When I think of #Antifa I wonder... what is this "fa" and why is it about to be terroristic to be against it?

Hmmmm

About 120 of the 193 Seattle Worldcon panels and events that were recorded with the intention of making them available for replay to virtual attending and attending members of the Seattle Worldcon have already been posted, including including Interview and Q&A With Martha Wells, What’s New at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and our Thursday night musical event The Head!!! That Wouldn’t DIE! Look for replays of the remaining events, including the Seattle Worldcon Masquerade, to be posted over the coming weeks as volunteer hours allow. Note: the recordings of some sessions may be impaired by technical difficulties which we will attempt to note; we are erring on the side of making as much replay material available as we can.

The best way to access replays is through the Guidebook website or mobile app. Click “Replayable” on the main menu to filter the schedule to sessions that have, or will have, replay links available. A list of available replays is also available through the Discord in the # available-replays channel. You must be logged in to the Convention Portal to access replay videos in order to authenticate your convention membership.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/08/23/seattle-worldcon-panels-available-for-replay-more-on-the-way/

#SeattleWorldcon2025 #Virtual

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

You know the drill by now. I don't like talking about Black history. Americans know Black history. I want to talk about white American history. In other words, racism, and the erasure of both positive achievements of, and injustices suffered by, non-white people. That's what people don't know.

Try this: Ask your white US friends what the statue of liberty celebrates.

Now ask your Black friends. Or French folk of any color.

1/N

#BlackMastodon

Have you ever wondered about or wanted to participate in how the rules that govern the Worldcon, the Hugo Awards, and other aspects of WSFS get made? We do this at the business meeting. However: have you ever been unable to attend a business meeting session because your favorite author or panel is happening at the same time during the convention? Have you ever been unable to attend the convention, but still wanted to participate in the business meeting?

Fear not! We are excited to announce that this year we have developed a new process for the business meeting: a series of pre-convention, virtual meetings! Seattle Worldcon 2025 will host the business meeting virtually on four different dates prior to the convention: July 4, July 13, July 19, and July 25. These dates were chosen in order to accommodate as best as possible religious observance, work commitments, and time zone differences. Viewing of the meeting will be open to all; however, to participate in the meeting and vote on business will require an attending membership or virtual attending membership in the convention. Our business meeting chair, Jesi Lipp, has experience with hosting virtual business meetings and is excited to bring that wealth of knowledge to WSFS and Seattle Worldcon 2025 in order to expand access and to enfranchise groups historically unable to participate.

To help prepare everyone for this new step forward, Seattle Worldcon 2025’s WSFS team has planned additional events. If you are intimidated by the thought of the business meeting or you’ve wanted to propose a change but are not sure how, you can learn the ropes at one or both of the informational town halls we have lined up. The business meeting chair and WSFS division also anticipate having at least one practice session prior to the virtual meeting using the virtual meeting platform.

Please note that voting for site selection for the 2027 Worldcon will include in-person voting at the convention, and that the announcement of the site selection winner will be done in person at Seattle Worldcon 2025.

Any questions – please reach out to [email protected].

Stay tuned for further details on this exciting new step into the future of the Business Meeting!

https://seattlein2025.org/2024/12/04/announcement-building-the-business-meetings-future-for-everyone/

#BusinessMeeting #SeattleWorldcon2025 #Worldcon #WSFS