We Hunted The Mammoth
In a Twitter thread yesterday, a self-described “public health activist and grassroots organizer” named Alexandra M. Hunt set forth the outlines of what she sees as a solution to the problem of “involuntarily” celibate men. Many of her suggestions are sensible and good in themselves — decriminalizing sex work, improving sex education, “creating outreach programs that help young people develop healthy sexual habits.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood famously said “men are afraid women will laugh at them; women are afraid men will kill them.” She could have added: “every time they go on a date with a man.”
Today, a little trip back in time to Valentine’s Days past. Which turns out to be a lot weirder than you might have expected, at least if the Valentine’s Day cards our ancestors gave each other are any indication.
On Wednesday, the HuffPost published an important article titled “At Least 9 Far-Right Insurrectionists Have A History Of Violence Against Women.”
By David Futrelle
While the lamestream media wastes its time on trivial issues like the government shutdown and the latest extremely-damaging-to-the-president revelations in the Mueller investigation, the public-spirited fellows over on the Incels.is forums are discussing the issues that really matter in the world today, like “why is rape considered so bad anyway” and “isn’t it hilarious that some dude in India beheaded his cheating wife?”
The competition, as always, is fierce, but Nazi trollster Andrew Anglin has won today’s Worst Human Being on the Face of the Planet Award for a post in which the Daily Stormer publisher praises former mixed martial arts fighter Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver … for beating his ex girlfriend nearly to death.
An open thread for discussion of the murders of sex workers Angelia Magnum and Tjhisha Ball in Jacksonville, as well as any other topics that might benefit from having no interruptions from misogynist trolls, victim-blamers and other derailers.
Needless to say, this is a no troll, no MRA, no victim-blamer thread; bans will be handed out freely to anyone who violates this rule.
While over on Reddit the regulars are highly offended that anyone would point out the striking similarities between their ideas and the crackpot “men’s oppression is worse than slavery” rants of War Machine, the mixed martial arts fighter and accused woman-beater is getting support from one prominent Indian MRA, Rajesh Kumar, known on Twitter as @MensMrm:
Every many will realize it- sooner than later- MMA Fighter : Men’s Oppression Is ‘Worse Than Slavery’http://t.co/qNWdc7mEZQ
— Mens Rights Movement (@MensMrm) August 23, 2014
Kumar’s Twitter account, with roughly 1600 followers including numerous well-known names in the MRM, looks to be the official account for the Men’s Rights Movement group on Facebook, a public group that boasts some 14,000 members, among them AVFM’s Paul Elam and British MRA/child prostitution apologist Tom Martin.
The link in his tweet is to a story that details the charges against War Machine, as well as his hyperbolic MRA-eqsue views, so there’s no question that Kumar knows just who he’s endorsing here.
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:
So I was watching a little video roundup of some of the worst video games ever the other day and I came across some footage from a justifiably obscure little first-person-shooter called Operation Matriarchy.
The premise of this 2005 PC game, made in Russia, may as well have emerged from the fevered imagination of some Men’s Rights activist. Here’s how the promo blurb at MobyGames explains it, with the especially MRA-ish bits in bold: