Reddit Shitlords Give Other Reddit Shitlords Prestigious Shitlord Award
Art borrowed from Casey Nelson of SeeBeautifulIndiana.com. (Click pic to go there.)
Today is an auspicious day. For the Men’s Rights Subreddit, which we often write about here on Man Boobz, has won the prestigious World’s Greatest Shitlord Award. Oh, sorry, I mean it won the Subreddit of the Day award on Reddit. Which is, in this case, pretty much the same thing.
Here are some highlights from the official announcement , which I am totally not making up. No, really, you can go look. Someone – that being XavierMendel, one of the mods of r/subredditoftheday — actually wrote these things. And meant them. I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC THIS IS REAL HOLY SHIT.
The topic at hand today takes a generous turn from our amusing and lighthearted articles of the month. On this, the last day of January, we look at something a bit more worthy to be called an article. /r/MensRights comes up a lot across reddit and, indeed, across the world as being one of the few centers for men’s help. It’s often attacked, and is always the center of one controversy or the other. My questions reflect that. MensRights is, undoubtedly, the home of great activists.
Again. I am not making this up.
There were some people close to me that suggested I not run this article. That the repercussions of doing so would be unreasonably bad. Well, here you go, people. This is my way of saying that a good reporter doesn’t care. A good reporter reports. It’s not in my job to care about consequences.
I’m not sure that Mr. Mendel quite understands the difference between “reporting” and “asskissing.”
/r/MensRights. Never in our society could the uninitiated imagine such a place. A place where feminism is questioned, and our culture is deconstructed to find what it’s really up to.
Hahaha, what? I was not aware that feminism wasn’t ever questioned on the internet, or anywhere else in “our society.” I mean, it’s not like I run a blog that features nearly 500 posts detailing people attacking feminism on the internet, most of them nastily and ignorantly and sometimes using the word “cunt,” and the vast majority of them not on Reddit. And it’s not like this only barely scratches the surface of the subject.
/r/MensRights is one of the last fortifications of free thought to exist on Reddit.
Yeah, that’s why I was banned – not for trolling or harassing or calling anyone names, but for politely if persistently disagreeing with the denizens until then-moderator ignatiusloyola threw a fit.
“Surely you jest,” one might tell me, “when you mean they’re alone in this regard?” No, hypothetical 19th century British gentleman, I do not. I truly mean it when I say that. What other subreddit openly questions feminism? None spring to mind, and I make it my duty to catalog various subreddits. Most end up banned or run down within a month. Only /r/MensRights remains.
Reddit: Bastion of Internet Feminism.
Nobody can say for sure whether or not they’re correct in any single regard. It’s certain that, due to the laws of probability, they’re not correct in every regard. However, it’s also certain that they’re correct in most of them. Occasionally a wackjob or two will suggest that feminism is behind Cinnamon Toast Crunch (The taste you can see!™). The accuser latches onto those wackjobs to denounce the whole movement.
Yeah, it’s not as if comments suggesting that a man allegedly wronged in divorce court should turn to murder got literally dozens of upvotes in r/mensrights, or anything.
Oh wait, they did.
Yeah, it’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors gave literally hundreds of upvotes to a post about a t-shirt suggesting that men could be convicted of rape simply for being in a room alone with a woman.
Oh wait, they did.
It’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors regularly give dozens if not hundreds of upvotes to posts from unhinged hate sites like A Voice for Men or Angry Harry,or fall all over themselves praising an internet-famous female MRA who thinks that many abused women “demand” their abuse.
It’s not as if they think “spermjacking” is a real thing in the world that should make all men think twice about ejaculating in the general vicinity of women.
It’s not like … oh, you can find many, many more examples for yourself.
