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Should gaming be a “safe space” for nerdy dudes who hate women? The Men’s Rights perspective

idiot-nerd-girl-reappropriated-05

I’m back from a brief vacation in Migraineland, and thinking about the ways in which Men’s Rights Activists love to appropriate the language of feminism and other progressive movements, usually in ways that are face-palmingly ass-backwards.

Take this recent discussion on the Men’s Rights subreddit of the dire threat of “fake gamer girls” invading the “male space” of gaming. The generically named guywithaccount sets up the discussion with this post:

I want to talk about "fake geek girls" (self.MensRights)  submitted 9 days ago by guywithaccount  For those of you who don't know about this, there's a bit of a controversy in what I'll call the geek community. Apparently, when women attend geek conventions (that is, those celebrating e.g. video games, comic books, sci-fi and fantasy), some men accuse them of being "fake geeks" or demanding that they prove their "geek cred" by correctly answering trivia questions made up on the spot.  Here's one article (of many) that talks about it: [1] http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2013/08/08/the-fake-geek-girl-nonsense/  My concern for this issue is that, like anything else that involves gender, feminists and feminist sympathizers are attempting to dominate the discussion and frame the whole thing from a feminist and gynocentric perspective. The prevailing analysis might be summed up as "geek culture is deeply misogynistic, and the people complaining about fake geeks are just sad little losers who hate women."  IMO, the geek subculture has provided a somewhat-safe space for many men who have been snubbed by the rest of society, where they are not expected to prove their value to each other by carving notches in a bedpost or exemplifying traditional masculine traits. The increase in mainstream appeal and female participation over the past decade or so threatens the safety and exclusivity of this space, and the backlash from male geeks is a somewhat-predictable response to the invasion of their space.  Of course, there are few spaces just for men, and when someone tries to create or preserve one, they're accused of misogyny.  I suspect that some of you don't give a crap about any of this and see the whole thing as petty, but realize that it's not happening in a vacuum. I believe it's merely a symptom of the fact that men have almost no voice in gender discussions and their needs are routinely denied or ignored.
Now, there is a teensy bit of gold in this pile of bullshit: the notion of a “safe space,” where oppressed people can come forward and discuss their issues without fear of being talked over or shut down by those outside their group — who have more power in the world and who may not have their best interests at heart (or who may just be Blabby McBlabbypants types).

But there are a couple of giant problems with this notion when it comes to gamer dudes declaring gaming a “safe space” for men. The first is that, despite lingering resentments over being “snubbed” in high school or wherever — evident in the OP and in comments throughout the discussion — these guys are not actually an oppressed people by any measure that really matters.

Indeed, many of them — as tech dudes in a male-dominated tech world — are in fact in fairly privileged positions. For them to claim they need a “safe space” to protect themselves from the evils of “fake gamer girls” is a bit like Klan members claiming they need a “safe space” to protect themselves from blacks, Jews and Catholics. (Which is more or less what Klan members have argued over the years, albeit in less PC language.) No, I’m not claiming that all MRAs are the equivalent of hood-wearing Klan members. Only some of them are.

The second problem with the “game world as safe space for men” aregument is that YOU CAN’T JUST DECLARE BIG CHUNKS OF THE WORLD TO BELONG TO MEN. Yes, men dominate the gaming world in sheer numbers, both as game-makers and game-players. (While women make up nearly half of all game players — 47% — men tend to dominate the “serious” games that many geek dudes claim are the only ones that really count.) But gaming doesn’t “belong” to men any more than, say, novel-reading “belongs” to women — even though surveys suggest that women make up a staggering 80% of the fiction market in much of the English-speaking world.

Yep, that’s right: Women dominate “noveling” much more dramatically than men dominate gaming. Yet you don’t find women denouncing “fake noveler boys” or declaring that the male brain isn’t wired to understand the subtleties of written fiction.

No, in fact men are actively welcomed into book clubs.  And my best friend, a woman, has spent much of the 18 or so years or our friendship trying to get me to read this novel or that novel, though over the years she’s only succeeded in getting me to read maybe one or two of her suggestions, which were pretty good, I have to admit. (I do plan to read some of the others, really.)

If you’re a socially awkward guy and want a safe space to discuss that, find a therapist, find a support group. Don’t pick on women gamers and pretend this is somehow your right because you’re oppressed as a socially awkward guy.

Anyway, here are some other dumb comments from the Reddit thread. YetAnotherCommenter warns feminists that they may lose some powerful allies if they continue acting so feministy.

