Here’s a bit of advice for Men’s Rights redditors and MRAs in general: if you don’t want people to associate the Men’s Rights movement with hatred, you should probably not associate yourselves with hate groups.
Yesterday, a fellow called heiligenschein posted a link in the Men’s Rights subreddit to a relatively new subreddit called simply SPLC, a subreddit set up by enemies of the Southern Poverty Law Center and devoted to, as heiligenschein put it, “compiling the numerous criticisms of the [SPLC].” As he explained in a comment:
That’s a somewhat odd criticism for heiligenschein, one of the moderators of the SPLC subreddit, to make. If you look at the front page of this subreddit, you’ll discover that he and his pals are already doing a fine job of associating themselves with “neo nazi nutters” all by themselves.
If you scroll through the links, you’ll notice that Heiligenschein has posted links to several different articles from VDare.com, which the SPLC describes as an “anti-immigration hate website” which “regularly publishes articles by prominent white nationalists, race scientists and anti-Semites.” Note to MRAs: if you’re disinclined to take the word of the SPLC on anything, all you need to do to get a sense of VDare’s genteel racism is to do a search on the site for, well, the word “racism,” or “immigrant.” Or you can read VDare founder Peter Brimelow’s repulsive victim-blaming post on the “root causes” of the Sikh temple murders in Wisconsin.
Heiligenschein also links to the virulently anti-immigrant American Patrol Report and a Confederacy-loving group called the Georgia Heritage Council; a quick glance at either group’s website will reveal what sort of organizations these are. He also links to a pretty hateful site called A Voice for Men, which some of you may have heard of already.
But the connection to the racist far-right goes beyond a couple of links. The five other moderators of the r/splc subreddit – mayonesa, dvance, Octuple, salsaverde, warkin – are also the moderators of reddit’s race-obsessed “new right” subreddit. Some of the submissions in that subreddit at the moment:
18% of marriages by Chinese and Japanese Americans are to Jews. Thoughts?
The poison of multiculturalism
USA Olympic athlete waves Mex flag: propaganda-bearing parasite prole being used as an infectious agent by the master parasite class?
The not-so-fab five also moderate a smaller subreddit called “alternative right,” a dog-whistle term amongst the far right for (pseudo) intellectual racism and so-called “human biological diversity.” Some of the submissions there, all of them submitted by moderator Mayonesa:
Emo neckbeards having hategasm over pro-white flyer
“I believe Europe to be the ‘white man’s country’. If they don’t want non-whites among them, I think it’s fair.”
Diversity perversity: Behind multicultural push is effort to degrade American culture
The West has been seriously damaged by Communist successes at memetic subversion.
The five run at least two more subreddits devoted to this kind of crap.
Just so you know, MRAs, these are the sort of people you end up hanging out with once you join the SPLC anti-fan club.
Naturally, the handful of comments I found in the r/mensrights discussion on the subject pointing out that the r/splc moderators were a bunch of race-obsessed far-right extremists — see here, here, and here — all got downvotes from the regulars there.
You’re digging your own hole here, MRAs.
EEB:
I HATE THIS. I have severe headaches that are in the cluster family, and if I never hear “I had a bad headache whenever…” it will be too damn soon.
When people read or hear “mentally disabled”, they automatically assume that a person for whom this descriptor applies is mentally retarded(which means they have a comprehensive intellectual deficit). Now I am aware that there are other types of mental disabilities which do not impair the intellect, but other types of mental functioning: like social skills, empathy, or the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. The needs of those who are mentally ill are very different than those who are mentally retarded. Plenty of high functioning autists CAN and DO hold down jobs(even though they need assistance getting them do to lack of social networking skills). So that’s why I make the distinction between “mentally ill” and “mentally disabled”. I am not mentally retarded and I do not want people to assume that I am since that would cause them to underestimate my capabilities. Most retarded people aren’t aware of how the world views them. But believe, those of us with autism(and other mental illnesses)definitely are.
Should someone with bipolar disorder be treated exactly the same way and held to the same standard as someone with Down’s syndrome? IDTS.
Is that what you tell yourself so you don’t feel bad about separating yourself from groups with those icky people?
Shut the fuck up already. I’ve spent time in special ed classes. No one once treated me the same way or held me to the same standards as my intellectually disabled classmates. Putting both autism and mental retardation under the disabled umbrella doesn’t mean they’re classed as the exact same thing.
My comment is awaiting moderation, but the gist is this: from one “autist” to another, Noms, you’re full of shit.
@MSN
What’s happening there is that people assume that because you have a mental disability you are a lesser person. That’s ableism and the problem is not that mentally disabled people are called mentally disabled. If you call yourself mentally ill instead, people will still be ableist towards you. The problem is with the people doing the assuming.
About what specifically?
And I agree with what you said about the people doing the assuming, Myoo. But how can anyone possibly change that? Most people are ignorant and not very bright, so you have to use terminology that works with their little brains. 😛
Disabilities and special education, mostly, but really, everything I’ve ever seen you post has been bullshit.
