Take a close look at both images above – the second courtesy of this open letter at Superversive. Author Jon Del Arroz also has some comments of interest, as Cat Rambo is the president of the SFWA.

One missing ingredient to put it all together is the issue of Arthur C. Clarke’s own rumored predilections, and of course the fact that the SFWA recently saw fit to award Sam Delaney with the title of Grand Master for his career of works, such as Hogg.

Go read the excerpt. I firmly believe that one should not judge the art on the artist, and fitting mockery of how literary types take apart work to extremes (youtube link) is well deserved, but there is absolutely a degree to which you can judge an author by his work – especially in what the author chooses to focus on and how.

The MZB books on the local library shelves never interested me enough skimming them to bring them home. I found them “off” somehow.

So, on the one hand we have a witch hunt. I’m positive some are absolutely guilty as we have pictures of them being douches, or taped conversations admitting to their wrongdoing, bragging even. Most others I’m inclined to believe because of the nature of the apology (or bullshit non-apology) or types of stories. Also, “but I’m gay” is neither an apology not an excuse, but does constitute an admission of guilt. I’m not even sure everyone fired recently deserved to be – did the company know something we don’t, or were they just gun shy? – but it’s almost certain that the number is well above zero, even if not everyone accused is guilty.

That doesn’t even get into Roy Moore, with conflicting multiple witnesses, conflicting multiple stories, and “physical evidence” that’s been carefully kept hidden from close examination, being a “proven” pedophile (because we always believe girls unquestioningly unless it’s about horrible abuse by a feminist SF&F icon).

Or Trump’s admittedly vulgar statement that nevertheless was far less about actual sexual assault and predation than even consensual BDSM is. It was about groupies and women who throw themselves at you when you’re rich and famous.

I know which part boggles me the most, but before I get to that, this woman is the president of the SFWA – a reasonably large genre supposedly composed of reasonably well educated writers. And yet she is intellectually dishonest enough (or post-modernist, where words mean what you want them to mean, when you want them to mean it, but then, see “intellectually dishonest”, by design, and I repeat myself) – I refuse to believe too illiterate – to understand plainly spoken words in plain english, or what constitutes “proof”

She’s not the root cause, but the symptom, the icing on the cake, as to why book SF&F from the big publishers like TOR is largely a dying genre.

And as to digging up old corpses vs the present, Sam Delaney, who had come out in support of NAMBLA, is still alive, still a member of the SFWA, and was, as noted, named a grand master not four years ago.

How fucking dare she. How fucking dare she utter a single fucking word about “proven pedophiles” and pussy grabbing when she not only dismisses the brutal abuse of Moira and others at the hands of Bradley, Breen, and others involved in their community within fandom, involving proof to the level of actual criminal convictions and not “physical evidence” carefully kept hidden from examiners, but when she also has taken no stand against Delaney that I can find.

If you ever needed to know how utterly sick post-modernisms obsession with power as the only valid moral metric is, this is it in a nutshell. For Cat Rambo,”Victim” is not a label to attach to a woman when she’s been horrifically abused if she was abused by a liberal icon. “Pedophile” is not a label to attach with contempt to people based on proven actions or publicly and willingly espoused beliefs, but a stick to beat people with if she hates their politics.

And she will gladly gloss over convicted and self-admitted “pedophiles” by the standards of how she uses the term if she agrees with them. Will go on panels with them, even.

Cat Rambo is an enabler of pedophiles and child abusers.

She may not hold the kids down, but she sure as hell will make excuses for the abusers, and tell the kids it’s not that big of a deal.

Hell, I’d bet she’d tell them they deserved it.

And science fiction is indeed following Arthur C Clarke’s lead… though not merely in the ways intended by the article at the Verge.