We all know a guy like Theodore Beale, aka Vox Day.  Well, alright, very few of us know anyone like Beale.  He’s an unrepentant misogynist, racist, egotistical asshat who has claimed that “white men just don’t rape anymore” among other reprehensible things.  So, really, I hope that you don’t actually know anyone like Beale.  More generally, we all know at least one unmitigated asshole.  Every time you find out that they’re going to be at an event you’re going to, you reconsider, just so you don’t have to interact with them.  At the end of the day, consensus is that we’d all just be better off if “that person” weren’t invited in the future.  After all, exactly how many times does he need to throw up on your nice couch before you stop inviting him.

I think we’ve officially reached that point with Beale.  He’s become the human equivalent of a tiny yappy dog dipped in cat urine.  He’s convinced that he’s a much bigger influence on the SFF community than he really is, but if it weren’t for the fact that he was so loud and so noxious, no would would even know who he was.  I could “do not link” his blog here, so that you could get to know his odious personality for yourselves, but I like you all too much for that.  And that, is really how Beale should be handled.  He should be forgotten, ignored.  Not invited.

Some people may or may not know about the whole ‘Sad puppies’ / ‘Rabid puppies’ issue that happened / is happening with this years Hugo awards.  If you don’t know what it is, then, here’s the short version.  A few authors felt that the Hugo’s were ignoring “fun” SFF in favor of “message” SFF.  “Message” meaning stories and authors who were pushing an agenda with their writing, specifically that of a feminist persuasion.  The original group gathered under the name of the “Sad puppies”, for reasons that baffle me still.  They are led by Brad Torgersen and Larry Correia and their goal was to essentially stuff the ballot for the Hugo’s with a bunch of “fun” SFF (not dirty feminist message books).  Beale decided to jump on the band wagon and rally his own unwashed horde of racists and trolls under the banner of the “Rabid puppies” and basically stuffed the ballots with his own drek and that of books published by his own publishing house.  Also, not dirty feminist message books.

A side note: Once an animal is rabid there is little choice but to put it down.

The sad / rabid puppy movement has viewed with varying degrees of disdain and has led to a lot of discussion on what can be done about it.  One option open to Hugo voters was to vote “no award” in the categories in which the puppies had stuffed the box.  Beale, being the delightful lad he is, threatened to use the existing Hugo voting system to more or less ruin the Hugo’s in upcoming years if the voters pushed for “no award”.

Undoubtedly, Beale see’s himself as the hero, fighting the good fight against the liberal forces that are encroaching on his world.  But as any good author knows, the villain always sees himself as the hero.  Unfortunately, Beale isn’t even the villain.  He’s simply the asshole who shows up at the party, already drunk, sexually harrasses a couple of the guests before defecating on the table before the police escort him from the premises.  And its time that we not only stopped inviting him, but stopped taking his calls.