After claiming that “people have died” after being called misogynists, while “nobody ever dies after being called a misandrist,” Mr. Mendel winds up his speech with this stirring conclusion:
I support the struggles of people who are in bad positions. I respect it, in a way, for I have also seen great struggle. My struggle is not over, nor will it end until my death. For I struggle with something that will not go away through legislation or social change. The Men’s Rights Movement, however, struggles with something very changeable. Very malleable, able to be fixed within a generation if so desired. So I will support them, for they have a fighting chance. …
/r/MensRights is controversial for a reason. In the same sense as Jews of the 1890s, Irish of the 1850s, Hispanics of the 1350s, and many more. Each generation has their controversial improvement in society. We’ve gotten off easy so far, but we have to make it happen eventually. As far back as anyone living can remember, the table has been imbalanced in one way or another, favoring men or women. It’s time the table stays level for once. We need equality.
And that’s what /r/MensRights is trying to do.
Oy yoy yoy. There’s so much ridiculousness to unpack there that it makes me tired. I think I’ll go take a nap.
Mr. Mendel followed his stirring introduction with some questions for the denizens of r/mensrights. And there was some discussion. I can’t even. Not right now. I’ll get to all that in a future post.
In the meantime, Skepchick’s Rebecca Watson – who has been on the receiving end of r/menrights’ heroic activism more than once — has her own reaction to the Men’s Rights is the Subreddit of the Day announcement.
Posted on January 31, 2013, in a voice for men, advocacy of violence, all about the menz, antifeminism, dozens of upvotes, excusing abuse, FemRAs, GirlWritesWhat, grandiosity, hundreds of upvotes, misogyny, MRA, narcissism, oppressed men, playing the victim, reddit, spermjacking and tagged antifeminism, men's rights, misogyny, MRA, reddit. Bookmark the permalink. 1,090 Comments.
Phil is autocorrect’s version of oil, I already smacked it around once, clearly it didn’t help any! Sorry!
Phil – Philadelphia cream cheese?
Oh, OK. Yeah, there was the whole mid-20th-century obsession with convenience foods, where everything was microwave cooking and molded Jello. (Oddly, these foods are not even that simple. A friend once shared her family’s midwestern hamburger microwave casserole recipe and damn, despite being made of ketchup and stuff, it still had about a billion ingredients.)
But American cooking hasn’t been like that for 30 years. (And was that really a purely American phenomenon?)
Shoulda guessed it was
Basement Catautocorrect at it again!Looks like we’re all out of touch with each other’s cuisines! :D
@ Argenti
Yeah, I blame the fact that my mother was a bit territorial about the kitchen and so I learned to cook on my own initially rather than with her. She would shoo me away if she caught me trying to cook anything at home.
The noise that happens if you do put tinfoil in the microwave and the flashes of fire are rather alarming.
The Jet Age Microwaves Are New And Exciting era of cuisine is possibly the most endearing thing ever, though. Not usually into US optimism/happy suburban families bullshit, me, but I’ll eat that shit (and ads for electric organs of the time) up like nothing else.
brb putting tinfoil in the microwave
Idk if it was purely an American thing, but my crappy cookbooks are all second hand post-WWII “bliss” shit — I tried a rainbow layered jello mold once, took forever and was terrible, I really don’t get the fad.
To be fair to microwave cooking, my mother was amazed to learn that he mother’s veggie pasta is mostly done in the microwave (with butter, go figure)
Cassandra — try a marshmallow sometime if you want to see fun things microwaves can do (do not try this without at least googling it first) At least you were close enough to hear it, and presumably stop it before starting an actual fire.
It is not my night for blockquotes …
To defend myself a bit here, I was pretty hung over when that happened. I was trying to defrost a piece of chicken that was wrapped up for the freezer and it didn’t even occur to me to take off the tinfoil.
I think it was a pretty understandable mistake for anyone new to cooking, or new to microwaves.
::cocks ear for explosive noises coming from the north::
@Kittehs
Wasn’t actually going to try it. I’d done it with a CD before. I love contained flame and campfires, but heat too close to me freaks me the heck out. Smoking with a butane torch lighter in a pipe, as opposed to a joint lit with a BIC or similar, at a party once was just about the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
Perhaps there’s a career in fireworks waiting for me.
