Hey, you remember that thing the other day, when A Voice for Men’s second banana JohntheOther said some awful things about evil feminist atheist Rebecca Watson because she made a joke at a conference and he didn’t realize it was a joke?
And then he said he didn’t realize it was a joke, even though she explicitly revealed it was a joke in the video of hers he said he watched ? And so then he tried to pretend explain that he hadn’t watched the whole video, even though he had clearly downloaded the whole thing and incorporated parts of it in his video?
Well, now it turns out that some of the parts of her video he used in his video, well, they included the bit where she revealed the joke. Only – OOPS! – John just happened to edit that part out.
Unsophisticated folks might conclude from this that JohntheOther is a lying liar who lies about his lies. And that maybe he should henceforth be known as JohntheLiar.
But no. Apparently, as JoththetotallynotaLiar explains in a new video, he was just so, so convinced that Rebecca was a mean evil sociopath that he just didn’t realize what she was saying! He basically thought she was babbling nonsense, making a complete non-sequitur, so he cut it out of his video.
I mean, a feminist making a joke? Instead of being a mean evil sociopath? Beep Boop does not compute! His complete inability to understand the words that were coming out of her mouth? That was just good old confirmation bias at work, he explains in the video.That’s his actual explanation: he’s not a liar, just someone — to phrase it a bit more bluntly than he is willing to — who is so blinded by his own ideology that he cannot tell that a joke is a joke, even when someone announces that it is a joke.
He goes on to explain that it would be “illogical” to conclude that he is a liar because, come on, who would lie so blatantly, knowing that they would be caught?
And then he eats a baby.
Oops! My bad! I watched the video again, and it turns out he does not in fact eat a baby. Instead, at this point in the video, he apologizes to Watson for calling her a sociopath. I blame confirmation bias for causing me to misinterpret the video at this point. The apology seemed like a total non-sequitur to me, so naturally I saw it as him eating a baby.
In reality, what happens is that he apologizes to Watson, and then he eats a baby.
Here’s the video.
Oops! Mea culpa! Here’s the video, for reals:
EDITED TO ADD: It turns out that after eating the baby apologizing to Watson for calling her a sociopath in the video, John told one of the commenters that he still thinks she’s a sociopath. So his apology wasn’t really much of an apology after all, was it? It wasn’t even a “sorry if you were offended” fauxpology. Since he was apologizing for saying something that he still believes and that he went on to repeat, it’s really more of a liepology.
Because she’s a woman, and dared speak in public to give, well not an order, but an advice, which is totally the same thing as loosing freedom of speech. That all it takes.
Wisteria:
As best as I understand it, reactionary/contrarian movements really, really need a core for their two minutes hates. As global warming deniers have Al Gore, so MRA douchebags now have Rebecca Watson.
They hate all feminist activists equally. They hate Valenti and Marcotte just as much.
In the following illustration, Rebecca Watson is represented by Zoe Herriott, while JohntheOther is represented by the Electromatic Ansiphone (skip to about 2:20 to avoid plot):
(incidentally, how does one link to a youtube video at a certain timestamp?)
Oh, y’all give me such a happy. It’s why I continue to expose myself to such sheer hatred every day — the comments here can still make me laugh about it!
@blitzgal: I’m glad I was able to give you a happy. Do you watch Who at all?
Hells yes I do! I grew up with Tom Baker but like the “new” series as well. I missed the second half of the most recent season because I lost BBC America when downgrading my cable, but Netflix just added it to their streaming, so that’s what I’m watching next!!
@Falconer: To link to a youtube vid at a specific time add #t= at the end of the URL, and then a time in the format of e.g. _m__s (#t=1m45s to start at 1:45 in) — unfortunately I don’t think that works when you embed videos on a WP blog, though.
That is correct! The award goes to boom boom! Couldn’t have described the “freethinkers” of YouTube better myself!
Yeah, it’s funny when MRAs point to Youtube hits as a sign of their growing success.
ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)
HORSELESS CARRIAGE Y U NO RUN IN HORSELESS CARRIAGEWAY
IT IS WHAT YOU DO
YOU HAVE LOST ENTELECHY
YOUR LACK OF ENTELECHY WILL COST ME MANY MANY MONIES
sob, Australia is a techno desert…we’ve only just starting getting some version of iplayer/watch again on the interweb, Net flix is unavailable here and we have pretty much missed the last season and a half of Dr Who, due to my elder daughter getting totally and utterly terrified of it.
then My Kitchen Rules started so i can’t blame her totally.
Was it the Weeping Angels? ‘Cause the Weeping Angels freak me right out and I’m a grown man who can tell fiction from reality.
@falconer:
place “#t=00m33s” and the end of the link.
Whereas 00+ the number of minutes and 33 = the number of seconds.
So, if you placed that at the end of a link, it would link at 33 seconds into the video
yup the weeping angels…plus that really creepy one in the library with the little girl downloaded into the computer.
