Arthur Goldwag, the author of the SPLC’s recent report on hatred in the Men’s Rights movement, has now responded to some of the hysteria his article provoked amongst MRAs. As Goldwag notes, contrary to what most MRAs seemed to conclude from the report,
the SPLC did not label MRAs as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the grievances they air on their websites – false rape accusations, ruinous divorce settlements and the like – are all without merit. But we didcall out specific examples of misogyny and the threat, overt or implicit, of violence.
Thomas James Ball, for example, who was hailed as a martyr on so many men’s rights forums, called for arson attacks on courthouses and police stations. The Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik wrote extensively about the evils of feminism. We included as much as we did about Register-Her.com because it is so intimidating to its targets, not all of whom are criminals. When Elam accused Vliet Tiptree, a pseudonymous contributor to RadFem Hub, of “calling for extermination of half the human race; the male half, that is,” he offered a cash reward for her real identity. The names and locations of several candidates were publically aired.
Goldwag also takes a look at some of the radical feminists that have become boogeywomen for so many MRAs, and deals with other MRA complaints.
If you’re a regular reader of Man Boobz you’ll want to read the whole thing.
The Men’s Rights subreddit has already linked to Goldwag’s article, which has provoked not only the predictable SPLC-bashing but also some criticism of A Voice for Men and Paul Elam.
Obviously Elam and other MRAs will respond to Goldwag’s latest as well. Post links in the comments below as you find them, and I’ll add them to this post.
EDITED TO ADD: And, right on schedule, AVfM responds to Goldwag’s response. It’s a John the Other post, so be prepared to read a lot of words saying not very much.
On his own blog, Goldwag responds to Mr. The Other.
Goldwag’s piece also got some criticism from the STFUfauxminists Tumblr blog for quoting a RadFem known for her transphobia.
I’ll add more links as I find them.
ETA 2: MORE LINKS
“Also Ritalin is a stimulant and actually helps a lot of people who voluntarily take it because they like being able to think clearly… argh bargh unrelated angrything.” — TRUFAX!!
Theory is ADHD’s hyperactivity is a reaction to a decreased level of brain function (note: this is about electrical waves, not intelligence) — the hyperactivity is a compensation mechanism — so prescribe stimulants and the brain starts sending signals at normal rates and the child stops being hyperactive. And apparently I did learn something in all those psychology classes…
Cliff, that’s explaining to the gallery, I figure you know as much.
@Pecunium, but I’m having fun citing the dictionary! He’s my favorite kind of troll, give him enough rope and he’ll happily hang himself with it.
Argenti: Yes, that was The Great Zarat telling the SPLC how it is.
Addressing AntZ in absentia (for now):
How? According to your own claims, you can’t get anything done because evil feminists are in complete control of the government!
So, like, the SCUM Manifesto! The acronym isn’t mentioned anywhere in the text of it! It was a post-publication piece of propaganda poopy doo doo, as far as I know.
Near as I can tell, it’s because the ghost of Gandhi has their back, or something. /sarcasm
Yeah, thinking Ritalin is a depressant is pretty stupid. If that were the case, you wouldn’t have college kids buying it to stay up and study for their finals (I don’t know if people still do this, but I had a friend who would sell his after his finals were over). I had a teacher once who joked that if his son was diagnosed with ADHD, they’d just give him coffee every morning. This guy wasn’t a doctor (or all that great of a teacher or person, actually), but yeah, Ritalin IS a stimulant, as is caffeine. So whining that boys are being “drugged for the crime of being male” is pretty stupid. Not all boys are diagnosed with ADHD and the ones who receive drugs for it, get them in order to do better in school, not worse.
