So the other day I got an interesting comment from a new fan. And by “fan,” I mean someone who hates my guts. “Casper” makes what he evidently thinks is a devastating indictment of my main modus operandi – that is, quoting misogynist dunderheads, and mocking them.
Clever. You encourage hatred towards men while using their own language to shame them. …
You’re just a hate-mongerer albeit an intelligent and creative one. Hitler would have just loved you
That’s right. I “encourage hatred towards men” by reporting what some dudes actually post on the internet, usually under a fake name that can’t be traced back to them. Pointing out when someone says something shitty evidently makes me as bad as Hitler. (I should note that I mock specific men, not men in general, and that I also mock specific women with similar opinions.)
Casper also complains that “[e]ven the name of your site is an effort to shame men.” Again, I should point out that the dumb punny title of this blog isn’t directed at all men, merely those who act like misogynist boobs (or, if you prefer, boobz). “Boob” is pretty much the mildest insult I can think of, not to mention one that is a bit archaic; it’s a bit like calling someone a ruffian or a jackanape. Frankly, it’s far too nice a name for many of the people I write about here.
Of course, Casper isn’t the only one who feels that pointing out the offensive crap that people say is somehow equivalent of starting a death camp in your backyard. Take the many critics of ShitRedditSays.
For those who aren’t familiar with the ways of Reddit, ShitRedditSays (or SRS) is a user-created forum (subreddit) on Reddit devoted to pointing out some of the worst, most bigoted and awful crap posted on Reddit that nonetheless gets upvotes and acclaim from Reddit regulars.
The SRS modus operandi may seem a bit familiar to anyone who reads Man Boobz: SRSers find highly upvoted crap on Reddit and post it to their subreddit, where others react with horror and/or laugh about how hilariously awful it is. They don’t send out “downvote brigades” to downvote the crap they link to; they don’t try to track the bigots down in the real world and harass them. No, SRSers post what they find, and they mock.
On a couple of occasions, they’ve gone further. When they discovered that actual child porn was being circulated in Reddit’s “Jailbait” subreddit, a hangout for ephebophile creepers to creep on pictures of underage girls, SRSers spread the word beyond Reddit, and the resulting media attention led to Reddit finally deleting that subreddit.
Problem solved? Not exactly; the creepers merely moved on to any number of other subreddits devoted to the sexualization of underage girls. And so SRS struck again, alerting the media to the fact that Reddit still hosted a forum even creepier than r/jailbait – that is, r/preteen_girls, devoted to sexualized pictures of girls under the age of 13. This time, the Reddit admins moved more quickly, and banned all the subreddits that, in their words, “focus on sexualization of children.”
And apparently the Reddit admins are still pissed off about it. Recently, someone on Reddit leaked the log of a private chat between a Reddit moderator and one of the site’s administrators (that is, someone who actually works at Reddit). (See here and here for more details.)
The admin, known as hueypriest, described SRS’s attempts to get child porn and other material sexualizing children off of Reddit as “kind of like a forrest [sic] fire,” and grumbled about SRSers and other opponents of child porn sending “frivolous tips” to the FBI:
the fbi is not interested in following up leads of 17 year olds who’s boyfriends post shit on the internet
And evidently neither was Reddit, until SRSers and others revealed what was going on in its sleaziest subreddits to the world.
Again, all SRS did was to point out what was there.
Ever since Reddit’s belated shutdown of what hueypriest euphemistically described as the “questionable” subreddits, there’s a lot of talk on Reddit about how SRS needs to be shut down.
A couple of comments in the SubredditDrama subreddit pretty much sum up the frustrations a lot of us feel towards Reddit’s admins and many of the site’s users. 1338h4x writes:
Subreddits sexualizing kids? Let that slide for 5 years until the public pressure and bad PR is finally too much. Subreddit calling out sexism, bigotry, etc? SHUT IT DOWN RIGHT NOW!
This would just be the ultimate validation of SRS’s message. I dare them to do it.
Matriarchy adds:
Making reddit look bad = the worst thing. Perhaps they should stay on the ball and actually get rid off the terrible shit in advance … you know, that way they don’t look bad by having a policy that tacitly allows child pornography to remain on the website for extended periods of time.
You would think this is a no-brainer. Apparently this is not the case~
Apparently.
Done already mags?
Well, good night good people. You’re beginning to bore me. I am tired of propping up this entire conversation. But, at least I learned how to spell fellatio. Off to watch interracial porn.
That’s nice. We’re all very shocked and impressed.
See you next time you need to defend the indefensible!
I read “interracial porn” and I immediately thought, “porn with aliens!?” and then I realized that was impossible. Shouldn’t porn featuring actors of different races just be called, um, porn?
@Magdelyn — this is totally unrelated to anything, and I disagree with you on like everything but I LOVE YOUR HAIR. I totally just noticed it now. The pictures are very small and for the entire time I’ve been seeing yours my brain interpreted it as someone looking down and sort of sucking her cheeks in while putting her hands on the side of her head; it looked very strange! Then suddenly, it all just snapped into place like a Magic Eye picture and I saw that the reality was very different, and you have AWESOME PINK HAIR. I blame my monitor being at an angle and blending all the dark bits together and making the pink parts more red.
