A Letter From Your New Blog Editor

[Callan]

I am also a person of colour with a white European name whose family history on both sides has been shaped by the most appalling colonial oppression and I am deeply offended by the way fascism and the Holocaust are being equivocated.

I don't know what exactly the way forward is here. But a position like this is one built on trust. And you've lost mine.

 

[JConcagh]

We still have plenty of scenarios that glory in the expansion of the United States and the British Empire and the French Empire and the Russian Empire/Soviet Union and the German Empire and the Spanish Empire, and many other empires besides - the thing is, all of these were genocidal settler colonial regimes that attempted, and in many cases succeeded in, annihilating targeted groups, fundamentally the same thing that the Nazis did. My concern is, ultimately, why the double standard? Why does the glorification of other empires, many of whom were Allied powers, not see the same opprobrium as the Nazis, especially given that the victims of the former were overwhelmingly dark-skinned?

It strikes me that, given this discussion of fascism (which is, ultimately, colonial methods applied to metropoles), we should broaden the discussion to our treatment of imperialism (and the Nazis were most certainly imperialist).

Not entirely sure a line of argument rejected by colonial nationalists and civil rights activists during the actual second world war is the right one to take here, especially considering that it's an incredibly loud dogwhistle.

 

[JConcagh]

I am also a person of colour with a white European name whose family history on both sides has been shaped by the most appalling colonial oppression and I am deeply offended by the way fascism and the Holocaust are being equivocated.

I don't know what exactly the way forward is here. But a position like this is one built on trust. And you've lost mine.

I'm seconding this opinion as someone of the same origin, and then also adding that as an historian of colonial radicalism in the shadow of the second world war, the (correct) need for more discussions around anti colonialism and western Imperialism should never be run as "competition" against discussions of fascism. It is insulting to all the victims of both ideologies.

 

[David Flin]

I am also a person of colour with a white European name whose family history on both sides has been shaped by the most appalling colonial oppression and I am deeply offended by the way fascism and the Holocaust are being equivocated.

I don't know what exactly the way forward is here. But a position like this is one built on trust. And you've lost mine.

I'm mixed race. I don't suppose it shows in my writings, and I wouldn't want it to. I am a product of my experiences, which are unique to me. I can write convincingly about being mixed race in the East End of London in the 1950s because I have that experience. I can write convincingly about the experiences of people from different walks of life in WWI because I have studied the period. I can't write convincingly about the struggles within Apartheid era South Africa because it is outside my experience.

One can argue that everything is political, and those articles I have written here may or may not have reflected that. I'm inclined to think not, but I'm open to correction on that. However, I don't write overtly political pieces, and I certainly don't want to write overtly political pieces,

The readers of this genre will discuss what I want them to discuss. The perspectives they will read will be the perspectives I deem worthy. As medieval as that sounds, that is what blog editors do.

That is unfortunate phrasing. It could imply that the articles that you will publish will be those that you both agree with and that meet your requirements of a more overtly political stance. Most of what I have written has been on the craft of writing, or on the details of highly specific aspects of history (for example, the introduction of the CCS in WWI), which would take a fairly lengthy teasing to argue were political and anti-Imperialist.

I understand that these topics would be acceptable, but I feel it might be worth spelling that out. Reading your introductory letter didn't give me that understanding. The strong impression I got was that - to put it bluntly - you would be using the blog to crusade for a specific goal.

I would appreciate clarification of: "will discuss what I want them to discuss. The perspectives they read will be the perspectives I deem worthy." Specifically, I would like an answer to this question: "Would you publish an article whose premise you disagree with?"

 

[SpanishSpy]

I would appreciate clarification of: "will discuss what I want them to discuss. The perspectives they read will be the perspectives I deem worthy." Specifically, I would like an answer to this question: "Would you publish an article whose premise you disagree with?"