@MSN
Yeah, it’s impossible to change people’s minds by either teaching that what they are doing is wrong or by changing societal standards so that people who treat disabled people poorly are shamed for doing so. This coming from someone who believes that we should replace all of humanity with robots.
Well Noms, a great first step would be to not perpetuate the kind of bigotry you yourself have been the victim of, but you haven’t exactly demonstrated the capacity for earnest self-reflection that would require.
So in all likelihood you’ll just continue drifting through life on the power of your own smug complacency, gleefully kicking people who are already down in blissful ignorance of the fact that you are part of the problem.
I have an uncle with down’s syndrom, and I also worked for a year as an assistant to mentally handicapped people. My uncle’s been depressed for long periods of time, despite the myth that people with down’s are always all sunshine and happiness, and is definitely aware of being “different”. Most people with down’s are. In order to be oblivious to the fact that you’re different from other people and can’t do a lot of stuff that “normal” people can, you must have a VERY low IQ. But lots and lots of “normal” people like to think of people with down’s and the like as always happy and completely not grasping that they’re different in any way, so they don’t want to hear this.
I actually do quite often, because more often than not I get neurotypical people trying to explain to me how I ought to be acting with regards to my disorder, and trying to explain it from their “enlightened” position. When someone who has no understanding of a minority that you fall into, tries to tell you how you should or shouldn’t be behaving as a member of that minority. It’s perfectly acceptable to tell them to check their privilege. I think the only case where it’s acceptable for a neurotypical person to tell me what Aspergers is like is if they’ve spent years upon years studying the disorder, so much that they’ve become an expert on it, people such as Tony Attwood and Simon Baron-Cohen are allowed to NT-splain because they have spent all of that time studying AS and talking to Aspies to try to understand what it’s like. Hell, in reality they’re not really NT-splaining at all, they’re giving a thorough definition of the disorder as they’ve come to understand it, including exceptions, anomalies, and the fact that Aspies still have free will and whatnot, and providing it in published form.
Speaking of disabilities, it’s important to remember that not all disabilities are congenital. Many can be acquired through illness or injury, including neurological disabilities that impair cognition. People with Down’s syndrome can experience the full range of human emotions and aren’t always happy. Sometimes I think that people with those sorts of disabilities such that they are aware of how others see them and bothered by it should consider living separately from normal people so they don’t always know what they’re missing. I find people to more respectful of disabled individuals who who acquired their condition whereas people are spiteful and dismissive of those who have a disability that they were born with.
ZAO: I think it depends on the disability. A nice, visible, one is more acceptable than an invisible one. I have a late manifesting/acquired disability. I have, more than I wish were the case, been called a fraud because it’s not something one can see.
You’re an idiot. MRA isn’t linked to hate groups….
Really? Prove it.
@Men: Discontinued
Well, we’ve got just, you know, links to evidence, what do you have to back up your side of the issue?
@Men
MRA isn’t just linked to hate groups, it IS a hate group. What did you think all the talk of how rape should be de facto legal, and glorification of child abusers, was all about?
I know I’m a little late for the party but I noticed something in the comments section here that I usually only notice while lurking on the MRA comment sections, so it disturbed me.
I believe Plex Flexico made references to a certain troll using the pronoun “it” I believe. Unless I misinterpreted the meaning somehow.
I don’t really think any human being should be reference in that way regardless of how asinine they happen to be acting. Even if they are a giant troll and I do believe that is what Monsieur so and so is.
Trolls get their jollies by getting people riled up. The best way to get back at them is to ignore them.
But I still take issue to it because pretty much any person who comments on “a voice for men” who identifies themselves as female will from there on out be referred to as “it” by the lovely MRAs on that site. I would hate to see this site be lowered to that level.
Long time reader, first time commenting. I know I’m a little late to the discussion, but I just loved the discussion on disability– especially EEB’s comment about the difference between disabled men and disabled women’s experience (based on anecdote; I am not trying to generalise) I am a woman with disabilities, both visible and invisible and the things I put up are linked to my gender as well, or so I always thought, so it’s nice to know it wasn’t just me.
I was having a similar conversation with a friend of mine, trying to educate him about social constructs of disability (a wide subject, and we unfortunately had very little time). He’s a very able-bodied man, and some of the things I was explaining were surprising and horrifying for him to hear. My passion/goals in life is to help educate the public about sexual abuse perpetuated against the elderly and against people with disabilities, and that’s how we got on the subject.
Feminism is a hate group filled with misandry and allowing that misandry to be accepted into the mainstream culture, it’s very plain to see to all but the most dimwitted of individuals as they wear this hatred on their sleeves as well as sell merchandise with little misandric slogans printed on them such as “boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.” So the question really is, why do you want to be associated with a hate group?
Yup, tired old MRA tropes indeed. Yawn. Try something fresh, troll.
Another trope for you Tropes.
Or maybe I could link directly to the image — that might be good!
Necromancy isn’t always bead. I just went back and read the thread and the discussion of disabilities was quite interesting. And seeing Owly and Om Nom in their prime… it’s quite a sight.