The petition is here: https://www.change.org/p/concarolinas-ensure-freedom-of-speech-assembly-at-concarolinas

So here is basically what happened to cause all this. John Ringo was supposed to be guest of honor at ConCarolinas. A small, but exceedingly loud contingent threw a fit about that (including some of the same people who threw a fit to get me kicked out of Origins). The con committee did not boot John, John mutually decided with the con that it wasn’t worth the hassle and he was going to stay home. However the con committee did bungle the announcement, so it sounded like John was the bad guy. The angry mob rejoiced and then emboldened went about trying to kick non-liberals out of other cons, succeeding in some (Origins) and failing miserably and getting their asses fired at others (DragonCon).

However, the head of the con committee, Jada, realized that they’d screwed up, and tried to make it right. She worked with the very reasonable and articulate David Weber to try and come up with an agreement to protect guests in the future. And then at the closing ceremony of ConCarolinas, they declared that never again would they bow to pressures from an online outrage mob, and disinvite already invited guests.

The seats weren’t even cold before their saying they wouldn’t cave to outrage, all of a sudden caused a whole bunch of outrage.

A petition was started to remove Jada and another fellow named Luis from the con committee. It’s all social justice speak about unsafe micro whatevers and how disenfranchised blah blah blah buzzword bingo.

As of right now, it has 113 signatures, and many of the signatories are “anonymous” or “interested party”.

David Weber is a good man, and he put in a lot of time and effort with the concom to work this out to protect other authors in the future (and also agreed to be their GoH next year, and he’s a huge draw), so when he saw the petition of goofy butt hurt he started his own petition in response, in defense of free speech and not booting guests just because somebody on the internet made up some allegations and threw a tantrum.

The petition is here: https://www.change.org/p/concarolinas-ensure-freedom-of-speech-assembly-at-concarolinas

Notice that it has 1370 signatures in less time, and these are all people using their actual names.

That’s 12 times as many people in support of Jada’s decision to stand up to the internet mobs than against. That’s pretty damned telling.

12 to 1 so far. I’m betting that is a similar ratio to real life sane humans versus the perpetually offended on the internet. Except the 1 gets all the attention, and all the media coverage, because they scream the loudest. In fact, they scream so loud, and so often, that many people overestimate how many of these people there actually are.

And that number is assuming that Anonymous or Interested Party isn’t just a funny way to spell Sock Puppet. They might be as real as File 770’s much bragged about internet traffic.

These people have gotten particularly shrill lately. They are dramatically flouncing out of anything that won’t bend to their will, and being really loud about it. That’s actually a good thing. See, the difference between people who believe in free speech and people who don’t, is that they want us to be silenced while we want them to keep talking so that everyone can see just how full of crap they are.

The original petition is to remove Jada and Luis. She is guilty of disagreeing with bullies. Apparently his crime was that he was the head of con security, has a concealed weapons permit, and was legally carrying a firearm. The hotel knew and didn’t care, the local cops knew and didn’t care, but icky scary guns they didn’t actually see also make these people feel “unsafe.” Of course, this didn’t stop some of the sleazy File 770 crowd from alerting the hotel about this maniac (i.e. law abiding citizen acting in accordance with state law) to try and get the whole convention booted from the venue. Because anything these people can’t control, they must destroy. Good thing they’re so inept about it.

So I would encourage everyone to take a look at David Weber’s poll, and if you agree, add your name to the list.

When organizations stand up against the bullies, and ask for things like evidence of their endless accusations, they need to know that they are supported. The bullies are loud and never ever stop. Most regular people just want to mind their own business and be left alone. But they won’t leave you be. Eventually you will do or say something that provokes them, and then they’ll try to destroy you too.

Some of us are even buying supporting memberships to the convention in order to send a bigger message. I just did. Because that’s another thing about us versus the perpetually outraged, our side actually spends money. Caving in to that 1 in 12 doesn’t just make you look dumb, it also makes you poor, because the 12 are now going to be annoyed at you. As the saying goes, Get Woke, Go Broke.

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EDIT: It is now about 30 to 1. So 30 people supporting free speech to every 1 safe space demanding social justice whiner. And it is probably even worse considering most of those are signed Anonymous.

Which just goes to show why nobody should listen to these cry bullies.