I addressed this here:

When I say 'tastemaker,' I didn't mean it as bragging so much as it was a statement of objective reality. What I wanted to convey, juxtaposing that with the rest of my essay, is that I understand keenly that what I have is a position of power, and that I have the obligation to use it responsibly. I don't want to be one of those nerd bloggers who inadvertently spouts far-right talking points and pretends that it is not happening. I've seen in the blog interface that articles here get on average a thousand views; that's not insignificant. In all likelihood, there are many young, impressionable AH fans who, if nudged in the wrong direction, could end up in the far right. I don't want to be that first nudge, and this is why I am so unabashedly post-colonial in this essay.

Yes, I would take an article I disagreed with.


And more broadly.

I've made a terrible mistake. I've done a bad, bad thing.

I was wrong to make that comparison. I was wrong to be so flippant, and I was wrong to snipe at Monroe.

I was taught that a life is a life is a life is a life is a life, and that killing is killing is killing is killing. What I allowed to happen was to mush all these atrocities together, when they are all unique. I did the very thing I denounced.

I would like to apologize to this community here, and to the Jewish component specifically. I have many Jewish friends here, and they would be right to be furious with me.

@Meadow, if you will it, I shall resign as blog editor.

I think I'll need to take a long fishing trip from AH in general. I've insulted its members, and I have insulted it.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

I would appreciate clarification of: "will discuss what I want them to discuss. The perspectives they read will be the perspectives I deem worthy." Specifically, I would like an answer to this question: "Would you publish an article whose premise you disagree with?"

I would like an answer to that one too.

Chris

 

[SpanishSpy]

I would like an answer to that one too.

Chris

I would.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

I would.

That's all you need to be reasonably good at the job. Best wishes.

Chris

 

[David Flin]

That's all you need to be reasonably good at the job. Best wishes.

Putting on my former Editor (Trade Press magazines) hat on: Um, there's a bit more to it.

Chivvying those who have promised articles into actually providing said articles.
Translating delivered articles into something readable (the amount of work that requires varies from author to author). While still retaining the voice of the author, without putting your own accent on it.
Ensuring that the schedule has a balance such that one doesn't have a glut on a specific topic (unless there is a special on that topic for whatever reason).
Ensuring that there are sufficient reserve filler articles in the stockpile for when the chivvying mentioned at the top hasn't worked.
Knowing when to reject a piece, and to do so for good reasons, not bad.
Making sure that the credit for the blog goes to the people who deserve it - the authors - and not the editor. When the editor becomes the centre-piece, that's a problem. A good editor is pretty much invisible. Everything just happens and no-one sees what the editor has done.
Realising that editing is a hamster wheel. All that publishing a piece means is that you move on to the next. The wheel never stops.
Combining words with artwork. @AndyC and @Gary Oswald provided masterclasses in that.
Making sure that articles are legal. There are authors around who regard copyright as a suggestion rather than a rule.
Knowing how to talk to each individual author and get more out of them.
Allowing debate while not allowing debate to develop into abuse.

This list goes on ...

But the first step is indeed being prepared to publish articles one begs to disagree with, providing they are cogently argued and referenced.

 

[lerk]

I both agree and disagree here - yes, many of the allied empires at one point in their histories would sink to the levels of Nazism (though I think that a discussion of "Were they as bad" ought to be for another time), but that there should be opprobrium regarding the writing of fiction is not something I agree with. Basic sensitivity sure, one shouldn't go in guns blazing writing about white settler states in Africa. But I disagree with the notion that that certain WI's or POD's ought to be shunned for one non-AH reason or another.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Discuss my introductory letter to the community here.

I know we haven't been doing articles on Tuesdays for a while but I wanted to not interfere with the current schedule. Expect articles tomorrow and Friday, as well as a clerical update on Thursday detailing some administrative issues.

I look forward to serving this community.

Congratulations, Alex.
Thanks to @Gary Oswald for his service.

 

[lerk]

I do wonder if a lot of the "lack of sensitivity" in the AH community is due to, well, autism.

