Check out this post from PZ Myers, tearing apart a sleazy JohntheOther video about Rebecca Watson. In the video, JtO, the number two man at A Voice for Men, declared Watson a sociopath for allegedly mistreating a “handler” assigned to her at a Skepticon convention.
Trouble is, Watson’s “mistreatment” never actually happened, and her public recounting of her (wholly imaginary) selfish behavior was part of a good-natured prank, with the humor directed not at her handler but at herself and the conference organizer. The handler was of course in on the joke. It would seem that JtO either misunderstood the joke, or simply decided to misrepresent what happened in order to make Watson look like a sociopath.
Are there any truly honest MRAs out there? At this point I cannot think of a single one.
JtO, evidently stung by the criticism, has made the video in question private. And he’s made another video responding to the criticism from Myers, Watson, and the handler from the convention itself.
In the video, he offers his own explanation for why he missed the obvious fact that Watson was making a joke: he claims he didn’t actually watch enough of the original Rebecca Watson video to get to the punchline of her joke before making his diagnoses of her. That might seem to reflect poorly on JtO’s research skills. But he’s not overly troubled by this, evidently. “My bad,” he says, cheerfully.
But he still thinks she’s a sociopath, and argues that the criticism he’s gotten doesn’t stem from his complete misrepresentation of Watson’s joke, but because he’s “struck a nerve.” Then he babbles on about various other crap including Jessica Valenti and weapons of mass destruction and, well, I wasn’t really paying much attention at that point. He ends by calling PZ Myers “Sunshine.”
Here’s that video. I watched the whole fucking 11 minutes and 11 seconds of it. I wouldn’t really recommend that to anyone. You only have to watch about 11 seconds of it to conclude, correctly, that JtO is an ass.
Just what the world needs, yet more YouTube blabbity blabbity blah… in a few short months it will be the anniversary of
Elevatorgatethe Rebeccapocalypse, and in that year millions of words have been spilt in anger by MRAs lackwits, triggering undending cycles of argument and rebuttal by feminists and sceptics. Not a-fucking-gain.Is it too much to hope for a transcript of JohnTheBother’s logorrhea so that I don’t have to watch this tripe?
the last 2 minutes were really insightful….
BTW, as he didn’t conduct a formal interview with Ms. Watson and he is not a psychologist I don’t think he should be making an armchair diagnosis…
and I think that’s a bit dishonest to do, just like some bloggers who take part of what some people say, put it in quotes, then say things they did not say after it and use a flashing button for sarcasm….
Neither an MRA or feminist ever shall I be!
You’d almost think they’ve decided that Rebecca Watson is some kind of succubus.
I started listening, but my brain shut down after a minute, outof boredom.
I could not bring myself to hit the play button because he is very pale and I suspect him of being a zombie and I fear that if I hit the play button he will reach through the interwebs and try to eat my lady brainz.
Transcript of the first 2 min. Too bad there are diacritical marks for douchebaggery.
It appears that RW’s fans, followers and admirers have either found, or have been directed to find, my video making fun of RW in the introduction to one of her presentations at Skepticon 3, I believe. In which she tells a story about abusing a personal assistant who is assigned to her and i point out that this is sociopathic behaviour. Now I’m going to freely admit that I came into that video, the original one, the hourlong presentation one, with a predisposed impression that RW is a *shudders* a awful person. And so I watched as far as I needed to get the clips that I was using. I didn’t watch farther cause I thought this is awful, this is fuckin horrible and I don’t want to keep watchin this because this is making me feel terrible. I subsequently watched the rest of it and yeah, she comes out and admits it. (raises hand) My bad. And even though she comes out says yes, this was all a staged prank, um, this doesn’t materially change my impression of her, I’m sorry to say.
but something about the way I have been piled on tells me that I’ve struck a nerve, that I’ve pushed on a nerve and the vehemence of the reaction is a little overblown for somebody who is just being critical and who made a criticism that is off base. Because there’s like…I’m a psychopath, I’m a sociopath, I’m a maniac, I’m a murderer, I’m humourless, I’m stupid, I’m irrational, etc, etc. The my position is irrelevant, that, I mean there’s lots of abuse and piling on.
And that’s all I can do. My ladybrainz are in mortal danger. (Dear god man, you’re wordy.)
I’ve struck a nerve, that I’ve pushed on a nerve and the vehemence of the reaction is a little overblown for somebody who is just being critical and who made a criticism that is off base. Because there’s like…I’m a psychopath, I’m a sociopath, I’m a maniac, I’m a murderer, I’m humourless, I’m stupid, I’m irrational, etc, etc. The my position is irrelevant, that, I mean there’s lots of abuse and piling on.
So, I think it’s a safe bet that the irony of this lost Mr. The Other, no?
http://stonerwithaboner.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/niether-a-feminist-nor-an-mra-ever-shall-i-be/
No one cares, stoner.
Oh an MRA who is also a liar? I would be shocked, but it is apparent that lying is what MRAs do best.
Also, trolling for website hits is just sad, stoner.
that’s fine Dracula….
So, he is saying that people noticed that his pants were on fire? And told him so. What nerve.
Hmm…
The Men’s Rights Movement should instead be the Bitter Asshole’s Movement.
Bitter Asshole Activists unite!
Ever noticed that the people who hate women the most are always middle aged and old men. I wonder why…
Neither can I. Their popularity just proves how ingrained misogyny actually is in our culture and how far you can go by appealing to people’s prejudices, fears, and hatred.
Holy shit, I can hear pharyngula howling their ass off from here, and I haven’t even looked at the site the last couple days XD
And yawners, Stoner is back to try to place himself as a ‘moderate’. Because “Women are people” is just 2 XTREEEEM, apparently XD
Ever noticed that the people who hate women the most are always middle aged and old men.
I haven’t seen any evidence of that. Younger people rank among our most bitter trolls.
Quick note, they’re actually not popular. They’re a tiny internet movement with no traction anywhere XD
Do misogynists run seminars on fauxpologies? Or do they just get issued a gene for it? Do we have an evopsych theory on this?
MRA = Misogynistic Raging Asshole
A HuffPo article from last week said that MRAs successfully campaigned to block a certain measure of VAWA. Is this true? Or was the author just giving the MRM too much credit?
Sharculese has covered this before. The short version: The line was removed during an absurdly early draft stage, *when tons of shit gets cut for tons of reasons*. Even if it was them (Implausible; remember, these assholes can’t get 50 people together), that’s not an accomplishment. That shit gets cut *all the time*. However much they crow over how they’re responsible, even if it were true, it isn’t a victory at that stage. At all.
But I consider it more plausible that they overblew their own importance, yet again XD
Antifeminism has been popular for the last century and a half. What kind of stupid question is this?
…Because we’re in a deeply misogynist culture that doesn’t question stupid, misogynist bullshit. It’s why feminism is still important in the west too, remember? Unless the MRM is directly responsible for the entrenching of dudes in positions of power millenia ago, they have almost as much responsibility for this as I do for the seasonal trade winds.
@Maya:
You shouldn’t confuse Internet popularity with real life popularity. This what MRAs want you to think. Online, it’s easy for assholes to get attention because ythey can say any inflammatory thing they want and not face repercussions. The Internet is a great place for MRAs to flourish because they’re allowed to say misogynistic things and make vague threats without having to deal with the real world where their brand of shit doesn’t fly so well. Imagine telling someone to their face, “The idea of fucking up your shit gives me erection”. You’d be laughed at, and maybe face a restraining order.
MRAs might seem popular on Youtube but what’s important is that that’s the height of their success.