[Responding to an anti-Trump open letter to the publishing industry: "As members of the writing and publishing community of the United States, we affirm that participation in the administration of Donald Trump must be considered a uniquely mitigating criterion for publishing houses when considering book deals."]

Now that the Death Cultists are feeling their oats over slaying their orange bogeyman, they're planning an unprecedented sacrificial orgy to appease their gods. In their primitive cosmology the only explanation for their 2016 defeat is infidels angering the spirits with their -isms, so atonement must be made by offering up the unbelievers.

[...]

The cultists do not hold the same standards as normal people. They don't even pretend to anymore. And it's not hypocrisy to harm your enemies and protect your friends. That's been the Cult's viewpoint for years, and that's why they've been winning.

That's also why smart authors who care more about money than validation now avoid oldpub like the plague. Note that the letter says nothing about how these publishers plan to reach more readers and sell more books. That's what sane people in an industry on the verge of collapse would do. Instead, they're purposefully alienating 160 million people. No Titanic tickets for traitors.

Some people still think that Cult-coopted industries are out to make money. A glance at the signatures on that letter should disabuse you of that fiction. Guys like [Chuck] Wendig and [Charlie Jane] Anders have no organic readership. They'll go back to the D list the second the Cult's influencers stop boosting their signal. If you're still an oldpub author at this point, your whole career is a humiliation ritual.