Didn’t think you really were, but “brb” was a great line. :)
Cassandra — sorry if my “on the other hand” came off as scorn or similar — I’m a combo of amazed and disappointed that you managed to move out before learning this, that’s just not right!
lowquacks — I’ve been known to pour rubbing alcohol in a sink and light it on fire (ceramic sinks are pretty much fire proof, and you can turn the faucet on if you need to put it out before it’s done, but it’s really just a flash in the pan) — your standard short weed pipe, with a butane torch lighter? No. Fucking. Way.
@Argenti
Exactly. I quite like burning paper or similar in the sink, sometimes with oil, but the casualness with which some friends of mine use those lighters freaks me out. I can never figure out how to work the carb either so w/e.
@ Argenti
You’re also forgetting how much older than you I am. I can actually remember microwaves being invented, and when my parents first got one.
@CassandaSays
Hopefully regarding that era as quaint before isn’t too offensive. . .
@Argenti
What? I was using a standard short Entirely Legal Tobacco Purchased Legally From A Licensed Vendor pipe borrowed from a Friend Of Legal Age To Smoke And Purchase Tobacco From Licensed Vendors who I definitely hadn’t Just Met That Night.
I’m now picturing a result rather similar to when one of my classmates managed to burn her eyebrows in chemistry class.
It just looked cool for a few seconds and then I stopped the microwave, actually. Still fun though.
lowquacks — of course, but a standard fare tobacco pipe is further from one’s face, just had to clarify for freak-out value :)
And autocorrect turned a typo of pipe into pipefish.
Cassandra — yeah, I was, mea culpa!
Tangentially, I once had a stupid blonde cheerleader yell at me for touching her precious blonde hair…I grabbed it as she was about to dip it into a burner in chemistry class. (That fucking…she had her jock friends threaten to beat the shit out of me if I didn’t let her cheat off my exams because I was c,early terribly rude for not liking her after that…I really hate people who think the world should revolve around them…)
Yeah, I *really* hated school.
also @CassandraSays
How’d she manage that?
Bunsen burner, no safety specs, got too close. She’s lucky she had her hair tied back.
@Argenti
Thanks, never knew that. Not a smoker, really, and I don’t hang out with anyone who smokes just tobacco from a pipe.
Cassandra, do you want to call ‘em a pair of young whippersnappers, or shall I? I’m older than you, maybe I’d better.
“You young whippersnappers!”
/Carl from Up
Ok, but just what is a whippersnapper?!
I had to look for the definition – I’ve always known the phrase but not the specifics.
From the Free Online Dictionary:
noun
an unimportant but offensively presumptuous person, especially a young one.
Origin:
1665–75; probably blend of earlier whipster and snippersnapper, similar in sense
So not you two at all, but hey, it’s perfect for the teeny trolls we get around here (not naming names in case it summons them).
And I love “whipster”. It sounds like hipster but snappier. :P
W hipster is um, ok auto correct, that’s correct! Given that was over 3 centuries ago, we can assume the meaning has shifted :)
And here I was thinking it was a type of US lawnmower!
@Kittehs
Somehow even snappier if you pronounce “wh” as separate from “w”, particularly with a broad Southern US accent as opposed to one of the stuffier RP/cultivated accents that maintains that distinction.
Y’know I’d quite forgotten about the whipper-snipper! Used to have one of those. I was always terrified of chopping bits off myself with it. Same with the Flymo. Who thought having a lawnmower with an electric lead was a good idea?
re pizza: I am not a NYC pizza fan, though I know some places which are famous; and seem (in the flavor profile) to be justfied in their fame. I find the sauce to be too sweet, the cheese to be scant, and the overall style to be not quite the thing.
But if you are in town, we can go to Arturo’s. It’s good, but it’s not quite what I like. It is however, a coal-fired oven, a splendid setting and very good NY pizza.
I also have to say that I’ve not been impressed with the Chinese here. I suspect it’s because I’m much more used to Szechuan/Mandarin combination cookery, and the former seems much less common here.
Put’s on technical cooking hat: I would do the old “hot water in the sink and cream the butter and sugar together with the bowl partly submerged” trick. Now I can’t be bothered and I just melt the butter in the microwave. I figure the butter will melt anyways during the cooking process, so it doesn’t matter.
