CONvergence 2016: Day One

The big fan convention in Minnesota is CONvergence, and the 2016 iteration of the convention is this weekend. I've attended it reliably, as that's where I can often run into people I know that otherwise would not be seen. A few years back, I began volunteering as a panelist. I did so again this year, putting me on six panels.

However, CONvergence is also SJW-converged, and I am no SocJus death cultist. To guard against possible incidents, I decided to record the panels that I sat on if I would be with suspected or known cultists. Eventually I'll put it up at my YouTube channel, but for now I've got them at Vocaroo. Each recording is 60 minutes, but be warned that this is raw audio taken from my cellphone. Audio ain't the best quality. Panels run long, so not exactly everything is captured, but 90% of it is easily. I'll add the description of each panel I sat on below, along with my comments for you to consider.

I operate under a "Let them start shit" policy, so I'm not instigating; let them cross the line, and then decide how to respond is how I go. Furthermore, I expect little blowback at the panel itself. Being that SJWs are cowards, I expect backbiting to come after the fact via Twitter (or other social media) and I have no doubt this will bear out.

Old Enough to Vote

Coming of age stories are common in genre fiction. What does it mean to become an adult, both in fiction and in reality?

I sat on this panel with four others: Camille Griep (confirmed SJW), Joan Marie Verba (dunno), Lee Blauersouth (confirmed), and Renata Fiora (dunno). As this panel went on, I found confirmation of something I'd seen previously at Vox Day's main blog as well as those of a few of the Dread Ilk: that the SJWs believed their purpose for writing was to advance the Narrative above all else. Above serving their audience. Above good craftsmanship. Above making viable commercial product. Above EVERYTHING. That is Convergence, folks. That is what it means, and what it does; it seizes control of another entity and repurposes it as another vector to Spread The Love. SJWs are memetic zombies, and Convergence is Infection.

Note that the panel was, for the most part, sounded like the sort of boring and redundant stuff you get at panels in fan conventions until you get the SocJus tells. The virtue-signalling is brief, but not artfully concealed, and that's largely due to CONvergence being a "safe space" for SJWs. I chose to emphasize that you, the creator, are the shot-caller and not the SJWs seeking to browbeat compliance into your brainmeats- and so you don't have to "include" or "diversify" or "represent" a GOD-DAMNED THING!. Your work, your rules, your way. Embrace that. These cultists use any platform to mindfuck you into compliance that they can; you heard it right there.

Game Design: The Ultimate Fan Fiction?

Many games are developed around popular books, films and television series. How do designers immerse themselves in universes others have created, and how do they bring something new to the table?

This time I'm with two confirmed SJWs--Cam Banks and Monica Valentinelli--along with one who isn't (Bob Johnson) and one I suspect is (Mark Redacted). This panel, being that it focused on game design and didn't get far afield with culture war bullshit, turned out to be a decent enough experience. The pros (also the SJWs) stayed in their expertise, and I did mine, etc., etc. so there was no real virtue-signalling to be had (and therefore little to push back against) and I wish my experiences were always no worse than this. Bullet dodged again.

Car Wars: Autodueling in RPG and Video Gaming

Vehicular combat has been featured in SF stories by such authors as Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster, and has been a feature of in RPG games (e.g. Car Wars) and video games. How and why did the popularity of autodueling games change with the times?

I declined to record this one. Craig Finseth is a decent old-timer (and did not show), as is Perrin Klump, and Jeremy Stomberg is a social lib who signals because that's what his friends do (and thus is okay). That, and we're talking about Car Wars and its influence on gaming and fiction. Hard to fuck that up, and we didn't. Also, getting a free copy of the new Classic game was fantastic (and smart of Steve Jackson Games to hook up the audience). This was the fun experience I prefer out of being a panelist.

Other Thoughts

This year they started doing the "preferred pronouns" bullshit, as well as the "all gender bathroom" nonsense. While the latter really did not seem to be taken seriously by the members in practice--the Men's Room remained for men, and vice-versa--that the convention further converged the policies to conform to blatantly discivic and disgenic frauds made clear that the convention sees spreading the SocJus memetic disease as above all other concerns. This is not good for a fan organization founded to celebrate genre fiction fandom in all media. Some hypocrisy is bound to occur, and when I find it I'll note it.

On a more personal note, I found that folks who had met me previously--but were not friends or acquaintances of any length--failed to remember me. Folks who had tangled with me online did not connect the name on the panel entry to whom they've dealt with online; I went unnoticed, and I found this due to an incuriosity on their part coupled with a bubble that fostered significant confirmation bias. I did not ping their radars, so they cared not who I was, and it made dealing with them easier.

I didn't bother with Opening Ceremonies. It'll be on the official YouTube channel soon enough, so I can watch at my leisure. Same with skipping entire panel blocks; nothing interested me, and I wasn't there to stir shit. So I took my time eating dinner, or tracking down Scott Lynch to sign my copy of The Republic of Thieves (and apparently my doppleganger hasn't died yet) I'm communicating from home this year, and I don't have control of the car, so I'm out by 11pm each night this year- and I'm not wanting to come at all on Sunday, which is not a good sign.

And tomorrow? The riskiest of the panels is to be done.