Will Shetterly's Blog, page 47

You may use the contraction "y'all" if—

Nice people who are not Southerners sometimes want to use "y'all" and fear they can't because they're not Southerners. As someone who was born in South Carolina and raised in northern Florida, I hereby give you permission to use the contraction under these conditions: 1. You only use it as a second person plural. 2. You put the apostrophe where it belongs. 3. You don't use it to mock

Nice people versus good people

Steve Brust shared this on Facebook and Twitter: One of the least socially important things, but personally one of the saddest about the way the DNC has lurched to the right these last years, is that has dragged a lot of really good people with it. In my responses, I suggested he was confusing good people with nice people and made a point I may expand on someday: Nice people go with the crowd.

On the New Disney and the New McCarthyism

Most Disney fans will acknowledge that the old Disney was conservative and conformist and supportive of censorship, but they insist the new Disney is "progressive", a vague term that's used by the New Democrats and their heirs. There's some support for that notion in Disney to allow employees to grow beards: "They want to stay tradition-based, and they also want to be current," Koenig said. "

Why talking politics is useless and necessary, so I'll do less but won't stop

Mark Twain wrote one of my favorite explanations of people's beliefs, "Corn-pone Opinions". It probably influenced my realization that few people are swayed by reason—most of us only change our beliefs when our circumstances change and our old beliefs no longer comfort us. I say this from experience as well as observation. I didn't become a socialist until I fell into hard times, and, forced to

Why Russiagate looks like nothing but an attempt to deflect criticism of the DNC

For the first forty-five years of my life, I treated polls the way most people do: I cited them when they supported me and ignored them when they didn't. That changed in 2000 when the polls said Gore won in Florida and should've been President. I realized two things: 1. Almost no one lies to pollsters. Voters believe they're making the right choices and don't hesitate to say so. 2. The people

My reasoning for "Awkward US Independence Day facts for Americans"

This morning, still a bit sleepy, I tweeted (and Facebooked): Awkward US Independence Day facts for Americans If we had not rebelled: 1. Slavery would've ended decades earlier without a war. 2. The average citizen's life would've been effectively the same. 3. Our median wealth would be much higher. 4. Everyone would have health care. Cathy Young, whose writing on identity issues I admire,

Why left-identitarians hate Martin Luther King

Just had an identitarian block me on Facebook after she insisted white men should not quote King. And I realized this, which I shared there and on Twitter: I am often surprised by how much identitarians hate Martin Luther King. But then I remember that he opposed economic as well as social privilege, while they tend to oppose the second and hope to enjoy the first. In a discussion about it on

What Harlan Ellison's haters won't tell you #2: A tiny bit about Ed Kramer

Ellison's haters accuse him of, to use one hater's phrase, "being supportive of child rape" because, like many writers, he had been friendly with Ed Kramer, a founder of Dragon Con who was exposed as a child molester. Among the insane stories told is that Ellison mortgaged his house to help pay for Kramer's defense. The truth is that Ellison did what good people do when their friends have been

What Harlan Ellison's haters won't tell you about the Connie Willis groping incident

There are awful people in fandom who're taking full advantage of Harlan Ellison's death. The most obvious are going to the pages of his grieving friends and posting their take on why Ellison was a monster. The subtler ones are writing about him and saying without explanation that he groped Connie Willis. On Facebook, Sheila Finch shared a fair account of their history: I was at the 2005

Zan the Jungle Boy, a forgotten public domain comic book hero of color

Zan the Jungle Boy is so obscure he doesn't have an entry yet in Public Domain Super Heroes, but based on the only story I've read, he deserves his footnote in history. He's a supporting character in "Dr. Drew the Zoo Man", a series about a detective who can talk to animals. Zan speaks in pidgin, but he's not played for laughs, and though he first shows up in a loin cloth, he wears a suit later