“I don’t know if people still do this” — having grad school friends, they do (though it seems adderall is the drug of choice now) — and yep, I always preferred a good deal of coffee, and the irony that insomnia was good for something after all
“Not all boys are diagnosed with ADHD *and not all children diagnosed with ADHD are boys* and the ones who receive drugs for it, get them in order to do better in school, not worse.” — just a minor fix for everyone reading along. Also, if they didn’t actually have ADHD, it would just make them more hyper, like it does those college students. (Which, no AntZ, wouldn’t make them do worse, because the same teacher that insisted they had ADHD would now be pissed enough to insist they stop taking the drugs…and teachers only do referrals anyways)
@Pecunium — aww, isn’t he a special snowflake! Knows more than a bunch of lawyers who get paid the big bucks to do exactly this eh?
ostara321–I’m currently in college, and yeah, people still try to get various ADHD meds for studying during finals. My college newspaper had a report about it a few weeks ago, and I overheard a woman in my art class offer some of her extras to her friends. There are some questions about overdiagnosis but also about underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis and especially about using drugs other than stimulants (which are fairly well-studied in children) like atypical antipsychotos.
Antipsychotics, not antipsychotos.
Argenti: actually, in a lot of areas, teachers aren’t even allowed to do referrals. Too much liability.
atypical antipsychotics to children! Why don’t we extend the categories of people we give tardive dyskinesia to! >.<
hellkell — thank you for clarifying that, I know far more about the psychology side of things.
Yeah, I just checked to make sure I wasn’t making stuff up, especially since the documentary I saw about mental health issues in children was several year old, but I guess they had a class-action lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry for how they marketed the anti-psychotics. Here:
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/26/why-children-and-the-elderly-are-so-drugged-up-on-antipsychotics/
No, Rutee, I’m sure they do agree that they’re problems. You’re the only person I’ve ever really seen who doggedly insists that men face no gendered difficulties. Even most feminists would disagree with you. Newsflash: you don’t get to dictate to men what their problems are.
Modern schooling is an inhuman, elitist, anti-individualist assembly-line monstrousity for boys, yes.
And girls. And perhaps especially non-binaries.
This sick little line that really, no, girls are just so VERY well served by conformity and doing what you’re told and verbal derbal something sitting still boys are naturally active and they’re being persecuted by feminized conformism (which would be fine if it was manly?) bs doesn’t do anything to help that fact.
Not to mention that the greater pressure on girls to not act out leads to female adhd, add, and various points on the autism spectrum being vastly under-reported…
“When most drugs go off-patent, drug companies’ marketing pressure — and profits — will subside, perhaps keeping children and the elderly safer from inappropriate medication.” — yeah, until the next round of “wonder drugs” >.<
I'm going to grumble about the pharmaceutical industry now.
“I’m going to grumble about the pharmaceutical industry now.”
Always good.
Note: Mr. Varpole ( whose comment I just let through moderation) is the guy behind this new blog:
http://antimanboobz.wordpress.com/
Like his comment, his latest post is also directed at Rutee.
Mikhael, I went to your antimanboobz blog. You described everyone at manboobz as
If that’s your opinion of us, then why are you here? It looks like you just want to derail this thread because you don’t like the topic.
Are the Redditors at r/mr completely unaware of the awful shit their own moderators have posted? Or would they try to act like those people aren’t good representations of MRAs either?
Although I would say men do not generally face gendered oppression, that isn’t what I said. Gender policing is a thing that varies by gender, f’rex. The thing is, most gendered oppression men face is either to keep them from being like women, or is on another axis (The shit that black dudes face is different from the shit that black women face, f’rex)
No, that’d be reality doing it, in this case. Those things don’t actually happen.
Lol did he take it down? XDXDXD
You know, for a guy claiming all sorts of things about “facts” he sure is lacking any sort of something akin to it.
Also, 5 points for trying to invoke Weber. -20 for having next to no knowledge of how to define “authority”. An additional -100 for trying to sound like a clever sociologist who thinks he can say “It’s a legitimate social concern for men” when his only data is “It could happen”.
Well, it has to be admitted that David does let trolls like NWOslave, David K. Meller, and Tom Martin post comments. They are arguably the “vile bigots… unimpeded by things like civility, basic decency, and common humanity”. So anti-MBZ got that bit slightly right. However, it can’t be said David encourages them. So overall, nul points.
Why is Antz so incredibly good at projection??? Every time he says something about feminists it describes the MRM to a T. I mean, Elam’s not a lawyer but scamming his followers is basically his reason for existence.