Sad Puppy slate organiser Brad Torgersen howls against people using Vox Day against the Puppies slates, railing against the “wild wolf” Vox day, and saying anyone who would vote NO AWARD against the Puppies is a giant asshole. (And he uses that word, so I use it here.)

I’ve also had Torgersen/Correia fans come to me, saying Vox Day isn’t representative of the slate.

I have a big problem with that. Here’s why.

Correia and Torgersen brought him onboard. Actively. Here’s a pro-sad-puppies podcast talking about that decision, back in March, before the shortlist came out. Here’s Brad Torgersen in particular way back in January defending Vox Day, describing him as a “gentleman.” I didn’t have to go digging for these; I spent 30 seconds using DuckDuckGo. It’s that easy to find.

This whole Puppies thing has been a bit abstract for me. Yes, as an active target of that political wing – the anti-gay, anti-women side of it, I mean – I have strong personal feelings. But my campaign is and has been against slate voting in general, which is why I continue to feel that No Award is critical against all slate candidates.

If slates work – as, so far, they absolutely do – they will continue and multiply. The only way to prevent this is to make sure they do not work. Pending rules changes, this is our only option to stop the Hugo Awards from being slates-ad-infinitum.

But this? This obsfucation, this shuffling shifting of blame, this transference of responsibility? This makes me angry. The leadership of the campaign actively made the decision to bring in Vox Day and people like him. So it is impossible to argue Vox Day is not representative; they chose him as one.

Vox Day is inarguably viciously racist, homophobic, and really, really hates women, arguing such things as women find rape and murder attractive (and that this is objective fact, of course), and that marital rape does not exist because marriage is irrevocable consent to sex on demand. And so on – the list is endless!

And none of this – none of it – can be pretended to be any kind of surprise. The man is infamous. He is a walking, writing cartoon of the ultra-right. He was booted from SFWA after using SFWA resources to promulgate a white supremacist rant against another SFWA writer, and his ejection was one of the nebula of triggering complaints floating around when the Puppies were getting started.

In short, all of this was obvious, and they brought him in anyway, by conscious and deliberate choice. And now they’re crying when people talk about it, and pretending it isn’t their fault, and alleging that by talking about it, we’re being so unfair, that we’re “assholes,” and ruining the Hugo Awards.

The audacity is breathtaking. Go to hell, Torgersen. You made this bed. You can lie in it.

eta: A… predictable? and yet baffling? double-down by Torgersen. I mean wow.

eta2: My latest post on Hugo slate voting is over here; there’s a master post here.