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I know Twitter is where nuance goes to die but it is both possible to say this weekend's Hugo Awards were a great night for marginalized creators (many of whom knew nothing about its sponsorship) and that Raytheon should have had absolutely nothing to do with them.
I am probably going to regret tweeting this. I know people, many of whom I respect, worked incredibly hard to put DisCon and the Hugos together. I know it changed hands and the process was chaotic (I didn't even know it had sponsors!) But Raytheon? Let's talk about them.
They are one of the largest military defense contractors in the world. They actively interfered and pushed to continue the absolutely brutal war in Yemen. Their weapons and systems are directly linked to the deaths of scores of innocent people.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/us/arms-deals-raytheon-yemen.html …
I am sitting here typing and deleting tweets, wondering which tabbed article referencing the gruesome deaths of children will be enough to keep the "all tech companies have some bad history" replies from coming...and honestly I don't know what to say.
I don't know who approved this. I don't know how extensive Raytheon's involvement was (it would be helpful if DisCon would reply to some of the messages being sent). The majority of attendees I know basically found out during the ceremony and did a "wtf just happened??"
I have no doubt people would have pushed back if this was public knowledge during a time that arrangements could have been changed (or frankly, made different decisions if the sponsorship remained). At least I hope so because damn some of the convos I've seen are disheartening
I don't know what else to say. Elements of the American SFF field have always had a fucked up relationship with the military industrial complex but really? Raytheon??
Still typing and deleting tweets but I will say this: publishing has thrown a lot of wtf moments my way, but "make sure one of the most prestigious awards in my industry isn't being sponsored by a war criminal before accepting the nomination." This shouldn't have happened.
my reaction exactly
I hadn’t realized sponsorship was going on at all for the Hugos. Now I’m wondering if this is always how it’s been and I just wasn’t paying close attention or if this was a new thing this year.
same! I don't recall seeing any sponsorship stuff for dublin. I guess I naively thought the con fees paid for things? I really hope DisCon comes out and explains things
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