You remember Reddit Island, right? The utterly serious, unintentionally hilarious project in which a bunch of Redditors attempt to set up a Reddity miniature utopia on some remote island somewhere? They are still trying to find an island, and apparently that process is … not going so swimmingly.
As Adrian Chen of Gawker notes in a nice long piece on the project, a fortysomething IT guy from Virginia names Mark Wells has been telling prospective Reddit Islanders that he may have found the perfect place for them:
Wells, who uses the handle Citizenpolitician, explained in a series of increasingly breathless posts on Reddit Island that he’d been scoping out a tiny tropical splotch called Current Island. Just off the coast of Bahamian island of Eluthera, Current is sparsely inhabited, and could be a possible option for their settlement. He’d cold-called members of the local government about the possibility of having a few hundred internet nerds settle Current Island. And he had been met with a very promising response.
Or so Wells said. Trouble is — SPOILER ALERT — Chen himself got in touch with Theo Neilly, the Bahamian Member of Parlliament who Wells had said was “very interested” in the Reddit Island project. And Neilly had a rather different story to tell Chen:
Neilly was more than a little surprised when I told him this. He’d never spoken with or even received an email from Wells, he said. He had heard word of Reddit Island, but only because an acquaintance Wells had actually contacted forwarded him the email. … [E]veryone in Eluthera I spoke to was eager to distance themselves and anyone they knew from him the Reddit Island idea.
D’oh!
Wella, for his part, claims that Chen has mucked up a good thing by actually trying to check to see if anything Wells was saying was true.
When Chen contacted the Bahamians, after being asked not to be involved since we were at a delicate time trying to start a process of negotiations, his contact to the Bahamians, making the relationship public, removed all opportunity for any further communication with the Bahamians and I am afraid now that he has gone to the extent of mentioning them in his article, will suffer political fall out because of this. THis is extremely poor journalism and unfortunate not just for us but for those that wanted to find out more about what we had to offer and what could come of that.
This also puts us in a difficult situation because any further communications with other land owners and government representatives in other countries could become publicly abused as this relationship did and end all hopes for negotiating in good faith with those people. It means that going further will be difficult if we are to maintain transparency and be open to the group here because people like Chen will use it to distort and dismantle those efforts.
So, back to the drawing board, I guess. (The whole discussion of Chen’s article in the Reddit Island subreddit is hilarious, actually.)
Let me make a suggestion, guys: Don’t try to go it alone! Basically, what you’re talking about is forming a tiny civilization that will be essentially a bunch of dudes. In the past, you guys have treated the “sausage party” aspect of the project as a liability.
Instead, you should embrace it as a selling point. Team up with some of the fellas over in the Men’s Rights subreddit; many of them seem not to be fans of women at all.
Heck, some of the guys there are ALREADY TALKING ABOUT GETTING AN ISLAND:
MRA Island! Make it a reality.
In related news, a number of years back a bunch of Something Awful goons launched a similar island project. It involved an actual tropical island and everything. It seems to have fallen apart; it’s not clear (since I haven’t actually read anything about it beyond that blog post I linked) if there was any cannibalism involved.
Well I am glad this thread is outing all sorts of characters…..*facepalm*
Fatcat and Kavette – we may not agree on many things – but I salute you for your bravery here. Thirded.
What about teh people who believe everyone should have equal rights but also that privilege isn’t a real thing?? What about them?!??
What about teh mooooonz!
Oh and also
You don’t say?
Look, there are many mentally ill people in the world. I have no doubt that some of them are MRAs. I worry about those people, because the MRM is incredibly against mental health care; and because the MRM encourages rage and despair in its adherents. But I don’t think their mental illnesses make them dirty and wrong and “crazy” and bad and that’s why they’re in the MRM. Thanksabunch.
that everybody should have equal rights, but think the idea of ‘male privilege’ or ‘white privilege’ is embarrassing bullshit.
You think privilege isn’t a real thing? Gee, the only people who seem to make that argument are the ones who benefit greatly from it.
LOL at Steele trying to buddy up to people.
Ok adding onto my silly comment, male privilege and white privilege are both things that I have. I definitely don’t think they’re bullshit and give major side-eye to people that do because they’re really pretty obvious things. For example, walking around on the street in my neighborhood I don’t get sexually harassed and I don’t get pulled over by the cops, things that happen to women and black people respectively that I’ve happened to be walking with. So that is a pretty obvious thing. If you think that’s bullshit then you need rethink your position.
Won’t someone think of the trolls?
Seriously, why should asshats be coddled for their bad behaviour?
Oh, blockquotes, how you do vex me.
Don’t forget that while the majority of people wouldn’t like MRA beliefs, they would find most of the beliefs of the regulars here almost as silly.
This is a truly fantastic point. MRAs are unfortunately marginalized in mainstream discourse – it’s true. Feminism has more clout by far – it’s true. But it’s a watered down, distilled feminism – the hate and misandry has been greatly reduced for mass consumption, as it were. I do believe that the misandrist-feminist, vile extremist beliefs that permeate Boobzland have no more support among the mainstream populace than do MRA beliefs. And soon, I believe, MRA beliefs will gain more clout, while the vile writhing deadlights of feminism fade into nothingness.
Sometimes I forget that. Thanks, fatcat.
So you think white people and men have no advantage over women and poc?
Citation fucking needed. In any case you don’t even know what being mentally ill means, hint:nothing to do with having persecution complexes.
What the hell? Why can’t you sit next to women on the bus or read about them? what do you even mean by different target?
What are you talking about? Being forced to live next to women is torture?
I manage to be mentally ill, sometimes (not atm) extremely mentally ill, and I’m not (AFAIK) a total asshole.
Fatcat, there are nicer places on the web. They also do not have mockery in the site header.
When white people don’t admit that they have white privilege “this is some really embarrassing bullshit” pretty much sums up my feelings about that.
@Kavette
Why is it so difficult to understand the difference between mocking a person (or people) for having silling, cruel, or disturbing ideas that are posted publically…and mocking a group of people because of their identity not their ideas, while using sterotypes and untruths instead of responding to their individual opinions?
Yes, if you use slurs that attack people–usually marginalized people, often people who aren’t even involved in the discussion–you will get called on it. Because that’s not “mean girls” behavior, it’s just straight up wrong, and it contributes to a culture that oppresses people who are different. (EX: If you call an extreme MRA “mentally ill”, you are not attacking his ideas and you are not just insulting him. You’ve now insulted all mentally ill people. We live in a society that fears and mocks the mentally ill, that believes mentally ill people are violent, where many believe we are little more than unthinking animals. It’s not okay to reinforce these sterotypes, and it’s not okay to hurt those of us who are mentally ill. “But it’s one word!” Yeah, but those words and statements and attitudes build and build and create the society we live in.)
This is not a hard concept!
Fatcat–silly beliefs we hold? Which ones would those be exactly?
Um…should be “silly”, sorry.
I’m still wondering why the fuck we should be fighting for equal rights if there’s no such thing as privilege. I mean… we already have equal rights then, right? Or maybe privilege does exist, but we should fight for equal rights without ever letting privileged people feel embarrassed about it? Because that’s the REAL oppression?
Why is FEW-TRELL so obsessed with Reddit? Dontcha think you spend a bit too much time there, Dave? 😛
@hellkell
Silly beliefs like thinking people should be equal of course!
I think it’s latter, Viscaria. Pointing out the problem IS the problem to these yahoos.
@Jumbofisch: I know, totes crazy and silly! People could never possibly be equal! Might as well want wings to fly around with!
@Viscaria
I didn’t mean to say that mentally ill people are dirty and wrong. I myself have mentally ill in the past, and I have many mentally ill family members. I just think that some of their beliefs can be explained by mental illness, so I was more trying to absolve them, to be honest.
And yes, it certainly is possible to believe very strongly (as I do) that everyone should have equal rights, dislike traditional gender roles, and work to empower women (and men, in areas where they need help) without believing that someone automatically has ‘privilege’ just for being male. Yes, I have read all the articles about it and yes, I still disagree.
I know you don’t agree, that’s fine
Can we have equality and wings?
1. Thinking white privilege and male privilege are embarrassing bullshit is embarrassing bullshit.
2. Have you diagnosed a large number of MRAs? I think not. Pls refrain from throwing mentally ill people under the bus just ‘cus.
3. Steele is right. YOU ARE SO BRAVE YOU GUIZE