We all know about the whole Sad Puppies movement and how the Hugo awards (along with pretty much every award) have been ruined to the point where all you have to do to win an award is write some garbage and whine about men (especially white men). I still remember when I was called racist for questioning the fact that N.K. Jemison who can't seem to give any speech/interview without whining about race won the Hugo three years in a row for writing books about oppressed aliens aka thinly veiled modern day talking points. All I said was that the Hugos had become very political (I'm sure they always were to a point but not this ridiculous) and that I find it hard to believe that she could win 3 straight but not Clarke, Asimov, or Heinlein.
She also said one of the dumbest things: "when you guys (meaning white males) win it is meritocracy, but when I win, it's identity politics". I'm sure she would be the darling of the Hugo/Nebula circuit if she was a black woman who was a hardcore Trump supporter.
I was wondering if anyone has tried to make new awards for the best books? I can remember one year Orson Scott Card had the best book but he didn't win any awards. I know a lot of writers and comic book writers have gone independent which seems to be the way to go. I try to support what I can when I hear about it, but pretty much stick to older books and comic books now.
It just makes me so mad how our hobbies have been infiltrated from the inside out, and I can remember not thinking too much about it when I first started hearing calls for more diversity or the whining that there were too many white males in a hobby. I would say to anyone that if everyone has to look like you or there has to be a perfect diversity in your hobbies then find that hobby and leave ours alone. There are plenty of women and minorities who enjoy things because they actually like the hobby, but for some reasons morons like Kathleen Kennedy and people in charge at companies like Amazon don't see it.
There have been some comic book/sci-fi groups where I was the only black guy but I didn't care because I wanted to be around people who loved Sci-Fi. I think at this point it is too late to do any gatekeeping.
I do remember asking one feminist who was whining about "sexist tropes" in Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire why she doesn't just read female authors and stop reading male authors since she has no interest in enjoying them but just wants to crap all over the greats of the past. She cussed me out. Still I'm glad I asked her.
No, the Hugos are not about the masses at all.
The only people who get a vote are Worldcon attendees.
The mistake is thinking the Hugos OR Worldcon matter. They don't. A better solution would be to start a new convention to compete with Worldcon.
The masses is a generic term. In this case, it means those who participate.