Apparently, it wasn’t enough for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America to expel Vox Day for thoughtcrime; now they want to hide that they did it. They have made no public statement as to who was expelled, instead releasing an ambiguous “Board Communication on Member Expulsion” (yes, really, a Board Communication) stating that the Board has decided to expel “a member”. Vox has noted that if he hadn’t made it public that he was the expelled member, nobody would know who it was.

But they have gone even further. They sent Vox a DMCA takedown notice forcing him to remove the SFWA’s compilation of evidence against him from the internet. A mystery member was expelled for a mysterious reason; that’s all the shadowy nine-member Board want anyone to know.

On the other hand, their members are perfectly happy to make their politics clear.

I am encouraged to think SFWA might be taking steps to become a safer, more inclusive space.

Some smart folks are calling SFWA the Feminist Glittery Hoo Haas. So you know what? Yeah. Maybe. Call it the Vagina Nazi Bitch Club and give me a badge. Go form your own Aryan Happiness Defense Front for Writers because the darkies and the women they are coming, and it’s going to be like one of those scary dystopias Orson Scott Card freaks about or that awesome book Revealing Eden: Save the Pearls Part One. You’ll all be forced to wear black face and be executed via snu-snu.

Scared yet? If you are, maybe it’s about time.

One must wonder what “inclusive” is supposed to mean, if the organization is demonstrably inclined to exclude members who don’t support the political party line. Inclusive of progressives no matter their demographics, perhaps. As Fred Reed said about a different sort of writer: “Papers say they want diversity in the newsroom, but by this they mean people of different colors who think the same things.”

Or perhaps Silvia Moreno-Garcia is just feeling the rush of power, and is happy to spout whatever applause lights that power desires spouted. Inclusivity! Feminism! Doesn’t it feel great to be on the winning side? This talk turns up everywhere, from the SFWA to Denver: progressives chanting that their enemies will be crushed beneath their boots, that their reign is now assured, that all who stand in opposition are pathetic little rats, scared, confused, and stupid, and so on, and so on. Mencius Moldbug calls it crocodile humor:

Here was my favorite Internet moment of the great election: this post by Brad DeLong. When it became generally noticed, a few days before the event, that Senator Obama has at least three very non-flimsy personal connections to pure, 200-proof, full-on Holocaust-grade political evil, Professor DeLong, former DAS at Treasury and a plausible candidate for senior office in the Obama administration – enlightened us with the following message:

Run like the wind, Mr. Skittles!

Many UR readers have had the priceless educational privilege of growing up behind the Iron Curtain. These readers will identify Professor DeLong’s tone at once: it is the tone of the Soviet humor magazine Krokodil. I will take the liberty of Anglicizing, and call it “crocodile humor.” Extremely educated readers may also be familiar with the Nazi variant, as found in Der Stürmer and the like. The material is different, of course, but the tone is unmistakable. We’ll hear a good deal more of it in the next four years.

Crocodile humor is the laughter of the powerful at the powerless. It is not intended to be funny. It is intended to intimidate. Those who laugh, as many do, are those who love to submerge themselves in a mob, feel its strength as theirs, chant and shake their spears as one.

“Scared yet? If you are, maybe it’s about time.” Crocodile humor is intended to intimidate, and Moreno-Garcia intends to intimidate. As does Nora Jemison, the uncivilized writer who kicked off this whole incident. (Yes, uncivilized. If you’re fighting for the implementation of policies that threaten civilization, can you really be said to be otherwise? Civilization doesn’t grow on trees.) Jemison says:

Put simply, SFWA must now take action against bigots in order to prove itself worthy of being called a professional organization.

Apparently, professional organizations are progressive organizations. Who knew? There were no professional organizations at all for most of history; not until progressives like Jemison took power and made them professional.