YetAnotherCommenter 18 points 9 days ago* (22|4)      Woman are assigned status for being nerds where men are not.  Men lose status for their nerdiness. Women gain it.  Some geek girls have admitted how being a female nerd grants you so much attention from men (Rebecca Watson did precisely this in an issue of a skeptic newsletter). They admit the fact that female-geekery conveys a certain level of privilege.  This is actually compounded by feminism because by being a geek (or faking it) a woman is seen as standing up to the "boys club" and thus gets a chorus of "You Go Girl!" cheerleading combined with the ability to acquire victim cred from "teh sexist menz are picking on me!"      Also, the way some pop-feminists go on about fake nerd girl shaming, it's like it's a second holocaust or something.  And then they shame all male nerds as misogynists who are bitter because they can't get laid. "Neckbeard" and "fedora" jokes and "you're just socially awkward and live in your mother's basement" are all derivatives of nerd shaming.  I know several geek girls (real geek girls, not fake ones). I support females who enjoy video games and comics etc. enjoying these hobbies. I also think it makes business sense for some comics and games to cater to this demographic (to varying degrees).  What I protest is how ideological feminists are basically attempting to "reformat" geek culture towards their own preferences, and I protest how they see geek culture (which is a product of the socially emasculated rejects of the gender system) as a bastion of "male privilege." I protest how they interpret the fact that things aren't always about them all the time as bigotry or hatred. You can fairly describe geek culture as androcentric (after all, it is predominantly male and formed from the basis of men's experiences), but this isn't the same as misogyny.  The fact is that if feminists truly wanted to undo the gender system, male nerds would be a fantastic reservoir of allies. Yet by casting us as oppressors and borderline-rapists and engaging in repeated attention-whoring behavior and exploiting female-nerd privilege and inflicting repeated guilt-trips upon us, they have destroyed any hope of this.
Speaking of nerds who can’t get laid — which we weren’t but which these guys keep bringing up (and identifying themselves as) again and again — guia7ri seems to harbor some lingering resentments from high school, and who better to take that out on than attractive geeky women?

guia7ri 4 points 9 days ago (7|3)  I think that the reason why it seems like mostly women (or why it's fake geek girls not just fake geeks) is because girls have all of the power in high school. The popular/attractive girls control who is "cool" and who isn't. But it never just ends there. The ones that get rejected by this group will be rejected by everyone else because they're trying to be accepted as "cool". The rejects end up being forced loners at best (unless they hang out with other misfits, but that can almost make things worse). So when the girls who were (or look like they would have been) responsible for the geeks being social outcasts and losers for being geeks, are now are getting into geek culture it ends up causing a controversy over the legitimacy of a girl's interests.  Even so I think the reason why it may actually be fake geek girls is because women (especially attractive and confident women) are seen as interesting or cool when they identify as a geek. If a man says he likes video games/comics/sci-fi books/movies it's typically seen as either normal or unmanly/childish. I don't think anyone would ever falsely something about themselves that would have negative connotations.

Hey MRAs, if you wonder why feminists sometimes describe MRAs as bitter men who hate women because they can’t get laid, it’s because MRAs like gui7ri so often EXPLICITLY DECLARE THEMSELVES BITTER MEN WHO HATE WOMEN BECAUSE THEY CAN’T GET LAID.

Meanwhile Byuku blames it all on evil feminists pretending to be geeks in order to make trouble. Because that’s what feminists do.

byuku 3 points 9 days ago (8|5)  My belief is that most of the complaining actually does come from fake geek girls. Think about it - have you ever met extremely hostile and unfriendly geeks? Especially around attractive women? Most geeks I've ever known have been treated like shit by society and thus have a really passive behaviour (they're quiet).  My hunch would be that a bunch of crazy feminist nutjobs walk into a convention, and some geek asks "Hey I notice XYZ on your shirt, who's your favourite character?"  Traditional geek girl responds politely. Fake geek girls say "WHAT? JUST BECAUSE I'M HERE DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET TO TEST ME!!!" and bitches about it to all hell all over the enerets.  And now we're here talking about it. That's how feminism dominates mainstream cultural discussion as it does.
That’s how they get you!

EDIT: Added a sentence to temper and clarify my assertion that men “dominate” gaming.

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Posted on August 20, 2013, in a woman is always to blame, all about the menz, antifeminism, are these guys 12 years old?, bullying, creep-shaming, dozens of upvotes, entitled babies, evil women, facepalm, female beep boop, geek girls, imaginary oppression, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, no girls allowed, oppressed men, reddit, straw feminists, video games and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 1,189 Comments.