 

[Ricardolindo]

I do wonder if a lot of the "lack of sensitivity" in the AH community is due to, well, autism.

I don't know about anyone else but both me and @SpanishSpy are Asperger's, autists.

 

[Tamar]

I do wonder if a lot of the "lack of sensitivity" in the AH community is due to, well, autism.

Do you think this post, in a thread like this, was particularly 'sensitive' either?

 

[lerk]

Do you think this post, in a thread like this, was particularly 'sensitive' either?

Well, I'm also autistic fwiw, wouldn't have made a post like this if I wasn't.

 

[Tamar]

Well, I'm also autistic fwiw, wouldn't have made a post like this if I wasn't.

Well I'm suggesting you don't go into already fraught threads and start speculating about whether the behaviour of people whose identities are guessable is caused by them being autistic, something absolutely nobody was asking for or needed.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Do you think this post, in a thread like this, was particularly 'sensitive' either?

Well I'm suggesting you don't go into already fraught threads and start speculating about whether the behaviour of people whose identities are guessable is caused by them being autistic, something absolutely nobody was asking for or needed.

Dear moderator, should I delete my reply?

 

[Gary Oswald]

I think what the two pages of discussion prove more than anything else is that the editor has power but they do not act in a vacuum. We are lucky enough here to have a community which holds us accountable for what we say, which limits to some extent the damage we can do. Which is perhaps the unspoken flipside to the worries that as an editor you have the ability to cause harm by dictating the conversation. That only happens if the community allows you to do so. It is very easy simply not to read an article, or not to submit one.

As I said on the previous page, when I was editor, I put up two articles on the front page which received such a negative reaction from this community that I later withdrew them. Both were articles that should have never have gone up but I made mistakes, serious ones, and the community held me accountable to that and demanded change which they got. And as a result of that, it changed how I approached other potential upsetting topics.

Likewise Alex has received a lot of feedback from the community about his opening manifesto. Doubtless that will also result in change. And however that change manifests, I would hope the community would accept that change with as much grace as they did the correction of my mistakes.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

Alex, you’re a good guy and I appreciate the effort you’ve put into the alternate history community over the years, but I really have to question your judgment.

As a fellow person with a very minor administrative role in the internet alternate history community, I am aware that decisions I make can have larger ramifications and should be considered in the context of serious contemporary and historical issues. However, at the end of the day I’m just a janitor whose job it is to facilitate other people speaking, and so is the editor of the SLP blog.

Obviously racism, war, bigotry, and imperialism are bad, but everyone here accepts that, or at least should. (And yes, I’ll note for this audience of pedants that there’s room for discussion around the very edges when it comes to defining things). I don’t need to tell anyone that in order to do my job of deleting spam and telling fan fiction people to be nicer, I hope that people can tell from my actions that I’m motivated by compassion and decency.

I don’t think you’re attempting to minimize the Holocaust, but you’re putting your foot in your mouth up to the knee in an attempt to say that you’re a person with common decency, which you don’t need to tell us. We know that about you from your actions and words. Just say you’re grateful to have the opportunity to help out the community in the same way Gary and Andy have.

We all know you. We all like you. Of all the people on this site, I’d have considered you one of the best choices to be a blog editor. It’s a very minor janitorial role and has been done perfectly well for years by other people. You really don’t need to make such a big deal of it. The fact that you are concerns me and makes me wonder why such a minor amount of power seems to have gone to your head. I don’t know what’s in your mind and that might not be a fair assessment, but that’s my read of this situation.

 

[OHC]

And re: my forcefulness. When I learned how Russian AH authors ended up promoting current Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria, it shook me. As I said, the stories from my mother's family are of surviving a similar invasion of similar evil; many in the community don't have that. The thought was: Am I doing the same thing? Is my community doing the same thing, entirely by accident? This, more than anything else, is what drives the latter half of the essay.

I know this isn't what folks are talking about right now, but I was surprised to learn about this in the article and I'd be interested to know more about what kind of evil shenanigans are going on in Russian AH!