appallingly mundane, where most quests involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time. Let’s call it The Real World. You have installed The Real World on your computer and are about to start playing, but first you go to the settings tab to bind your keys, fiddle with your defaults, and choose the difficulty setting for the game. Got it?

Dudes. I'm like totally one of you, brah. I'm totally like you. I'm like tooootally going to adopt your linguistic stylings to appeal to you. Because I'm totally like you. Only, I'm better. Cause I understand privilege and you don't. Dudes. Brahs Totes. Maybe, Scalzi, for you life is like a massive RPG. Maybe for you it is appallingly mundande. Maybe for you most quests involve acquisition of money, cell phones, and donuts. For you. Not quite so much for many of the rest of us. You know, the millions of us who didn't grow up in the suburbs of LA and study under Saul Bellow. Who paid for your college again? No, just lie about it. Your type always does. But you know the truth. And so do I. That difficulty setting menu is locked for most of us. Most of us who didn't grow up in the suburbs of LA or study under Saul Bellow. We work on the back of garbage trucks. We pave your fucking drive ways. We die in industrial accidents so that you can have your fucking cel phones and your donuts.

Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is.

Tell that to my Uncle Steve. He worked his whole life on a dock unloading trucks and humping gigantic containers to support his wife and kids. He grew up poor and labor like this was the best option available to him. It put a roof over his family's head and food on their table. 30 years. 30 fucking years he broke his ass on the job. Then one day, some asshole with an MBA decided to do a little job title shifting so that he could put undertrained non unionized personell on a switcher. That person made a mistake (not their fault and nobody in my family blames this person) that sent a container careening toward him. His legs went one way, his torso landed on my cousin Mike. Uncle Steve didn't grow up in the suburbs of LA. Uncle Steve didn't have the option of studying under Saul Bellow. Yeah. Tell me about that easy setting again, motherfucker. I dare you. Who paid for your college again, son? Nah. Just keep lying about it. It makes you feel better. And don't bother trying to talk to Uncle Steve. His lips, tongue, and ears, are probably all rotted by now since he's dead. That easiest setting sure did a lot for him.

MerryChristmasBot · 2013-12-25T10:40:14+00:00

This entire thread embarrasses me. Really? This is the type of crap you post on "mensrights"? You exaggerate a situation, then bitch on Christmas eve that someone isn't taking time out of their christmas day to argue with you?

Get your shit together. You are acting no better than these SJW you bitch about in most of your other post.

I love the idea of Men's Rights, but this subreddit makes me hate the majority of your circlejerkers.

Michael_Romanoff · 2013-12-24T21:20:39+00:00

He's a self-righteous ass. Like David Futrelle, only smarter.

Title	Has anyone else tried to contact John Scalzi about his Straight White Male article?
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	18
Comments	58
Date	December 24, 2013 3:38 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1tlzmu/has_anyone_else_tried_to_contact_john_scalzi/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/has-anyone-else-tried-to-contact-john-scalzi-about.1155264 https://theredarchive.com/post/1155264

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