The Rise and Fall of the Arisia Convention

 Arisia? Oh, that's a WHOLE can of worms! 🤣

The original Boston convention (actually New England) was Boskone, named after the planet of evil masterminds from the Lensmen series. It ended up developing the problems that most successful cons of the time had; too many attendees, lots of them young and looking for alcohol and sex (which they found). Result: lots of salacious stories in the news about the science fiction sexathon freaks, Right Here In Our City!

Also the usual chaos; people foaming the hotel hallways with fire extinguishers and doing high speed sledding, pulling multiple fire alarms over the weekend, drunken orgies, etc. Boston hotels basically decided as a group to no longer host science fiction conventions.

It was a fun con, by all accounts. But the people at the top (Boskone was a fan-run con, as all good cons are) finally had enough. They moved the con out of Boston (I think it was once held in Springfield, which is as far away from Boston as you could get and still remain in Massachusetts) and clamped down HARD. No cosplay. No parties. No alcohol. NO FUN OF ANY KIND!

Also they instituted a strict membership cap.

The result was an extreme reduction in the size and popularity of Boskone.

Years passed. A group of younger fans decided to start a Boston con for general science fiction and fantasy. They named it "Arisia", after the secret planet of •good• masterminds from the Lensmen series (a little jab at Boskone, which still exists to this day in diminished form). They found a hotel in Boston's financial district that was willing to host. And so the first Arisia was held in 1990.

That was my first con, by the way. A friend got me to go. It blew my mind. We entered the amateur video contest that year and won first place.

I attended the con faithfully for the next 25 or 27 years. Became a panelist there early on, and did hundreds of panels (no exaggeration). Taught origami classes to young kids several times. Read books to kids. Helped a friend with some prize-winning costumes at the big costume competitions. Helped my young son make cosplay costumes; they made him the regular closer of the kids' part of the show. Had a lot of amazing adventures.

But nothing lasts forever. A new group of young insiders took over, and they had big plans. Bathrooms would be unisex. Gluten would be banned. The old guard would be eliminated. Older, experienced panelists would be excluded. Topics that offended their refined sensibilities would be forbidden; for example, an outstanding series of events for dialog between theists and atheists was cancelled because "only straight white guys are atheists" (which was absolutely untrue; the audience and panelists were among the most diverse I saw in my whole time at the Con).

Within a few years, everyone I knew had either been banned or chose to no longer attend or serve as staff. The number of annual attendees crashed from nearly 5,00 to under1,000. It also came out that some of the new leaders had been harassing and r@ping some of the attendees and lower-level staff, but that was covered up by the Con Committee for years.

I was one of the banned. My crime was wearing a costume that included a latex balloon, although that wasn't forbidden. I also committed the signal offense of talking about the changes the leadership had made online, which I was told was absolutely unforgivable.

#Arisia #Convention #cons #ScienceFiction #Boskone

A Brainful of Spoon

Recent studies have found evidence that we all have plastic in our brains - as much plastic as in an ordinary plastic spoon, in microscopic deposits. It seems that nanoplastics can penetrate the blood-brain barrier quite easily. 

How do we get the plastic out again? I'm guessing we never do.

What is it doing to us? I suspect we won't know for decades, if ever. But I'm sure it's nothing good. 

But it bothers me. I can't shake the thought of a plastic spoon buried in my brain. I know it's not literally a spoon, but it bothers the hell out of me nonetheless.

Response to a Democratic Supporter

Eventually you'll realize that you've been played. The Democrats aren't the progressive party they were in the 1930s and 40s; they sold out to the oligarchs long ago. They're NOT "failing" to represent the people; they're doing exactly what they intend to do. Which is to lose. Lose elections, or lose legislative battles. Haven't you noticed that when they're in the majority they're helpless, and the Republican minority blocks everything the Democrats claim to support? They meekly bow to the parliamentarian, or to whichever right-wing Senators are playing the bad guy role that week. The most they'll do is pass weak-tea Republican policies such as RomneyCare. And when the Dems are in the minority, they're HELPLESS - except when it comes to begging us all for money and stabbing progressive candidates in the back. 

They don't even pretend to try to keep their promises any more. Student debt forgiveness? Intentionally undermined by using an approach that experts warned in advance wouldn't make it past the Supreme Court. A $2000 check for every American? They didn't even offer an excuse for that one. Ditto for the public option; Biden promised it, and then never mentioned it again after the election.

Their job is to keep people like you constantly trying to kick that football, even though they pull it away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. They occupy the left/populist spot on the political spectrum to co-opt any real populist left movement, but their policies are cosmetic at best and always right-wing. They discredit the whole concept of leftism by pretending that it's purely a matter of identity politics carried to extremes, and spitting contempt at the vast majority of the American people who are dying under the boots of the health insurance "industry", the oligarchs, and inflation. 

That's why people voted for Trump. Believe it or not, they're smarter than you think; when offered a choice between hypocritical fascists who support the status quo and a fascist who at least acknowledged that the people are being screwed (even though he's just going to make it worse), they chose the option that recognized that there was a problem.

Stop playing the game. Recognize that we're being slowly exterminated by the upper class. We had it better under King George the Third. The political parties will NEVER allow a solution, because THEY'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. It's time to work towards overthrowing this murder-suicide of a political system. A better world is possible, but no politician is going to hand it to us on a silver platter. We have to make it happen for ourselves.

Ceasefire?

I'm VERY dubious about the ceasefire that #GenocideJoe announced today between Israel and Hezbollah - or is it Israel and Lebanon?

The terms seem to be entirely in Israel's favor. It could be that the government of Lebanon just sold out Hezbollah under pressure from the US. Or Biden could be lying again; he's certainly done that before.

It's hard to imagine that Hezbollah would just give in, abandoning not only the people of Gaza but their own people as well. I'm hoping they don't go along. Israel MUST be abolished. Genocide must be punished!

An idea that might work?

It seems to me that the biggest problem that Jill Stein's campaign faces is the near-absolute blackout imposed by the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. Most people have no idea that's she's even running! 

If voters knew there was a candidate standing for universal health care, housing, peace, a $25 minimum wage, getting corporate money out of politics, and canceling all student debt, I suspect she'd win. But the Democrats and the oligarchs are absolutely desperate to make sure that nobody even knows she exists. 

Here's a thought: what if every Jill Stein supporter printed out five or 10 (or more) Stein/Ware 2024 flyers? Standard letter size, with just a few bullet points for her primary positions. For those who only have access to black and white printing, maybe add a dash of green with a crayon or marker. Then everyone puts them up around town, across America, all on the same day. The media would still ignore it, probably, but people would see. At least some of them would. It just might be a way around the media blackout.

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Postscript: I've written to the Stein/Ware campaign but only got a canned response. But it seems to be such an obvious move! The Democrats and Republicans have the advantage of money and the media, but they're scared; if we can get the word out, voters will go Green. Printing fliers is cheap. It's a decentralized project. We can post them on telephone poles and other public places. If we all did it on a single day, the impact could be considerable.

In the meantime I'm thinking about what the fliers might say. How about "Stein/Ware 2024", with "Healthcare for All", "$25 minimum wage", and "PEACE"? With a link to her webpage at the bottom? I'll work something up and post it here soon.

You're Up!

 

What a choice!