Over at Lawyers Guns and Money blog, one of the writers there teaches media as well and he often posts his classes about Dr Who. it’s quite fascinating to read.
but the weeping angels…they are classic Dr Who scary.
Oh lord, that one was scary. Even scarier than the one where the alien entity tries to turn a whole bus full of people against the Doctor.
Yes, I like Scott E. Kaufmann’s ideas. Did you know he has his own blog?
Gods, is this true. And Moffat has made it so that you can no longer watch from behind the sofa because there are shadows back there. You could push the sofa against the wall, but make sure it doesn’t have a crack in it.
Um, I just referenced all the Doctor Who you haven’t got to watch yet, haven’t I? ::guilty look::
@Falconer
it’s OK i read LGM regularly and have read SEK’s posts on the ones i have seen and averted my eyes from the ones i am yet to see. i didn’t click through to that link for that purpose!
i thought the one on the bus was fascinating from a directorial point of view, very theatrical. I absolutely loved it.
we have just got a new multi region DVD so will be stocking up on all the Who’s we have missed. I think my daughter is maybe coming back round to the notion of it, so i am looking forward to the (tradtional) snuggling up on the sofa to watch Dr Who.
@PZ
Here is the video. I believe JtO has deleted the original but this vigilant person reuploaded it. Quick summary: He claims that since feminists are always talking about rape, he’s desensitized to it and “doesn’t give a fuck.” Starting at 2:45 is where he says he’ll just walk on by. Then he goes on to recount a time when he interrupted a rapists but then goes on to say that if he came upon that scene now, he wouldn’t stop it. His reasoning being that he’ll likely be accused of being a rapist because that’s how society is now.
What an ass.
I just read about Rebecca Watson and, “elevator man.” Unbelievable! If a strange man in an elevator at 4 AM asked me to come back to his room for, “coffee,” of course I’d be creeped out by it. I’d press the button for the lobby so as to make sure I’d spend as little time alone with him as possible. This isn’t to say all men are potential predators, they’re not. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Hi Lady Zombie,
thanks for posting that – I’ve tweeted it to PZ crediting you… 🙂
Okay this whole MRA obsession with Rebecca Watson is creepy. They are creepy. It’s not shaming, its the fucking truth. GET OVER IT ALREADY.
“Guys don’t do that” Over 4 flipping words about a guy approaching a woman 4am in an elevator. That is inappropriate. But hey. they want to disagree and they did. But they’re still dragging it on. They still harass her. They apparently stalk her blog and videos then make videos about her. It’s disturbing and if I were her I would really keep vigilant because these guys are way out of line. This has gone way beyond a simple disagreement, it’s obsessing and it’s unhealthy.
It’s like they’re trying to make her see that men aren’t creepy by BEING CREEPY.
Guys don’t do that. Let it go already. Because this isn’t helping men. It’s just yet another thing to add to the long list of antics that makes the MRM look like a bunch of nutjobs.
After this video by JTO that’s just been reposted by my best friend…. I did a response ignoring. his bombastic statement about not helping a rape victim, I said well I don’t believe that but I’ll address what I think his real concerns are. That caused him to make a follow up video laughing saying NO I was NOT kidding and I stand by everything I said. After that, we made a video clipping the two videos together, and the video was a bit popular, actually and a couple of mirrors of the video went up. Since all my channels get flagged, the original is gone. At first he put the video on his channel featured to mock that he didn’t care we made that. He stood by it. Later however… much later… he threatened an uploader of a mirror (after mine was flagged) to remove hers, so she did. There is only one remaining copy left and the MRAs hit that video with their ratings and their comments, including one from Paul Elam who said “rape is not special” and mocked the lack of attention that video got. The other two that were up got much more.
At the time he made this video he first says that it’s only directed at certain feminists on you tube. This is so nobody would take issue with any disgusting thing that he said, but then he said he would not help ANY woman being raped, and blamed it on you tube feminists. (derp). Here’s the kicker. The people he mentioned at that time did not even discuss rape. Since then more conversations have come up, and it’s been discussed, but at the time he up this video out, there were so many lies to parse it was maddening. We had not even discussed rape enough or said any goofy things about it to warrant an outlandish response, even though that’s a fallacy to begin with. So in light of all the recent buzz, my friend checked his hard drive (total mangina as you can see) and found the original video and said, he’s got to post it. In his second video he credits barbarosssaaa for the original idea of not helping rape victims.
There’s the back story.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of MRA’s had actually raped a woman at some point in their lives. It would explain why they’re always trying to persuade people not to believe rape victims.
I think the MRAs (and misogynists in general, unfortunately) have somehow decided to make an example out of Rebecca Watson. And I think the pettiness of her “offense” is actually part of the plan. They’re not grasping at straws–they’re deliberately punishing a woman who said something incredibly mild, as a warning.
It’s their way of saying “this is what we do to women who say ‘guys don’t do that,’ so just imagine what we’d do to a woman who named the guy, or got him banned from the convention, or called the cops.”
There’s another Marc Lepine in the making of that “movement”
yeah I said it.