Depending on what you are making, it does matter. How the sugar/butter combine to make a whole affects the final texture, esp. in cakes and cookies(biscuits). Superfine/caster sugar is often specified for that reason.
What’s the difference between French butter and “bog standard butter”
Depends on where you are. In the US “sweet cream” is the standard butter. In most of Europe the standard is, “cultured” butter. The culturing (allowing it to have some bacterial fermentation for about 12 hours) changes the texture, and gives it a slightly sharp undernote.
NB “Sweet cream” is not related to salting, or to pastuerising (these days the culture is added, not natural; though this may not be the case in France). The default selection for US table use is salted, in Europe the default table butter is unsalted. I suspect the US preference for sweet cream butter has something to do with this, but I don’t know.
I can say that french table butter is very good, though I did have one of the worse croissants in my life in Paris. Never went back to that café.
re cheese: Monterey Jack is a variation on some form of queso fresco which the spaniards moving up from Mexico made for travelling. It’s basically a solidified panela Since panela is a very bland cheese, so too is fresh jack. A good jack is a very pleasant thing. It’s not a strong flavor, but there is flavor. The problem (as with so many subtle things) is the amount of crap jack.
If you let it age (1-2 years) it gets very nutty, and rich.
Colby is basically raw cheddar which has had no time to develop. Again, if it’s a good colby, it has a nice, if mild, flavor (smoother texture than squeakers/cheddar curds but about the same profile). The best is from longhorn cattle. Again, if you let it age some, it develops. Tangier than cheddar, and it has a shorter shelf-life.
Cojack makes good, grilled , sandwiches, and a pleasant counterpoint to spicy food, which is how it is often used. The lack of assertion lets the coolness of the flavors come out, which is a nice balance to some really spicy tacos, etc.
There is lots of good cheese in the US. There is even a lot of good “american” cheese, but the mass-market stuff (KRAFT I’m look at you, and your ilk) are foul. Oil instead of butterfat. Greasy slicks of congealed slime.
Apparently so, since he had photos. He says he went on a trip to LA and that’s where he got the idea that all fancy American burgers must have that kind of cheese, and I can’t figure out where he could have gone to get that idea. So now a ton of Brits are probably reading his blog and getting the idea that if they don’t find and use that kind of cheese they’re Doing Burgers Wrong.
Erp! Kraft makes several cheeses which are decent (not great, but actual cheese; it costs more than it’s worth though, now that there are more cheese options).
I wonder if he had a burger with a slice of a good american cheese, and assumed it must be “Kraft”.
In-N-Out uses buns of their own making. They are a soft, sponge based, “white” bread. Their bakers set up a sponge (water, yeast, sugar) and let it rest overnight. Then they come in and make the buns (which then get shipped to the restaurants).
They also do all their own meat grinding (which is why they are regional. If they can’t get the meat from the place they grind it (in So Cal) to the restaurant in a truck, unfrozen, in eight hours, they won’t open a location).
for fun with fire… get a bottle (the larger the better. A carboy is ideal).
Pour high test rubbing alcohol in. Slosh, so as to get good evaporation. Drop a match in.
The first will often be whooshy (keep your hand out of the way). The second (and maybe third) will be soft layering flames working there way down the interface of oxygen and fumes.
Then the air runs out and you have to recharge the carboy with more O2 in some way.
Smaller bottles are more vigorous (and 6 oz perrier bottles are veritiable rockets; they rarely get good structure, but they make a hell of a noise.
This is, of course, meant to be done in dim light.
I remember when Microwaves were new,and expensive ($1,500 for a home model).
I’ve never really gotten the hang of cooking with them.
I remember our first microwave. It was a gigantic Litton that lasted for almost 20 years. I thought my dad was going to cry when it finally gave up.
If I’m remembering correctly, the “cheese food product” label is required for something that doesn’t contain enough actual cheese and/or has been altered enough that you can’t just say it’s “cheese.” Hence “Kraft American cheese food product” slices.
*sigh* I miss cheese. If I could get one thing back from the lactose intolerance, it wouldn’t even be ice cream, it would be cheese.
