The Political Correctness Police

Over the past two days, twitter had a minor shit-fit about some materials that were distributed in the freebie area at Saquan. The first was a satirical flyer purporting to be a letter in relation to membership eligibility for the SFWA (in the letter, the Socialist Fiction Writers of America):

Saw this in the #Sasquan freebie area; took the entire stack over to Ops. #Worldcon #SickPuppies #NotMyWorldcon #Pfft pic.twitter.com/sdmH6pgCQZ

— Dori Smith (@dori) August 21, 2015

This letter was lifted from a comment on Amanda Green's blog by someone who goes by Captain Comic, and the same commenter has claimed responsibility for posting the flyers around Sasquan (in reply to this post by Sarah Hoyt, along with a promise not to distribute any more).

The response was as expected. Twitter broke out into uproar about how offensive the flyer was. The material was removed. The Sasquan committee tweeted out approval over its removal:

@dori @omegar24 Thanks for notifying Ops and policing the tables. A concom can't be everywhere, but a community can.

— sasquansf (@sasquansf) August 21, 2015

And numerous commentators referenced the convention anti-harassment policy and how there needed to be repercussions for the action of distributing the flyer.

There is no doubt that this is a pretty juvenile piece of humor. However, it is associated with a serious argument reductio ad absurdum about the role of identity politics in SFF at the moment. I can see why some people would be offended by it. I personally do not think it rises to the level of offensiveness necessary to justify suppressing the flyer and silencing the point of view. Nonetheless, I am not surprised that it was suppressed.

And then even more "offensive" materials were found and removed:

Also found these from the purveyor of that earlier offal #Sasquan flyer. Original h/t @avram http://t.co/ZNh7oVwnys pic.twitter.com/bdvpQuRGKI

— Dori Smith (@dori) August 21, 2015

Let us make no mistake: there is nothing about these ribbons that is offensive, or should be offensive, to anyone. If they are offensive, it is only in so far as they express support for a cause that is unpopular. There is no acceptable reason for removing materials that simply express support for a different opinion. And I am disgusted that the conference organizers would react with outrage:

@jimchines @dori @avram If not, then please do tell us. Ops is in room 402 in the row of rooms being used as offices.

— sasquansf (@sasquansf) August 21, 2015

Shame on everyone involved.