Is War Machine, the mixed martial arts fighter accused of brutally beating his ex, a Men’s Rights Activist?
The “hero” the Men’s Rights movement deserves?
If the Men’s Rights movement is looking for a celebrity endorser, I think I’ve found just the guy for them: the mixed martial arts fighter, and erstwhile porn actor, War Machine, currently sitting in jail on charges of brutally beating and attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend, porn star Christy Mack.
Men’s Rights activists should be able to look past these criminal charges; after all, as they remind us all the time, women are forever falsely accusing innocent men of all sorts of terrible things.
And in so many ways War Machine is perfect for them. An MMA fighter, he’s already only one letter away from being an MRA. A misogynistic asshole with rage issues, he’ll have no trouble fitting in with the Men’s Rights crowd. And, especialy important for a movement that has a lot of trouble getting any good PR, he’s a bit more comfortable on camera than the Paul Elams and Dean Esmays of the world, with experience on television (on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra), and in seven films (albeit pornographic ones).
Best of all: he’ll need no ideological education from what A Voice for Men likes to call Fuck Shit Up University. War Machine – real name Jonathan Koppenhaver – is already an outspoken proponent of many of the Men’s Rights Movement’s core beliefs.
Consider these selections from a little Men’s Rights manifesto War Machine wrote a few years ago during a previous stint behind bars, serving time for felony assault after two bloody bar fights. His rant, which a friend posted to the internet, would fit right in with the sort of stuff we’ve seen regularly posted on the Men’s Rights subreddit, or The Spearhead, or A Voice for Men. I’ve bolded some of the Men’s Rightsiest bits:
The oppression of MEN is worse than oppression of Jews in Nazi germany, worse than the slavery of Blacks in early America…
There has always been the oppressor and always the oppressed. Before, it was blatant … NOW the oppressor has learned to disguise his evil. You can see man, but you can not see MEN. How easy it is to oppress a minority that is invisible to the eye! How genius of the oppressor! And what a better target too! …
Men challenge injustice from Government, MEN fight for their Constitutional rights, that are slowly being taken away every year. …
And they don’t just oppress us by making more laws and taking away more freedom, they are far more clever than that! Ask yourself what your REAL dream was?? If you gave up on this dream, why? Because of the brainwashing of the Government, that’s why! They taught you to “play it safe.” They told us a responsible man has ONE wife, a house, good credit, good job, and kids. How are you supposed to chase your dreams while maintaining all of that!?
Men are supposed to take risks and be aggressive! What accomplishments have ever come of a man scared to risk it all!? None!? Where would the world be? Still ‘flat!’ Still ‘Earth at the center of the universe!’
If any of you have your Men’s Rights Bingo cards out, I’m guessing you might already be close to scoring a bingo. We’ve got a comparison to slavery that could have come straight from the pages of A Voice for Men, a marriage-is-death-to-male-dreams rant that could have been borrowed from any MGTOW forum, and an evo-psych-esque argument that men are the true risk-takers and the world’s real innovators.
And I don’t think War Machine would have much trouble with Paul Elam’s “Bash a Violent Bitch Month,” either.
[I]t’s Christmas day and I’m laying in my bunk wondering “Why in the hell do American men get married!?” … If your wife is being a bitch you can’t slap her, if your wife is yelling at you, God forbid you yell back … Next thing you know it will be illegal to fuck your wife! LMAO! Maybe then, MEN in this country will get the fucking hint and MOVE! This country forces you to be a bitch!
In another online posting, War Machine touched on another Men’s Rights hobbyhorse, the notion that the justice system is stacked against men:
[L]ook at the prisons, they are FULL of MEN, not women. Are men “evil” and women not? Or do the laws target and attempt to restrict NATURAL MEN’S BEHAVIOR? How many of the HEROES in American history would avoid prison if they lived today? Davey Crockett? Thomas Jefferson? David Bowie? General Grant & General Lee? Shit, George Washington. … Laws target MEN and men’s behavior. Women want to bitch and cry about their rights and equality… LMAO! MEN are the ones locked away like animals, while women run free!
Someone might have to explain to War Machine that David Bowie is not actually a famous American HERO but a famously androgynous British musician who once recorded an album called “Heroes.” (Mr. Machine may be thinking of James Bowie, a well-known 19th century American frontiersman and slave trader, and the guy the Bowie Knife is named after.)
But other than that, he seems ready to go.
There is, of course, that whole attempted murder charge to deal with.