@drst you’ll find that a number of countries/ European union has rules about protected names for food products. Hence your example, and I think you will find other things specifically defined like milk, ice cream (I can’t think of any non-dairy examples off-hand).
@Kiwi girl – yep. I think the reason the “cheese food product” thing is noticeable is that the US *isn’t* particularly stringent on food labeling, or wasn’t for a long time. The manufacturers are required to list ingredients and nutritional information, and technically the ingredients are listed biggest to smallest, but that’s not really enough information. Big Food is a major lobbying force in the US so getting laws passed on these kinds of things is really tough. Companies put “No high fructose corn syrup!” on packaging as a marketing gimmick, not because they’re required to.
Ah, thank you, someone coming to the defense of monterey jack. It is great on spicy Mexican food (seriously, what do the rest of you guys put on your enchiladas?) or in a turkey, avocado, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. And don’t neglect pepper jack, either.
Colby jack I mostly associate with kids and school lunches, since it’s both fun-looking and mild, and kids often don’t like sharp cheeses (my sister notoriously refused to eat any cheddar sharper than medium).
Lactose intolerant people who crave cheese: often aged cheeses are okay. Try an aged cheddar or Parmesan and see how it goes. Advice courtesy of a cheese-loving friend raising lactose intolerant twin boys.
Burgers: I don’t eat beef but friends swear by The Counter (a small chain) and Umami Burger in LA. The Counters turkey burger is excellent. Sorry I was too lazy to add that apostrophe on my tablet.
Any advice for bacon cheeseburgers? I typically have bacon-jack-onion rings on my burger (no salad, eww) on my burger from the local Most Excellent Takeaway Place and *drooling, happy twitches, muttering in Simlish*…
Where was I? Oh yeah, what’s other good recommended cheese? I like it flavoured but not mouldy, and a bit creamy. A good mature cheddar will do that.
Also, apologies for spellings, nosebleed. Again.
@Creative Writing Student
What about gouda?
@cloudiah – unfortunately nothing works for me. I cut all forms of lactose out of my diet and once I did that, I can sense anything that slips in, even butter inside baked goods (which technically should not bother me since the lactose breaks down at high temperatures). It sucks.
I am actually one of the huge fans of In n Out; their lettuce and tomatoes are always fresh, too, and I love the mayo-ketchup-relish sauce they put on things. I love that the buns are never soggy, and the combo of cool lettuce and hot burger & cheese. Yum!
@Some Gal
I may have to give that a try. I’ve never had it. :D
I am whatever the opposite of lactose intolerant is! Danish genes… Sorry drst. Thought it might be worth a try.
@ drst
I would miss cheese more than ice cream too. Not that I don’t like ice cream, but I don’t like it as much as cheese, and I eat cheese more often. Wouldn’t miss milk at all if I could find something else to put in coffee that I didn’t mind the taste of. Old-fashioned soy milk of the kind you find in Chinese markets might work, but I don’t like the super smooth ultra processed kind that coffee shops tend to use, and the particulates suspended in the old fashioned kind might be a bit weird in coffee.
Speaking of which! Does anyone else remember a coffee chain called Pasqua? In general they were OK though not great, but their iced coffee was…odd, because somehow it always ended up with coffee grinds sitting at the bottom of the cup. Which isn’t a great taste or texture when sucked up through a straw.
The lactose intolerance thing is actually genetic, which I always find kinda funny, Up in the farthish north in Europe, cow milk was a staple of the diet because they could give milk all winter long, and the Vikings had this fatty-rich milk drink that was shelf stable even, so kids who became lactose intolerant would literally not survive the winter. One of the theories for why the early Vikings didn’t get along with the Northern American tribes they met is that the vikings, all innocent of lactose, gave some of their milk drink to their new friends, then friends got violently ill due to being lactose intolerant and thought they were poisoned, and so killed all the vikings.
