Sometimes I ask myself: what is it that I really hope to accomplish with this website, aside from entertaining myself and my readers, and exposing misogynist assholes for who they are. There’s a part of me that still hopes that someday, something I write will cause some misogynist and/or Men’s Rightser out there to develop a modicum of self-awareness, look at what they’ve been saying or doing, and say to themselves, “I’m really kind of a tool, aren’t I? Maybe I should stop.”
When the Southern Poverty Law Center report on the Men’s Rights movement came out, I hoped it might have a similar sort of effect. Or that, even if it didn’t persuade any MRAs out there that they were wrong, it might at least convince a few that they were going about things the wrong way. Nope. On the Men’s Rights subreddit, at least, it seems to have sent many of the regulars into an indignant tizzy, and they have doubled down on their peculiar brand of politics-by-whining-online.
Consider this post:
Yes, that’s right. Some Men’s Rights Redditors seem to think that the best way to convince the world that they’re not part of a hate group is to continue to celebrate a self-admitted child abuser who urged men to firebomb courthouses and police stations and kill people.
Then there’s this post, currently the top post on the subreddit:
Wow, if the Men’s Rights subreddit had anything to do with that, that would indeed be a victory. As one regular put it:
Thing is, I read r/mensrights pretty regularly, and I don’t remember any campaign there to protect the rights of fishermen in New Zealand.
Turns out that’s because the campaign, such as it was, consisted of one post some months back, which got all of 11 upvotes at the time. The current post in which r/mensrights congratulates itself for its “victory” has gotten, last I checked, 120 upvotes, more than ten times that. Simplecosine’s self-congratulatory comment in the new thread has gotten 36 upvotes. The comment in the original thread asking r/mensrightsers to send an email to the US Secretary of State’s office got … one upvote. In other words, only a handful of Men’s Rights Redditors even noticed the original post, much less sent along an email.
Reading one of the linked news articles makes clear the real reason the State Department opened an investigation: a six-month long, three-continent wide investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek revealing abuses in the industry.
The Men’s Rights subreddit: Taking Credit for Shit They Didn’t Do Since 2008.
And then there’s this post:
I’ve got nothing to say about this one — it’s basically self-refuting — except that I’m sort of bemused by the notion that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a “semi-women group.” Uh, what is that exactly? A group with some women in it? A group that doesn’t think women are all a bunch of evil bitches? The horror!
Oh, Men’s Rights movement. You’ll never change, will you?
EDITED TO ADD: And speaking of never changing, here’s how one Men’s Rights redditor responded to my comments there suggesting that maybe, just maybe, MRAs should actually denounce and distance themselves from someone calling for terrorism:
Let me just highlight that bit at the end again:
[T]he cost to the establishment to maintain the status quo in regards to divorce, custody, etc. must be made so high that it’s just no longer feasible. If that means instilling abject fear into the hearts of judges, cops and legislators by making them think their careers and/or lives could be forfeit unless they change their attitudes towards men, then so be it.
Trying to instill fear for one’s life in your opponents: that is the very definition of terrorism.
Anthony Zarat February 29, 2012 at 11:31 am
Anthony Zarat March 9, 2012 at 10:47 am
It stems from a deeper problem: The widespread assumption that men are the default and that women are derivatives and embodiments of “femaleness”.
Dave, don’t sell yourself short in the accompishment arena. You’re helping to fuel the fires of societies hatred of boys/men and all things pertaining to men or masculinity.
Why I rate you right up there with verison’s monster ad where only men are depicted as DV monsters and of course the victim is a little girl.
Or perhaps the bus billboards in Texas, where a little girl is pictured with the caption, “One day my husband will kill me,” or where a little boy is pictured under the caption, “When I grow up, I will beat my wife.” Since women commit DV in more than equal numbers and quite a few murders of men as well, societies indoctrinated hatred of only boys/men and the love of only girls/women is readily apparent. There really is only one lobby with the power and zeal for the hatred of boys/men to place such a distorted message. That’d be the womens lobby of course. Heck, I’ll even give you a link for this one.
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/10/from_outside_dallas_a_campaign.php
Or maybe you prefer grade school indoctrinated hatred of boys/men. Like the propaganda billboards placed in grade schools showing young boys wearing a hoodie with the words, “awaiting instructions” emblazoned on the hoodies. Strange how boys are in apparent need of girls instructing them like trained animals, yet girls are taught to be repulsed at the very idea ever listening to a boy or man. Once again we have the womens lobby to thank for their thoughtful message.
