Shaun Duke raises a good point about the Hugo Award puppyfail:
Politics certainly figures into it, but, to be frank, most of the folks I know who dislike the puppies feel that way because the puppies are a-holes. We all have conservative friends and acquaintances who aren't a-holes, and we don't seem to have a big problem with them unless they're crazy bigots like VD. We have a problem with a-holes.
Amen. With an amen-caveat that most puppy supporters aren't a-holes and that conservatives don't have any particular stranglehold on being political a-holes. They don't. There are plenty of liberal and moderate a-holes in the world.
If you're a nice person and disagree with me about politics or the Hugos or science fiction or anything else, that's fine. We disagree. But we can still work together and share a drink together and discuss the issues together and enjoy the SF/F genre ... you guessed it, together.
But a-holes, they ruin life for everyone. They're the equivalent of scorched-earth warfare on interpersonal relationships. They burn everything down and dance in the ruins while somehow believing people love watching their pathetic little diarrhetic two-step.
The SF/F genre has long contained a-holes and will contain them long after this year's drama is forgotten. But no one in the genre will forget an a-hole.
And in this year's puppy drama, what people will truly remember are the a-holes.
So people in the SF/F genre, try your best to not be an a-hole.