3. TIL that Scientologists tried to hijack the Hugo Awards in 1987, filling the Wor...

TIL that Scientologists tried to hijack the Hugo Awards in 1987, filling the World Science Fiction Convention with cultists in order to promote L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction novel

I am not sure what your complaint is. It is true that the Church of Scientology, through its publishing arm New Era, came nowhere near taking over Conspiracy '87. But OP doesn't claim that they did. OP claims that Scientology tried to hijack the Hugo Awards in 1987. And they did try, although they did not succeed, or even come close to succeeding. Even the fact that they tried is interesting. But they underestimated the sophistication of the fans. Science fiction fans were well aware at the time (and are doubtlessly even more aware at the present time) that Scientology is a predatory cult which does not deserve their support or respect in any way. Had he not become a cultist, L. Ron Hubbard would have deserved some modicum of respect for his earlier career as a significant science fiction & fantasy writer of the 1940's. Of course the nomination of the novel "Black Genesis" from the "Mission Earth" series for a Hugo was absurd. This is a terrible novel which would never have been nominated for any award and would probably not even have been publishable, if not for the campaign organized by the cult of Scientology. The idea that LRH was a beloved SF author, never forgotten by the fans even after all those years, and that this could be used as a means to further promote Scientology, was completely misguided, and turned into an embarrassment at the convention. Even in a broader sense, I think it is an embarrassment to the entire science fiction genre that a science fiction author, who once had some prominence in the field, used his creativity for evil purposes, to create a very harmful cult. Other than L. Ron Hubbard I do not know that any other science fiction author has used science fiction for evil purposes.

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