Science-fiction author John Scalzi turned a negative into a positive when he pledged to donate $5 to the Human Rights Campaign, among other charities, every time an internet âtrollâ made a derogatory comment on his site.
Scalzi, author of the acclaimed Old Manâs War, originally capped his donation at $1,000âbut once word spread, heâs managed to raise over $60,000 in a matter of days.
The âCounteract a Bigotâ fund drive, as itâs come to be known, stemmed from Scalziâs rivalry with former WorldNetDaily columnist and fellow sci-fi scribe Vox Dean (real name Theodore Beale), whom Scalzi lovingly refers to as âthe Racist Homophobic Dipshit.â
As Salon reports, things had been testy between the two since 2005, when Dean claimed women âare academically cauterized into intellectual brain deathâ and are too busy âyammering on and on about their feelings in Womenâs Studies classes.â
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Scalzi, current president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, responded by calling Dean, âa jackass, and a fairly ignorant jackass at that.â
Then late last year, during all that feel-good âlegitimate rapeâ talk of the election, Scalzi wrote a satirical âfan letterâ in which he adopted the persona of a rapist. Dean published a non-satirical blog post entitled, âJohn Scalzi is a Rapist,â referring to his nemesis as âMcRapey.â
âSince then he has referred to me as âMcRapeyâ and other such similar names,â Scalzi said. âI donât know whether he actively encourages people to troll my site, as I donât visit his site (lifeâs too short), but about once a day (recently) someone shows up to troll my comment section, calling me âMcRapeyâ and or describing me as a âgamma maleâ and describing how awesome he is in some way or another.â
Thatâs when he started the Counteract a Bigot drive. âThe whole point of this is not to intimidate him to stop speaking,â Scalzi told Salon. âYou will not get this guy to stop speaking. He sees this as a contest, as a battle of wills.â
Besides the Human Rights Campaign, the funds raised from the drive will be donated to Emilyâs List, RAINN and the NAACP. Scalzi took to his blog to express his gratitude to all those who had pledged their support:
âIâm deeply honored and humbled by this, both by the show of support for me, and rather more importantly, by the show of support for organizations focused on women, GLBT, people of color and those sexually abused. Thanks, folks.â
As for Dean, heâs launched a new campaign to succeed Scalzi as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
JustinMar
Brilliant đ