  1. ^sarahliz. wow, I am sorry.

  2. For lifers, there is a label that their wives actually take which is “soldier’s wives”,

    Where’s that popcorn? I can’t believe he just tried to lecture Pecunium on the US military.

  3. Argenti Aertheri

    Pell o’clock? Anyone email the dark lord?

  4. The lesson isn’t “avoid hyperbole,” the lesson is “avoid Asher.”

  5. I wonder if you can use trollfroth to make espresso drinks. It has to be good for something, right?

  6. Worst. latte. EVER.

  7. Argenti Aertheri

    *hands falconer the popcorn* this is likely to be good

  8. At least lattes can’t type.

  9. So, as women are agents; and so posesed of independence,

    Ah, yes, the argument to free will. The problem with arguing from free will is that you are simply going to be picking and choosing what things are the products of free will and what are conditioned by prior cause. Once you admit even one speck of free will into a conversation then the entire notion of cause and effect has to be discarded for that conversation.

    I have been asking for yearrs of advocates of free will to provide me with a demarcating principle to distinguish human behavior that is the product of free will versus behavior that is conditioned. None have ever managed to do it and most haven’t even tried. No, women are not any more autonomous than men and to base anything on autonomy is to completely rule out cause and effect (unless you can establish said demarcating principle).

  10. Pell, does give his resume a lot.

  11. @ Aaliyah

    Ooh, is it video time?

  12. “I openly call myself a ‘reactionary’. It’s just a label and the particular application of a sequence of letters doesn’t establish the function of a thing. For example, the function of a horse isn’t determined by the fact that we label it with the letters h-o-r-s-e.”

    Aww, it’s Babby’s First Almost-Semiotics! Adorable :3

    (NOTE: By using the sequence of letters a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e, I’m merely applying a series of letters and not establishing the function of an Asher.)

  13. they will not (by and large) conform to these slack-jawed nitwits ideas of how “women” ought to behave;

    Argument by aspersion. Basically, you’re just saying “those people are stupid so we can discount anything they say”.

    which, in some regards, is them wishing a world free of women (as agents) and inhabited

    Enough with they hyperbole, already. I’m pretty sure there’s a vast chasm between some subset of the population wanting a separate “male geek identity” space and wishing all women would conform to that identity.

    “Exclusionary” is not a bad thing; it’s just a … thing. Mostly, to exclude simply is to say “hey, you’re welcome to go find your own space and do your own thing”. Exclusion has it’s beneficial side.

  14. @falconer

    Where’s that popcorn? I can’t believe he just tried to lecture Pecunium on the US military.

    At least that hilariousness will make up for some of his* massive boring-ness.

    *asher’s massive boringness. Pecunium is not boring. Duh.

  15. HE DENIES FREE WILL!

    I TOTALLY CALLED IT!

    probably everybody could see it coming down 6th avenue but still

    I TOTALLY CALLED IT!

  16. Argenti Aertheri

    Cassandra — I was thinking as much when pecunium called him a liar…

    It’s EA o’clock!!

  17. @Argenti Aertheri

    Dang what song did you post?

    /danged youtube videos rarely show up here for me.

  18. Aw, man, I always miss the new chewtoys until after the good posters have gotten their licks in. I had to skim a lot of that, but looks like you folks did a good job. Since he’s still here, though:

    “What you are doing is relying on the current general social sentiments involving Klan members in order to make a specious equivalence between the Klan and male geeks. ”

    Nope. No matter how many times you repeat this, it won’t be true. The comparison was being made between “Klan Members” and “Self-designated Gatekeepers To Geek Culture Who Demand That All Of Geekdom Be A ‘Safe Space’ For Male Geeks Specifically.”

    All of us have understood this distinction. The subset of geekdom that David is calling out is NOT the entirety of it; indeed, that’s the whole point of the discussion. Your persistent failure to acknowledge this leaves us the classic decision about trolls:

    A: You’re an illiterate idiot with no reading comprehension skills;
    B: You’re an unmitigated liar who will cheerfully espouse bullshit, knowingly, in order to obfuscate an issue.

    When the choice is “liar or fool”, the proper answer is, “Why should I give a fuck?”

  19. @Falconer:

    I had to look up the quote he was replying to figure out exactly how he got from male geeks to free will.

    He literally just jumped on the word “autonomy,” ignoring any context to how the word was used, and decided to rant about free will. The original was just talking about how women aren’t going to just do whatever men tell them, since they are people with autonomy.