(This isn’t weird to say or anything, is it? I’m not trying to be sarcastic here, I really do like it.)
@Viscaria
Don’t be silly. How can you fetishize it if you accept it as normal?
/sarcasm
Well, Liz, may I call you Liz
I’M PATRONIZING YOU DID YOU NOTICE
I also think Mags has cool hair. Shame that her taste in friends and associates isn’t as good as her taste in hair color.
“Crumbelievable”, you say the following:
“A few months ago, Reddit chose one particular user named AnnArbor as its’ Redditor of the Day’.”
That’s just not true. “Reddit” doesn’t choose a “Redditor of the Day”, ever. You simply don’t know how Reddit works.
There’s a subreddit that chooses a “redditor of the day.” It’s not official. But AnnArchist was indeed chosen at one point, which embarrassed some of those who run the subreddit once they realized what a dick he is. Judging from his answers to their questionnaire, he seemed pleased as punch to have been picked.
Earlier it seems as though Ben Walsh had been trying to defend Shreddit with one of the typical “Yes, but…” responses … Yes, but… It’s the Internet, and there are lots of idiots on the Internet, so how can this ever be helped! And besides, not all of Shreddit is like that! Uhh… except for the fact that such misogyny often gets highly upvoted. And as for the creepiness of the subreddits recently deleted such as r/jailbait?
As far as arcane insults go, noisome coxcomb and “thou naughty varlet” are favourites of mine.
What David said. I even found a link:
http://www.reddit.com/r/redditoroftheday/comments/mtf3g/annarchist_redditor_of_the_day_november_29_2011/
Anything else you want to be wrong about, benwalsh?
While I was redditing, I found a paean to 1950s America. Both of the comments are disapproving, but keep in mind Reddit contains the most reasonable MRAs on the internet (which is a sure sign your movement’s nuts).
Since Mags brought racism and the MRA, I thought it was relevant. Jim Crow, anyone?
Am just realizing that Casper is making the same complaint DKM does: that we post his OWN WORDS to condemn him!
I am still trying to imagine what sort of magical thinking goes on to result in the claim that posting people’s words is mean and awful (now, it’s true that taking a quote out of context can often be used to support a meaning that was not in the original context–but that is why in academic writing, all quotes, summaries, paraphrases need to be attributed, so the reader can check it out).
And David always does exactly that: he doesn’t just dump a random quote; he gives a link to the source and summarizes the background etc. The hateful shit that is their language is not taken out of context.
Side note: that is one of the most adorable dogs EVAH! *smoochies and cuddles*
@David: My mistake, sorry.
@Xardoz: Of course Ferdinand would be nostalgic for the 1950’s. Why not…
Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.
What’s to be confused about MRAs when they keep telling us how hot little girls make them, when they post pictures of their foreign bride cooking meals bare foot and in the kitchen, when their solution to women who use their brains is to kill them or rape them? And look at the comments…when a few men try to be more reasonable they are shamed and down voted.
The only thing that confuses me is why any woman would want to be near these guys let alone defend them. Oh wait, its not their Nigel!
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/09/15/how-female-suffrage-destroyed-western-civilization/
This website in no way represents mainstream MRM opinion.
Except, oh wait, last week I read some Reddit MRAs commenting that The Spearhead was now the most popular MRA site ahead of Glenn Sacks’s.
@Pillow: That Uncle Elmer article was one of the most laughably pathetic things I’ve seen in a long time. MRAs are getting pretty desperate for things to talk about, it seems.
>>that’s your first problem, confusing MRA’s with rapists, pedos and racists.
I think the problem is MRA’s confusing ‘men’s rights’ with the ‘right’ to rape, the ‘right’ to pedophilia and the ‘right’ to be racism.
to be racist.
You know.. I think its time to start talking about the need for the average man voting. Because you know, keeping a nation running has far more to do with looking looking at the well being of major business and resources than just looking after your little woman and whatever resulting brats you’ve spawned. I think we should rescind the vote for the majority of men, and put it in the hands of the wisest, who are of course the major capital owners in this country. Really, this civilization has totally fallen apart since we gave the vote to men who aren’t propertied. Not to mention how much the average male bitches and whines for more money to support his interests. All those men who believe they are entitled to government funding when they are clearly too lazy and poorly educated to find work! And we should also cut off any sort of grants for higher education to men, clearly if you can’t afford to pay for an education upfront in cash, you have no business receiving loans that you very likely won’t be able to repay in a timely manner. Same goes for mortgages, learn to build your own home or do without.
Also, I think we should start posting pics of our male lovers, gushing about how compliant they are while fixing ours cars.
No you may not. It is Poster, PFKAE or Elizabeth.
That reminds me of how Stephen Colbert always asks his guest something like, “Can I call you Frank?” and then when they say “No,” he says, “Frank…”