It’s true the Men’s Rights Movement has had few problems in the past rallying behind men with histories of violence. But War Machine might be a harder sell as a Men’s Rights hero. His alleged attack on Mack left her with a cracked rib, a ruptured liver, numerous broken bones, missing teeth and her eyes swollen shut. (See here for photos of her injuries; obviously this link is NSFW and could be triggering.)
While Mr. Machine denies attacking Mack, he joked to a TV host last year that if she were to leave him “I would just kill her” and get a tattoo saying “Rest In Peace” above the tattoo of her name he has on his neck.
And several hours after allegedly trying to murder her, War Machine tweeted this lovely message about his ex:
War Machine does seem to be at a low point in his life. Even aside from the charges he faces, and the time he seems likely to serve, his career in porn is almost certainly over. The “Alpha Male” clothing line he helped start wants nothing to do with him. Nobody but the prison system seems to want this guy.
In other words: Men’s Rights activists, this is your chance! War Machine may not be the, er, hero you want. But he’s certainly the hero you deserve.
Posted on August 21, 2014, in a voice for men, alpha males, antifeminism, domestic violence, entitlement, excusing abuse, incoherent rage, men created civilization, men invented everything, men who should not ever be with women ever, MGTOW, misogyny, MRA, paul elam, post contains sarcasm, reactionary bullshit, red pill, violence and tagged anti-feminism, antifeminism, christy mack, domestic violence, men's rights, misogyny, MRA, red pill, violence against women, war machine. Bookmark the permalink. 1,454 Comments.
Kitties are always on-topic. David has spoken.
You’re asking Woody to think for himself and compose a relevant reply.
He might herniate something.
…Actually, I just got here, so I’m picking on him without really knowing.
…But if he can’t meet that challenge, it doesn’t speak well for the dude.
ALL PRAISE BOOTSY, AND ALL OUR FELINE DEITIES.
It’s the War of the Cat Gods. Bootsie is challenging Ceiling Cat and Basement Cat!
@ redpoppy
Links are doing that at the moment, assuming it’s something WordPress changed? It isn’t anything you did wrong in any case.
If this is a soap opera, waiting to see if Woody gets a comment through before he finally gives up is not exactly a nail-biting cliffhanger. :P
For some of the trolls of yore I’d suggest going back and reading their crap because it was entertaining, but Woody? Nah, not unless you have chronic insomnia.
LOL redpoppy, I know, it freaked me out first time I saw pics showing here the other day. It’s something WP is doing, David said he’s not sure he can fix it so just links show up again.
@redpoppy:
BOOTSY IS REBORN! ALL HAIL BOOTSY!
@kittehserf:
Maybe ya’ll should clarify the challenge. We wouldn’t want to discourage the poor guy. :P
I’m inclined to agree with kittehserf. Some mystical cat stuff is going on. But, seriously I’m glad I didn’t mess up the post somehow. I figured we needed a bit of a Bootsy break!
Imagine if there was a way to arrange for Bootsy and Maru to meet.
David said earlier that it’s something WordPress has changed, and he hasn’t figured out a counter-measure yet.
I thought more on the lines of
“ELAM SMASH! *eyes bulge* FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP! FUCK HER SHIT UP!”
… I’m imagining one of those gifs where one cat bats at a box that another cat is popping up and down out of, only with Bootsy laser-beam eyes and tall Maru box.
Bootsy and Maru meeting? Will the universe survive such an encounter of cute? I will probably need to be wheeled into intensive care after seeing them together. Also: Bootsy and her cute sister have a CUTE HAMMOCK.
kirbywarp, LOL. It’s too entertaining to see his little sporkle non-efforts in the pending list.
Hmm, let’s see if using the a-href etc. feature puts a link rather than a picture up …
Fashion Kitty
It seems like having him as a counselor would be a bit like being yelled at by the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. He doesn’t exactly radiate soothing vibes.
I’m seeing a photoshopped green Elam in purple trousers here …
The drill sergeant had a SMART* outcome to achieve.
*Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic, Time-bound
Gah, that A should be Assigned
Oh, Elam has a specific, measurable, and unfortunately achievable goal in mind. It can be measured in dollars donated.
You know, honestly, when I see Elam on camera, he looks like a big fuzzy puppy-dog of a man. Maybe it’s the beard, maybe it’s just because I’m a big puppy-dog of a man, and I’m projecting a bit due to height. Sadly the words coming out of his mouth breaks the illusion, but I have difficulties really imagining him raging.
I dunno, man, I can’t get past the “here’s Johnny!” eyes.
I feel like I can’t (or don’t) even imagine what it would have been like for women seeing Elam while he was a counselor. Maybe he wasn’t as hardcore then? Yikes either way.
