I’ve never watched the stream of the Hugos ceremony, and that continued last night. Instead, I tend to skim twitter for announcements, look for the reactions related to winners I was rooting for, and check the full list the next day. So I didn’t see the verbal assault of GRRM’s hosting or racist presenters last night, but I read about it as it was happening and again this morning.

(And I’m already pre-angry about the “people are being mean to me!” non-apologies we’re gonna get from the people who made racist, transphobic, & sexist comments, which really outweighs “acting like presenting is about them and fuck the nominees” but that deserves a bullet point too, since we’d be talking about it if the really horrible shit wasn’t there)

What gives me hope, though, are the winners. I haven’t watched the speeches yet, but I hear they’re good. And looking at the list of winners, who were selected by the community and not by a convention’s management team, and comparing them to the host and (some of) the presenters, I see a dichotomy.

The community is heading in the right direction, often slowly and in need of a kick, but in the right direction. The establishment is not.

Which is an indictment of the establishment, and a reason to stay involved in the community. I hope.