Doom co-creator John Carmack is headlining a 'toxic and proud' sci-fi convention that rails against 'woke propaganda'

pcgamer.com:

Id Software co-founder and former Oculus VR CTO John Carmack is facing criticism for his recent announcement that he will be attending BasedCon, a sci-fi and fantasy convention for fans who are «tired of woke propaganda.»

«I’m going to be at basedcon.com again this year,» Carmack tweeted. «I had read books from and twitter-interacted with three of the authors (more since!), but I wasn’t sure what to expect last year. It turned out fun, in a grass-roots con way that reminded me of the old Space Access days.

I’m going to be at https://t.co/plYFgrjxYP again this year. I had read books from and twitter-interacted with three of the authors (more since!), but I wasn’t sure what to expect last year. It turned out fun, in a grass-roots con way that reminded me of the old Space Access days.May 17, 2023

»I was just going to show up as a normal attendee / fan of the authors last year, but Rob [presumably BasedCon fouder Robert Kroese] nudged me into doing a talk and some panels, and I enjoyed it."

Attending a convention is a pretty unremarkable thing most of the time, but BasedCon isn't like most. Its website(opens in new tab) claims the convention «isn't about pushing any particular ideology,» while at the same time listing examples of «based beliefs» that the organizers subscribe to:

The website complains that while «sci-fi cons used to be a lot of fun,» in recent years they've been dominated by «a small clique of authoritarian jerks who made them into venues for pushing social justice dogma.» That in turn sparked controversies like Sad Puppies(opens in new tab), an effort to push right-wing authors to the top of Hugo Award voting, and the misogynistic harassment campaign Gamergate(opens in new tab), got Gina Corano fired from