  20. I know this is like totally OT, but I don’t really trust anything Asher says at this point, so citation needed.

    First off, I am the only one who has consistently avoiding using intellectually dishonest rhetoric, so this claim is really bizarre. Second, that particular method was called the boats, and might be in Plutarch, not sure. The Greeks were amazed at the level of cruelty in which the Persians frequently engaged and that particular method involves a story from the Cyrus/Darius conflict.

    Cyrus was the younger but he was a natural born military leader, a man’s man, whereas DArius was reputed to be a bit of a fop. In the final battle between them one of DArius’ captains killed Cyrus and then bragged about it when drunk. For defying Darius as the sole source of the victory Darius had that captain put to “the boats”. It’s not a super obscure story if you have an interest in ancient history.

  21. Argenti Aertheri

    “Exclusionary” is not a bad thing; it’s just a … thing. Mostly, to exclude simply is to say “hey, you’re welcome to go find your own space and do your own thing”. Exclusion has it’s beneficial side.

    *flips back two pages*

    The term “leftist” is exclusionary because it excludes non-leftists. All identities are exclusionary, every single last one of them. What you are doing is relying on current, general sentiments to to establish a notion that some identities are “bad”, in an Absolute sense, but that others are okay. But since your notions of “bad” are simply rooted in current, general sentiments that means that they are subject to change and not some timeless, universal Absolute.

    So you won’t actually address what I said, just pretend that you meant it all along. Precious.

  22. I kinda want to take him to task on his free will stuff, but I’m afraid I’d just bog everything down even more than it already is… Plus I’d miss more posts; this thread is moving like lightning.

  23. Asher you are so full of shit, you’re giving off cartoon stink-lines.

    Why are you here?

  24. sarahlizhousespouse

    *Looks down and shuffles feet*
    Yeah, you called it Falconer.

  25. The term “boring” is exclusionary in that it excludes people who can talk without making their audience want to take a nap.

  26. He literally just jumped on the word “autonomy,” ignoring any context to how the word was used, and decided to rant about free will. The original was just talking about how women aren’t going to just do whatever men tell them

    And the type of male that is attracted to the identity of “male geek” isn’t going to do what women tell them and are going to find some way of creating a social space where they can do there own thing.

    There. Problem solved.

    Look, every single argument that you can make about women not needing to conform to some men’s desires/expectations I can reverse it and make the exact same observation in the reverse.

    Also, modern liberal, moral philosophy is predicated on the notion of “autonomy” as the fundamental ruling moral premise. So, I’m operating from a heavy understanding of developments in modern moral philosophy of which you may or may not be aware/

  27. The term “boring” is exclusionary in that it excludes people who can talk without making their audience want to take a nap.

    I’m not aware that many people affirmatively identify themselves as “boring” but if they do then it’s also exclusionary.

  28. Argenti Aertheri

    Marie — Liar *screams* LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR!!

  29. Asher, this is a site that mocks misogyny, not PHL 305. Maybe you don’t have a heavy understanding of that.

  30. No amount of spelling out will make people understand you Asher. The problem is you’re a little empathy-less shitstain of a human being

    In other words, I take positions with which you disagree, therefore, I’m a “shitstain”. Nice reasoning you got there

  31. No, it’s not because you disagree. You’d be a shitstain anyway.

  32. @Kirbywarp: Yeah, he seems to have a total Humpty-Dumpty thing going on: A word means exactly what he means it to mean, and apparently that doesn’t have to be consistent from moment to moment.

    E.g., he linked pretentious to pretend etymologically (which, yeah, they are, the former descends from a past participle of a Latin word through the French, while the latter descends from a present participle of that same Latin word through the French) and then claims that pretentious means to pretend and tries to straw-man that into poor, put-upon old Asher, all he’s doing is trying to spread salt and light from Athens to the benighted heathens of the world and he gets stoned at every turn.

    Pretentious poser.

  33. Maybe if we converted the mockery into binary it would make more sense to his robot brain?

  34. @Argenti Aertheri

    Marie — Liar *screams* LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR!!

    I should check it out! I haven’t heard that song before :D

  35. Oooh, hatred of peer review

    Peer review is broken. Now, why would you feel the need to impute to me some intense emotional state ….

  36. hellkell: You do him WAY too much credit with that “PHIL 305″ line; I saw better arguments from the students in my high school’s one-semester Philosophy course–including from the Objectivist who believed in a caste system with ditch-diggers.

  37. Android is broken, can’t do emotions.

  38. Asher, sweetums, we aren’t ‘imputing’ an emotional state to you. We’re ‘interpreting’ it, from the content of your posts.

  39. sarahlizhousespouse

    “Peer review is broken. Now, why would you feel the need to impute to me some intense emotional state ….”

    You should probably elaborate on why you believe it to be broken.

  40. Argenti Aertheri

    Marie — I advise turning the sound way down and then up to a level just below where you want it, because screaming. Also, I love the ASP remix.

  41. Ugh, don’t encourage him. This troll needs to be put on a diet.

  42. sarahlizhousespouse

    “Ugh, don’t encourage him. This troll needs to be put on a diet.”

    Awww… I want a troll meltdown. :(

  43. So Asher, have you designed a bunch of open-source programs?

    Freemage: HA, maybe that was an over-reach. I try to avoid internet philosophers.

  44. They saw it, and then wondered at it, then went looking for more evidence.

    Which is conjectural. What Darwin did, and he admitted this, is to take stuff we already know that then conjectural apply this to prior eras. Darwinian evolution relies heavily on conjecture and, in fact, this is a salient argument I’ve encountered from skeptics of Darwinian evolution.

    The assertion that “homo ergaster is the direct ancestor to homo sapiens” is conjectural. It is also a statement that I consider scientific and if you do not consider it scientific then you have a problem in Darwinian evolution.

  45. *Looks down and shuffles feet*
    Yeah, you called it Falconer.

    Oh, shit. Sorry. Did I just smack you in the face? Sorry.

  46. For an analogy to be intellectually honest there has to be a large body of similarities between the respective things being analogized. To use both the Klan and male geeks in the same analogy implies that there is a large body of similarities.

    No, there’s no implication because David explicitly specified the behaviors that were analogous.

    Unlike every other commenter, here, I specify the exact reasons for using the label of intellectually dishonest. If you use intellectually dishonest rhetorical tactics then I will label you as intellectually dishonest and give specific argumentation supporting my utilizing the label.

    Yeah, except that you don’t specify why, you typically use “intellectual dishonesty” as a cudgel and then move on without addressing the alleged dishonesty.

    From what I’ve noticed I am the only one who has consistently stuck to addressing the specific claims and arguments of others. Everyone else has engaged in various speculations about myself or argument by insinuation. I am the *only* one in this conversation who has been consistently intellectually honest.

    Bwa-HAHAHAHAHAH!

    How does this

    Pro-tip, the hallmark of the intellectually honest is they don’t keep one standard for themselves, and another standard for others.

    Follow from this

    Says the guy who just defended reactionary lifestyles with an appeal to nature.

    Because your red herring appeals to nature/tradition are not intellectually honest, and you therefore hold a double standard for intellectual honesty.

    First off, I am the only one who has consistently avoiding using intellectually dishonest rhetoric, so this claim is really bizarre.

    Can someone really lack this much self awareness?

  47. Sorry, the AI isn’t due to hit the self-awareness stage for quite some time.

  48. I openly call myself a “reactionary”. It’s just a label and the particular application of a sequence of letters doesn’t establish the function of a thing.

    Cool! I didn’t realise you could just call yourself anything because words have no meaning. What shall I call myself? An anarcho-jazz dancer? Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? A ham sandwich? The 3.10 to Welwyn Garden City? Wheeee! It’s all the same!

  49. @Argenti Aertheri

    Marie — I advise turning the sound way down and then up to a level just below where you want it, because screaming. Also, I love the ASP remix.

    then way down for me, cuz I already have headache :P

  50. You, when you said that societies which fail to recognise an inherent difference between men and women are doomed to fail.

    The fall of rome wasn’t the end of civilization but it was clearly a traumatic event for many people. The American Empire is an ad hoc hodge-podge of many different peoples, each with little notion of common morals and norms – that is what an empire is. Such empires are inherently unstable and require a separate ruling class that rules over it; that ruling class eventually develops its own separate culture, as we have now.

    because if there can be many, new ones can be created from the rubble of those which have collapsed

    Which is what will happen, although that event is likely to be pretty traumatic for lots of people.

  51. I call myself a sugar-glider, because why not?

  52. Amusingly, it’s the “citations needed” crowd who engages in the logically fallacious reasoning that if something isn’t definitively established in a peer reviewed journal then it isn’t worth considering. THAT is logically fallacious.

    Setting aside that nobody has brought up peer review except you, it’s actually not. “If something isn’t definitively established in a peer reviewed journal then it isn’t worth considering” is a premise, not a conclusion, so while it might be false, it can’t be logically fallacious.

    The applied logic would be:

    Premise 1: Anything that isn’t in a peer reviewed journal is worthless.

    Premise 2: Your statement isn’t in a peer reviewed journal.

    Conclusion: Your statement is worthless.

    Which is perfectly valid (if perhaps unsound) logic.

  53. Damn this dude sure likes talking about how special and different he is.

  54. sarahlizhousespouse

    *Slaps Asher with a rolled up newspaper*

    No! Bad! Stop equating hypotheses and conjectures. Stop.

  55. Which, ironically, is what makes him so much like every other troll that people assume he must be a sock.

  56. Can you imagine having to grade dozens of essays that read like that? I

    As an undergrad, in at least four of my classes I actually had the professor ask me if he could copy a paper I’d written and pass it around to the other students as a model of what a parsimonious and concisely argued undergrad paper should look like. I’m not interested in the spotlight so I made sure they didn’t have my name on the paper and I told no one else in the class.

    People tend to resort to intellectual dishonesty when they can’t produce rigorous arguments for their positions; btw, I see this frequently in people with whose conclusions I, generally, agree.

  57. Asher, nobody here buys the idea that women are the gatekeepers of sex,

    Then they’re oblivious fools. Several years ago a pic prominently made the rounds of the internet with a woman wearing a tee shirt stating “I have the pussy so I make the rules”. The is a concept that even the intellectually mediocre understand and it take a special type of “genius” to attempt to argue otherwise.

    Some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could hold them – Orwell (or something close to that as I’m typing it from memory.

  58. So if lesbians have no sex, do gay man have all the sex since they have so much testosterone?

    Gay male couples have more sex than straight couples who have more sex than lesbian couples. You ever hear of the lesbian version of the glory hole?

  59. Asher: (If I want the thing, I can’t get it unless the other person agrees too)

    Agreed. So, what is it of which men are gatekeepers that women aren’t (in the long run, of course).

    We told you, Sex; with them. In the long-run, the short-run, the dog run.

    Empathy is the product of morality and not its cause.

    What?

    But I’ll play, What the basis of morality then?

    But you have to take it all the way to the root cause, the οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ (i.e. the unmoved mover, which puts all in motion. I’ll make it a little easier, you don’t have to go furter back than organic molecules).

    I openly call myself a “reactionary”. It’s just a label and the particular application of a sequence of letters doesn’t establish the function of a thing. For example, the function of a horse isn’t determined by the fact that we label it with the letters h-o-r-s-e.

    What… this from the dude who was all, Identification = exclusion. Now defining traits are unimportant? Platonic Ideals, or Pure Stupid (well, no, the two go hand in hand).

    That I don’t support the Klan is merely a product of history, not of some a priori set of moral principles.

    I don’t presume morality to be a priori. But you are saying that, were it say… 100 years ago, you might have supported the Klan?

    What about 50 years ago?

    And, if these, “moral principles” are so mutable, why are you having such a snit that we are trying to change them?

    Oh, right, because what we want is for women to not be treated like shit; and you don’t care if they are.

  60. CassandraSays, how can you find this guy boring? With nearly every comment he steps up the lack of self awareness to bold new heights.

  61. sarahlizhousespouse

    “Then they’re oblivious fools. Several years ago a pic prominently made the rounds of the internet with a woman wearing a tee shirt stating “I have the pussy so I make the rules”. The is a concept that even the intellectually mediocre understand and it take a special type of “genius” to attempt to argue otherwise.”

    How do you reconcile the above with…

    “In other words, I take positions with which you disagree, therefore, I’m a “shitstain”. Nice reasoning you got there”

    Wow, dude.

  62. Asher: If no one has any rights, then there is no reason for any social contract.

    This is a reversal of cause and effect.

    Nope. You could try to argue that the social contract creates rights, but in that case you still have to give reason for a social contract.

    Epistemically the rights are the foundation for the contract, which is created to see to it all get to enjoy those rights.

    Just what those rights are is still open to some argument, because they aren’t hardwired into the psyche (so that, “freedom” hasn’t always been seen as one, but even slaves were able to kill themselves; and so gain release [there is a story told from Nat Turner’s Rebellion about this.

    In the hunt which followed the massacre, a slaveholder went into the woods, accompanied by a faithful slave, who had been the means of saving his life during the insurrection. When they had reached a retired place in the forest, the man handed his gun to his master, informing him that he could not live a slave any longer, and requesting him either to free him or shoot him on the spot. The master took the gun, in some trepidation, levelled it at the faithful negro, and shot him through the heart. It is probable that this slaveholder was a Dr. Blunt, — his being the only plantation where the slaves were reported as thus defending their masters. “If this be true,” said the “Richmond Enquirer,” when it first narrated this instance of loyalty, “great will be the desert of these noble-minded Africans.” This “noble-minded African,” at least, estimated his own desert at a high standard: he demanded freedom, — and obtained it.

    Certainly, I have the “right” to drive 55 on the freeway and no longer have that “right” if the speed limit gets lowered to 50. This is a rejection of notions of rights being a priori.

    Flawed analogy: You don’t have the right to drive at all. If you did there would be no test to see you had skills.

    . Clearly, I have a “right” to kiss my wife and I not longer have that “right” at the point she decides that she no longer desires it.

    Clearly you don’t. She has the right to decide if you may kiss her, or not. That the social contract avers that intimates may make such gestures on the idea of tacit permission stems from an individual’s right to the freedom of their person.

    Or were you just collecting random notions you hold and throwing them into a single post. Can you give me an example of a standard to which I hold others that I do not hold myself?

    Again?*

    You made a qualified analogy. You said this was fine; because you used, “if/then”. Dave made a qualified analogy (subgroup of X engages in behavior Y, which other Group Z also engages in). You said that wasn’t fair.

    Why? Because Group Z is ill thought of, and you don’t think it’s fair to ALL of Group X to say that some of them do evil things (which has been supported with references).

    So you think it’s OK if you do it, but not if someone else does it.

    *BTW, that is what I suspect you’re referring to and I’ve already addressed it. When I say cite examples I am not restricting it to peer reviewed journals.

    Which is why I quote you, liberally (well, also to keep you from pretending I am responding to something other than what I am. Lets just say you’ve not persuaded me of your probity).

  63. Asher: Objection: asked and answered.

    Except the answer was just a rehash of the initial analogy and didn’t bother to address my objections

    Nopetupus. The answers have been detailed as to why your complaint is structurally invalid. You are ceasing to argue (insomuch as you ever started) and are resorting to mere contradiction: which the record shows to be mendacious.

  64. Men are the gatekeepers to sex with men.

    If you mean male sex with other men, then, sure, but not if you mean sex between men and women.

    *sigh*

    Since no one has the intellectual curiosity to even try to assay a response then I will tell you the answer: investment.

    In the long-run men are gatekeepers of investment.

  65. @Asher:

    And the type of male that is attracted to the identity of “male geek” isn’t going to do what women tell them and are going to find some way of creating a social space where they can do there own thing.

    There. Problem solved.

    Look, every single argument that you can make about women not needing to conform to some men’s desires/expectations I can reverse it and make the exact same observation in the reverse.

    Urk. Take this up with Pecunium. I tried to paraphrase to describe how you were taking a small portion of his post out of context, but then you took a small portion of my post out of context. Go back to the source.

    Also, modern liberal, moral philosophy is predicated on the notion of “autonomy” as the fundamental ruling moral premise. So, I’m operating from a heavy understanding of developments in modern moral philosophy of which you may or may not be aware

    I could do without the condescension, thank you very much (and “modern liberal” is not my name, it’s “kirbywarp”). I’m assuming you’re taking issue with your free will post appearing out of nowhere, and trying to argue that in fact it was not a random tangent. Pecunium was not trying to argue about the premise of morality, he was just describing a situation. Thus, no matter how you view free will and whether it is a good premise to have and whether you think modern thought on morality is valid, none of that is relevant.

    But again, I guess I could argue free will vs. conditioning if you want…

  66. ASHER:

    Your glory hole comment was beyond stupid.

    And this?

    As an undergrad, in at least four of my classes I actually had the professor ask me if he could copy a paper I’d written and pass it around to the other students as a model of what a parsimonious and concisely argued undergrad paper should look like. I’m not interested in the spotlight so I made sure they didn’t have my name on the paper and I told no one else in the class.

    I’ll take “Shit That Never Happened” for $500, Alex.

  67. Asher: You lying fuckmuppet

    Oh, so I wasn’t a real soldier because I didn’t have “sexual activities [which involved] cavorting with [soldiers]“. I’ll be sure to remember that.

