To bring this back around to where it belongs…

Sanders has returned from his trip and is responding to authors criticizing his bigoted views and/or asking that their stories be removed from the Helix site by, predictably, being a complete asshole.

He told N. K. Jemisin that he’d never publish her again and responded to Yoon Ha Lee’s removal request with some choice words:

He then … claimed that I only asked for the story to be withdrawn “because, let’s get real here, you feel the need to distance yourself from someone who is in disfavor with the kind of babbling PC waterheads whose good opinion is so important to you, and whom you seem to be trying to impress with this little grandstand play.”

As others have said: you stay classy, man!

To make things even better, on the page where Yoon’s story used to be is the following text:

Story deleted at author’s pantiwadulous request.

A quick check shows that this text also graces the two pages where N K Jemisin’s story used to be.

ETA: Looks like sometime last night Sanders rethought this strategy and simply deleted the pages. But Nick Mamatas has the screencap. You know, in case someone tried to pretend that shit didn’t happen.

And this morning I discovered that, though Sanders offered to take down the stories just yesterday afternoon, he now expects authors who want their stories removed to pay him $40 to do so. I’m sure if I sat here for another two hours, he’d do something else to offend.

If Sanders’ crazy wasn’t broadly evident before, it is now. (Also, pandiwadulous??)

Elsewhere, N K talks about the minefield one must traverse when something of this nature comes up. People don’t want to support Helix in any way as long as Sanders is involved, but the authors published there are not at fault and shouldn’t be punished. Doing the former without doing the latter, indirectly, is hard. It’s not the authors’ fault, but they may get backlash nonetheless.

Speaking of editors taking responsibility, Micole has an interesting post on the Aqueduct blog where she calls for a boycott of F&SF until they stop publishing Dave Truesdale on their website. (Others agree.) I’ve heard that Dave only has one column left on his contract, so he’ll be going soon, anyway. But it should be noted that he isn’t going away because Gordon van Gelder has expressed disappointment at the things Dave has to say (that I’ve seen), but just because the contract is up. Micole sites some of the nasty things Dave has said about me personally, which I appreciate other people pointing out (as Tobias did, as well). But I don’t know that this is going to move Gordon much. (He doesn’t have a very high opinion of me, so I don’t think he’d care if Dave or anyone else was nasty about me.) I’m less concerned about that than the crazy stuff he’s said as a columnist for F&SF and in other “professional” capacities. That anyone thinks it’s okay to give him a venue says a lot.

I’m going to say again: When will we, as a community, collectively shunn these people until they go away? Because, seriously, this has to stop. Pandiwadulous? PC Nazi? If people like this aren’t shut down and put out of the group, they will not stop, they will not get better, but they will infect others, drive folks away, and make the “professional” venues they’re associated with look like safe harbors for hate and bigotry.