He usually looks like a spittle-flecked rageaholic to me – it’s the bulging eyes as much as knowing what he’s saying. I didn’t know till the other day that he’s tall.
Reminds me, I had an “Ackkkk!” moment yesterday – sitting in the train, look up and the dude who’s sat down across the aisle is a dead ringer for Dean Esmay.
“My husband hit me”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU EVIL FEMINAZI?”
That’s how I imagine that would go, anyway.
@cassandrakitty:
Based on the stills, I totally agree. And I know it’s all because he was on his best behavior in front of the cameras of the documentery peeps. Still. *shrug*
THE INCREDIBLE MISOGYNIST is a large green humanoid that possesses near limitless superhuman rage and great lack of self awareness, attributes that grow more potent the angrier he becomes. He is the alter ego of Paul Elam, a socially withdrawn and emotionally reserved uncredentialed counselor & grifter who physically transforms into the Misogynist under, well let’s face it, totally normal circumstances. When transformed (i.e all the fucking time), the Misogynist often acts as a disassociated personality separate from Elam, writing “satire” that is actually stuff that both Elam and the Misogynist actually believe.
Young Esmay looked like a totally average hippie dude, he’s really a case study in what habitual anger and resentment can do to your face.
Ninja’d by cassandra!
Here’s Pauly
Can you imagine even having to make him coffee, or sell him a bottle of water? I wonder if he’s ever ended up on one of those sites about how much it sucks to work in customer service.
kittehserf– it’s just so scary how well that works….but I still laughed despite the horror!
That’s something I wonder, actually. How much of these people’s personalities leak into their day-to-day lives? Like, you know how one of the Honey Badger women was filmed while getting her hair cut? Does she just, like, unload on people when she’s sitting around?
They’re outspoken enough online that I can’t imagine they’d balk at MRAging at people in person.
I’m wondering if, say, his coffee doesn’t get made quite right if he accuses the barista of trying to poison him with soy milk designed to lower his testosterone because she’s a feminist, and then tries to take a photo of her for Register Her.
Jack Nicholson has a special place in my heart, and Elam can’t match the bulgy-eyed goofiness. He does look much more stalkerish, though.
“Oh, there you are. There seems to be a door in my way. How unfortunate. For you.”
Cassandrakitty, I’d be shocked Elam didn’t have a diatribe about soy milk and how it was all a feminazi plot to demasculitize the male population. REAL MEN DRINK COW JUICE STRAIGHT FROM THE UDDER! PASTURIZATION IS MISANDRY!
For some reason he reminds me of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street in that image.
I’m just not sure how he’s able to survive the real world. There are a lot of women outside. Walking around. Driving. Biking. Eating in restaurants and cafes. I imagine he must blow a gasket every time a feeeemale comes into view. Based on what I’ve seen, he will probably look for any excuse to be angry with the women around him.
Plastics are a secret feminist plot to lower testosterone too! So basically you should just limbo under the cow with your mouth open and hope for the best.
Oscar just wants to be green!
Stupid brain’s trying to write a parody now… “It’s not easy being mean…”
I worked with a guy like this once. His axis of RAGE wasn’t gender, it was more complicated, but he had a similar worldview otherwise. Anything less than complete agreement with him meant total war.
We once went out together to get breakfast burritos, and that experience left me apologizing to the people in that cafe for the next 3 months in order to disassociate myself from him. And to make sure they didn’t spit in my breakfast burritos.
(He actually wasn’t a terrible human being on every axis. It was complicated. His boss was psychologically abusive, and it had a terrible emotional cost.)
How do you even walk around thinking half the population is out to kill you, jail you, or steal your money and sperm? How does that even work? The cognitive dissonence must be incredible.
Comparing his….delusions of terror to those that, you know, other people face? Such as women, trans women, women of color, men of color….he just sounds like a big, dumb, delusional baby. A baby that takes people’s money.
The really scary thing was how easy it was to find a pic of Elam that worked!
Be great if he did and the cow took a dump …
kittehserf:
Nothing would happen. Elam is too used to bullshit.
I chuckled heartily.
If it’s a female barista, he probably reads his order from a prepared statement.
@Kirbywarp
Theamazingathest gets banned from restaurants constantly.
As I cannot stand to watch his garbage for more than a few seconds I have no idea how he does this
On Woody, he has to make 5 posts that are relevant and don’t mention AVFM. So he’s got 3 left.
But I’m feeling generous, Woody, so just 2 more and you’re ok.
