My Simple Plan to Fix Our Conventions

Harness the power of NO.

That's it. That's my advice.

For years now, a small but loud group of activist mediocrities has successfully bullied fandom's honest, largely innocent denizens into increasingly abject postures of surrender, and quite frankly, I'm officially sick of watching this toxic, pointless game. Someone somewhere on some convention committee needs to find his or her stones and tell said mediocrities exactly where they can go.

The "social justice" DIE cultists are never going to be satisfied no matter what conventions do. Why? Because the "anti-racist" ideology that animates their activism is designed only to destroy and deconstruct, not to build. It declares with certitude that racism is an omnipresent and ineradicable feature of our society (or, in this case, fandom) -- and then merrily goes off in search of evidence for that conclusion, thereby enshrining confirmation bias as a central virtue. It erroneously declares society (or fandom) a fixed pie, openly calls for retaliatory discrimination to right cosmic wrongs, and consequently encourages different groups to battle each other over who will get the benefits. And it cares not for logic or consistency in its rules-making, embracing double standards that favor some at the expense of others. 

(To get informed on what we're actually dealing with here, please go here. Fandom is being assailed by hardcore quasi-religious totalitarians, not well-meaning progressives. Recognize this and act accordingly.)  

Virtually no one disagrees that diversity in the fandom - defined properly as the inclusion of people with different worldviews from many different walks of life - is a good thing. And virtually no one disagrees that convention attendees, no matter who they are, shouldn't be subjected to hate and/or harassment. What we absolutely must resist, however, are demands that we silence good-faith disagreement and/or jettison merit in favor of preferential treatment. Claims that someone's speech has caused "harm" should not be automatically accepted at face value -- and "I belong to disadvantaged group Y" should not accepted as a sufficient CV for a seat on a panel and/or special recognition. Learn the difference between toxic diversity and real diversity -- then implement the principles of the latter in your convention spaces.

And if, in adhering to genuinely non-racist values such as those outlined in the post linked above, you become a target of the baying "anti-racist" mob, just ignore those attacks. I cannot stress this enough: if some people scream and cry that they don't "feel welcome" because you and your fellow convention volunteers have chosen to act like reasonable, decent, normal human beings and not like crit-theory-addled psychopaths, invite them to voluntarily remove themselves from your event. "This convention is clearly not for you, so feel free to not come." Don't ever apologize for being liberal. As we've seen with World Con, all that does is encourage further abuse.

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Edited to add bonus content: