People! Rebecca Watson of Skepchick has just received a most awesome drunken email manifesto from a hard-rockin young MRA by the name of Jimmy Zinn. Here are some selected excerpts, but you’ll want to go read the whole thing.
My name is Jimmy Zinn and I’m a die hard MRA and hard rock fan. I’m 19 years old, and I’m not to happy with the current state of affairs. I’ve decided to dedicate my life to what I’m calling the three revolutions- the hard rock revolution, the Men’s rights revolution, and the life extension revolution …
Two of these are indirectly pointed at people like you- bigoted feminists who marginialize and trivailize* the male gender, promoting sexist and discrimination attitudes, and fighting vivaciously for the very thing you vehemently claim to be so against- gender inequality.
Yes, he did say “fighting vivaciously.”
After a bit more manifestoing he tells Rebecca his (alleged) life story:
Things at home weren’t going particularly well- girls with lower GPAs and poor extra ciriculars were getting scholarships that boys with perfect 4.0s were not, and since I’, one of the poor privileged white males, I couldn’t afford college. Getting a job was tricky to- I was told on more than one occasion “we aren’t hiring white males right now.” … After 23 interviews/applications, I was left still jobless.
I also become of the privileged white males who developed heart problems at age 18, but of course, couldn’t afford a doctor. I was going to go to a free heart screening at a local college, but whoops…. “FEMALES ONLY”, courtesy of the “Women’s radical feminist men hating Heart association of a women-only America”, or whatever it was called.
Yeah, that totally happened.
So he hitched a ride on a freight train (allegedly) and headed to … Hollywood:
Rebecca, I am going to radical alter our society in the next year. I am going to start the greatest hard rock 1986 GNR-esqe band the world has ever seen. There is an army, millions strong, of angry people, and especially young males seething at the lack of justice and outlet for their rage. I fear a violent revolution is near, and I’m not in favor of that idea at all. Instead, why not give them a kick-ass 24/7 rock n roll party, tearing through the country with blistering blues-based rock, finally giving red-blooded masculinity a place in American culture again. I am going to fight the bigoted feminist you propagate, and start the largest social movement since the 60s…the Mens rights revolution.
I’m in hollywood right now, partying, crusin’ down sunset strip, spreading the MRA message …
We’re coming, Rebecca. The walls of mass social delusional, ignorance and apathy will crumble down as justice and non-autotuned music will triumph in the streets. You will fight back, I’m sure, but you will lose, and you will lose badly. In 3 years time, you WILL live in an American of true gender equality, but I’m not sure it’s going to take the direction you expect!
Go to Skepchick to read the rest!
“You’ll be seeing the name Jimmy Zinn quite a lot, feel free to follow my twitter”
Tweet, Child o’ Whine
@Nanasha
“Also, if someone actually TELLS you that they don’t hire white males, you can sue their asses for discrimination.”
Since quota’s are law, we live under an oppressive, discriminatory system of hatred of men.
X!!! I saw them in Charlotte in ’04. 🙂
As much as I love “Reality” ‘s artwork, I get an even bigger kick out of his username
Oops, wrong thread.
Much as I find this guy’s ridiculous lies funny, goddamn I hate music snobs.
First of all, there has always been shitty music, it’s just no one remembers it because it was bad and therefore forgotten. Secondly, it makes me feel like people think I’m an idiot because the bands I can’t stand are ‘good’ (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Mars Volta) and the bands/singers I love are ‘bad’. Like, objectively or something. While I do really enjoy some rock music, I definitely hate most of it. And, like…autotune is obviously overused atm, but if used in a subtle way and in the right place it can make stuff sound cool.
Oddly, I am a ‘film snob’ and will complain on and on about bad movies. But still, I’m not gonna say “all movies are bad now, not good like they were 30 years ago when I wasn’t born yet”.
Srsly? I’m a community college student with a near-perfect GPA, and I have not been offered any scholarships aside from the meager ones I get automatically just for being poor. Where are my special lady scholarships, hmm? After all, if women with low GPAs get scholarships just for being women, then I should be a shoo-in.
But Magical Laura, you’re only allowed to like some kinds of music or you have to be kicked out of the club!!11!1one.
Yeah, it’s silly. Musical taste is very personal, so you can’t just… adjust it, to meet somebody else’s standards o_O. Like, I listen to Crime Of The Century and I have a really strong emotional reaction to it. I will probably ignore the person I’m talking to in order to really get into the best moments on that record. I can’t just switch that off because someone tells me I’m actually supposed to like X other band instead, that is silly.
I think the “old music is good, now it’s all terrible!” thing comes from the very common notion people have that everything that happened before they were born/when they were very young is How It’s Always Been, the changes that took place in their adolescence and early adulthood were innovative and interesting and needed to happen, but every change that comes after that is GRR ARRGH NOT OKAY. This is why studying language change in the past is a cool, interesting academic pursuit, but language changing right now is evidence that kids can’t speak properly anymore.
There was an interesting article up at NSWATM about the marginalization of music that tends to attract listeners who aren’t gender-conforming white dudes:
http://noseriouslywhatabouttehmenz.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/fear-of-music-realness-and-rock-vs-pop/
“Walls of mass social delusional” is pretty much exactly how I’d describe this guy.
This jobs thing – I’ve run into this mythology a lot in my profession (computers). There’s a notion floating around, and I’ve been hearing it expressed here and there for over 10 years now, that there are all these wonderful tech jobs being held open, going unfilled, because of some diversity mandate. That qualified white male candidates are not even being told about most of the openings and being rejected for the ones that they find. That the jobs are being reserved for female and/or minority candidates, and since it’s close to impossible for them to be up to the job (of course!), many of these choice jobs are just going unfilled. But that they won’t give the jobs to white males of course. Of course! I’ve heard variations on this. The real reasons for their job woes are more complex: economic downturns, changes in hot skill sets, and global labor arbitrage (and abuses thereof) that have added over a million guestworker visas here and shipped several million jobs overseas. But no, according to some, the answer is to send the women (and minorities) back to their place. I’ve heard this mythology off and on, with a few variations and it’s still floating around. Those who believe the myth seem to have a sort of “rage myopia” in that they can’t seem to comprehend the big picture, but focus on their local and personal impresions. And the reality is quite different: I for one have lost several promotions and jobs to someone who was a lot younger and “maler” than I can manage to be, who had much less experience, education and training than I did, because management liked the cut of his jib. (I’m a female over 40). I’ve also seen minorities on the job unfairly criticised and even ridiculed (and gotten in trouble for defending one). And the demographics of the tech field are there for all to see, except for those who hold to the myth.
My knowledge of popular music is encyclopedic up to about 1995 and almost nonexistent thereafter. But I’m acutely aware that it’s my problem, and that my ignorance disqualifies me from making any kind of informed comment – I’ll certainly criticize individual songs, but sweeping statements are out of the question, because someone more knowledgeable than me (not difficult) will almost certainly seize the chance to make me look like a fool. And quite rightly.
Complaining about bad movies doesn’t make you a film snob – it just makes you a person with taste. And there were loads of bad movies in the past – 1941 may have been the year of Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon, but it was also the year of dozens if not hundreds of movies that were quickly forgotten within weeks and which are now known only to the most doggedly dedicated scholars and the nerdiest film geeks (the two categories by no means being mutually exclusive) because nobody else has any sensible motive for digging them up.
The worst thing is looking at Oscar winners…I mean, it was pretty bad that ‘Crash’ won best film over ‘Brokeback Mountain’, but ‘Forrest Gump’ beat ‘The Shawshank Redemption’?!
Oh seriously, fuck them. My step-father was part of the recent American Family layoffs. He’s a computer tech and he’s Hispanic. I’ll tell you who the jobs are being reserved for — contract workers who they won’t have to provide any benefits to. And meanwhile the top five officers of the company have been getting 30% raises even while they claim the company is losing money and they have to cut costs.
So how did this unemployed kid with an untreated heart condition end up cruising down Sunset Strip with enough money to buy booze and internet access?
(Maybe it’s me, but where/when I grew up, cruising meant you had to have a car–which I doubt he has? Has meaning changed?)
Definitely Trolling.
I’m not buying this kid’s hard luck tale one bit. Partying with a heart condition? OK, bullet train, not smart.
Not to mention that no hiring manager or recruiter has ever said that they’re not hiring white males. The same laws that he thinks favor women and minorities also work for him.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Misandry!
Cleopatra stabbed Caesar to death and got away with it because vagina! Misandry!
Marie Antoinette is the poster child for the badness of alimony because! Misandry!
Rosie the Riveter is stealing men’s jobs after killing them because! Misandry!
Starring Bill, Ted, Angry White Dudes, This Guy, and Somebody Awesome as Valerie Solanas.
I can’t think of a reason not to do this except that it’s pretty redundant given all the classic rock stations and bar bands already doing this.
“Fighting Vivaciously” is my Elton John cover band. We play at the La Quinta by the interstate every wednesday.
Damn, I didn’t realize it was that pervasive.
” I was told on more than one occasion “we aren’t hiring white males right now.””
This never happened.
My guess is that he thinks that such a statement/policy is legal, which is why he thinks he can glibly write that someone told him that. What most people don’t know about employment law could fill a freakin’ stadium.
Also. I once knew this guy during and shortly after high school, without diagnosing him specifically I will say that I know he was far from neurotypical and was treated for a variety of conditions. Anyway, the cat was always coming up with harebrained schemes of some kind.
I remember being 19 or so and being at a kegger he happened to be at. He took me and a friend aside and started talking about how he had a great business opportunity he needed our help with that was sure to make us all rich and really change things. So in a hushed tone, he told us we needed to go out on the deck to discuss it somewhere quiet and private.
So he takes us out on the deck. And tells us that his master plan is to “bring back tie-dye.”
This guy’s idea to change the world by bringing back Guns n’ Roses style rock kind of reminds me of that.
On the one hand, I dearly want to make fun of this guy. On the other hand, I remember being 19 and stupid.
My one saving grace for me is that my idiot fantasy pieces never saw the light of day. Because I was (and still am) well versed in the difference between “real,” “pretend,” and “pulled out of your ass in fits of frustration with the world.”
I think there’s a difference between saying X is good music, and saying X is a good Rock/Rap/Country song/artist. Every genre has a foundation it’s based on, so there’s an objective (somewhat) basis to compare songs or albums on. Music, OTOH, is too broad a framework to judge things on.
Oooh, I’m shaking in my shoes at the coming revolution. LOL!
Which is why MRAL got cut one hell of a lot more slack than Antz, Owly and B_____n.