You’re doing fine work here, Dave. As are every one of your brood of hatefilled commentors. Why every advert portraying men as backward buffoons and women as morally infallible and intellectually superior gets the DF seal of approval.
No, we are not going to change. We are going to win. And then, YOU are going to change.
LOL, good luck with that!
Dang blockquote fail. The first line was AntZ’s quote.
How’s the VR, Zarat? Does FOREIGN BRIDE know?
This seems relevant to that: Field Guide to Rage Faces
And lo and behold now we have someone in r/mensrights explicitly advocating terrorism:
I added this quote to the end of the piece; there’s a link to it as well.
What MRAs think they are.
What they really are.
Sometimes the saddest thing about the MRM is when they think their assholery is some sort of new idea.
Yeah, go ahead, chumps, you’re the first person to ever think of intimidating cops and judges. What a shocking novel plan that you totally don’t share with every criminal organization ever.
Courts have had metal detectors and armed security since way before the MRM was a thing.
Keep documenting this stuff. The jig is up for them, they can’t lie and gaslight about what they really stand for with this site around.
Some dared to point out that Thomas Ball smacked his daughter in the face, and the response was:
“You are a misandric cunt and should be banned.”
Nothijg misogynistic about calling people cunts, no siree.
Project Mayhem, Anthony, for reals? You do know that Tyler Durden was a sociopath, right? Also: made up?
I think if the MRM’s reaction to Manboobz has taught us one thing, it’s that there’s nothing more misandric than reminding people of things that they actually did.
“Who you calling a terrorist? I’ll teach you misandrists to call us terrorists. We need to make them fear us!!”
This is a very common abuser script. Nothing sets ’em off like being called an abuser. Why, if you use that word again, they might just… abuse you. That’ll learn ya.
Sad thing is, in the context of a relationship where they have enough power to put their partner/family/employees in the “just keep them happy and they’re not so bad” mindset, this can actually work; it can become so ingrained that it makes it hard for survivors to use the A-word even after they’ve gotten away.
This doesn’t work so well when they’re a group of like a thousand guys maximum, trying to abuse all of society.
NWO, I already explained earlier today what the MRM is really about
Of course you’re offended by a cell phone ad that showed that women or girls can be victims of violence. You don’t think that ever happens.
nwoslave is supporting my “magic asshole” theory that the trolls are all just one person. Usually it’s Antsy going on and on about “misandric” posters in schools and I can’t recall owly talking about men AND boys before–that’s usually Antsy’s thing. If the mag asshole theory is correct, what I’m seeing is the Author forgetting the unique voices of zir characters because some of them have been away for a while.
Curiouser and curiouser.
@Kendra, the bionic mommy
“Of course you’re offended by a cell phone ad that showed that women or girls can be victims of violence. You don’t think that ever happens.”
Has there been a relentless ad campaign depicting women as abusers of men/boys and children in our schools, government and MSM? That’s how you know whose privileged and holds the power in any given society.
Anthony Zarat clearly supports terrorist threats and lies. He does not distance himself, or say that he disagrees, but keeps saying they will “win”. I suppose considering what they’ve said over and over their tactics should be, AZ saying they will win should be considered a threat.
Among feminists and in feminism there is no shortage of women going on and on about what they DON’T agree with and which rad fem statements cause them to clutch their pearls. There’s an endless stream of women and feminists basically saying, NO, I don’t believe anything that would make me appear less attractive to random strangers on the internet, please love me! So there is just no comparison. Feminism cannot be painted with the broad brush, yet, the MRM do so. After they’re done doing that, they will claim that ALL of what the MRM does is right, but that they are all being painted with the same brush and “guilt by association is wrong!” Yet won’t admit a thing or distance themselves from any of it.
I mean you would think people like Bernard Chapin, who says none of this crazy stuff would speak out to delineate what is true MRM and what is crazy talk, but no. He complains about the cherry picking, but stands by ALL OF IT! Ergh.
@Holly
Good point
I dunno if this is just a kneejerk reaction, but I think I agree with Owly that the TX campaign is over the line
The MRM is a civil rights movement promoting equal protection under the law and equal protection of government.
You people are throw backs to brutish times that most societies wish they could forget.
Zarat, you forgot to call us bigots. You’re slipping.
Shadow, the article NWO posted about the billboards is 4 years old.
It’s not the NWO doesn’t believe women can be victims of violence, it’s that he’s rooting for it to happen.