You are too kind, David! :D
Inquiring minds want to know…
How many posts did he make prior to finally figuring out he had to meet the challenge?
There only seem to be two in the pending list. I haven’t looked at the trash to see if David turfed any others.
GrumpyOldMan: Nothing silly about the response; we just have a minor disagreement about the strength of the response — we men didn’t really feel that she intended to offend, that’s all.
You can’t say that. You don’t know what, “we men” feel on the subject. Unless someone chimes in, you can’t even make an inference about their opinions on the subject. It’s possible there were men who shared the opinion, but didn’t want to turn it into a dogpile, because the idea of amity was more important than the need to put their own two-cents into the matter.
It’s possible all the men here were 100 percent behind her, and to nervous about turning things into a heated debate on something which didn’t merit getting people riled up when it seemed to be solved.
You don’t know.
Off to shop for Musical Instruments in Dublin.
Well, for what it’s worth, I personally thought Ally’s posts were no big deal and didn’t deserve further negative comment (everybody needs to vent now and then), but I kinda did appreciate the posts protesting her attitude, if that makes sense?
@octo
I have to agree that Ally’s post wasn’t a big deal (at least to me). It was clear she was venting because of fear, sort of like we use the “male tears” meme in frustration. It did surprise me that no one actually realized they were tone policing her, essentially saying “can you be less rude to your oppressors please?”. That was disappointing to me, because I’ve always liked to read WHTM and I didn’t expect to see that argument here.
But you are right. One of the things I appreciate in feminist spaces are the chance we get to politely correct one another, so we can create a more inclusive and welcoming space. We need to be open to criticism, and she did seem to take it gracefully. It should have ended there.
@Auntie Alias and the AVFM suicide policy
Yes, copypasting a generic message is an assholish thing to do, but the policy of telling them to get help offline and in the real world is the only reasonable policy for a message board and the only way to actually help somebody with a clinical depression or other mental health issues that require medical treatment.
For less severe cases, that policy is totally overblown, but I do understand that he is trying to be on the safe side of his nation’s legal system, what with the board being his pirmary source of income.
Yeah I am also going to say that I really don’t see what the issue is with Ally’s comments, and it sets my teeth on edge to see people jumping on a teenage trans girl who has been through horrendous abuse at the hands of men to police how she reacts to examples of male violence.
Women like Ally are the people that Feminism should be fighting hardest to protect and instead a group of us are telling her that she is being super mean for generalising men and telling her that “it is not about you”. Do we support trans girls or do we only support them when they are polite and palatable and nice?
We need to support them in their anger and their fear and their pain. They bear the brunt of male violence and they are 100% entitled to be scared of and angry at men because of this.
I think that people have treated her very poorly in this thread and it needs a little less policing of oppressed and abused peoples reaction to really scary things and a little more understanding that in the grand scheme of things comments like Ally’s do exactly squat to harm anyone but that toxic masculinity and male violence kills untold numbers of people.
Please tell me exactly how Ally’s comment has the power to hurt anyone? Who is hurt by it? And by hurt I mean more than “I feel a bit sad for being lumped in with abusers”.
This has literally just been an exercise in “not all men” but aimed at a teenaged trans lesbian of colour and it is frankly a bit rich for the people doing so to complain about being tone policed by the people objecting to this.
On another note, I am the regular that practices Kendo, but I will come back later to talk about it because I do not like how Ally has been treated in this thread and I am feeling very angry about it right now.
So yeah, those are my thoughts and this is me signing out.
Now I’m curious…what kind of dreams can’t be achieved because work, a place to live, money, financial stability, and a support network get in the way? Usually those things make it easier to realize a dream.
Unless the dream is to be a lazy, worthless, antisocial piece of shit.
I’m amused by the glaring contradiction in his view of men. Which is it: are men lawless, slope-browed, slavering beasts who can barely restrain themselves from raping and pillaging and other alpha male shit? Or are they refined, lofty thinkers and inventors and civilization-builders? You can’t have it both ways. He seems to be under the impression that the Founding Fathers and Ziggy Stardust were beating up porn stars and having cage matches in between writing the Gettysburg Address and building skyscrapers, thanks to the absence of pesky modern laws.
The Founding Fathers also didn’t bother with houses and families and incomes. Those are for the timid and the weak. Real men walk around in the forest punching things and inventing shit while women bring them sandwiches.
Historophilia’s comment above is better put than anything I could say about this situation. I agree with everything that she has said. There are many men I love and trust, but the power that they could choose to wield against women, particularly poor trans women of colour, really is terrifying.
