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| Spearhead readers: Not actually as cool as Fonzie. |
When sites enable users to upvote and downvote comments and posts, the rationale is generally that it improves discussion and filters out trolls. In practice, this is almost never the case; instead, the up and down arrows offer the majority a way to reward those who simply rehash the party line and punish those who dare suggest anything even remotely challenging. This punishment is accentuated on sites on which dissenters who are downvoted beyond a certain threshold see their comments literally vanish, unless readers click a special link to make them visible again.
We’ve seen in the past the sorts of things that get massively upvoted on The Spearhead. A comment suggesting that “a woman’s vagina/body is her one and only asset” got, at last count, 58 upvotes and only 4 downvotes. Comments suggesting that women are “parasites,” “dumb as bricks,” incapable of logic or empathy each got dozens of upvotes and only a handful of downvotes, as did comments suggesting that women should never have been given the right to vote. Heck, one recent comment suggesting that Daniel Hernandez was “a traitor to men” for helping to save Gabrielle Giffords’ life got twice as many upvotes as downvotes. (As I pointed out in a recent post, there were actually a number of comments in that vein; they all got more upvotes than downvotes)
So if these sorts of comments get upvoted, the question arises: what sort of horrible, beyond-the-pale nuttiness actually invites downvotes on the site? Well, in a recent guest posting there, someone calling himself Big Daddy From Cincinnati offered some (not really very good) internet dating advice for the misogynist masses. Along the way he opined that “women are amoral creatures, flakes, and they will reject you for anything, everything, nothing, the phase of the moon, or who knows what. They will lead you on and waste your time … . ”
While most commenters seemed to agree with this characterization of the ladies, one anonymous gal suggested instead that:
Yep, you can practically hear the Spearhead guys furiously downvoting that bit of heresy. What an outlandish opinion, clearly the work of an evil, misandrist troll! Probably a lesbian, too. I mean, what kind of crazy man-hating monster would she have to be not to be utterly smitten by the Spearhead men?
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>Also, Scarecrow, if you really want to find "proof" you can always sign up for the forums yourself. It's not terribly difficult. Generally you have to give a working email address and wait for confirmation, but that's as complicated as it gets.
>Gosh, Scarecrow, why might women posting on a site whose audience includes a lot of really angry men not want to make all of their personal information public? Hmm. Must be a conspiracy!
>Why do you need my personal info ScareCrow?
>Ok, ScareCrow, have you convinced yourself that not only are all those comments troll comments but that they are all authored by David? Why the hell would I make my profile available when it's creeps like you that are going to look at it? I don't have a blog, and I don't think my comments require demographic information to be intelligible.As for David finding "needles in a haystack," now halfway through the comments on that Spearhead article and if anything I think David's pulled excerpts under-represent the frequency of these comments. Every single fucking comment in that thread that has anything remotely positive to say about women is hidden. Every. Single. Fucking. One. It is a community of commenters that will not tolerate anything positive being said about women. They do all the filtering for anyone looking for misogyny. Only comments reflecting a misogynistic attitude are allowed to stand.
>You are so dodging the issue dave:"if you really want to find "proof" you can always sign up for the forums yourself"I have no doubt that the comment is there – I am wondering who exactly left it.Nice way to evade the issue Dave.FAIL.
>I would suggest holding our breath but we would all pass out before he did. Yeah, I like your other idea better…. pass the popcorn, please!!
>Clearly – they are members – and hence – trolls.Not necessarily, they might just be lurking at those sites.
>I use extra salt. Hope you do not mind.
>OK, Scarecrow, you got me. Everything on the Internet? I wrote it. Every last thing, including your blog and all of your comments. I am a very fast typist.
>I use extra salt. Hope you do not mind.No, not at all, I'm a saltaholic!! And, hope I'm not asking too much, but might I have butter on mine?
>Melted, fake or that stuff they have at movie theatres?
>Melted, fake or that stuff they have at movie theatres?I would have to say melted or fake. That stuff that they have at the movie theatres is lacking in flavour.
>@Futrelle:"OK, Scarecrow, you got me. Everything on the Internet? I wrote it. Every last thing, including your blog and all of your comments.I am a very fast typist. "Dodging the issue still.I question the validity of the more "screwball" comments you find on those FORUMS.That is, I question exactly WHO made them.Go ahead and dodge the issue DF…You are good at things like that.
