Friends, I give you Moshe Feder on Facebook earlier today:
Read his first sentence.
Now, read it again.
It’s a lie. It’s a bare-faced, out-and-out falsehood. He’s lying in public, and he appears to believe he’ll be allowed to get away with it.
The boycott of Tor has nothing whatsoever to do with “the efforts of some Tor employees to defend the Hugo Awards from attack”. It has everything to do with some Tor employees (including Mr. Feder) deliberately, repeatedly and publicly lying about the ‘Puppies’ campaigns, those behind them, and anything and anyone else they regard as ideologically impure and/or unfit to associate with SF/F fandom as approved by them. I’ve already described in detail Ms. Gallo’s contribution, which sparked the boycott. Mr. Feder’s latest lie merely confirms and reinforces her mendacity (and my position).
He states that he’s speaking for himself and not the company . . . but I haven’t seen Tor repudiate any of his earlier lies, some of them issued on company time using company equipment, so I’ll give this latest assurance the same credibility I’ve given his earlier ones. (Edited to add: Note, too, his use of ‘our friends’ and ‘declared war on us’ and ‘our bookseller partners’. Speaking only for himself, eh?)
I have an open question for Mr. Tom Doherty of Tor.
Mr. Doherty, Mr. Feder continues to lie in public. That being the case, how can you ever trust him to be truthful with or to you, when he won’t be truthful with or to us?
Verily, the mind doth boggle . . .
I’m still not going to call for the resignation or dismissal of any of the Tor employees I’ve named. Nevertheless, if I needed any more justification for why I’m boycotting Tor, Mr. Feder has provided it. I suppose I should thank him for that – and if he wishes to call me a ‘scoundrel’ or an ‘idiot’, well, I’ve been called a lot worse than that in my time. Furthermore, for all Mr. Feder’s vitriol directed against him, he’s just made Vox Day look like a sensible, reasonable participant in this debate. Vox might want to thank him, too . . .
*Sigh*
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: Vox Day has uncovered yet more lies from Tor supporters, in the form of unmistakeable sockpuppet posts that he quotes, complete with time stamps. (Read the comments from his readers, too – some are comedy gold!)
I wonder if any faces over at Tor are worried about the stretchy feeling in their noses right about now? Well played, Vox!
"We don't compete…"
Yeah, he's not speaking for himself there.
Peter, may I recommend the use of archive.today to capture further incidents like this, so that the internet never forgets?
All I want to know is if someone is going to sell shirts. I have some recommendations if someone intends to do so. Of the Tor … Est format, I currently favor Tor Obsidendus Est the most. 'Tor ought to be beseiged'. This verb also means blockade, and seems the closest to Peter's intent, without going directly for 'Tor ought to be boycotted'. I also think four lights captioned with a twitterbot saying that they bought five items from Tor sounds fun.
It is possible that I have no clue when it comes to shirts.
archive.today was compromised. archive.is is the current go-to.
Good grief, he just can't help himself. Does Feder have ANY self-awareness?
Actually, Feder is a horrible editor, because in his edit, he uses the term "we" when he stated "Please not that we don't compete with our bookseller…"
His disclaimer above that is worthless. And the internet is forever.
I have been following this slow train wreck for three years. Had no idea I could spend $40 and get access and voting rights to the award. What an eye opener. All I want is to read good books. And excellent books that I will read again. Now with eyes wide open I know why my random purchases are horrible. Why most of Analog is horrible (my wife subscribes).
Jeffro who has come under attack for the gall of actually being nominated has pointed me to some brilliant older work that I did not know existed.
Tor may not realize it but we are leaving them behind. There is only so much time and so much good stuff out there. They (other than JC Wright, Peter Hamilton and a couple other authors) refuse to give it to us. Good luck with that business model. I'm moving on.
I linked to your post.
That "Do not compete" part is a swipe at Baen.
Peter,
You've noted the use of the plural first person, but seem to have forgotten it's rules of usage. There is the "royal" we, the editorial "we", and the "we" of they dude with a tapeworm. Not royal, not speaking for company or as an editor … this leaves the third alternative of course.
Heh.
They just don't get it… Again… STILL!
It seems they don't like Baen direct book selling
He's lying that the reason Tor is being boycotted is because she's merely "defending the Hugos from attack." It's being boycotted because it is apparent it despises many of its customers.
However, what might he mean by that line? Does the way Tor plans to win awards is by libeling competitors in the harshest terms they can find? Quite telling about their professionalism.
And the thread is now apparently gone, unviewable or nuked. Moshe is covering his tracks. Archive and/or get those screen caps when you can, the Moshe-cat is doing its best to bury the evidence in the litter box.
@Anonymous at 1:22 PM: Already done. The whole thing has been saved for posterity – and I'm quite sure I'm not the only one to have done so.
He's apparently scrubbed his entire FaceBook of anything puppy-related. if it got much cleaner it'd be nothing but kittens and dancing unicorns.
Nice to see Feder displaying the cowardice of his convictions.
This may go down as one of the most epic public relations fail in history!
It just goes to show that Ms. Gallo's defamatory claims are fully supported as truth by many in the anti-Puppy ranks.
They really DO think the entire Puppy movement is "racist, sexist, homophobic" and that a bunch of Pups are "neo-Nazis". I think it's because they can't conceive of any OTHER type of person they could possibly be opposed to.
It's an entirely reflexive belief system, which requires one's opposition CANNOT be open-minded… as acknowledging that would require engaging them in discussion and debate. Much better to toss off "neo-Nazi" quips and thus preclude any pretense to civility whatsoever.
The arrogance of these ideologically obsessed narcissists is immense. Who lies so blatantly ON THE INTERNET and expects to get away with it? Who defames customers and employees openly and expects there be no repercussions, nay, DEMANDS there be no repercussions?
Feder should reconsider his position, lest his self-destructive acts culminate in actual self-destruction.
Many people have been commenting on the PR aspect of Gallo's comments (along with other Tor people), so here's the head Tor PR person: emily.mullen@tor.com
I went ahead and forwarded my email to Tom Doherty to her, along with the following comments:
"Dear Ms. Mullen —
Below, please find the email that I sent to Mr. Doherty earlier this week in response to Ms. Gallo's comments about Tor customers and authors. In addition, I also returned my Wheel of Time (WoT) paperbacks to Mr. Doherty; the box should have been received at your office on June 18.
I do not understand why it would be acceptable for senior-level personnel at Tor to systematically insult the company's lifeblood (customers, authors), but I have decided to take my business elsewhere. This week alone, I have spent $100+ on books from another NYC-based publisher and independently published authors. I read vociferously, and SFF is my genre of choice, but I will not support a publisher that hates me.
Sincerely,"
Yes, most of the $100+ referenced above is from my first Baen order — I was shocked and delighted to realize that they'd automatically loaded so many *free books* into my account! And, after doing the math, I realized that their monthly bundles are a great way to sample newer books. Now I've got so many new books to read, I'm not sure where to begin …
@astrodominant: there's a second reason, to wit, Sturgeon's Law.
Of course, it doesn't help that the SJW worldview leads to preferring to select the crap.
@freddie_mac1,
You fool the first hit is always free. Next thing you know you'll not only be buying every bundle but getting the E-ARCS for alot of the books as well.
I think Tom Doherty needs to be reminded of the classic adage that "a man who lies for you will lie to you."