I’d miss cheese a lot. I eat Bega tasty cheese, usually a chunk at lunchtime and sometimes at night. I’d miss yogurt, too, having got into the habit of eating it. I very seldom eat icecream, just a cone on occasion when I’m out, never at home. But the milk on cereal and in tea, or milk-made hot chocolate or coffee, I would miss a LOT. I could probably do soy but the flavour’s a bit too different, too noticeable, for most things, and it wouldn’t work at all in tea.
Tried my first chai yesterday, btw. Not taken with it; there was hardly any flavour of tea, it was just like hot milk. And yes, I had let it brew. :(
I dunno how you’d survive in most of the Middle East if you were lactose intolerant either, so I’m guessing it’s rare for people with their roots there to have that issue. Plus not being able to have rice pudding when everyone else was would be so depressing.
@ Kittehs
That’s my problem with finding a milk substitute for coffee. Plain coffee makes my stomach unhappy, but the only soy milk that I like has quite a strong soy flavor, much stronger than the kind you usually get at coffee shops, plus it’s sort of…gritty almost? I like the honey one, not sure what the Chinese name is. But I think that mixed with coffee the flavors might clash.
RE The chai, maybe you just didn’t use enough tea?
@Creative Writing Student
I love gouda a lot and can imagine it going well with the meat, the bacon and the onion rings. (Btw, are those like cut rings of an onion or fried onion rings? Because I’d assumed the latter, but then thought maybe I should just ask. Both sound delicious!)
I love cheese. It’s the perfect food.
Here we have a burger chain called Whataburger, and their patty melts are divine. They have the best onion rings of any fast-food place ever, will serve things on TX toast (yum), and the beef’s real, unlike the grossness of a McDonald’s.
In terms of mild cheeses to go with Mexican food, one of the cool things about living in the Bay Area is that it’s really easy to get Mexican cheese. There are tons of little stores that sell it, as well as Mi Pueblo – the dairy case there would probably make a Dane like cloudiah weep with joy.
Cassandra – I had the chai at my usual cafe, and the owner/barista knows I like my drinks strong. I can’t imagine there was much tea in it, though; it was hardly any stronger after sitting for a while.
If the owners aren’t Indian I’m not surprised it was weak. Which doesn’t yield a horrible drink, just one that’s a bit bland.
Heheh definitely not Indian, he’s from Brittany. :) Maybe I should try some at an Indian cafe sometime. You’re right, it wasn’t horrible by any means, just hot milk with the barest bit of flavour. I’ll stick to his coffee and hot chocolate: they’re really good. Every time he comes back from his annual holiday (when the cafe’s closed for three weeks) his regulars moan about having had to drink inferior coffee all that time. :D
Blessed be the indie coffee shops, for without them we would have to drink Starbucks.
Trudat!
Though mercifully Starbucks are rare here. They were never as ubiquitous as in the US, and a good few of them closed down a couple of years back. There’s only one that I know of in the CBD.
Now if you ever come here, San Churro’s chocolate shops are a must-see.Spanish sipping chocolate, it’s to die for. Even more so when it’s the iced version. Their line is that chocolate will save your soul, and they don’t have opening hours, they have hours of worship.
Ooh, I should ask my cousin in Perth if they have those there.
They do! I just looked. :)
http://perthfoodjournal.com/divine-treats-chocolateria-san-churros-perth-area-w-a/
Vegan former cheese expert here.
*sits in corner sulking and rubbing tummy*
Stupid ethics. *grumbles*
@The Kittehs’
That is a lot of chocolate! Very yummy sounding and making me hungry. Now I might have to dip into our supply of El Diablo (“a cinnamon chocolate flavor, heavily laced with cayenne pepper”) ice cream from JP Licks as an appetizer to our dinner. :)
http://www.jplicks.com/about_us.html
And I just found out they have a Frozen Hot Chocolate with Mini Marshmallows flavor for February so I have an incentive to finish off our January flavors more quickly!
Fresh cheeses are wonderful, especially paneer, but you can’t grate most of them very easily so their uses are a bit limited.
nat, you’ll be glad to know I’m going to try to make your faux cheesy popcorn tomorrow. At least, I think that was you. I have a terrible memory.
*has a MIGHTY NEED to move to New Zealand*