I also want to back Ally up on her objections to the word “scrotosphere.” I am glad she was willing to risk getting push back so that she could explain to us why it is harmful. Associating both the maleness and the unpleasantness of MRAs with a body part that is shared by many trans women is transmisogynistic, and generally speaking this community is anti-misogyny. I can’t stop anyone from using that term, I can’t even remember if I’ve ever used it myself, but I will not use it from this point forward.
Seeing as Ally hasn’t commented in a while I don’t know why people feel they can speak for her.
I too am glad to learn about why seemingly benign things can be harmful and will not use any bodypart words unless specifically talking about bodyparts. If I’m called out I apologise and learn and do better. Learning is good yo.
Actually, I like saying butts. And I sometimes still refer to this site as manboobs. BUTTS AND BOOBS FOREVZ! MUHAHAHAHAHHAA
I wasn’t going to weigh in on this but I’m gonna now.
If someone of color said to me, “White people are terrifying”, I’d agree with them. I wouldn’t take it personally. It’s true. No, not every single white person is racist scum, but the non-racists and racism apologists looks just like the racists. Not every white person has power over the lives of people of color, but enough of them do and enough of them abuse that power that I feel that it is perfectly reasonable to think white folks are scary. Even if only one of us shoots you, 50 more will be along shortly to make excuses for why they did it and even more of us will just not care what happens to you. It’s punching up to say so. I don’t see anything different about Ally’s comment about men. In fact, I nodded when I read it because in the context of a man beating a woman half to death and many other men defending him online, I was also thinking how fucking scary that is and how much in common men’s responses to violent misogyny have with white people’s responses to violent racism. Whatever white people do to black people and whatever men do to women, the black people and the women (and woe be it to black women) will deserve it in the eyes of so many men and white people.
It’s OK to be afraid of those people who may very well kill you or excuse or respond with indifference to the person who does.
…and between a straight, white, cis lady and an lesbian, trans, woman of color, one of us has so much more reason to be afraid of men than the other.
Hint: It isn’t me.
What Lea said.
And that’s all I really have to add.
I did that slow nod myself, since I knew about Ally’s background, and I’m afraid of other men sometimes too (despite being a rather large cis man myself).
Ok, I am not fond of dog-piles personally, unless it’s either a very obvious attack or I feel I have anything different to contribute. Dog-piles tend to turn mole-hill complaints into mountains, and can be tough de-escalate. It’s why I tend to go quiet when that happens.
I highly value Ally and her contributions here, so while I disagreed with her logic, I didn’t feel it was a strong enough disagreement to risk the strong possibility of me cisplaining.
For whatever it’s worth, here’s my purely personal opinion: I think “Men scare me” has much worse implications for transwomen than the use of “scrotosphere” has for transmen. “Men scare me” is the underlying emotional rational of the women who campaign against appropriate bathroom access for transwomen: The fear that transwomen are deviant men trying to infiltrate women’s spaces.
The other is specifically referencing a subset of men who place overwhelming stock in the male privilege granted by being born with that body part. It’s still has tones of body shaming which I’m mildly uncomfortable with, purely on a principal of “body shaming is bad”, but I don’t see exactly how that particular phrase specifically or especially targets transmen as a class.
And yes, that’s totally cis privilege talking to trans experience, and I am not comfortable with that at all.
Aside from that I don’t take “men scare me” personally for the same reason Lea said above.
And just the other day I was trying to point out how MRM rants about the sub-humanness of women sound like something out of Chimpfree or Stormfront with the names swapped out.
I’ve noticed that, too. To hear some MRAs rant about it, you’d think women in general were from the planet Xyzzy and had three heads.
Buttercup:
IDK about lazy, but obviously he feels persecuted because people see him as a violent asshole. He might also feel persecuted because his MMA/porn career and general lifestyle and cultural markers are labeled “thuggish” and “lower-class” regardless of how much money he makes. But mostly it’s about him being a violent asshole.
So he thinks, “If I had a college degree and paper-pushing job and six-figure income and stereotypical middle-class lifestyle (which involves not being a violent asshole), the people would RESPECT me properly. I don’t want that, and it must be because I’m a MAN and men are really like me. Society hates men who live true to themselves.”
That “ONE wife” bit probably doesn’t mean he dreams of legal polygamy, more likely he resents that he’s been called out for habitual cheating.
>Now I’m curious…what kind of dreams can’t be achieved because work, a place to live, money, financial stability, and a support network get in the way? Usually those things make it easier to realize a dream.
He sounds like he apires to be a comic book hero like Batman, Conan or Tarzan.