Steampunk Reprised

On November 18 I discussed whether steampunk was the next genre wave and Joff's comment included a link to a blogpost by Charles Stross, critiquing the subgenre.

Leviathan author Scott Westerfeld riposted with the following post (interestingly titled "Genre Cooties!"):

" … But then I come home to discover that the internet got stupid while I was gone. And not just regular internet stupid about cats or politics, but stupid about steampunk!

Perhaps the prime example is this post from the normally incisive Charles Stross, surely the most banal thing he's ever typed. I mean, pointing out that the Victorian era was imperialistic? Racist? Sexist? Had lousy labor laws and no class mobility? Like no one in the steampunk world was considering this?

News flash: the online world of steampunk is constantly engaged in exactly those issues …"

The rest of Westerfeld's post is here.

So what do you think? Are you in Camp Stross or Camp Westerfeld? For steampunk or against? Or bivouacked somewhere in no-man's-land?