    Not sure what the percentage of the lifers who are in the military but for many people in the US military their tour of duty is not central to their identity – I’ve had two brothers who did two to three year stints in the Army and they don’t consider it central to their identity, at all. For lifers, there is a label that their wives actually take which is “soldier’s wives”, so you’re simply incorrect on facts. Over time, the wives of male soldiers do take on a social identity distinct from women in the general population. (no, I doubt there is a peer reviewed article establishing this).

    So, you are pulling shit out of your ass.†

    Because me (as a “lifer) do understand all that, and am not incorrect on the facts (which you admit you don’t know)… and it’s not relevant to what you said.

    You said that women who claim to be geeks aren’t likely to be “REAL geeks” unless they have sexual relations with other geeks.

    Now, if you’d argued that women who date geeks become geeks, then this analogy with spouses of soldiers might have some merit.

    But that’s not what you argued. Again, you are holding us to one standard (re the “aptness of analogy”, but yourself to a much more liberal one.

    †Again, I still recall that in your first comment you stated you didn’t know much about geek/gamer culture, but that surely wasn’t as described. Which also calls into question your complaint about the analogy: the only way you can validate it is to know how much all subsets of the culture are.

    Again, intellectual honesty seems to be antithetical to you “debate” style; despite the rhetorical tic you have of claiming to adhere to it. One might speculate that it’s a form of defensive projection.

  68. First off, I am the only one who has consistently avoiding using intellectually dishonest rhetoric, so this claim is really bizarre. Second, that particular method was called the boats, and might be in Plutarch, not sure. The Greeks were amazed at the level of cruelty in which the Persians frequently engaged and that particular method involves a story from the Cyrus/Darius conflict.

    Cyrus was the younger but he was a natural born military leader, a man’s man, whereas DArius was reputed to be a bit of a fop. In the final battle between them one of DArius’ captains killed Cyrus and then bragged about it when drunk. For defying Darius as the sole source of the victory Darius had that captain put to “the boats”. It’s not a super obscure story if you have an interest in ancient history.

    Okay, look man, just stating something confidently doesn’t prove it. Anyone could state something confidently. Here, let me try:

    It is a well-known fact that there are alligators in the New York sewers. David Attenborough went on an expedition to investigate the sewer alligators in 2006. His team estimated 200-400 individuals, mainly in the Bronx and Queens, with population dwindling to the south. They also discovered that the alligators had been able to develop high intelligence thanks to their hospitable climate and steady food supply. They showed an ability to use simple tools and seemed to have developed the rudiments of a spoken language. The magnitude of their sophistication was only realized when they set an ambush that led to the death of two cameramen and the loss of nearly all their footage. Only a few blurry sequences survived, which is why Attenborough’s planned documentary, “The Life of Alligators,” never made it to the screen.

  69. Asher: From what I’ve noticed I am the only one who has consistently stuck to addressing the specific claims and arguments of others. Everyone else has engaged in various speculations about myself or argument by insinuation

    Liar. I’ve not insinuated at all. I’ve made a couple of “conjectures” (to borrow a phrase) about your experience; based on the available evidence from your comments.

    But I’ve stuck to what you’ve said. I’ve not said, for example, that “you hate humanity” (which you did, and it was speculative, unless you can show me some correspondence in which LBT said that).

    I am the *only* one in this conversation who has been consistently intellectually honest.

    Bullshit. You keep one standard for yourself (if/then comparisons are ok FOR YOU, but clearly limited comparisons of like behavior are off limits for us; because you get your knicker in twist that one evil group, acts like a (clearly defined as such) evil subset.

    So you can’t even be honest about what you’ve done; which is evident in the written record here.

    . I wasn’t attempting to draw out a logically necessary inference so the comment wasn’t frallacious.

    Than what is your purpose, if it’s not to “draw out logically necessary inference”?

    I confess, I did gloss (assuming a greatet intellect than appears now to have been warranted). Fallacies are only intellectually dishonest if made intentionally.

    P1: The Fallacy had been previously pointed out to you.
    P2: You repeated it.

    C: You knowingly used a fallacy.

    So, Why should we trust you about anything you’ve said?

  70. Ok, now that that’s out of my system. In what fucking world does identifying as one thing mean all other identities for that category of thing are BAD?

    How the eff did you manage to get this mess out of my original comment? I am pointing out that there’s nothing inherently bad about excluding via identify and that it’s a natural human function. BTW, I don’t regard leftism, as an identity, as inherently bad. There is no a priori standard for a “bad” identity and the “badness” of an identity is simply the product of contingent sentiment, which can change.

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