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Apr 8, 2015

It's Groundhog Day, Again

Andie MacDowell as Bill Murray's angel
Movie review by Roger Ebert.
Yes, I'm a sucker for time travel stories. In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray finds himself re-living Groundhog Day....over, and over, and over, and over..... And that's ultimately a good thing, because he learns to stop being a dick. And that there is nothing more important in his life than changing himself so that he can perfect his romance with Andie MacDowell.

Okay, now picture this: it is Saturday night and you are relaxed and watching some silly movie like Groundhog Day. Your phone rings and you are interrupted by some ugly political attack ad. You ignore the ugly phone call. Then five minutes later you get another similar call, only even more ugly. Agonizing over the annoyance caused by the repetitive interruptions, you mutter to yourself, "It's Groundhog Day, again."

The politics of science fiction: Groundhog Day 2015 summary.

Arthur Chu
Here we go again
Last year at about this time my Twitter feed became contaminated with political Hugo Award trolling. I've never invited politics into my Twitter feed. I only follow a few other science nerds and science fiction writers. I was provoked into writing a blog post about the idea that it might be possible for science fiction fans to put aside their political differences and get back to the joy of sharing good stories.
Silly me.

The internet tabloids (one example) are trolling again, stirring the pot of science fiction politics.

2015 poster child for Sci Fi politics: Isabella Biedenharn
Are you entertained?

I'm not.
Well, not in a good way.

What can you expect from a "journalist" who proclaims a "Strong affinity for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West"?

Pre-politics Hugo - 2010
Last year I made Larry Correia my Poster Boy for Sci Fi politics. I don't know who Arthur Chu is. I just read that he is a critic of online bullying. As far as I can tell, neither Chu nor Biedenharn is a fan of science fiction. So why did my Google search for "Hugo Award" point me towards their articles?

Fantasy Re-Do
Bill Murray had the luxury of endlessly repeating his Goundhog Day until he perfected it and then he could live happily ever after. I want a re-do on the politics of science fiction. I want my Twitter feed back, uncontaminated by internet hotheads who claim the right to label each other "neofascists" and "SJWs". I want to search for "Hugo Award" and have the top links be to articles by fans of science fiction who are sharing there love for a great story and NOT talking about politics.

"Not only is science fiction an idea of tremendous import, but it is to be an important factor in making the world a better place to live in, through educating the public to the possibilities of science and the influence of science on life which, even today, are not appreciated by the man on the street.  If every man, woman, boy and girl, could be induced to read science fiction right along, there would certainly be a great resulting benefit to the community, in that the educational standards of its people would be raised tremendously. Science fiction would make people happier, give them a broader understanding of the world, make them more tolerant." - Hugo Gernsback

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