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[bryant]

Baen Books publishing repugnant Patriot Movement novels.

Dixie Chicks mouthing off about the President of the United States.

Appropriate reactions. Compare and contrast. I have my own thoughts but I’m curious. This is the first time I can recall making one of these “tell me what you think” posts, so disappoint me at your peril.

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i think comparing them is apples and oranges, since the dixie chicks aren't singing songs that are anti bush as far as i know. their product is not the chit-chat during their sets, but the actual songs. whereas baen's product is the books that they publish. so it's sort of the difference between a newspaper's news story (the product) and an appearance on a talking head show (or maybe ET!) by a reporter or member of the editorial staff (opinion on the part of the folks who create the product).

that said, has baen made any statements about their spiffy new book? god knows there are enough dystopian novels about tolitarian futures and (post-)revolutions (ranging from "fifth column" to "night of power" to "alongside night" to "handmaid's tale"), both crappily written and well written. is the book any good, political wonking aside?

also, there's a matter of the intended audience -- there's an expectation that country musicians are going to be unthinkingly supportive of a conservative administration. on the other hand, there's a notable subculture of pro-patriot sorts of folks in sf fandom (that "man, it'll be so cool after the apocalypse, because then we can all be like mad max and i'll finally be cool!" sort of thing). so in one case you're going against expected "community standards" and in the other, you're not, really.

i'm not sure what you're looking for as far as "appropriate reactions". i'm probably not going to buy the baen book. if i were a big bush supporter, i might not buy new dixie chicks records as a protest. but in either case i wouldn't go burn my books/cd's.

if baen has gone off the deep end, i'll just treat them like i treated dave sim when he went off the deep end and the entertainment value dropped too far -- stop buying the stuff and go support people who give me better entertainment for my dollar.