>For women throughout history (and prehistory), the odds of reproducing have been pretty good…We’re descended from women who played it safe….Most men who ever lived did not have descendants who are alive today. Their lines were dead ends…I wonder how many of us are descended from fat or fugly women…
>"…most commenters seemed to agree with this characterization of the ladies, one anonymous gal suggested instead that:"How do you know it was a "gal" Dave?Or is that an assumption?
>“I wonder how many of us are descended from fat or fugly women”Even mega fat and fugly women can score. Any woman that exist on the planet can score. A woman can be as bitter and men hating she wants and she will still be able to score.Life is so easy for a womanAnyway back to what was said in the OPDavid said:"rehash the party line and punish those who dare suggest anything even remotely challenging"In 99 percent of feminist spaces, there isn't allowed to be a challenge against feminism. A person with an opposing opinion on feminism doesn't even last 5 minutes
>I hate that line, 'any woman can get laid.'Yeah, sure, if you don't mind fucking fugly losers. But most women have these things called standards – we like to be with men who are reasonably good looking, practice good hygiene and don't leer at us like we're some kind of canned ham on the grocery store shelf, or a life support system for tits and a pussy. And I know several women who have a hard time getting dates, for a myriad of reasons. And sometimes, *men* don't want to have sex – either in general or with a particular woman. Crazy, I know, but men in general also have standards.
>Since most of the people posting on this blog are not of the ruling class, I would venture to say that our ancestors were thin for the most part. Excessive weight did not become a sign of poverty until relatively recently. Also, changing standards of beauty tend to make it hard to determine what is attractive or not.
>Since most of the people posting on this blog are not of the ruling class, I would venture to say that our ancestors were thin for the most part. Excessive weight did not become a sign of poverty until relatively recently. Also, changing standards of beauty tend to make it hard to determine what is attractive or not.I was just being an ass, toying with that "only the Alpha thugs succeed at getting laid" crap. Although not the prime topic of the OP, as nicko81m kindly pointed out, I followed one of the links that was provided to read some counselling on how to get the hell outta Dodge if she (the online date) turned out to be fat and fugly. I can imagine that I'll soon be fat and fugly, stuffing my face with popcorn while waiting for Scarecrow to produce that smoking gun.
>There's a problem with your sock puppet theory, ScareCrow.It's this:http://www.manboobz.com/2011/01/murder-and-male-resentment.htmlAre you one of David's sock puppets? Because you can spout insane misogynist crap with the best of them.
>These guys that have a sense of entitlement are Nice Guys (TM). They expect that if they do something for a woman, she will fall in love with them or give them sex. And they resent women because it doesn't happens. Heartless Bitches International have a series of articles about Nice Guys (TM) : http://www.heartless-bitches.com/rants/niceguys/ng.shtml
>David did say he was posting everything on these here interwebz.That is how ScareCrow knew that Sophia and I are fake!
>Joe, weirdly, Scarecrow now claims that he was trolling me with that post on Deborah Flores-Narvaez. (Though of course my post was also based on 3 other posts by him that were equally creepy.) Scarecrow: Please reread anonymous' comment again; she's talking about her own personal experience dealing with guys.
>And these guys obsess over female bloggers. One of them, Obsidian, lost his blog because he stole the picture of a female blogger that he was obsessed with : http://glpiggy.net/2010/11/03/obsidians-been-banned/. Even after that he was still obsessed with her. A woman commented in the thread :==============================================Well this whole situation has proved one thing to me, men like drama as much as some empty headed women. uncle mu for the love of christ the woman doesn’t to answer so let her be. she is not lamont hill. she may bring stalker charges against you if you keep this up. now you posted her link here so gordy and chuck etc can chase her too??? do you know how that’s going to look before a judge??? no one owes you anything online. she does not have to answer your questions because you want her to. Just let this woman be and as far as your blog being gone just charge it to the game==============================================
>“These guys that have a sense of entitlement are Nice Guys”The biggest offenders of having poisoned senses of entitlement are womenMany expect to be paid for on dates and/or have the princess attitude which gives them the mentality to only settle for an above average guy when they are just simply the average jackass Jane next door themselves.Many women these days believe just owning a pussy and having a nice set of legs makes them this instant winning prize. While on the contrary, they complain about being objectified and only liked because of their looks.There are women everywhere who are no better than the next woman I walk past on the street and yet, they claim that they want a quality guy who is different/better from most.The princess entitlement attitude is rampant